Hey Mark, I'm a pretty big fan of the band. I wouldn't say I'm an expert on them by any means, but I do have a fairly extensive collection of INXS vinyl and cd's (well, at least I like to think I do!). Pretty much every 7 inch, 12 inch, and cd that ever got the INXS name slapped on it (minus a couple here and there). Feel free to take a look and tell me what I'm missing you guys... Check out bungie's music collection on Discogs
My sense in Canada was that with Swing/Thieves/Kick INXS followed a similar trajectory to where U2 were going at the same time with War/Unforgettable/Joshua ... going from “alternative” hit to mainstream success to mainstream smash, though not as big and certainly not as acclaimed.
Actually, despite Canada being INXS' biggest market in the world per capita from 1988-2013 (Australia was from 1977-1987 & now is again from 2014-present), during the pre-Kick era, their per capita sales were oddly lower than their US sales. If a re-audit happened today, I'd estimate that The Swing would now be Gold and LLT would be Platinum in this country. Whereas, Kick, as well as The Joshua Tree, were certified Diamond (the equivalent of 10x Platinum) in Canada during their initial chart runs...
INXS apparently played 300 shows per year in their homeland during those formative years. No wonder why they developed into such an amazing live band...
I’m not sure what you’re saying. Isn’t that what I said? That they rose up a level of success with each album?
Just adding more details and pointing out that Kick was almost as big as The Joshua Tree in this country. In fact, in the US, Kick was in the top 40 longer than TJT and if the Kick/Calling All Nations tour had been extended into 1989, they would've out-grossed what U2 did on TJT tour, in 5-6 markets, and actually did in London, England but on the 1990-91 X tour...
I'm looking forward to this thread. I've got 10 of their albums including Live Baby Live, and rank Kick as one of my favorite albums of all time; great songs, tight and powerful performances, and stunning sound quality add up to a fantastic experience. Diving into every song will increase my appreciation for this fine band. Incidentally I recently added the band's biography (Story to Story) to my collection of music books, and it was a surprisingly interesting read.
OK. I was thinking more that Listen Like Thieves and particularly The Swing were more modest successes than the U2 equivalents (though ... maybe they weren’t actually?). I didn’t study the numbers — it just struck me that the two groups climbed up similar steps at the same time.
I remember Chris Murphy stating that when he first heard INXS, he didn't know what to make of them and wasn't sure if they sounded like The Rolling Stones or The Talking Heads...
I own the DVD and thoroughly enjoy it - I probably watch it at least twice a year. I like the fact that each era with MH was represented well. And it was interesting that the actors that portrayed each band member, also looked like them (apart from the actor that played Tim)...
cds for me, and like a previous post on here I got the complete Hutchence discography (10 CDs) for a bargain on Amazon around 2010 or 2011. I think I paid $60, but they were all remastered and quite loudly by Bartley (he has similarly ruined albums by The Church and Icehouse too). I think the vinyl reissues got good reviews on SHF but the boxes were pricey.
The beautiful thing about these threads to me is that everybody brings their knowledge to the table, and when the thread goes well, we all get to learn quite a bit because of this coming together of knowledge. I love looking at the songs more closely, and getting more close to them. Then reading everyone's perspective, even if I don't necessarily agree with them. It's very cool how many folks we have here with good band knowledge, and I'm ready to learn some stuff.
The interesting thing there, was there was a fairly strong feeling in Australia that the band were pandering to the US market. They were still big, but there was a bit of a "we want our Inxs back"
Okay. This is good to know. I have the remaster CD box and the All The Voices vinyl box. I can't find any remastering info whatsoever in the vinyl box, but it appears as though Giovanni Scatola handled remastering duties for the cd box and I've always been rather pleased with them. For what it's worth, I find the vinyl box to be superb. I have original first press copies of all of the albums (minus EG since it was first issued on vinyl in the box set) and they are all excellent improvements on the originals IMO.
I think that Shabooh Shoobah got US attention, but for some reason that I don't understand, The Swing didn't seem to broadly capture the US imagination, though it did pretty well... though just speculation. It seems like Listen Like Thieves snapped some attention back and Kick capitalized on that.... The Swing was huge in Aus, and sent them right over the top in the Aus music world. Again merely my speculation/perspective.
From everything I know, it's a little bit of both. Initially, in the US, Shabooh Shoobah and The Swing sold very similar (around 400,000 copies each). Though, TS went Platinum (1 million copies) in 2001. Whereas, SS went Gold (500,000 copies) in 1988 and now is more than likely around 750,000 copies sold. But on the other hand, SS's singles charted higher and hence sold more. It's weird... Definitely...
Our subdivision didn't get cable till 1984 so that probably explains why I never saw the video for "The One Thing". Then of course I moved halfway round the country right when "What You Need" would've been peaking so I guess that explains why it never left that big of an impression. "Good Times" however seemed to be everywhere. The pop stations played it. The rock stations played it. MTV played it. VH1 played it. The movie channels probably played it back when they filled time between movies with film related music videos. Long story short, "Good Times" may not have charted as well as "The One Thing" or "What You Need" but I feel like it gained them a ton of exposure... To emphasize MTV's power in the 1980's, once they put "Need You Tonight->Mediate" into rotation radio stations had to play "Mediate" after "Need You Tonight" or else people would complain they weren't getting the entire song. It's hard to deny that MTV was a HUGE influence on INXS in the US... Just something to think about as we start this journey through INXS's catalogue...
INXS swept the 1988 MTV awards by winning 5 of the 8 awards they were nominated for. In fact, despite U2 being nominated 8 times (and losing all of them), interestingly enough, they didn't even show up...
Great thread! I jumped off after Kick so am looking forward to actually giving the later albums a decent listen and reading the discussion
Interesting story re Original Sin - the production was a big influence on Duran Duran Duran Duran in the Studio With Nile Rodgers Nile Rodgers met Duran Duran through Michael Hutchence after he had worked with INXS on The Original Sin. Rodgers told Noise11.com. “When I did Original Sin by INXS, Duran Duran happened to be on their world tour and happened to be in Australia. They were at a party where that song got played at. Next thing I know they called me up from that party. The guy, Molly, who was down with INXS had my number because Michael Hutchence had my number. They called me up and said ‘we want you to do the next Duran Duran record’”. That next record was The Reflex
