PUBLISHED IN THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR AUGUST 15, 1997
BY NICK KREWEN
"Sometimes you kick. Sometimes you get kicked."
Little did INXS lead singer MICHAEL HUTCHENCE realize ten years ago when he wrote the lyrics to the song "Kick", how prophetic those words would be.
Hutchence, the MICK JAGGER of Australian rock, landed himself in the spotlight of tabloid journals throughout the U.K. eighteen months ago when he dumped model girlfriend HELENA CHRISTENSEN for British TV personality PAULA YATES, who in turn abandoned her common-law husband, BOOMTOWN RATS singer and LIVE AID saint BOB GELDOF.
While the couple endured slings and arrows from a frothy Fleet Street, Hutchence found sympathy from his fellow INXS bandmates, which indirectly prompted a studio reunion resulting in the band's latest and tenth album Elegantly Wasted, in stores today.
"Part of the reason you're looking at Elegantly Wasted as an album at the moment, is because that sensationalism gave me part of the trigger to call Michael as a friend and ask him if he was okay," said keyboardist ANDREW FARRISS Saturday as he sat beside guitarist and saxaphonist KIRK PENGILLY in the lobby of Toronto's Sutton Place Hotel.
"From that moment forward, we began the relationship to make this record again."
Farriss hints that if the scandal hadn't broke, it still might be a few more years before we heard from INXS, the Australian funk-rock phenomenon that has sold more than 20 million albums around the world since 1980.
After suffering a few years of declining attention with the vastly underrated Welcome To Wherever You Are and Full Moon, Dirty Hearts, INXS left their manager by mutual consent, signed a worldwide deal with a new record company, and went their separate ways for an extended hiatus.
"It was important for the band as individuals to develop their personal lives," says the goateed Pengilly, 38, leaning forward in his tan leather suit.
The 37-year-old Farriss says he was living in England working as a producer when the scandal broke.
"I think it's very ironic," says Farriss, who co-wrote such INXS chart-toppers as "Original Sin," "New Sensation," "Never Tear Us Apart" and all of Elegantly Wasted with Hutchence.
"As I was watching all this happening, what affected me most of all was that he's my friend. Through the things being written and all the photographs, I could see a very fragile simple human thing which many normal people experience every day. So I felt sorry for my friend.
"I too feel sorry for Michael and Paula," echoes Pengilly. "Here are two people who are very much in love. They're just trying to have a normal a life as they can."
Both Farriss and Pengilly say the couple, who gave birth to daughter Tiger, their first child late last year, are blissful. Farriss also hinted that some of the arrows aimed by the press in their direction are answered on Elegantly Wasted, notably the song "Don't Lose Your Head."
"If it's going to affect the band, I think it's going to affect it in a better way that you can possible imagine," says Farriss, who is complemented in INXS by his brothers TIM on guitar, JON on drums and GARRY GARY BEERS on bass.
"This may be the record may be the vehicle that enables Michael to speak back to some of the people that hurt him. The trouble is that none of this really has been scandalous. It's only the media that's turned it into that. It's a very simple situation.
"A girl left her husband, fell in love with someone else, and that happens. The ironic thing in society today is that if a man leaves his wife he's a hero, and if a woman leaves her husband, she's a slut."
"Unfortunately, that's the way people think these days," adds Pengilly.
Recorded over six weeks in Vancouver with producer BRUCE FAIRBAIRN, Elegantly Wasted marks two INXS milestones: their tenth album and 20th anniversary. Over the years, the band has emerged from schoolboy chums melding punk, disco and reggae influences to an exciting and musically solid funk rock arena act that refuses to be pigeonholed.
"We're a soup and salad band," says Pengilly. "We grew up in Sydney listening to radio stations with no formats. I think that education is what led us to formulate our style of mixing things, because we liked all the songs we heard.
"We're not a heavy metal act," interjects Andrew Farriss. "We're not a grunge band. We're not this or that. INXS has its own unique sound."
Farriss says he's frustrated that INXS often remains unaccredited for its achievements.
"It's amazing when I read Rolling Stone talking about the greatest bands of all time, and we're not even mentioned. We've sold over 20 million records. We've played over 3000 live shows. SMASHING PUMPKINS come down to Sydney and play two of our songs at their arena show, and somehow we mean nothing.
"I often wonder if it's a political thing, because we don't come from the Northern hemisphere. We don't come from America, and we don't come from England, so we don't count."
INXS is hoping Elegantly Wasted and a summer tour that should hit Canada in August will win them new respect, although Farriss says the album isn't an attempt to jump on any current musical trends.
"I think we've either made a very stupid decision or a very smart decision to basically be ourselves," admits Farriss. "There's a lot of uncertainty in the music business at the moment, from corporate people to musicians to the public. I think what's important is that you do what you do, and you believe in it.
I think that INXS has what a lot of bands in 1997 don't have, and that is an intact rhythm section. We have a core sound that is us."
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DISCOGRAPHY
1980 -- INXS
1981 -- Underneath The Colours
1982 -- Shabooh Shoobah
1982 -- Inxsive
1983 -- Dekadance EP
1984 -- The Swing
1985 -- Listen Like Thieves
1987 -- Kick
1990 -- X
1991 -- Live Baby Live
1992 -- Welcome To Wherever You Are
1993 -- Full Moon, Dirty Hearts
1994 -- Greatest Hits
1997 -- Elegantly Wasted -- Mercury
SIDE PROJECTS
1989 -- Max Q, Max Q
1999 -- Michael Hutchence
COLLABORATIONS
1992 -- Various Artists, Unforgettable (Promo Only)
1992 -- Various Artists, Barcelona Gold
1995 -- Various Artists, Batman Forever (Michael Hutchence solo)
#1 HITS
1987 -- "Need You Tonight"
UPDATE
Sadly and tragically, singer Michael Hutchence committed suicide on November 22, 1997. The band has decided to continue on, and intends to release an album in 1999. They performed a one-off show with Terence Trent D'Arby early in '99. Michael Hutchence's posthumous solo album will out September 14 on V2 Records.
THANKS: Samantha Johnson, Sara Milne, Doug Foley
© 1997, 1999 Nick Krewen, Octopus Media Ink