INXS began under the name The Farriss Brothers but the band changed
it in 1979, just prior to the release of their self-titled début
album in 1980, INXS, which featured "Just Keep Walking".
Its follow-up, 1981's Underneath the Colours (produced by Richard
Clapton), became a hit-album in Australia.
In 1983, their third album, titled Shabooh Shoobah, was released
successfully worldwide. The single "The One Thing" brought them
their first top 30 hit in America, while "Don't Change" became a
staple in the set list of college rock bands who played the frat
circuit. The album itself entered the U.S. top 50.
With the Nick Launay-produced fourth album, The Swing in 1984, the
band received more significant attention all around the world, as "Original
Sin" became their first #1 single and an international hit. Indeed,
during all this year, the song was, for example, #1 in Australia as
well as in Argentina and in France, #23 in Switzerland, #31 in the
Netherlands and #58 in the U.S. where the single's explicitly
political and anti-racism message may have contributed to low
airplay. Yet, "Original Sin" (produced by Nile Rodgers) was largely
ignored in the UK, where INXS didn't have any success in the charts
until 1986 with the album Listen Like Thieves. In the same way, the
band's charismatic singer Michael Hutchence gained attention with
his MTV-ready looks. INXS, which had started out as a new wave act
featuring more synthesizers than guitar, gradually moved in a more
straight-ahead rock-oriented direction through the first half of the
1980s. By 1985's breakthrough album Listen Like Thieves the band had
perfected a matured sound influenced by the Rolling Stones and Chic
but true to the band's original roots in the Aussie pubs. Listen
Like Thieves was loved by the critics. In the US, the first single,
"This Time" stalled at #81 in late 1985, but the band roared out of
nowhere with the second, "What You Need", which in early 1986 became
a top-five Billboard hit, bringing INXS their first breakout U.S.
success.
The band's worldwide peak of popularity came with 1987's Kick, an
upbeat, confident album that yielded four top-ten US singles and
several international hits ("New Sensation", "Never Tear Us Apart",
"Devil Inside", etc.), including the #1 "Need You Tonight". They
toured heavily behind the album throughout 1987 and 1988. Afterwards,
the band took a break and Hutchence released a side project of sorts
called Max Q, which received decent reviews, but at best attained a
cult status.
However, the band had a lot of pressure on their shoulders as fans
and critics alike having high expectations about their follow-up
album to Kick. In 1990, INXS released X. It followed in the same
vein as Kick, and added harmonica to some songs, but critics and
fans considered it a weak follow-up. Nevertheless, X did score two
hits in "Suicide Blonde" and "Disappear" (both top ten in the US).
INXS performed at Wembley Stadium on July 13, 1991, during their "Summer
XS" tour of London to a sold out audience of 72,000 fans. During
this show, INXS organised a film crew to shoot their show onto video
to come out simultaneously as their live album Live Baby Live (the
video was also called Live Baby Live).
1992's Welcome to Wherever You Are was an experimental album using
sitars and a 60-piece orchestra while adding a much more "raw" sound
to their music. It received critical reviews and went No. 1 in the
UK but it flopped in the U.S.; the band complained of lack of
promotion by their American record label Atlantic Records, but the
band did not tour in support of the album because they wanted a long
break. At the same time, alternative rock began to dominate the
airwaves and more traditional rockers like INXS fell out of favour.
1993's Full Moon, Dirty Hearts was their attempt to capitalise on
the grunge movement, and while it received mixed reviews, it plunged
the band further into obscurity, despite the track "Please (You Got
That)" featuring the legendary Ray Charles. The band made a full
video album for the record using unknown Australian students to
direct with help by Richard Lowenstein. Full Moon, Dirty Hearts was
the last record under INXS's contract with Atlantic, so the label,
knowing that the record wasn't selling well, in 1994 brought out the
first of many Greatest Hits compilations.
Hutchence, meanwhile, remained in the public eye, dabbling in
modelling and film acting and dating several models and public
personalities including Kylie Minogue, Helena Christensen, and Paula
Yates.
Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, INXS was a major force in
Australian popular music, leading the way into worldwide popularity
for several Australian bands. The band worked closely with several
other Australian artists, such as The Models and Jenny Morris,
helping to establish their careers. By the mid-nineties, however,
their popularity had waned, especially in the US, where their
Greatest Hits compilation failed to reach the top 100. In 1997, the
group released a comeback album titled Elegantly Wasted, which
garnered mixed reviews. It fared respectably in Australia, Canada,
and Great Britain (where INXS had ironically more success in the 90s
than in the 80s), but floundered in the US.
On November 22, 1997, Hutchence was found dead in a Sydney hotel
room, an apparent victim of suicide. Some speculate his death was
actually an accident, the result of autoerotic asphyxiation. Since
Hutchence's death, INXS continued, using Terence Trent D'Arby, Suze
DeMarchi, and Jimmy Barnes as temporary lead singers. New Zealander
and Celebrity Treasure Island Host Jon Stevens began singing with
INXS in 2000 and was officially named a member of the band in 2002.
However, he left INXS in 2003 to pursue a solo career, only
recording a contractual obligation song called I Get Up, released as
a single (which charted in the top 100 on the Australian ARIAnet
Singles Chart) in the same year, and it was used in the Rugby Union
World Cup 2003 and the EA Sports Rugby 2004 video game. INXS
returned to the news in 2004 when it was announced that a new
reality television program titled Rock Star: INXS would feature a
contest to find a new lead vocalist for the band. The show, which
débuted on the CBS network July 11, 2005, (and on VH1 in the UK and
on FOX 8 in Australia), featured 15 contestants vying for the
position of lead singer. The show was executive produced by
Survivor's Mark Burnett and hosted by Brooke Burke and former Jane's
Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro.
On September 20, 2005, J.D. Fortune (born Jason Dean Bennison, uses
his mother's maiden name Fortune) of Oakville, Ontario, Canada won
the eleven week competition, which culminated in his singing the
Rolling Stones's "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and INXS'
"What You Need" in the finale of the show to become the new lead
singer of INXS. He has recorded the new album with producer Guy
Chambers and is currently on a world tour with INXS in 2006.
Runner-up Marty Casey was the opening act during leg one of the
world tour, along with his band, The Lovehammers.
During the Rock Star: INXS competition, the contestants were
challenged to write the lyrics and melody to music written by Andrew
Farriss. Originally this challenge was divided up into two teams.
When Fortune did not see eye-to-eye with his team (that included
Casey), he decided to venture out on his own and write his own
lyrics. At first Fortune's move seemed to have doomed his chances to
win the competition (because it was perceived he couldn't work in a
team), but it was this move that resulted in his creation of the
lyrics to "Pretty Vegas". This song became a favourite of both fans
and INXS and played a major role in Fortune being able to win the
competition. This single was released October 4, 2005, and reached
#5 on the iTunes Music Store ranking of top downloaded songs on its
first day, débuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at #37, and became
a huge radio airplay hit in Fortune's native Canada.
On November 29, 2005, the band's first album in eight years was
released, titled Switch.
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