Michael Hutchence
Michael Kelland John Hutchence was an Australian singer and songwriter. He was the co-founder, lead singer and lyricist of the rock band INXS from 1977 until his death in 1997. The band sold over 50 million records worldwide, making them one of Australia's highest-selling music acts of all time. They were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2001.
Hutchence was also a member of the short-lived band Max Q and recorded some solo material, alongside acting in films such as Dogs in Space and Frankenstein Unbound. He was known for his string of love affairs with actresses, models and singers and his private life was often covered in the international press. He had a daughter, Tiger Hutchence-Geldof, with British television presenter Paula Yates. Hutchence died by suicide in a Sydney hotel room on 22 November 1997 at the age of 37.
Early life
Michael Hutchence was born in the Crows Nest suburb of Sydney on 22 January 1960, the son of make-up artist Patricia Glassop and businessman Kelland Frank "Kell" Hutchence. He had an elder half-sister named Tina. His paternal grandparents were an English couple who had relocated to Sydney in 1922, while his maternal grandfather was from County Cork, Ireland.Following Kell's business interests, the Hutchence family moved to Brisbane, where Hutchence's younger brother Rhett was born. They later left Australia for Hong Kong. During the early years in Hong Kong, both boys attended Glenealy Junior School and Beacon Hill School. Hutchence showed promise as a swimmer before badly breaking his arm. He then began to show interest in poetry and performed his first song in a local toy store commercial. He later attended King George V School during his early teens. The family returned to Sydney in 1972, buying a house in Belrose.
Hutchence attended Davidson High School, where he met and befriended Andrew Farriss. Around this time, the two spent a lot of time jamming with Farriss's brothers Tim and Jon in the garage. Farriss convinced Hutchence to join his band, Doctor Dolphin, alongside their classmates Kent Kerny and Neil Sanders. Bassist Garry Beers and drummer Geoff Kennelly from nearby Forest High School completed the line-up.
Hutchence's parents separated when he was 15 and he lived with his mother and half-sister in California for a short time in 1976. He later returned to Sydney with them. In 1977, a new band called the Farriss Brothers was formed with Andrew on keyboards, Tim on lead guitar and Jon on drums. Hutchence joined on vocals and Beers on bass, while Kirk Pengilly joined on guitar and saxophone. The band made their debut on 16 August 1977 at a venue in Whale Beach.
Career
Early career
Hutchence, the Farriss brothers, Kerny, Sanders, Beers and Kennelly briefly performed as the Vegetables, singing "We Are the Vegetables". Ten months later, they returned to Sydney and recorded a set of demos. The Farriss Brothers regularly supported hard rockers Midnight Oil on the pub rock circuit, and were renamed as INXS in 1979. Their first performance under the new name was on 1 September at the Oceanview Hotel in Toukley. In May 1980, the group released their first single, "Simple Simon"/"We Are the Vegetables", which was followed by the debut album INXS in October. Their first Top 40 Australian hit on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart, "Just Keep Walking", was released in September 1980. Hutchence became the main spokesman for the band, and co-wrote almost all of the band's songs with Andrew Farriss.According to Hutchence, most of the songs on the band's second album, Underneath the Colours, were written within a fairly short space of time: "Most bands shudder at the prospect of having 20 years to write their first album and four days to write their second. For us, though, it was good. It left less room for us to go off on all sorts of tangents." Soon after recording sessions for Underneath the Colours – produced by Richard Clapton – had finished, band members started work on outside projects. Hutchence recorded "Speed Kills", written by Don Walker of hard rockers Cold Chisel, for the soundtrack to the 1982 film Freedom, directed by Scott Hicks. It was Hutchence's first solo single and was released by WEA in April 1982.
Stardom and acting career
In March 1985, after Hutchence and INXS recorded their album The Swing, WEA released the Australian version of Dekadance as a limited edition cassette only EP of six tracks including remixes from the album. The cassette also included a cover version of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's hit "Jackson", which Hutchence sang as a duet with Jenny Morris, a backing singer for The Swing sessions. The EP reached No 2 on the Kent Music Report Albums Chart. Hutchence provided vocals for new wave band Beargarden's 1985 single release.On 19 May 1984, INXS won seven awards at the Countdown Music and Video Awards ceremony, including Best Songwriter for Hutchence and Andrew, and Most Popular Male for Hutchence. They performed "Burn for You" dressed in Akubras and Drizabones followed by Hutchence and Morris singing "Jackson" to close.
In 1986, Hutchence played Sam, the male lead in the Australian film Dogs in Space, directed by long-time INXS music video collaborator Richard Lowenstein. Hutchence provided four songs to the film's soundtrack. Also working on the film and its soundtrack, as music director, was Ollie Olsen.
Late in 1986, before commencing work on a new INXS album and while supposedly taking an eight-month break, the band's management decided to stage the Australian Made tour as a series of major outdoor concerts across the country. The roster featured INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Models, Divinyls, Mental as Anything, the Triffids and I'm Talking. To promote the tour, Hutchence and Barnes shared vocals on the Easybeats cover "Good Times" and "Laying Down the Law", which Barnes co-wrote with Beers, Andrew Farriss, Jon Farriss, Hutchence and Pengilly. "Good Times" was used as the theme for the concert series of 1986–1987. It peaked at No. 2 on the Australian charts, and months later was featured in the Joel Schumacher film The Lost Boys and its soundtrack, allowing it to peak at No. 47 in the US on 1 August 1987. Divinyls' lead singer Chrissy Amphlett enjoyed the tour and reconnected with Hutchence, stating that " was a sweet man, who said in one interview that he wanted me to have his baby". In 1987, Hutchence provided vocals for Richard Clapton's album Glory Road, which was produced by Jon Farriss.
INXS released Kick in October 1987, and the album provided the band with worldwide popularity. Kick peaked at No. 1 in Australia, No. 3 on the US Billboard 200, No. 9 in UK, and No. 15 in Austria. The band's most successful studio album, Kick has been certified six times platinum by the RIAA and spawned four US top 10 singles. According to 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories and Secrets Behind Them, the single "Need You Tonight" is not lyrically complex; it is Hutchence's performance where "he sings in kittenish whisper, gently drawing back with the incredible lust of a tiger hunting in the night" that makes the song "as sexy and funky as any white rock group has ever been". In September 1988, the band swept the MTV Video Music Awards with the video for "Need You Tonight/Mediate" winning in five categories.
In 1989, Hutchence collaborated further with Olsen for the Max Q project and was joined by members of Olsen's previous groups including Whirlywirld, No and Orchestra of Skin and Bone. They released a self-titled album and three singles, "Way of the World", "Sometimes" and "Monday Night by Satellite". Max Q disbanded in 1990. Max Q showed Hutchence exploring the darker side of his music and, with Olsen, he created "one of the most innovative dance music albums of the decade". Hutchence wrote most of the music and provided "an extraordinary performance ... it was one of the most significant statements Hutchence was to make". In 1990, Hutchence portrayed nineteenth-century Romantic poet Percy Shelley in Roger Corman's film version of Frankenstein Unbound, which was based on a science fiction time travel story of the same name written by Brian Aldiss.
In 1990, INXS released X, which spawned more international hits such as "Suicide Blonde" and "Disappear". "Suicide Blonde" peaked at No. 2 in Australia and No. 11 in the UK. Hutchence, with Andrew Farriss, wrote the song after Hutchence's then-girlfriend, Kylie Minogue, used the phrase "suicide blonde" to describe her look during her 1989 film The Delinquents; the film depicted Minogue in a platinum blonde wig. Hutchence won Best International Artist at the 1991 BRIT Awards with INXS winning the related group award. Hutchence provided vocals for pub rockers Noiseworks' album Love Versus Money. Welcome to Wherever You Are was released by INXS in August 1992. It received good critical reviews and went to No. 1 in the UK.