INXS

With more than 30 million records sold worldwide, countless awards from their peers and fans, platinum certifications, and a history peppered with outstanding achievements, INXS are arguably Australia’s most successful rock export.

From their first gig as the Farriss Brothers in Sydney’s Northern beaches in August 1977, Michael Hutchence, Kirk Pengilly, Garry Gary Beers, Tim Farriss, Andrew Farriss and Jon Farriss quickly won Australian, then international acclaim.

Throughout the ’80s and into the ’90s INXS were a consummate global rock band with a musical distillation of strength, sensitivity, unity and intelligence. Their infectious blend of dance/rock saw them garner a legion of fans nationally and worldwide. Asked to describe their own music, the members would use such terms as “white boy dance music”, “big, basic dirty noise”, “intoxicating little songs”. Critics were more eloquent. They spoke of certain songs’ “blend of instrumental colours, the silky glide of vocal melody over sinewy rhythms” and of an overall “spare, elegant funk” and “dense, glossy beauty.”

Determined and dedicated, INXS propelled themselves out of the frantic new wave indie label environment of Sydney, Australia at the end of the 70s with such energy and resilience that in less than a decade they were being hailed by major music journals as being, along with U2 and Guns’N’Roses, as one of the three biggest bands in the world in the late 80’s.