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News.com.au
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
INXS reveal how they cheated death in a plane crash on an outback video shoot
INXS soared to global success 40 years ago with the edgy video for What You Need but their next film shoot brought them crashing back to earth. As the band celebrate the 40th anniversary of their breakthrough record Listen Like Thieves, guitarist Kirk Pengilly has revealed how the band cheated death during the shoot for Kiss the Dirt (Falling Down the Mountain) in the Australian outback in early 1986. What You Need was the first INXS song to crack the US top 5, with the animated video by director Richard Lowenstein blowing up on MTV which had usurped radio's power to create hits. Pengilly recalled how the band raced back from the US to film with Alex Proyas, who graduated from technologically-forward music videos to Hollywood director of The Crow and I, Robot. Lowenstein was unavailable as he was editing his feature film Dogs in Space, which starred INXS frontman Michael Hutchence. The band members were shooting the Kiss the Dirt on the salt plains surrounding Coober Pedy and other outback locations. In the post- Mad Max and Men at Work's Down Under and pre- Crocodile Dundee cultural era, America's fascination with Australiana was percolating. Pengilly said the band travelled around the iconic filming sites 'in our own little Cessna with a pilot who drank a lot (between flights) and we spun off the runway when landing one day'. 'A tyre blew out (when landing) so we spun in 360s off the runway,' Pengilly said. They avoided another airborne disaster when the pilot took a nap after giving Andrew Farriss 'a go' at the flight controls 'And another day, Andrew (Farriss) – who's always a nervous flyer anyway – sat up the front and the pilot asked him if he wanted to have a go (flying), and Andrew sheepishly said yes,' Pengilly said. 'We'd all fallen asleep and Tim (Farriss) wakes up and the pilot is (asleep) with dribble coming out of his mouth and Andrew is frozen, holding (the stick) because he's too scared to move to try to wake the pilot. 'So Tim shook the pilot awake. We survived! There's been lots of near misses over the years, with all the travelling.' The band's executive music director, legendary producer Giles Martin, pored through hundreds of hours of out-takes and demos to curate the 40th anniversary reissue of Listen Like Thieves, which is released on May 9. Pengilly said listening to Hutchence and his bandmates talk about the songs as they built them up at Sydney's Rhinoceros Studios in early 1985 was an emotional experience. It reminded him of the frontman's approach to writing lyrics and fashioning his vocal melodies. 'A lot of the time Michael hadn't finished the lyrics for the demos until much later,' Pengilly said. 'He just had scraps of toilet paper and napkins and things he would pull out when he and Andrew got together; a title of a song or a phrase he heard that he thought, 'Oh, that sounds cool,' and then he would elaborate on that.'' The new deluxe vinyl and CD editions of the 1985 album also feature a long-lost concert, attended by Mick Jagger, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in June 1986. Pengilly kept daily diary notes during the band's career and wrote how Jagger's favourite song from the gig was 'Biting Bullets.'
Daily Mail
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Never-before-heard Michael Hutchence demos set to be released for anniversary of iconic INXS album: 'I did get emotional'
Never-before-heard INXS demos, featuring vocals from late frontman Michael Hutchence, are set to be released set to mark a milestone anniversary. The tracks will be released on May 9 as part of a 40th anniversary reissue of the iconic band's 1985 album Listen Like Thieves, which reached number one in Australia. Among the unreleased songs is a candid studio moment where Hutchence's charismatic voice echoes through early takes of their '80s hit track This Time. The anniversary edition looks to reignite nostalgia and appreciation for INXS' enduring legacy, under the guidance of executive music producer Giles Martin. INXS saxophonist Kirk Pengilly said compiling the tracklist was a moving experience. 'I did get emotional with this, because there were some out-takes of the banter between us all,' he told The Daily Telegraph. Never-before-heard INXS demos featuring vocals from late frontman Michael Hutchence are set to be released set to mark a milestone anniversary 'But we didn't keep a lot of that stuff, so I was really surprised when the tapes turned up. So this is pretty special, a real time capsule.' The band conquered the world with their 1985 album, which reached number 11 on the US Billboard chart and went double platinum there. It also charted in New Zealand, the UK and Canada. It featured their first US top five single, What You Need, as well as the hit songs Kiss the Dirt (Falling Down the Mountain) and the title track. The rockers continued to perform with singer Michael Hutchence until his tragic death in Sydney in 1997, where he committed suicide in a hotel room. Hutchence died at Sydney's Ritz Carlton, now known as the Intercontinental Hotel Double Bay, while depressed and under the influence of alcohol and drugs. His partner, Paula Yates, claimed a year before her own death that Michael likely died accidentally while choking himself for sexual pleasure, as the pair had engaged in similar sex games. A post-mortem examination found alcohol, cocaine, codeine, Prozac, Valium and other prescribed benzodiazepines - or 'benzos' - in Hutchence's urine and blood. The tracks will be released on May 9 as part of a 40th anniversary reissue of their 1985 album Listen Like Thieves, which reached number one in Australia Among the unreleased songs, is a candid studio moment where Hutchence's charismatic voice echoes through early takes of their '80s hit track This Time In late 1995 Hutchence told British music magazine Vox: 'I don't wanna be a f***ing cliche. I don't need to be dropping off in a hotel bath. 'I've come close, though. I'm surprised I've survived and so are a lot of my friends.' The Australian group were one of the world's most successful rock bands in the late '80s. Following their formation in 1977, they stormed the charts with songs including Need You Tonight, Good Times, New Sensation and Kick. They are one of Australia's highest-selling bands of all time, with over 50 million albums sold worldwide. Their 2011 greatest hits album has spent a record 623 weeks on the ARIA top 100 albums chart. Its success followed the release of the 2014 Channel Seven mini-series about the band called Never Tear Us Apart. The band split after 35 years together in 2012, although its surviving members continue to reunite for special events.
