Earlier this week one of the bands that I spent a lot of my hard earned paper round money on vinyl announced that they were stopping touring. Now that is some time ago, even more spectacular is that is had been 15 years since their charismatic front man Michael Hutchence was found dead in a hotel room. But after 35 years as an excellent live band INXS have announced that they are parking the tour bus for good.
Many people will only have heard of INXS for the first time after I already had a fair amount of them on vinyl on 13 July 1985 when they were this Australian insert into Live Aid. This is how they blasted into many people's lives and made it a lot easier for the rest of us UK fans to find their singles and albums.
However, even after Live Aid that single What You Need only reached 51 in the UK charts, it did reach number 5 in the US Billboard Charts though.
As I said I was into them thanks to a penfriend from Australia who told me they great and to look out for their stuff as early as 1983 (another from New Zealand told be about Split Endz who later morphed into Crowded House). So I was into them a whole Album before the Album Listen Like Thieves.
I can't find videos of The Swing but somebody has very cleverly linked the phrase "Heart shaped hedges, Japanese Gardens" as inspiration with the music of Johnson's Aeroplane for this very effective montage.
It was only when they performed on the Sound Track of The Lost Boys with Jimmy Barnes that they actually broke into the top 40 with a number 18 hit with Good Times.
That was followed by Need You Tonight their only US number 1, number 2 here in the UK, their highet UK chart position.
Unfortunately a lot of the clips I can find of their last concert on YouTube are disabled for embedding. But here is Never Tear Us Apart which I think should be a fitting epitaph.
But I know you want to see a little of that last gig so here is Falling Down the Mountain (Kiss the Dirt).
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