INXS reunited briefly in Sydney this week to celebrate the release of several new projects, where they also remembered their late frontman Michael Hutchence.
The surviving members of the Australian rock band – Garry Gary Beers, Kirk Pengilly and brothers Andrew, Jon and Tim Farriss – reunited Tuesday (October 17) at Sydney’s Intercontinental Hotel for their first time since 2017.
Their gathering celebrated the release of their new book Calling All Nations, a 400-plus “love letter” with stories and pictures from the band and their fans. It’s out now and can be ordered in three different formats here, including a limited-edition ‘Super Deluxe’ box, hand-signed by the members of INXS.
During the launch, Andrew Farriss remembered their “talented, dynamic a frontman” Hutchence, who died by suicide in 1997. After his death, it emerged that Hutchence had suffered brain damage after being assaulted by a taxi driver in Denmark in 1995.
Speaking about the book, Pengilly recalled how the artists had “no idea how much it meant to so many individual fans. It wasn’t always about the show,” according to Billboard.
Pengilly added that stories from fans include “driving six hours to meet their friends to get ready to go to the gig”. He continued that “they might just somehow meet us backstage or have an interaction and a look from one of us on stage,” and “they feel a connection. Yeah, I found it really emotional.”
A description for the new book reads: “Calling All Nations – A Fan History of INXS is a visual and written history of the band curated from generous contributions of 100s of their fans, as well as memories and archive material from the band themselves.”
It includes essays from UMG’s Andrew Kronfeld and Live Nation’s Arthur Fogel.
Also on the band’s slate of new releases is ‘All Juiced Up Part 2’ – a collection of nine limited edition coloured vinyl 12 inch records, featuring remixes of INXS classics like ‘Need You Tonight’, ‘Listen Like Thieves’ and ‘New Sensation’.
A 30th anniversary edition of ‘Full Moon, Dirty Hearts’, for which record producer and songwriter Giles Martin has created an exclusive, immersive audio edition, is also due out November 2.
The nine records that make up ‘All Juiced Up Part 2’ have all been remastered at Abbey Road. They can be pre-ordered here.
The last time the whole band was together was their 40th anniversary celebration in 2017.
During their talk in Sydney, the band remember their late longtime manager and “seventh member” Chris Murphy, who died in 2021, aged 66. “Chris was hungry,” said Pengilly. “He just took no prisoners”.
INXS also shutdown any hopes of a live show any time soon, in any capacity. The band split up in 2012 after 35 years together.
“To be fair to us is that,” said Andrew Farriss, “as people losing someone as talented, dynamic a frontman as Michael, it became really in the forefront of our minds that, okay, we’ve created this legacy and we own it. And so we’ll decide when we want to play or not. That’s the important point, to not have it dictated to what we can and can’t do when we feel like it.”
He continued that what “is appealing to me” is “who that singer could possibly be. There must be someone that we haven’t even thought of or discovered or found it. That could be an amazing thing to happen.”
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