526 Hello Inxs- What You Need

Chart  entered  :  19  April  1986

Chart  peak : 51

Number  of  hits  : 25

I  always  felt  this  lot  were  not   far  away  from  being  a  really  good  group  but  never  quite  managed  it.

The  origins  of  Inxs  go  back  to  1971  when  two  Sydney  school  mates  guitarist  Tim  Farriss  and  multi-instrumentalist  Kirk  Pengilly   formed   a  band  called  Guinness.  Guinness  played  a  mixture  of  prog  rock  and  country  rock  with  Kirk  being  principal  writer  and  lead  singer. Guinness  built  up  a  reasonable  following  in  Sydney  but  were  never  recorded  and  split  up  in  1976  partly  due  to  Tim  being  incapacitated  by  an  operation  to  remove  abnormal  bone  growth  in  his  legs . That  same  year  his  younger  brother  Andrew  who  played  the  piano  formed  a  band  called  Doctor  Dolphin  which  included  his  school  friend  Michael  Hutchence  as  lead  vocalist  and  a  friend  from  a  nearby  school  Garry  Beers   on  bass. Once  Tim  had    recovered  he  invited  Andrew, Michael  and  Garry  to  join  he , Kirk  and  younger  brother  Jon  , a  drummer  in  a  new  band  to  be  called  The  Farriss  Brothers. In  1978  they  switched  their  operations  to  Perth  following  the  Farriss  family's  move  there  and  briefly  re-christened  themselves  The  Vegetables.  When  they  returned  to  Sydney  in  1979  they  fell  under  the  sway  of  Midnight  Oil's  manager  Gary  Morris  and  it  was  he  who  suggested  the   name  change  to  Inxs , partly  influenced  by  XTC.  Morris  had  the  strange  notion  of  them  being  a  Christian  band  , an  idea  they  rejected  so  he  passed  them  on  to  a  friend  Chris  Murphy. Murphy  became  their  manager  and  got  them  a  deal  with  Deluxe  Records.

They  released  their  first  single  in  Australia  in  May  1980.  To  judge  from  "Simple  Simon ",  it  seems  that  XTC  influenced  more  than  their  name  with  Michael  sounding  a  lot  like  Andy  Partridge  and  Andrew's  synth  work  owing   more  than  a  little  to  Barry  Andrews   ( although  he  impersonated  The  Specials'  Jerry  Dammers  when  they  performed  it  on  TV ). The  jerky  New  Wave  rhythms  likewise  recall  early  XTC  or  Devo. The  third  person  narrative  about  a  loser  finding  love  suggests  Elvis  Costello. It's  not  a  great  song  once  you've  spotted  all  the  influences.

The  band  combined  recording  their  debut  LP  with  slogging  it  around  the  Sydney  pub  circuit  playing  on  average  two  gigs  a  day. Their  next  single  "Just  Keep  Walking "  came  out  in  September  1980.  The  lyric  seems  to  be  an  amalgam  of   Warm  Leatherette  and  In  Every  Dream  Home  A  Heartache    but   there's  a  purpose  and  drive  to  the  song  which  wasn't  there  on  the  previous  single  and  it  gave  them  their  first  hit  on  the  Australian  chart  at  number  38.
A  year  later  it  was  their  first  single  release  in  the  UK  on  RCA  and  many  years  later  would  form  the  basis  of   their  final  hit  but  we'll  come  to  that  ( much ) later.

Their  eponymous  debut  LP  came  out  in  the  autumn  of  1980. It  sounds  like  a  demonstration  record  for  all  the  sounds  that  came  under  the  "new  wave"  banner  at  the  time  from  synth  pop  to  Bad   Manners. Inxs  don't  bring  much  to  the  party. Besides  "Just  Keep  Walking", "In  Vain"  and  "Learn  To  Smile"  show  hints   of  promise  but  other  songs  sound  at  best  half-formed; the  likes  of  "Roller  Skating", "Doctor "  and  "Body  Language"  consist  of  little  more  than  shouting  the  title  for  a  chorus. It  made  the  Top  30  in  Australia.

In  May  1981  they  made  the Oz Top 20  with  a  cover of  "The  Loved One " a number  2  hit  in  their  homeland  in  1966  for  R & B band  The  Loved  Ones  but  little  known  elsewhere.  Inxs  give it  a  raw  bluesy  treatment  but  it  doesn't  do  much  for  me. Sensing  they  might  be  onto  something , Deluxe  put  them  back  in  the  studio  with the  single's  producer  Richard  Clapton  to  record  a  second  album.

The  lead  single  was "Stay  Young"  which  wastes  a  great  riff  on  an  awful  ska-based  song. It  made  the  Australian  charts  peaking  at  21. The  album  came  out  just  afterwards  and  is  little  better  than  their  debut. "Fair  Weather  Ahead"  and  the  closer  "Just  To  Learn  Again" are  let  down  by  a  continued  inability  to  write  a  good  chorus   but  most  of  the  songs  are  rubbish  all  the  way  through  including  the  tunelesss  title  track  released  as  a single  in  New  Zealand. Elsewhere, the  follow  up  single  was  "Night  of  Rebellion"  which  sounds  like  David  Sylvian  singing  with  The  Stray  Cats  and  is  scarcely  any  better.  The  album  outperformed  its  predecessor  by  reaching  number  15  in  the  Australian  charts.

Murphy  was  now  convinced  Deluxe  were  holding  them  back  and  got  the  band  to  record  a  demo  at  their  own  expense with  producer  Mark  Opitz. It  worked. Inxs  got  a  deal  with  WEA  and  released  the  song, "The  One  Thing"  as  their  next  single  in  1982. It's  a  loud  dance  rock  number , a  bit  like  Duran  Duran  if  Andy  Taylor  had  been  allowed  a  bit  more  influence  on  their  sound. It's vacuous  but its  just  about  serviceable  chorus  was enough  to  get  it  to  number  14  in  0z..The  album  which  followed  "Shabooh  Shoobah"  shows  some  improvement  in  their  songwriting  and  the  next  two  singles  were  their  best  yet. "Don't  Change" ( Oz  number  15 )  is  like   a  good  Flock  of  Seagulls  track  with  a  decent  singer   while  "To  Look  At  You  ( Oz  number  36 )  is  a  moody  synth  rocker  that  sounds  very  like  compatriots  Icehouse. Both  songs  show  a  sharpening  grasp  of  melody  and  the  latter  being  an  Andrew  Farriss  solo  composition  suggests  he  was  the  source  of  it. The  rest  of  the  album  is mediocre  including  fourth  single  "Black  And  White"  ( Oz  number  24 )  but  it  reached  number  5  in  Australia.

In  March  1983  the  band  went  over  to  the  US  to  play  a  number  of  support  gigs. That  plus  MTV  got  "The  One  Thing"   into  the  US  charts  where  it  reached  number  30. Despite  it   getting  Single  of  the  Fortnight  in  Smash  Hits, Britain  remained  resistant  for  now. "Don't  Change"  got  to  number  80  in  the  US  and  the  album  reached  number  46. Gary  Grant , their  tour  manager,  became  based  in  New  York  as  a  result. The  band  were  playing  a  new  song about  inter-racial  tensions  and  before  they  left  the  States , were  invited  to  record  it  with  Nile  Rodgers  in  New  York. The  result  was  "Original  Sin", a  sleek  dance  rock  number with  the  killer  chorus  that  had  previously  eluded  them. The  high  voice  accompanying  Michael  on  that  chorus  belongs  to  Daryl  Hall  who  had  been  called  up  by  Rodgers. Hall  later  said  generously that  he  thought  his  contribution  was  superfluous. Released  at  the  end  of  1983  it  disappointingly  peaked  at  58  in the  US  but  made  number  one  in  both  Australia  and  France. It  was  also  their  first  single  to  get  some  air  play  in  the UK.

Inxs  came  to  the  UK  to  record  the  rest  of  their  fourth  album  "The  Swing"  at  The Manor  studios  in  Oxford with  producer  Nick  Launay. Their  next  single  in  March  1984,  though  came  from  the  Rodgers  sessions."I  Send  A  Message" is immediately  notable  for  the  similarity  of  the  backing  track  to  Madonna's  Material  Girl ,another  Rodgers  production later  that  year. Otherwise  it's  uninteresting  but  made  number  3  in  Australia  and  77  in  the  US. The  album  was  released  a  month  later. It  consolidates  the  progress  made  on  the  previous  LP  and  the  next  single  "Burn  For  You"  has  another  catchy  chorus  even  though  the  song  is  a  bit  of  a  dog's  dinner. It  too  reached  number  3  in  Australia. Unsurprisingly  the  album  reached  number  one  there  but  it  also  became  their  first  album  to  chart  in  Canada  and  New Zealand.. In  thhe  US  it  reached  number  52. In  Australia  they  squeezed  out  a  fourth  single, "Dancing  on  The Jetty", an  inferior  cousin  to  "Original  Sin "  which  reached  number  39. The  standout  track  though  is  "Johnson's  Aeroplane"  , another  of  Andrew's  solo  compositions  which  protests  at  the  creep  of  suburbia  into  Australia's  farmland  with  a  superbly  doomy  string  and synth  arrangement.

After  appearing  at  the  Australian  leg  of  Live  Aid,  Inxs  went  into  the  studio  in  Sydney  with  Sex  Pistols  producer  Chris  Thomas  to  record  their  fifth  album "Listen  Like  Thieves". Towards  the  end  of  the  session  Thomas  said  he  couldn't  hear  a  big  hit  on  the  album  so  they   worked  up  "What  You  Need "  in  a  few  days. It  still  sounds  fairly  skeletal, not  much  more  than  a  sparse  funk  riff, growling  bass  and  deafening  drums  - Thomas's  brief  seems  to have  been  to  make  them  sound  as  loud  as  possible. Michael  wrote  some  fairly  simple lyrics  about staying  positive  and Kirk  added  some  melodic  colour  with  his  sax. It's  no great  shakes  as  a  song  but  Thomas  knew  what  he  was  doing. It  was  the  first  single  from  the  album  in  Australia  but  elsewhere   the  record  company  went  with  the  pleasant  guitar  rock  of  "This  Time"   (  number  81  in  the  US )  and  didn't  release  "What You  Need "  until  early  1986. It  exploded  in  the  US  reaching  number  5. Finally,  with  the  band  on  tour  here  - I  was  the  Student  Union  Executive  member  on  duty  the  night  they  played  Leeds - Britain  relented  and  gave  them  their  first  moderate  hit  here.
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