[17] At a chance meeting in the car park of the Royal Antler, a pub in Narrabeen on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, New South Wales, Tim was approached by Gary Morris who was the manager of Midnight Oil.
[17] These early records demonstrated their new wave/ska/pop style, and were followed by near constant touring with almost 300 shows during 1981 as the band developed their status as a live act.
Hutchence recorded "Speed Kills", written by Don Walker of Cold Chisel for the soundtrack of the film Freedom directed by Scott Hicks.
RCA (who distributed Deluxe) had employed music lover Rockin Rod Woods, who had been promoting Eric Clapton, Split Enz and some of the world's biggest acts.
Deluxe had been unable to attract international interest so the band decided to record a new song, "The One Thing" at their own expense, with Mark Opitz at Paradise Studios.
[4][5][6][17] Murphy and the band were not entirely convinced that Opitz could produce an entire album that would attract international interest, so before recording their third album Pengilly, Hutchence, and Andrew Farriss visited the United Kingdom and USA, with a view to selecting a suitable producer, only to find that no one they wanted was available and that most people advised them that Opitz's work on their single was as good as they could wish for.
[18] 13 February 1983, saw INXS play the Stop The Drop nuclear disarmament concert to 14,000 at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, alongside Midnight Oil, Colin Hay, Redgum and Goanna.
[26] During that time, their co-manager Gary Grant relocated permanently to New York City to ensure a continual presence in the northern hemisphere.
[17] In March 1985, the band returned to Sydney's Rhinoceros Studios and recorded the Listen Like Thieves album along with producer Chris Thomas (Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd, The Pretenders, Elton John).
[17] While the band was recording, WEA released Dekadance, a limited edition 12" Vinyl and cassette only EP of INXS remixes from their albums The Swing and Shabooh Shoobah.
[31] Two INXS songs, "What You Need" and "Don't Change", were also in the BBC broadcast and are contained on Live Aid's four DVD boxed set released in 2004.
It was also the first album to feature songs written by a combination of band members, with Andrew Farris and Hutchence becoming the primary songwriters in the years to follow.
[30] The British press dismissed the album, with New Musical Express calling the band 'INX-cusable' and a reviewer declaring Listen Like Thieves to be a 'complete and utter turkey'.
[17] In the United States, however, Rolling Stone wrote, "INXS rocks with passion and seals the deal with a backbeat that'll blackmail your feet.
"[17] While on an eight-month break before beginning work on a new album, Murphy, their manager, decided to stage a series of major outdoor concerts across Australia, featuring INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Models, Divinyls, Mental as Anything, The Triffids and I'm Talking.
During 1989, Hutchence collaborated with Ian "Ollie" Olsen on a side project, Max Q,[4] the two had previously worked together on Lowenstein's film Dogs in Space.
[4] INXS performed at Wembley Stadium on 13 July 1991, during their "Summer XS" tour stop in London to a sold-out audience of 74,000 fans.
This concert was the band's most well-attended show of all time; according to a 2017 article by Paul Donoughue of ABC.net.au, it "solidified [INXS's] place in pop history".
[47] Welcome to Wherever You Are, produced by Mark Opitz and released in August 1992,[6] was an experimental album using sitars and a 60-piece orchestra while adding a more "raw" sound.
[51] On 6 February 1998, New South Wales State Coroner Derrick Hand presented his report, which ruled that Hutchence's death was a suicide while depressed and under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
[5][21] On 12 June 1999, they headlined the opening of Stadium Australia in Sydney, with US singer-songwriter Terence Trent D'Arby and Russell Hitchcock as guest vocalists, they performed "New Sensation", "Kick", "Never Tear Us Apart" and "What You Need".
[56] The former lead singer of Australian band Noiseworks, Jon Stevens began singing with INXS on a regular basis.
The show was executive produced by Survivor's Mark Burnett and hosted by Brooke Burke and Jane's Addiction and former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro.
[62] On 23 February 2009, Chris Murphy, INXS creative director and global business strategist and former manager, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, said J.D.
In August 2010, Petrol Records issued Australian radio stations with a one-track promo "Never Tear Us Apart" featuring Ben Harper on vocals, a preview from the upcoming INXS Michael Hutchence tribute album Original Sin.
Released in November 2010, the album featured well-known singers from Australia and around the world, including Ben Harper, Patrick Monahan, and Rob Thomas.
[71][72][73][74] In March 2011, INXS confirmed they would return to the UK and headlining with support from New Zealand band Shihad for an outdoor event called Southern Sounds on Clapham Common, London on Saturday 11 June.
The band released a demo of a song, called "Tiny Summer" in streaming format on their official website in September 2011; they also announced that J.D.
[76] On 6 October 2012, INXS were the headline act at the annual charity ball organised by the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondent's Club.
[77] During a concert on 11 November 2012 at the newly opened Perth Arena, while supporting Matchbox Twenty, INXS announced that they would no longer be touring.