In 1990 Spoken Words was repackaged for United States market as Indecent Obsession, which reached the Billboard 200.
In 1992 they were the first Western act to tour South Africa after the lifting of the cultural isolation during the apartheid era.
They were "greeted by screaming fans and scenes of mass hysteria", both their second album, Indio, and one of its singles, "Kiss Me", peaked at No.
Indecent Obsession were formed early in 1987 in Brisbane by David Dixon on lead vocals and Mick Szumowski on keyboards.
[1][5] The album was co-produced by Ross Inglis (Tina Arena) and Szumowski;[2] except individual tracks by Berry, MacKenzie, Mark Forrester and Jeremy Smith.
[12] Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt the album was "patchy, ranging from the polished synth-pop of 'Tell Me Something' to the contrived, melodramatic ballad 'Come Back to Me'".
[1][5] In January 1990, they toured Australia supporting United States pop singer-songwriter, Debbie Gibson.
[4] In late 1991, the group moved to Los Angeles where they recorded their second album, Indio with Peter Wolf (The Escape Club, Go West, Wang Chung) as producer, co-songwriter, bass guitarist and arranger.
[16] In Australia Indio appeared in August on Melodian, which reached the top 40 on the ARIA Albums Chart.
[1][5] McFarlane observed that it showed the group's "transition from naive pop to mature, radio-friendly dance music".
[1] Indecent Obsession became the first Western act to tour South Africa after the lifting of the cultural isolation of that nation due to their apartheid policy.
At the start of a US tour that year Mark Gray (ex-Wa Wa Nee) joined on bass guitar.
A compilation album, The Most Indecent Obsession, was issued by MCA Records in Japan, South-east Asia and South Africa in 1995.
[18] New Straits Times reviewer, Gerald Martinez, described the band's sound as "[c]ombining techno dance rhythms with power chords and tunes poppy hooks, these guys play nice sanitised pop".
[5] In 1994 Dixon recorded a solo single, "Faith, Love & Understanding", which was a minor radio hit in South Africa, and peaked at No.
[19] In June 1998 he acted as Marius in the Australian cast of Les Misérables,[1] and later performed in Smokey Joe's Cafe.
In addition to musical theatre, Dixon portrayed Nathan Roberts in the Australian TV soap opera, Home and Away from 1993 to 1994.
He joined dance outfit, The Webb, in the late 1990s, and wrote Bardot's debut single "Poison".
[2] Richard Hennassey had moved to Sydney and worked in a graphic design and advertising agency; in 2010 he appeared on the first series of Come Dine with Me Australia.