INXS Stars Share Backstage Drama and Costly Wembley Gig

Members of legendary Australian rock band INXS have revealed how the band lost millions over their legendary gig at London’s Wembley Stadium in 1991.

Despite selling out the gig, which had a live audience of 74,000, almost all of the money made at the box office for the show was gone before the band even took to the stage.

The cash, £1.4 million GBP or $7 million AUD in today’s money, was spent on funding a film of the concert.

The decision was made by the six-piece band’s manager, Gary Murphy, who hired a famous British music video director, David Mallet, to direct it.

Still, according to INXS members Jon Farriss and Kirk Pengilly, the event and the ensuing film were worth it.

It helped to cement the band’s reputation in the notoriously difficult UK market, where they had scored two hit albums in a row, X in 1990 and 1987’s Kick. 

Despised by UK critics and adored by fans drawn to the saucy stage presence of the lead singer, the late Michael Hutchence, Farrisssaid the band had the last laugh. 

‘That tall poppy thing, I think we were one of the first bands to experience it on that level,’ Farriss, 64, told the Courier-Mail on Sunday.

‘We taught ourselves to stay quiet about it, we just wouldn’t talk about it.’

Elsewhere in the chat, the veteran rockers revealed the band had a ‘guest list’ for the Wembley gig, numbering a staggering 3000 people.

Among the A-listers there for the show was former Hutchence girlfriend Kylie Minogue and then pop superstars Duran Duran.

‘Yeah, I heard it was over 2,000, closer to 3,000 people,’ Pengilly, 65, said. 

‘Apparently it was insane. I didn’t know any of them. But, you know, it was London, (therefore), it was celebrities.’

It comes after never-before-heard INXS demos, featuring vocals from late frontman Michael Hutchence, were released earlier this year.

The tracks are part of the 40th anniversary reissue of the iconic band’s 1985 album Listen Like Thieves, which reached number one in Australia.

Among the unreleased songs is a candid studio moment where Hutchence’s charismatic voice echoes through early takes of their ’80s hit track This Time.

INXS saxophonist Pengilly said compiling the tracklist was a moving experience.

‘I did get emotional with this, because there were some out-takes of the banter between us all,’ he told The Daily Telegraph.

‘But we didn’t keep a lot of that stuff, so I was really surprised when the tapes turned up. So this is pretty special, a real time capsule.’

The band conquered the world with their 1985 album, which reached number 11 on the US Billboard chart and went double platinum there.

It also charted in New Zealand, the UK and Canada.

It featured their first US top five single, What You Need, as well as the hit songs Kiss the Dirt (Falling Down the Mountain) and the title track.

The rockers continued to perform with singer Michael Hutchence until his tragic death in Sydney in 1997, where he died by suicide in a hotel room.

The Australian group were one of the world’s most successful rock bands in the late ’80s.

Following their formation in 1977, they stormed the charts with songs including Need You Tonight, Good Times, New Sensation and Kick.

They are one of Australia’s highest-selling bands of all time, with over 50 million albums sold worldwide.

Their 2011 greatest hits album has spent a record 623 weeks on the ARIA top 100 albums chart.

Its success followed the release of the 2014 Channel Seven mini-series about the band called Never Tear Us Apart.

The band split after 35 years together in 2012, although its surviving members continue to reunite for special events.