Michael Hutchence
Michael Kelland John Hutchence (22 January 1960 – 22 November 1997) was an Australian singer, songwriter, and actor. He was the co-founder, lead singer, and lyricist of the rock band INXS from 1977 until his death in 1997. The band sold more than 50 million records worldwide and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2001.
This article is about the singer. For his self-titled album, see Michael Hutchence (album).
Michael Hutchence
22 January 1960
22 November 1997 (aged 37)
- Singer
- songwriter
- actor
1977–1997
Paula Yates
(1995–1997)
- Kelland Frank Hutchence (father)
- Patricia Glassop (mother)
Vocals
Hutchence was also a member of the short-lived band Max Q and recorded some solo material, alongside acting in films such as Dogs in Space (1986) and Frankenstein Unbound (1990). He was known for his string of love affairs with actresses, models, and singers, and his private life was often covered in the international press. He had a daughter with English television presenter Paula Yates.
Hutchence died by suicide in a Sydney hotel room on 22 November 1997, at the age of 37.
Early life[edit]
Michael Kelland John Hutchence was born in the Crows Nest suburb of Sydney on 22 January 1960,[1][2] the son of make-up artist Patricia Glassop and businessman Kelland Frank "Kell" Hutchence.[3] He had an elder half-sister named Tina.[4] His paternal grandparents were an English couple who had relocated to Sydney in 1922,[5] while his maternal grandfather was an Irish man from County Cork.[6]
Following Kell's business interests, the Hutchence family moved to Brisbane, where Hutchence's younger brother Rhett was born. They later left Australia for Hong Kong. During the early years in Hong Kong, both boys attended Glenealy Junior School and Beacon Hill School. Hutchence showed promise as a swimmer before badly breaking his arm. He then began to show interest in poetry and performed his first song in a local toy store commercial. He later attended King George V School during his early teens. The family returned to Sydney in 1972, buying a house in Belrose. [1]
Hutchence attended Davidson High School, where he met and befriended Andrew Farriss. Around this time, the two spent a lot of time jamming with Farriss' brothers Tim and Jon in the garage. Farriss convinced Hutchence to join his band, Doctor Dolphin, alongside their classmates Kent Kerny and Neil Sanders. Bassist Garry Beers and drummer Geoff Kennelly from nearby Forest High School completed the line-up.[7] Hutchence's parents separated when he was 15, and he lived with his mother and half-sister in California for a short time in 1976.[8] He later returned to Sydney with them. In 1977, a new band called the Farriss Brothers was formed with Andrew on keyboards, Tim on lead guitar, and Jon on drums. Hutchence joined on vocals and Beers on bass, while Kirk Pengilly joined on guitar and saxophone.[9][10] The band made their debut on 16 August 1977 at a venue in Whale Beach.[11]
Career[edit]
Early career[edit]
Hutchence, the Farriss brothers, Kerny, Sanders, Beers and Kennelly briefly performed as the Vegetables, singing "We Are the Vegetables".[11] Ten months later, they returned to Sydney and recorded a set of demos.[7] The Farriss Brothers regularly supported hard rockers Midnight Oil on the pub rock circuit, and were renamed as INXS in 1979.[11] Their first performance under the new name was on 1 September at the Oceanview Hotel in Toukley.[7] In May 1980, the group released their first single, "Simple Simon"/"We Are the Vegetables" which was followed by the debut album INXS in October.[9] Their first Top 40 Australian hit on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart, "Just Keep Walking", was released in September 1980.[12] Hutchence became the main spokesman for the band,[9] and co-wrote almost all of the band's songs with Andrew Farriss.[8]
According to Hutchence, most of the songs on the band's second album, Underneath the Colours, were written within a fairly short space of time: "Most bands shudder at the prospect of having 20 years to write their first album and four days to write their second. For us, though, it was good. It left less room for us to go off on all sorts of tangents".[7] Soon after recording sessions for Underneath the Colours – produced by Richard Clapton – had finished, band members started work on outside projects. Hutchence recorded "Speed Kills", written by Don Walker of hard rockers Cold Chisel, for the soundtrack to the 1982 film Freedom, directed by Scott Hicks. It was Hutchence's first solo single and was released by WEA in April 1982.[7]
Stardom and acting career[edit]
In March 1985, after Hutchence and INXS recorded their album The Swing (1984), WEA released the Australian version of Dekadance, as a limited edition cassette only EP of six tracks including remixes from the album. The cassette also included a cover version of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's hit "Jackson", which Hutchence sang as a duet with Jenny Morris, a backing singer for The Swing sessions.[9] The EP reached No 2 on the Kent Music Report Albums Chart.[12] Hutchence provided vocals for new wave band Beargarden's 1985 single release.[13]
On 19 May, INXS won seven awards at the 1984 Countdown Music and Video Awards ceremony, including 'Best Songwriter' for Hutchence and Andrew, and 'Most Popular Male' for Hutchence.[9][14] They performed "Burn for You", dressed in Akubras (a brand of hats) and Drizabones (a brand of outdoor coats/oilskin jackets) followed by Hutchence and Morris singing "Jackson" to close.[14]
In 1986, Hutchence played Sam, the lead male role, in the Australian film Dogs in Space, directed by long-time INXS music video collaborator Richard Lowenstein. Sam's girlfriend, Anna, was portrayed by Saskia Post as a "fragile peroxide blonde in op-shop clothes".[15][16] Hutchence provided four songs on the film's soundtrack.[17] Also working on the film and its soundtrack, as music director, was Ollie Olsen (ex-Whirlywirld).[18][19]
Late in 1986, before commencing work on a new INXS album and while supposedly taking an eight-month break, the band's management decided to stage the Australian Made tour as a series of major outdoor concerts across the country. The roster featured INXS, Jimmy Barnes (Cold Chisel), Models, Divinyls, Mental as Anything, the Triffids and I'm Talking.[11] To promote the tour, Hutchence and Barnes shared vocals on the Easybeats cover "Good Times" and "Laying Down the Law", which Barnes cowrote with Beers, Andrew Farriss, Jon Farriss, Hutchence and Pengilly.[20] "Good Times" was used as the theme for the concert series of 1986–1987.[11] It peaked at No. 2 on the Australian charts,[12] and months later was featured in the Joel Schumacher film The Lost Boys and its soundtrack,[21] allowing it to peak at No. 47 in the U.S. on 1 August 1987.[22] Divinyls' lead singer Chrissy Amphlett enjoyed the tour and reconnected with Hutchence, stating that "[he] was a sweet man, who said in one interview that he wanted me to have his baby."[11]
In 1987, Hutchence provided vocals for Richard Clapton's album Glory Road, which was produced by Jon Farriss.[13]
INXS released Kick in October 1987, and the album provided the band with worldwide popularity. Kick peaked at No. 1 in Australia,[12] No. 3 on the US Billboard 200,[23] No. 9 in UK,[24] and No. 15 in Austria.[25] The band's most successful studio album, Kick has been certified six times platinum by the RIAA and spawned four US top 10 singles ("New Sensation", "Never Tear Us Apart", "Devil Inside" and "Need You Tonight", the last of which reached the top of the US Billboard singles charts).[26][27] According to 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories and Secrets Behind Them, the single "Need You Tonight" is not lyrically complex; it is Hutchence's performance where "he sings in kittenish whisper, gently drawing back with the incredible lust of a tiger hunting in the night" that makes the song "as sexy and funky as any white rock group has ever been".[28] In September 1988, the band swept the MTV Video Music Awards with the video for "Need You Tonight/Mediate" winning in five categories.[29]
In 1989, Hutchence collaborated further with Olsen for the Max Q project, and was joined by members of Olsen's previous groups including Whirlywirld, No and Orchestra of Skin and Bone.[19] They released a self-titled album and three singles, "Way of the World", "Sometimes" and "Monday Night by Satellite". Max Q disbanded in 1990.[18][19] Max Q showed Hutchence exploring the darker side of his music and, with Olsen, he created "one of the most innovative dance music albums of the decade". Hutchence wrote most of the music and provided "an extraordinary performance ... it was one of the most significant statements Hutchence was to make".[28] In 1990, Hutchence portrayed nineteenth-century Romantic poet Percy Shelley in Roger Corman's film version of Frankenstein Unbound, which was based on a science fiction time travel story of the same name written by Brian Aldiss.[30]
In 1990, INXS released X, which spawned more international hits such as "Suicide Blonde" and "Disappear" (both Top 10 in the US).[22] "Suicide Blonde" peaked at No. 2 in Australia and No. 11 in the UK.[24] Hutchence, with Andrew Farriss, wrote the song after Hutchence's then-girlfriend, Kylie Minogue, used the phrase "suicide blonde" to describe her look during her 1989 film, The Delinquents; the film depicted Minogue in a platinum blonde wig.[31] Hutchence won the 'Best International Artist' at the 1991 BRIT Awards with INXS winning the related group award.[9] Hutchence provided vocals for pub rockers Noiseworks' album, Love Versus Money (1991).[13]
Personal life[edit]
According to People, Hutchence's "public brawls and onetime open drug use" led London tabloids to dub him the "wild man of rock".[42] He was romantically linked to Australian singer and actress Kylie Minogue,[43] American singer Belinda Carlisle,[44][45] Danish model Helena Christensen,[46] and Australian actress Kym Wilson.[47]
In August 1992, Hutchence and Christensen were riding their bicycles at night in Copenhagen when he refused to move for a taxi.[48] They were eating pizza when, unbeknownst to him, the taxi tried to get through the narrow street but "didn't beep its horn or anything".[49] The taxi driver assaulted Hutchence, causing him to fall backwards and hit his head on the pavement; he suffered a fractured skull.[50] Hutchence did not immediately seek medical assistance for the injury, and instead waited several days before seeing a doctor. He was left with brain damage and almost completely lost his sense of smell, as well as losing a significant amount of his sense of taste.[51][52] The injury led to periods of depression and increased levels of aggression, and he had still not fully recovered after two weeks in a Copenhagen hospital. According to INXS bandmate Beers, Hutchence brandished a knife and threatened to kill him during the 1993 recording of Full Moon, Dirty Hearts. Beers recalled, "Over those six weeks, Michael threatened or physically confronted nearly every member of the band."[53]
In the mid-1990s, Hutchence became romantically involved with English television presenter Paula Yates.[54] They met in 1985, during an interview for the British TV program The Tube. Yates interviewed him again in 1994 for her Big Breakfast show, and their affair was soon uncovered by the British press.[32] At the time, Yates was married to the Boomtown Rats singer and Live Aid organiser Bob Geldof.[55] Media scrutiny was intense, and Hutchence assaulted a photographer who had followed them. Yates' separation from Geldof in February 1995 sparked a public and at times bitter custody battle over their daughters. Yates and Geldof divorced in May 1996.[56] On 22 July 1996, Yates gave birth to her daughter with Hutchence, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily.[57]
In September 1996, Yates and Hutchence made headlines when they were arrested for suspicion of drug possession after the family nanny reportedly found a small amount of opium in a shoebox underneath their bed. The case was dropped due to lack of evidence.[58]
Later developments[edit]
After Hutchence's death, INXS continued recording and performing until 2012. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), INXS has sold 15 million units in the United States alone,[70] making them the second-highest-selling Australian music act in the United States, behind AC/DC. As of 2018, INXS has sold over 50 million records worldwide.[71][72] INXS was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2001.[73]
Hutchence's solo album, Michael Hutchence, was released in October 1999.[9] He had started on the album in 1995, recording songs in between INXS sessions; he had last worked on it three days before his death. The last song he recorded was "Possibilities".[9] The album includes "Slide Away", a duet with U2's Bono;[74] Bono's vocals were recorded after Hutchence's death.[74]
The 1999 movie Limp includes a cameo by Hutchence.[75][76]
On 18 June 2000, Patricia Glassop and Tina Schorr released their book, Just a Man: The Real Michael Hutchence, which has been described as "an odd biography ... [that] combines the basic facts of Hutchence's early life ... with an almost too-intimate view of the authors' feelings".[77]
Paula Yates died on 17 September 2000 of an accidental heroin overdose; she was discovered in the presence of her and Hutchence's then four-year-old daughter.[78] Soon after Yates' death, Geldof assumed foster custody of their daughter so that she could be brought up with her three older half-sisters, Fifi, Peaches and Pixie.[79] In 2007, their daughter was adopted by Geldof.[80][81][82]
On 20 August 2005, Melbourne's The Age reported on the disposition of Hutchence's estate and assets, which, although estimated at between $10 million and $20 million, amounted to virtually nothing. The remainder of his estate had reportedly been sold off or swallowed in legal fees.[83]
A documentary about Hutchence, Michael Hutchence: The Last Rockstar, aired on Australia's Channel 7 in 2017.[84][85] In 2019, Mystify: Michael Hutchence—another documentary about Hutchence's life directed by Richard Lowenstein—was released.[86]
Awards and nominations[edit]
APRA Awards[edit]
The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), "honouring composers and songwriters". They commenced in 1982.[99]