Rock Report

Today is the 10th Anniversary of the “mysterious” death of the flamboyant front man, Michael Hutchence of the Aussie band INXS.

Although they were not that “big” in the Philippines during that time as they were more famous Down Under and Europe, I was familiar with some of their songs like Original Sin, Disappear and The Stairs just to name a few because I’ve read about them in those small Php 5.00 “Song Hits“ (Yes, fellow music freak, Jingle and Moptop were long dead in the late 80s and early 90s) and of course, with the help of that FM radio from far away Naga City.

Come to think of it, the FM stations from Naga have a better and stronger reception in Tiwi to this day than the radio stations from Legaspi for Tiwi is actually located in the “other” Albay- Camarines Sur Provincial Boundary wherein the farthest barangay, Mayong is just separated by a bridge from the Partido area which comprises the towns of Sangay, Goa, Tigaon, San Jose, etc. and also the home of the Fuentebella political clan of Camarines Sur. Hey, that's Bicol Trivia for you folks.

Anyway, INXS (IN Excess) was formed in Australia in 1977 and attained global success in the 1980s with some of their songs landing in the Billboard's Charts.

The surviving members are still around though and making “new” music with JD Fortune who became the lead singer after winning the title in the Rockstar: INXS contest a couple of years ago over runner- up Marty Casey (Where are you now?) and Pinoy Migs Ayesa, among others in a popularity contest determined by the band members themselves and television viewers.

But they will never come close to the Michael Hutchence Era as far as the die-hard and faithful INXS fans are concerned.



By the way, my lovely girlfriend at that time, gave me a cassette tape of their album, X when she came back from Australia shortly after winning the Miss Philippines- Australia Pageant (Oops, sorry about that ****). The album includes one of my favorite songs from the band, By My Side.






R.I.P. and Rock On in Rock & Roll Heaven, Michael!


n.b.

You can visit the INXS’ website and read their tribute to Michael Hutchence,here

Or you can visit the online guest book and profess your undying love for him and his music, here

Visit Unchanged Melodies
and Rhapsody in Black for more of their music.