VARIOUS: LEAD SINGER OF INXS, MICHAEL HUTCHENCE, IS FOUND DEAD IN HIS SYDNEY HOTEL ROOM

Record ID: 387287

  • Title: VARIOUS: LEAD SINGER OF INXS, MICHAEL HUTCHENCE, IS FOUND DEAD IN HIS SYDNEY HOTEL ROOM
  • Date: 22nd November 1997
  • Summary: CAPETOWN, SOUTH AFRICA (RECENT - MAY 26, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) INXS BAND MEMBERS POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (RECENT - JULY 11, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) HUTCHENCE SAYING, "WE SORT OF HAVE GONE FULL CIRCLE. WE STARTED OFF VERY YOUNG, FOURTEEN, FIFTEEN, SIXTEEN KIND OF AND TWENTY YEARS AGO, AND YOU GROW UP AND
  • Embargoed: 7th December 1997 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES/ CAPETOWN, SOUTH AFRICA/ SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA/ LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM/ VARIOUS UNIDENTIFIED lOCATIONS
  • City:
  • Country: South Africa Australia
  • Topics: Entertainment,Obituaries
  • Reuters ID: LVA7BM6AZJ00JGAZTVQTZ7YQ317T
  • Story Text: - INXS fans the world over are in mourning this week following the sudden death of Australian rock star Michael Hutchence whose body was discovered hanging in a Sydney hotel room on Saturday (November 22) morning.

    The reason for his death remains a mystery.

    On Monday (November 24), an Australian coroner ruled that the 37-year-old musician died from hanging but said it was still not clear whether he had committed suicide.

    A Coroner's statement said routine toxicology tests would be carried out but that the results would not be known for a number of weeks.

    Hutchence's body was found hanging from a belt attached to the inside of his Ritz Carlton hotel room door in the harbourside suburb of Double Bay.

    Police rejected media speculation that Hutchence died after he had binged on booze and pills before performing a bizarre bondage sex act but said prescription drugs, including anti-depressant Prozac, were found in the room.

    Hutchence's lover, British television personality Paula Yates, and their 15-month-old daughter Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily arrived in Sydney on Monday and were whisked away to the coroner's office.

    For the remainder of the week they have stayed away from the media's camera lenses.

    Yates and Hutchence had a highly public relationship after Yates split with former husband, Irish pop star and fund raiser Bob Geldof, with whom she had three daughters.

    Hutchence and Yates were planning to marry next January.

    Distraught Yates told British media on the flight from London that she blamed Geldof for Hutchence's death, saying the singer took his life due to the acrimony surrounding her divorce from Geldof in 1996.

    Yates was quoted as saying she had phoned Hutchence some three hours before his death to say she could not join him in Australia as planned because of a continuing court case over custody of the three daughters she had with Geldof.

    Yates said Hutchence's last words to her were: "I love you. I'm going to phone Bob and beg him to allow the children to come over here with you." Geldof, singer in the band Boomtown Rats, was given an honorary knighthood for his fund-raising efforts for Ethiopian famine victims in the mid-1980s.

    He was seen in the British tabloid press as the injured party in the divorce with the blonde and flamboyant Yates.

    Geldof has declined to comment.

    Media interest in Hutchence's death has been intense.

    On Monday, Hutchence's parents Kelland Hutchence and Patricia Glassop released a statement asking the media to allow them to grieve in peace.

    Hutchence's funeral service will be broadcast live on Australian television's Seven Network from Sydney's Saint Andrew's Anglican cathedral on Thursday, (November 27). All other media have been banned by Hutchence's family from the funeral.

    The service for Hutchence is expected to feature INXS rock songs, according to local media.

    Hutchence had lived a seemingly charmed existence as the handsome front man of Australia's most successful rock music export.

    From humble beginnings 20 years ago playing to unreceptive crowds in pubs throughout Australia, INXS went onto become an irresistible rock force and MTV favourite by the end of the 1980s.

    The band, whose lineup never changed, scored dozens of dance hits such as "What You Need" and "New Sensation" by combining thick riffs and crunchy rhythms.

    Worldwide album sales were estimated at 20 million. In a fractured rock world, INXS could draw on a fan base that ranged from grizzled rock'n'roll afficionados to screaming teenaged girls.

    Hutchence, who co-wrote most of the band's songs with keyboard player Andrew Farriss, was easily the best known member and he revelled in the attention. His stage swagger and sexy pout was often termed "Jagger-esque" - reminiscent of dynamic Rolling Stones vocalist Mick Jagger.

    Off-stage, Hutchence was a noted party animal, often photographed in the company of some of the world's most glamorous women. Girlfriends at one time or another included singer Kylie Minogue and model Helena Christensen.

    His career that began in 1977 when the six members of INXS decided to form a band straight out of high school.

    Initially known as the Farriss Brothers -- after the three brothers in the lineup -- the Sydney natives relocated 7,000 kilometers to the other side of the continent and honed their act in the hotels and pubs of Western Australia.

    They returned to Sydney in 1979, adopted the name INXS and released their debut eponymous album the following year.

    In 1981, they played no fewer than 300 shows across Australia, steadily building up by word of mouth as a must-see band.

    INXS took on the United States in 1983, releasing "Shabooh Shoobah", which yielded the top 30 single, "The One Thing." The 1984 album "The Swing" cemented their standing as superstars in Australia, and set the scene for their 1986 international breakthrough "Listen Like Thieves" and its top five U.S. single "What You Need." They reached their commercial peak in 1987 with the album "Kick", which sold over four million copies in the U.S., and another five million worldwide, buoyed by hits such as "Need You Tonight" and "Devil Inside".

    They earned a Grammy nomination and five MTV Video Music Awards, and toured the world for 16 months.

    Subsequent albums such as "X" (1990) and "Welcome to Wherever You Are" (1992) saw the band expand its musical horizons. After the disappointing "Full Moon, Dirty Hearts" (1993), which included guest appearances by Ray Charles and Chrissie Hynde, the band took several years off.

    They re-emerged in April 1997 with their 10th studio album "Elegantly Wasted". Once again, sales were modest by INXS standards, but Hutchence seemed happy to be back on the music scene.

    "We have gone full circle. We started off very young, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen kind of, and twenty years ago, and you grow up and you move apart and you do your own things, from families to whatever. And then you sort of get that over with and then we're back as a gang again," he said.

    Hutchence remained proud that his band managed to stay together through so many years, "It's like a marriage. If you're both the same you bore each other to death in the end. You gotta be interested in why does someone think that? Why does he wanna do that? That's wierd, why is he listening to that? Why is he wearing that? Why is he drinking coffee?" he joked.

    INXS were to have begun their 20th anniversary "Lose Your Head" tour on Tuesday. The tour has now been cancelled and the band's future is under a cloud.

    Whatever happens in the future for INXS, people are sure to miss Hutchence's much-loved voice and energetic stage presence. The singer seemed at his best playing to the people who made him great - his fans.
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