June 22, 2025 • 58 mins
Before they were stadium superstars, INXS were just six Aussie blokes carving out a sound in the sweaty pubs of Sydney. In this episode, we chart the meteoric rise of one of Australia’s biggest musical exports—from their gritty early days, to the glitz of international fame, and the tragic loss of frontman Michael Hutchence.
Join Holly & Matthew as they dive into their chart-topping hits, backstage drama, controversies, and lasting legacy. It’s the story of a band that defined a generation and gave Australia its rock’n’roll swagger on the world stage.
*
Featured music clips (c) INXS
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.
Join Holly & Matthew as they dive into their chart-topping hits, backstage drama, controversies, and lasting legacy. It’s the story of a band that defined a generation and gave Australia its rock’n’roll swagger on the world stage.
*
Featured music clips (c) INXS
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
They were last seen on the beach with the tall
man and that's the best description police have ever.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Had of it. More than seventeen years after Harold Holt
disappeared into raging surf at Chevy A Beach, his widow
has finally revealed his last romantic words docky, terrifying, mesmerizing.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
That's the way a number of Australians have described the
alleged encounter with the Yowe.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
It's time for the Weird Crap in Australia podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Welcome to the Weird Crap in Australia Podcast. I'm your
host Matthew Sol joining me for another musically inspired episode.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Is the one, the only.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
The researcher extraordinary and her taste in music cannot be unmatched,
Holly Soul.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
There are a lot of people who would argue with
you over considering I have Acquac Hanson and similar in
my playlists.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
You did have some people coming to bat for you
over my powdered finger comments.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yes I did, and thank you to all the people
on myself.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So did they just say powder Finger is good? Or
did they say, fuck Matt, Powderfinger is good.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I can bring it up for you in a second. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Actually, while you're doing that, Holly, I do want to
put one other thing to rest. So over the week
I've been putting my well, our really our collecting of
LPs into a little disc hoog, which is really good
for helping you to create your collection, so you don't
do what Holly and I do once we get too
many records and start buying duplicates. And I have a
(01:38):
listing here for our in Excess album actually, and I
think this will actually settle a debate here. So last
week I said, where does in Excess sit?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Now?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Disccog has it officially listed as drum roll please pop rock,
which is what I said.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I said pop. You said pop, whereas I was closely
with pop rock.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So then let's call it halfway then pop rock, as
discog calls it pop rock.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Listener Matt says in Excess is definitely rock, and powder
Fingers also a great bean.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Pop rock, and you're wrong next, so you just have
no conviction. None of you said fuck you Matt first,
So I don't think you've had you've got any conviction people,
what's the next comment?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Tony apologized and said that he sided with me that
in Excess is a good band, and those are the
only two answers that we've gotten so far.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I didn't say an Excess was a bad bean.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
You did. You did that I rolly wooz rock thing
that you were talking about, gorock Maview. Whether on Era
or off you called it woorock.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I can't remember whether it was on er or off air,
but it's certainly pop rock. I will give you pop rock.
I will still feel that it's a bit.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Worse rock apparently. Really like the pop blend genres, so
pop rock pop, what is it? Pop punk?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I think when music starts to get too angry, you
get upset.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, I'm like, I don't need sadness in my life.
That that reminds me too much of like being an
emo kid. I don't need that in my life. I
want my poppy shit.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I'll say I don't like well, I like. I have
a various array of music that I like.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
And then I go and listen to things like Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Under Hollywood Undead is sort of part of that angry.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
One literally a suicide it is.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
It's very emo, bem Hollywood undead.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
It's a rap band though kind of.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
It's that weird hybrid of sort of like how Lincoln
Park had a lot of yelly and screamy and then
also some lyrics you can understand and then back and forth.
Obviously rip Chester fantastic band. Need to get some of
those in my collection. And now, speaking of disc hoog
as well, if you would like to friend me on disccog,
it's just Matthew Soul all lower case one word. I
(03:55):
will be happy to add you to my friend list
as I build up my own collection, which only sits
at forty two lpiece at the moment. All right, Holly,
without any further ado, let's take a look at part
two of In Excess.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
In nineteen eighty two, In Excess signed with WA which
is known better as Warner in Australia and with at
P Records internationally.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So as I was adding in our records, as I
think I've mentioned before, we've inherited a few records from
my dear friend Graham who passed away earlier in the
year and w sorry it was waa right, So they
released what they sort of called these bargain basement LP releases,
(04:40):
and they're quite shit that I have one actually, so
in excess the album we have, which is The Swing Now,
that was released properly by let's call them Wiir and
it's Warner Warner, Yeah, Warner Music, which still makes music
to this day, Warner being as sub area of Warner
(05:00):
Brothers Entertainment, and you know they own Prince's back catalog
for years, which is the reason he changed his name.
But we have a copy of led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti,
and it's a shit copy of it.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You said there was covered in Pipo's, didn't you.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
So the inner labels have spelling mistakes, the spine is missing,
like it's so like the cover is so thin that
it doesn't actually have the name or the number of
the record on it. And that's why I had such
a hard time identifying it. But those were produced the
album came out, I want to say, around nineteen seventy
(05:39):
five for Physical Graffiti. This release is like a weird
nineteen eighty three. Hey want to shit a copy of
this thing that you probably didn't get a chance to own.
Here it is and it's in a bargain bin. So yeah,
it's a little little weird LP obscurity there. But Warner
Music they did this whole long kind of keep shitty releases.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
So if you.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Happen to think you may have a really really good
LP and original pressing, just make sure you've actually got
a spine with the title on it. If you don't,
it is probably one of these shitty Warner Brothers releases.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Warner Music, sorry not Warner Brothers under those same labels
in excess release Shaboo Douba, which annoys me because every
time I read it, I think it's the same word pie.
It's not daboo shuba, That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
So it's not a shaboo shaboo yah.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
No shaboo shubar. Got it an album that changed their
fortunes with the listening public. It featured things like don't
change the One Thing and to look at you. The
One Thing was their first US hit, added by a
slightly risk a music video that MTV picked up.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Why was it slightly risk because there would be much.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Slightly risk, not risk, just slightly riskyed.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I mean MTV. This is a very interesting point when
you know, in music and TV comes out and people like,
do we want twenty four hour music channel? And obviously
when people look at MTV today, it's just reality TV garbage.
You know, it's stuff like teen Mum, I've had a
(07:15):
bajillion kids, I'm a reely fat person, you know. All
that sort of crap is what they released today. But yeah,
back in the day, they were like, well, we're going
to license all this music. And it was actually David
Bowie who called them out or Bowie, depending on how
upper you are about it. He was the one that
called them out for not playing enough rap music, enough
(07:38):
for African music and African American music, and he called
them out for it, and they're like, oh, well, you know,
we don't want to offend people in the Midwest, and
he's like, well, fuck them. There's a really good interview
he did. You can check it out on YouTube where
he's talking to the then president of MTV. And then MTV
we're like, well, we don't know if we can keep
(08:00):
showing just music videos, because at that time to do
a music video was kind of it wasn't really heard of, right, Like,
the only reason that they started doing music videos is
because MTV is like, hey, we would like you to
do music videos, and most of the time they you know,
they were off in other places. So MTV consolidated music
(08:22):
videos and so there was an actual market for making
music videos.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Can just break in for a SECONDE go for it.
So little correction the One Thing's music video, because I
watched a lot of these in successions, so I've just
gone back and checked. The One Thing's music video is
risky because it has not sex with food, but it's
kind of using food sexy like staring down the down
the camera, eating a banana, stuff like.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Right right, eating a hot dog. Yeah, well, making fuck
me eyes.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Fancy banquet tables. So you can imagine all the foods
that they went away with on that one.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yep, sushi, eating a cherry or or a strawberry, real.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Sex era plums, things like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that
makes sense.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
So yeah, MTV starts, you know, branching out and people
start creating music videos, and I mean, you want to
talk about some of the masters of music videos. Duranderels
on film, Girls on film.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Is it's a fucking mud wrestle, isn't it. No, it's
jelly or something.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
A wrestling It's as but the women address very provocatively
in it. I'll show you.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Remind me where there. It's like a mud wrestle or something.
It's two and I know there's one because I've seen it,
but I can't remember what it is.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, Girls on Film Dana, Yeah, we've actually got that
LP as well. Yeah, remind me to show you that
music video. But yeah, some of them got very risky.
Madonna was the queen of that.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Later on in a career as well, around the late
nineties early two thousand's Kylie Minogue, I Can't get You
out of.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
My Head, Damn Golden pot Pants.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah, yeah, the Golden hot Pants is one that people remember.
I remember the princess Leia get up and I Can't
get you out of my head. That's the one I
remember the most. And so, yeah, provocative became the name
of the game. Britney Spears, of.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Course, Christine Aguilera, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
So basically the pop princesses of the nineties, I think
Didner really it wasn't until Lady Marmalay that she hit
that point. Before that she was a tomboy.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, yeah, well I remember her. I actually remember her
debut music video which was like a Pill, and.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
No it's not, isn't it. No? She that was her
first these days and there was something else before that
that she released on her first album, which I actually
owned in Like a Pill.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
She looks very very different, yes, and it's very different
music to what she would eventually.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Sure that's the end of her tomboy era, just before
Lady Marmalay.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Because she became and I'll look I defer to you
on this one, but she became the punk pop princess, right.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
No, no, you don't think Abril Levine.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
No, no, no, because because Pink had more albums and
lasted far longer than Avril Levine.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Doesn't matter, looked like the emos, So she ended up
being elevated for at least a while.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I know, see I disagree. I disagree on that one
because Avril Levine Live It Mare. Avril Levine released what
three albums I have known that Pink has released six.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight nine.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
She's on nine right, and she's maintained that punky esthetic.
She's maintained that punkiness throughout the pop. We shouldn't be
talking about this. We're meant to be talking about excess.
Join us next week for our new podcast, Two Uninformed
Shitheads talk about Music.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I mean it could be if we ever win the lottery,
that'll be one of our first diversionary podcasts. Oh man.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
If I could do this full time, I would be
doing five to six podcasts a week. The one busy.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Making you do film politics, so those are yours?
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Well, politics would be one that I have to do
with Tommy. That's fine, right, because we used to do that.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
We'd have a million dollars we could pay for him
to come in into it.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
But it'd be one of those things where we'd have
like one podcast that we would do. I'd flip the
script on so I'd be the researcher extraordinary. You'd be
the idiot who ask questions and make stupid voices, and
I would cover like a pop culture thing every week. Now,
you know, I would be like, this is you know,
this is this movie, this is its origin, this was
(12:31):
its director, these are its funky stories. So we'd we
you know, it'd be like weird crap and pop culture.
We would do that, right, we would do that. If
everyone signed up to our Patreon set us free anyway
enough diversions back to in excess and their sexy videos
with a banana.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Thanks to the growing world of MTV music, not only
in the USA, but in international audiences. The inclusion of
the One Thing's music video into the Red meant that
the band was suddenly selling album after album around the world.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Except for Wiley Minogue. Isn't that really interesting? He never
really cracked the American market.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Was Britain.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
It was Britain and here lots of Europe. Really the
US cracked the US, but everyone else did through MTV,
ac DC being another one.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
That one wasn't MTV. That was just them going around
drinking in pubs and doing songs.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
But also you know that the act ACDC song started
to make like to this day still have a decent
rotation on an MTV when it does like.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Countrack of how many Marvel movies.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Now at least I am in and it does like
what like MTV now does what two hours of music
once a week? I think so maybe point all their shit.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Shabu Shiba cracked the US Billboard two hundred and went
gold in both the States and in Canada. He climbed
to number five in Australia and established the band as
serious contenders against not only the homegrown competition of the Oils,
the Chisels, and Akadaka, but against people like you two,
the Police, and Duran Duran not just at home, but
(14:15):
on MTV and overseas airways.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Taking all of that into account, it must be said
that manager Chris Murphy had some set of balls. He
was only in his twenties, but possessed the business acumen
of a wizard banker. He set up a company in
the band's name, an entity that served to copyright all
of their music, videos and merchandise. They are one of
the few beans in the world who have owned the
rights to all of their videos from day one, Murphy says,
(14:41):
I told him, you're all going to have to have
kids one day, so let's create a business around you
now that will generate profit on its own for years
to come, because by the time your kids are grown,
you're all going to be too old and fat to
deal with it. Quote from an Excess Story to Story
in Excess and Anthony Bozo, two thousand and five, Curry Books,
page one h two. I'm not going to read that
(15:02):
quote out and it's full again. We quoted a lot
The only other band that I really think had that
sort of big business acumen in mind very early.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
On the Wiggles in Australia.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yeah, they have maintained ownership and control of their work
for a long time, as have ironically Ludo Studios with
Blue Eye. Now obviously blue is a tattoo, but then
now they've got three LPs out there, we own one
of them.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
It's just it's.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
It's so clever to go in knowing what you're doing
when it comes to creative properties, and it's exceptionally important
to know what you're giving away. But when you go
into these endeavors, and they had a very smart business manager,
they had someone who's like, look, you need to own
all of this because look, look I mentioned it earlier
(15:59):
in the podcast.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Look what happened to Prince.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
He lost his entire catalog to Warner Brothers for a
very very long time, and his catalog is one of
the most extensive catalogs in music history. Look at and
it still happens to this day. Look at Taylor Swift.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
She just managed by the last of hers back.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Now, this isn't that crazy, Like to think how much
music she lost, Like you would you would almost assume
in this day and age that you would know to
do this before you get marketed. But how did she
lose all of her music just quickly?
Speaker 3 (16:36):
When you record songs, you record what's called a master. Yeah,
the master is what the studio owns because they paid
for your studio time. Also a doctor who villain. Yes,
when you leave the contract, you do not take the
masters with you, like in this example Warner Brothers would happen. Right.
You cannot re record, You cannot re release those masters.
(16:58):
You have to either pay for a studio time to
re record after doing some kind of contract negotiation to
allow you to do that, or you just give up
and do a new one.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
And she did that for a little while, and she
started re releasing.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
That's why there are versions out there with Taylor's version
at the end, because those are the re released ones.
And then every time someone would play one that wasn't
Taylor's version, they would get a seasoned assist letter.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Right, So so she really went after that.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
So she was consolidating that shit like nothing else.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And I suppose when you go to the catalog, who
owns your masters? And you're like, look, I have killed
these things, so do you want some money for a
worthless product, or should I just keep killing it?
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Basically, but they knew what they had, so they just
kept holding out until she gave them the money that
she wanted. But by then she had billions of dollars,
So who gives a shit. Yeah, you could pay whatever
the fuck they asked for them, and I don't think
it's worth really billions, Okay, the amount of money that
she has generated just on this last tour.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I'm not going to argue that she is not one
of the most successful musicians of all time. Like, I'm
not going to argue that in any way, shape or form,
Taylor Swift is as popular as the Staples.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
She is.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
In my opinion, she has generated more profit than most
of the Staples. When we think of success Elvis, the Beatles,
the Stones, Madonna, Prince YEP, Taylor Swift YEP, Michael Jackson,
Taylor Swift is more successful financially than all of them.
I don't like the music, but that's a matter of taste.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
You're also not a teenage girl, or you would never
were a teenage girl.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
I have a friend of mine who's nearly and he's fifties,
and he fucking loves Taylor Swift as all her albums.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Because it is hard. He's a teenage girl.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
I really want him to go to a Taylor surf
concept because you know that as they're panning the camera
around the audience, he would be there in a Taylor
Swift just enjoying him. This's like slightly shuffling, not even
just so yeah, just rocking the shoulders back and forth
with a big smile on his face. You know, all
these teenage girls around him, like a fantasy movie, like
(18:59):
a giant, like the big Barbarian, the protects or the elves.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
That's how I would say it. In excess spent much
of nineteen eighty three touring North America supporting acts like
Men at Work and Adam INNT and building a dedicated
fan base city by city.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Men at Work we'll have to talk about as well
being everyone knows their most famous track.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I was actually thinking Men at Works come from the
land down under.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
That's kind of what I was doing. But I stoppeduffe, that's.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
What you were doing? Oh I see did yep? Okay, yep, yep,
right right right, got it? I come from the land
now under.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
They celebrated their growing success along the way.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
In nineteen eighty three, we left our homeland at Conquer
America in the world. It took time and relentless toil,
but we did it, and by the time we returned
to Australia we were too popular to play the pubs.
I remember that realization more than any other, made the
scope of out growing success hit home to me. I
was proud, but it was also sad. It was a
(20:05):
classic pace of care for what you wish for in
excess Story to Story two thousand and five.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
And then in nineteen eighty four they released The Swing, which.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
We own an original pressing of this helped you people
who say I don't know anything about music.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
We got real lucky with that.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
We just happened to inherited two weeks before we did
the episode, so now I get the dig points.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
This album was a leap forward, co produced with Nile Rodgers,
who brought slick funk rhythms and dance sensibility to their
guitar driven sound. It features songs like Original Sin, their
first Australian number one single and one of their most
enduring tracks. Original Sin was bold and always puts me
in mind of Great Southern Land. When I hear the
(20:55):
intro lyrically, it touched on race and societal device. You
know the lines dreaming.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Moun white boar, white boar, dream.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Moum black black that one, yeah, dare up to a
brown day.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
And was the cherry in the eye of the band's producer,
Noel Rodgers, was the biggest record producer in the world
at the time.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
He'd done Madonna's Like a Prayer decent song. Well, it's
a very popular song now thanks David Bowie is Let's
Dance and the two biggest records of the day in
Excess had recorded with him in the same studio, using
the same engineers who'd done Let's Dance. Nick Loney recalls
(21:52):
an excess had suddenly gone from this up and coming
band who was edgy and interesting to an act that
worked with Noel Rogers. There was suddenly a very serious
band to watch. Original Sin was so incredible that when
I heard it, I just thought, how I'm earth? Am
I going to follow this quote from Inexcess Story to
Story two thousand and five.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
This song was a departure from their typical new wave
pair and the video showcase their maturing style. More subdued
if you ignore the motorbikes. The album also delivered hits
like I Send a Message and Burned for You, and
it stayed on the Australian charts for over two years.
I didn't even realize the burn for You was an
inexcess song.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
I mean when we went through the swing and we
we flipped the record over so we listened to the
whole album. There is so much recognizable music. I'm not
going to go too deep into it. We went into
it a little bit on the first episode. But you
know far more in excess songs than you realize.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Because they keep changing their style every album.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, go to Spotify check out. Like Spotify always generates
the top five hits of any band, check out the
top five most played hits. I guarantee you'll recognize at
least one of them from there.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Garentee you recognize all of.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Them, regardless of how old you are.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
At this point, Hutchins had fully stepped into his role
as front man. He was confident, charismatic, and dangerously charming.
His voice was now unmistakable, slinky and growling, with just
enough vulnerability to balance the swagger.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
He would have ended up going into movies, like don't
you think you know how some of those actors transit,
Like Madonna tried a few sexy movies.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Kylie Minogue went back to movies.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Well, she went back and forth all the time. You know,
she did a movie here, and then she would go
off and she would do an album, and then she
unfortunately did Street Fighter, and then she went off and
did an album, and then she would do some more
Australian television and then a Doctor Who Special and then
a dance track, and she just went back and forth
and back and forth. I think that eventually Michael Hutchins
would have taken a crack at movies.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
By then, He's definitely popular enough that they would have
let him.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Yeah Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
His magnetic stage presence and sexual energy helps cement the
band's upward trajectory, delivering the boldness and style needed to
break through the sleek, image driven pop rock scene of
the mid nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Women wanted to be with him, and men wanted to be.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Men wanted to punch him because their women were wanted
to be with him. Men also wanted to be with him.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Probably Yeah in Excess was a band at the top
of their abilities after so many years on the road,
and they had to be to meld all of their
influences so naturally. This wing is a true snapshot of
the times. It's black and white, light and dark, embracing
everything from the down wave descent of melting in the
sun to dependsive pogo of I send a message to
(24:40):
the blissful romantic elation of burn for You. In Excess
more than any band, draws influences from everywhere in the world.
Nick Lulney says on that album, they tapped into the
funk dance thing in America, hit on the black and
white soul style that was huge in England, and because
they are such great players made it all work within
the parameters of a rock band. It was truly an
(25:01):
international sound quote from Inexcess Story to Story two thousand
and five.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
By nineteen eighty five, in Excess was ready for their
biggest test yet, going from rising stars to international headliners.
They recorded Listen like These with producer Chris Thomas, known
for his work with the Sex Pistols and Roxy Music.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, Roxy has a great history. If you're a big
muso and you love your music history, you should go.
There is a book I believe that's written about Roxy music.
You should go check it out because they had their
fingers in a lot of different pies from a lot
of different bands. By the way, love my nineteen eighties punk.
(25:43):
They do not love the sex pistols. I know everyone.
Look they had one good song, maybe two, and the
bass guitar wasn't even plugged in because said Vicius couldn't
play anything with shit he was there for looks. There
are much better punk rock bands, but you know, I digress.
Check out any and check out the history of Roxy music.
(26:04):
It's really fascinating.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
The result was punchier, rockier and more focused. Listen like Thieves,
what You Need This Time, and Kiss the Dirt were
all hits. What you Need became their first US top
five single and helped push the album into the top
twenty on the Billboard two hundred. It was certified platinum
in the US and double platinum in Australia. In excess,
(26:29):
headlined major festivals, played to sold out arenas, and took
their place alongside acts like YouTube, Simple Minds and Duran Duran.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Simple Minds and Duran Duran I'm a fan of Do
you like YouTube?
Speaker 3 (26:40):
No One fucking likes you too.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Enough people liked you too.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
No one liked it. It was just because they kept
playing on the fucking radio. Is the only reason I
know them?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Is it that no one likes you too? Or no
one likes Bono?
Speaker 3 (26:54):
All of the above.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
I think it's Bono that's the problem.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Absolutely, but all of the above.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Like, Yeah, see, I'm not a U two fan, but
I'm also not a pop fan.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Really. There are songs that come on that I will
sing along too because I know them, But then I
realize I'm singing along to them, but I stop. Yeah,
this is the problem with working retail.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yeah, You two gets a lot of play in retail settings,
which does make them a bit grating.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yeah. By nineteen eighty six, they were in a rare
position for any Australian band. In Excess weren't just successful overseas,
they were actually building a genuine global following.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Andrew's bus worries that they're worst couldn't compare to the
mental duress that adam Antin doo it with Inexcess on
his tour, because what in Excess wasn't stealing on stage,
they were hijacking doubly afterward. Each night Adam sent party
pimps into the audience to bestow backstage passes upon the
hottest girls in the house, so that his post show
fate would team with the cream of the local crop. Ugh,
(27:56):
that's gross. He started to notice that you too many
times the best girls never made it. Adam's road manager
would have all the good looking girls in the hotel bar,
trying to enforce another level of quality control before.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Her Welcome to the eighties. Yeah, well, welcome to now.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Probably before he chose the girls which would go to
Adam's room to a manager. Gary Grant says, they'd all
be waiting around there for Adam called the guys from
an excess walked in.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
It was hilarious.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
All of the girls would see them and be like,
fuck out a man, we're going with them. I'm sorry
if I'm if I'm a lady or a gang man
and I see Michael Hutchins, I'm sorry he was.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
I don't care who else is in the lot. I'm
going that way.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
To be fair, they weren't unattractive men like they were.
They're a good looking band. I get it makes sense
to me. The whole room of them would follow Inexcess
up to their floor of the hotel and the party
would begin. Do you have you ever known any groupies?
Speaker 3 (28:54):
No?
Speaker 1 (28:55):
So a woman I worked with, Lovely Lady is not
the groupie, but her friend was, and her friend would
be that person that would make a way as close
to stage as possible and end up getting picked. And
the stories that I have heard and can remember at
the very least is how many premature ejaculators her famous,
(29:19):
including Prince. Something to think about, hopefully not too much.
The proceedings continue to deteriorate nightly, so much so that
In excess A's tour manager, Gary Grant, was eventually summoned
to mister Ant's chambers to discuss the problem. The band
had become Adam Sirpine on the bed in a dandy
(29:41):
smoking jacket and oh my god, no wonder you weren't
getting laid atam an smoking jacket and slippers.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Who are you?
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Hugh Hefner in form Grant that In Excess would be
dismissed for their ungrateful behavior if they did not cease
and assist their chicks stealing ways immediately explained that there
are a bunch of working class Australian guys and that
they meant no disrespect by stealing adams girls each night.
After about an hour of chatting away, I got him
and he's tour major to agree to let us finish
(30:10):
the remaining six weeks. Grant says he hadn't been friendly before,
but let me tell you, after that, Adam did not
speak to us or even look at any of us again.
Quote from an Excess story to story in Excess, Anthony Bosa,
two thousand and five. Yeah, look, I'm sorry, but when
you've got some handsome Australian men versus an uptid American
(30:31):
in slippers in the fucking coat, can tell you exactly
who is going to get laid more often?
Speaker 3 (30:37):
The ones not doing quality control that's making them stand
around in a fucking bar for three hours is probably
the winner.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yeah, it's going to be the four handsome Australian dudes
who walk in have a drink with the girls. Put
on a little bit of sorry six, put on a
little bit of that Australian charm that foreign women all
love so much. Hey, young gorgeous, Yeah, you want to
have a drink here at the bar with me?
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Do you want to come up to my room?
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Well, it's probably not even that. It's probably like, you
know what Australian guys like, I'm just going to go
up to the hotel room anyway and keep the party going.
You can come up with me if you want. I
think it's the nope, like, there can be some Australian
men who put on a lot of pressure and fuck
those guys. It's not the really good way to communicate
with anybody. But there is a sort of laid back
time to the Australian men and women, I think, and
(31:23):
I think overseas that makes us popular, excepting places where
we congregate and get drunk, and then really that's BALI
the snow slopes of Canada, they don't like us there
very much, and I get it. I understand why, but yeah,
like fuck out of me.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
People weren't and that's why he was getting upset.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
And if he's dead now good but just a shit, sorry,
that's just robbed me up that story, Holly.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
But despite taking over concerts and stealing groupies in excess,
hadn't yet had that career defining hit that would put
them on of the Billboard Top two hundred, the one
album that makes a band from famous to iconic.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
I mean, you have to go platinum, don't you.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
They're already platinum in the US, but they want to
get a number one. They're only at number five now.
They want to get to number one.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Yes, sorry, So platinum is selling a million.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
Records, I believe so.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah, and then you go, you know, double platinum, triple platinum, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
You get and you get a gold record if you
get a number one, Is that right?
Speaker 3 (32:29):
No, it's always just based on sales.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
It's always based on sales, Okay. I mean I understand it,
like you do want to get to the number one
Billboard charts because that gets more CDs and more LPs
and more cassette tapes. I suppose nineteen A. You should
talk in Olpeace cassette tapes.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Well, when I was a kid, I listened to the
d AFM because I was in Sydney, and yes that
was Kyle and Jackie. Oh and I regret it now,
but they always there was more music back in those
days too. Yes, true, they used to broadcast I think
it was Sunday night. They used to actually broadcast the
Billboard Hot one hundred two Australia. Yeah, which meant that
if you got the Billboard top one hundred, it wasn't
(33:04):
just America, it was worldwide that you were hitting.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Would have been was it Ryan Seacrest at that point
was yeah, Hey, you're listening to Ryan Seacrest and it's
the top one hundred, starting at the top and going
all the way to number one, something like that.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
I think so I only ever chopped into it about
number forty because I didn't really give a shit about
anything that was lower than that.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
On The Model Meltdown, my one and only radio show,
I did a top ten every night because I thought
it was important to do a top ten.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
I'd like ten things that Matthew wrote Matthew decided to
listen to today.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Well, it was called The Model Melting so it needed
a top ten, and I like to do the top ten.
I'd be like, you know, we're going to do the
top ten tonight. We're going to sit here and go
through them all. And I jump in and say, oh,
you know that that's probably going to be something a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
You know that that's going to explode.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
You know you probably want to go grab that album
or I get to number one, and I'd be like
that fucking sucked or you'd.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Play akon and Lonely Island did not realize.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Oh yeah what it was? Yeah it woos Yeah. No,
I got a very I got a very sternly worded
It wasn't sternly worded. It was more passive aggressive because
my argument was if you didn't want me to play it,
why'd you put it in the fucking tracks? And they
were like, oh, well, it's just there, and I'm like, well,
you shouldn't have downloaded it. Who's downloading it? Why are
(34:25):
you putting it in the tracks? I was very feisty
about that. Not enough people heard it, though, like it's fine,
it was only it was only the Truman Shire and
surrounds probably didn't upset that many people, but yeah, I
definitely got a stern talking to about it, well, passive
aggressive talking to about it. The one track that I
played every week consistently for a long time was Eminem
(34:47):
and Rihanna just Love the Way You Like, Yeah, Love
the Way you like Yeah, and it would not go away.
I got sick of that fucking song. So when I
did the Top ten, that was Mike cue also to
go have a break for an hour. Seriously, I'd be like,
so I'm putting on the top ten, and I knew
to interject about thirty minutes in, so I'd set a
little alarm on my phone, interject, and then I'd go
(35:09):
and do something else for another half hour. When Holly
and I first started talking to each other, she verified
who I was by my radio show. By the way, Yeah,
Holly's like, this dude sounds a little bit too good
to be true. Maybe that sounds a bit braggadocious, but
you were like, I'm going to actually tune in, and
Holly literally fell in love with Hey, this is Matthew Sol.
(35:30):
You're listening to the modern meltdown on Sounds of the
Mountains ninety three point seven. That Sounds of the Mountains
ninety three point seven coming up.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Soon is the news.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Never underestimate the power of a good, sexually charged radio voice.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Ladies and gentlemen. The Vandrei group to record their next
album with Chris Thomas behind the desk, but this time
the songs had a little bit more polished, more swing,
and more danger. The result was Kick, released in October
nighteen eighty seven, and it didn't just succeed, it exploded.
Think of an inexcess song off the top of your head,
(36:06):
right if you think need You Tonight, New Sensation, Devil Inside,
Never Tear Us Apart, Mediate, or even kick. There's a
good chance you know the band from this one album alone.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
I do very much remember Never Tear Us Apart because
of the American Supper, because of the amount of play
that it got, both on television on Australian Broadcast TV.
We talked about that in the previous episode, but also
retail settings because I worked. Look, I worked at Target, right,
that was my first job when I was fifteen years old,
(36:41):
and so I'd be there folding fucking jeans to never
Tear or supart And that fucking Missy Higgins song about
not fitting into a square peg or some shit? Is
that Missy Higgins?
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Here was miss Higgins? Yes?
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Uh, so cut me so I fit? Oh fuck it,
f I never I never fucking hear that song again
for the rest of my goddamn life. They both of
those songs still play in a retail setting. Trust me
on that he tried to cut me so I fit?
Doesn't that sound familiar? Doesn't that hit close to your home?
Doesn't that make a sure? The way it should have
(37:17):
gone anyway fucking stream retail.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
If you've seen Coyote Ugly, then you've seen you've heard
Need You Tonight, so you've definitely seen her at least
you know at least one in.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Excess song I remember sexy ladies dancing on a on a.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Bike, I watched Coyote Ugly. Kick wasn't just a hit.
It was lightning in a bottle, a seamless blend of rock, pop,
funk and soul, sleek, confident, and absurdly catchy, from the
opening blast of Guns in the Sky to its final notes.
The album rolled out after hit the very tracks most
people still associate within Excess today. Need You Tonight hit
(37:55):
number one in the US, their only song ever to
do so. With its minimal groove, hutchins, whispered vocal, sultry tone,
and the unforgettable video, it became one of the defining
singles of the nineteen eighties. Never Tear Us Apart, with
its dramatic strings and bluesy Restraint remains one of Australia's
great love songs, not because it's sentimental, but because it isn't.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
But it is used in so many Australian drama films,
TV productions like to a ridiculous extent.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Despite the title and feel of the songs, it's lyrics
lean more towards obsession than romance.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Well, isn't it, isn't it. It's a big misconception, like
stings every breath you take, yeah, which is about a stalker. Yes,
and it became a wedding song.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Yes, And same with this one from our lines like
if I heard you, I'd make one from your tears
or fucking hell, we could fly because we all have wings.
But some of us don't know why. It's possessive, it's dark,
(39:09):
and it's completely Hutchin's mindset at the time.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Which spoiler alert. People look at those lyrics for the
pro he committed suicide.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
Camp twelve years beforehand any way, just spoiler.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Yeah, so there, you know, people are very much in
that site. I'm not in that camp. I'm going to
talk about which camp I mean, and you're not gonna
like it, but I'm going to talk about that a
little bit later on. But they look at those dark
lyrics and they're like, oh, this dude was this dude
was tortured.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
This was a torture tortured.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Men in Excess's next would be nothing but singles written
entirely by Andrew and Michael. That was a fundamental difference
on Kick. Thomas says the songwriting partnership certainly worked. It
worked better than on the album There's Massive success of
What You Need gave Andrew and Markel the optimism and
confidence they needed to go further. They needed to say
(40:05):
that they weren't just getting bigger and bigger in Australia
with Bets's success abroad, and they did. The band gathered
at the Sydney Opera House in nineteen eighty six to
rehearse the songs Andrew and Michael had written for the
next album. From the start, the proceedings were history in
the making. This was a band that was really on
the and all of us knew it. Thomas says, there
(40:27):
was a sense that everything we were doing was moving
towards a logical conclusion and that they were going to
be a really big band. Nevertheless, the genesis of Kick
was nothing like the result The demo of Never Terris,
apart for one, bore none of the gorgeous orchestral majesty
it does on record. Initially it was a piano ballad
closer in tempo to the moody bounce of Mystify than
(40:49):
the pensive ballad it became never Terrorist Appoint was a
piano song. Originally, Thomas says it was a Fats Domino
bluesy kind of Rolling Stone Esy sixty song. I heard
it and thought we could do more, and came up
with the idea to substitute strings for the piano. That
changed everything. It was what the song deserved because its
(41:11):
structure and its lyrics were so strong already quote from
Inexcess Story to Story two thousand and five.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Pick reached number one in Australia, number three in the US,
and went seven times platinum in America alone, crack the
top one hundred.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
Can I can I postulate as to why it's so successful?
It's a great album, good singles on that album, right?
Tell me it was not the soundtrack of a lot
of love making.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
Oh, it definitely was. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
I have a you know, I like you think about
American psycho right, And whether you're reading the book or
watching the Christian Bale adaptation. Hard of luring people to
his dean is his large collection of music is you know,
extensive knowledge of music, right? And then that of course
(42:04):
it's used as a as a satire for the eighties man,
but it's really it's an important conclusion. It's an important
inclusion in that fictional story because it's very indicative what
the eighties was. You know, you bring a girl home,
and you bring a guy home, and you do have
a beautiful stereo system, not like what we have today,
(42:26):
which is just you know, a Bluetooth sound bar spitting
out music from the Internet. No, these were you know,
you had your receiver and you had your amplifier, and
you would have LP at the top and not CD
yet or CD was coming in, but it was pretty rare.
And you had a double cassette deck as well, and
there were these beautiful wood and elaborate pieces of equipment,
(42:50):
and that was a big part of your pickup game.
You had to have some music at home in excess
was the music of lovers? Am I fair to say that?
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Do you think? Probably? Right?
Speaker 1 (43:03):
So all of you people who think it's rock and roll,
stop it love making music? Can't you can't make love
to rock and roll.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
The Kick Tour ran from late nineteen eighty seven through
nineteen eighty eight and took them across North America. Europe,
Japan and back home audiences went wild. Hutchins was an
Australia's answer to Jagger, with the stage presence of Morrison
and the mystique of Bowie.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
More attractive duo than Jagger. Yes, yeah, Jack is such
an odd looking fella, isn't he?
Speaker 3 (43:34):
Yes? He always has been, even when he was younger.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
He had that weird dance that people liked. They wrote
a song about it. It's called dance like Jander.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
He stalked the stage with a wired energy, slinging microphones,
snarling and seducing in equal measure, in leather pants, and
at this point in excess was untouchable.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
How they were plenty touched. I must admit I was worried.
Guns in the Air was the first track, and even
though my sister insisted that it was playing at the
right speed on the sometime temperamental stereo, there was something wrong.
So we reset and we tried again. Same thing, tried again,
Same thing must have been the track slow and tedious.
(44:14):
It sounds like an audio tape being stretched too tight
over a set of none too clean heads. Do I
have to explain that?
Speaker 3 (44:21):
No?
Speaker 1 (44:22):
No, I do, though, don't you don't? So sometimes you
had to clean the heads on your cassette player. They
get dirty, and because cassette tapes had a magnetic strip
that wound and unrew and unwound, their heads were dirty
in the magnetic strip would play incorrectly and it sounded fuck.
So you you know you had to take a bit
(44:43):
of ice. What did you use, Holly? We used a
bit of ice, prople.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
When I was old enough to be cleaning them, we'd
already switched to DVD. So I have no idea or CDs. Yeah,
so I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Yeah, Oh, dear me, thought, have they too gone the
way of so many before them, resting astride their laurels
the world and loose women at their feet, caring not
what they put out as long as it made them
a few million more. A blasphemous thought, I agreed, but
one which readily came to mind at the time. Happy
to say that things got better, much better. Although New
(45:17):
Sensations was neither anything new nor sensational, the mighty guitar
riff of Devil Inside gave me hope. That hope grew
and grew as the minutes flew. Devil Inside is vintage
in excess and leads the way into a fine album, minus,
of course, the slight hiccups at the beginning, Sexy Smooth
(45:38):
Hutchins Shines and Need You Tonight Media eight and a
very nice remake of The Loved Ones. Other highlights include
Mystifying and Calling All Nations. If I would you, I
would skip the first two but play the rest again
and again. Quote from The Camera Time, Sunday twenty seven
and of November nineteen eighty seven, page fourteen qrite tedious, torturous,
(45:59):
fuck hell Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
That was the name of the music reviewer's column.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Yeah, fucking hell, it doesn't look fuck. I remember the
when it wasn't my friend Joanna writing the movie reviews
and biased because I said that she's my friend. It
was this other fucking hack at the Canberra Times. Actually,
I would say the worst movie reviewer in Canberra. Right now,
I think he still writes and we may not. But
(46:28):
at the time when I was working for the Camera
Times from the year twenty eleven till the very end
of twenty thirteen, we had a contemporary over at the
City at City News, and he hated everything he saw.
It was almost as if he hated movies and it
was suggesting an insider who was familiar with this guy
that he was a real hound for freebies, so he
(46:50):
only wrote the articles just to get the free movie
tickets because he was a fucking it was a stingy dude,
let's say. But that's pretty rough, that title. It's pretty rough.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
With the expansion of their popularity, came hangers on.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Sorry, I'm laughing, just because we know what the next
sentence says. And Holly obviously has a bugger bear here,
So go ahead, Holly, who is the hanger on?
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Hutchins gained a new girlfriend in nineteen eighty nine by
the name of Pyli.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
No Wow, Shots Fired.
Speaker 3 (47:20):
He was still launching her career as a pop diav
back then, and was still mostly recognized only for her
role on Neighbors.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Which was pretty fucking popular. Though, like to give Piley
her credit and to give all the people working on
Neighbors and Home and Away their credit, being on that
show at that time major in an Australian icon.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
That's fine. But if you're trying to break into the
movie the music industry and you start dating the lead
singer of a super popular rock band, it looks a
little sasog give it really looks sus it looks saus Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Michael and Kylie thrilled Australia's tamploids. It was a notorious
party hound, sex god and Kylie was Australia's sweetheart. So
find is it to saying that they learned from each other.
Kylie grounded Michael and Michael made Kylie a sex symbol.
There was a reason for him to come back on
his clubbing from Nightly Too every other night, and he
(48:15):
allowed her to go where she'd never gone before. But
many women that comes from the inexcess story to story
Anthony Bosea two thousand and five.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
Their relationship was almost a non event and their breakup
was a bitromat. He broke up with Kylie Minogue to
get with Helena Christensen, a Danish model in nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
I mean you are right for because they did Australia is. Look,
when any of the channels need to fill a bitter
at the time, they go and they do what the
infamous Australian mini drama series right, and they did one
on Hutchins and Kylie Minogue plays a prominent part in
that minise. In that drama mini series. But she really
(48:59):
wasn't there that long. No, not really like it did.
As you guys know, Holly's a great researcher. If there
was a story there to tell, she would have told it.
It's not, there's really not, And at my insistence, she
took it from a sentence, who are paragraphed? Yep? And
then when I said again, are you sure there's nothing there,
Holly's like, there really isn't anything there with these two.
(49:21):
They dated for a little bit. It made the Women's
Weekly and the TV Guide magazines, and then she was gone.
Speaker 3 (49:27):
They dated for about a year and a half and
then he broke up with her to date a model.
And that's it. And that's it.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
Yeah, and there's been like the legend, of course, when
the legend's more interesting, rite the legend, and the legend
is that he was off his chops and going crazy
and party boy, party boy, and she was the sweet, innocent, charismatic,
you know, angel that was sent to save him from himself.
That's old bullshit.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
In excesses. Nineteen ninety follow up album to Kick, titled X,
was always going to be compared to Kick, and while
it didn't hit quite the same commercial height. It was
still a huge success.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
And just quickly he did he do a song with
Kylie Minogue.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
Not with about oh okay.
Speaker 1 (50:15):
And what was it positive or negative or.
Speaker 3 (50:20):
Mix X included the song Suicide Blonde, a snarling pop
rock crack with blistering harmonica, supposedly written about Kylie Minogue.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Why why is it suicide Blonde? Why that he would
commit suicide for her? Or that she was so annoying
he commits suicide?
Speaker 3 (50:38):
Or that true? What's the song about that? What you're in?
I've got Blonde's the shade of hair dye? And she used, oh,
that's why he used it. Just sounded like a cool
rock song.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
Marketing to women is really odd.
Speaker 3 (50:52):
It's fucking weird.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
So you're walking down the healthcare aisle and what do
I want to be today?
Speaker 3 (51:00):
Crashy harmouth or suicidaluant?
Speaker 1 (51:02):
Yeah? Oh and there's also Butthole Brunette over here too.
Meme Il grab that.
Speaker 3 (51:09):
The band returned home for a historic tour that culminated
in a show that would define them both visually and emotionally,
Wimbley Stadium the thirteenth of July nineteen ninety one, which
was later released on home video and as an album
titled Liv Baby Live. In twenty nineteen, it was restored
and re released across many physical and digital platforms.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
It was July thirteen, nineteen ninety one, and the sold
out Wembley Stadium crowd was the biggest in excess it
ever played. Two The band were at their commercial peak,
having performed to roughly one point two million people during
the past and month run and selling close to ten
million albums since nineteen eighty seven's Kick turn them into
international superstars. Quote from The Fateful Punch The Changed Michael
(51:51):
Hutchins Overnight by Nathan Jollynews dot com dot U twenty
third of June twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
Thousands of fans packed the venue to see in excess
headline what would become one of the most iconic Australian
live shows of all time. The band was in top form,
the energy was electric. Hutchins strutted through every track like
he'd been born for that moment and maybe he had.
The footage from that show eventually became the benchmark of
nineteen nineties live performance. But behind the scenes, things were shifting.
Speaker 1 (52:21):
And that Ladies and Gentlemen, is where we have to
leave it before we conclude the story of Inaccess, just
because we're running our time, because I couldn't shut the
fuck up, so we're gonna this is my fault, this
is my pologues extending out into another episode. The interesting
thing about our music episodes because I really hated Midnight Oil,
but we kept talking and talking and talking. A Midnight
(52:43):
Oil turned into a four part fucking series. I don't
mind talking about in excess. But the interesting thing about
music is that music, unlike some of the other things
that we've discussed, you know, be at a true crime
story or be it a film or a historical event,
music has this intro way of locking into history and
television and pop culture and culture in general. And it's
(53:06):
society and historical.
Speaker 3 (53:08):
Band it's the song. If it's not the song, it's
the music video. It's not the music video, it's the
individual members. There's always something about it that ends up
permeating into history.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
There is, and it's always really interesting to talk about.
And we always look at these scripts and think, Okay,
well this is just going to be a two parter.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
And not the one part of four weeks later.
Speaker 1 (53:26):
And I should really remember when we do these that
oh you know, I'm going to interject a lot and
we're going to have this sort of more broader cultural discussion.
So I apologize if you're desperate just to hear the
inexcess story and I've cut in with a lot of
context or mucking around as I like to do, I'm sorry.
I do have a lot of fun with these episodes,
(53:47):
and we release it for free, So fuck you, just kidding.
You know I love all of you. If you take
the time to listen to us being creative, then you're
a fucking awesome person. Go patch yourself off on the
back now. A couple of ways you can support us
here at week Crap in Australia. If you do like
the show, you can head over to our Patreon. After
saying fuck you, I'm asking for your money. Isn't that ironic?
(54:09):
For only five dollars USD a month, you get access
to bonus minisodes as well as these episodes released uncut
and add free and early as a big special thank
you there. So if you would like to get in
contact with us and tell me to go fuck myself,
which is absolutely your right to do after my last comment,
you can check us out on your social media of choice.
(54:30):
Just type in week crap In Australia into the search
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if we don't. Shoot us through an email Week crap
In Australia at gmail dot com. We love to get
all of your correspondence here makes us feel very very happy.
You can also help support the show. First and foremost
is our Patreon. For only five dollars USD a month,
you get access to bonus minisodes. These episodes released you
(54:52):
early uncut in at free. You can also grab yourself
the Week crap In Australia book series. Book six is
coming out in September. That's volume six. The cover is done,
the blurbs are written, the intros have been written by myself,
acknowledgments have been committed to word and Holly is just
doing the final edits. Now you'll be able to pick
(55:13):
up book six off our great mates at Impactcomics dot
com dot AU. Shoot them through an email let them
know that you would like to have a copy set aside.
If you would otherwise, we'll let you know when that
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That's Lulu dot com and you can grab it from
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(55:36):
which we assume is not for very much longer, but
you can pick up the digital copy there. Last, but
not least, if you want to grab a wee crap
and an Australia T shirt and show your fanboy or
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from our Teapublic and Red Bubble stores, just hoping we
crapping Australia into those stirch engines. Just like social media.
(55:57):
You can grab yourself a T shirt, a mug packed
some pants in the shower curtain if you feel the urge.
As is our custom, we give Polly the final words.
Speaker 3 (56:07):
So between us doing the start of this episode, when
I did a shout out to Matt because you know,
he said that I'm excellent with great taste in music,
and right now he's actually messaged us.
Speaker 1 (56:21):
Oh really, so you.
Speaker 3 (56:23):
Just happen to know that we're recording crazy.
Speaker 1 (56:25):
What did Matt say of all the.
Speaker 3 (56:27):
Music episodes that you've done so far in Excess is
by far my favorite band? Awesome?
Speaker 1 (56:33):
Yeah, not that it's his favorite episode, no favorite band,
but it's his favorite band.
Speaker 3 (56:38):
But then again, there are also a lot of of
There are also a lot of bands that we cannot
count because they are not a strange.
Speaker 1 (56:45):
This is true, This is true. Well, Matt, thank you
very much for messaging through. And I'm glad we got
that literally live as we're recording. And I have to
agree in Excess is quite a fun band to listen to.
I'm very happy that we do have the swing album
and I do intend to go and pick up one
or two more for the collection after doing these episodes.
Speaker 3 (57:06):
Listen, let these and pick will end up in our collection.
Speaker 1 (57:09):
Absolutely so I'm right there with you, Matt, and I'm
sorry that you like powder Fingers. All right, and that's
another episode of Weird Crap in Australia. Ladies and gentlemen,
please stay safe, find to each other, burn a Powderfinger record,
and we will see you next.
Speaker 3 (57:27):
Week from Rap in Australia. That was a very indignous
court then for now, by guys.
Speaker 1 (57:51):
The Weird Crap in Australia podcast is produced by Holly
and Matthew Soul for the Modern Meltdown. If you've enjoyed
this podcastest please rate and review on your favorite podcatching app.
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
They were last seen on the beach with the tall
man and that's the best description police have ever.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Had of it. More than seventeen years after Harold Holt
disappeared into raging surf at Chevy A Beach, his widow
has finally revealed his last romantic words docky, terrifying, mesmerizing.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
That's the way a number of Australians have described the
alleged encounter with the Yowe.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
It's time for the Weird Crap in Australia podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Welcome to the Weird Crap in Australia Podcast. I'm your
host Matthew Sol joining me for another musically inspired episode.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Is the one, the only.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
The researcher extraordinary and her taste in music cannot be unmatched,
Holly Soul.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
There are a lot of people who would argue with
you over considering I have Acquac Hanson and similar in
my playlists.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
You did have some people coming to bat for you
over my powdered finger comments.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yes I did, and thank you to all the people
on myself.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So did they just say powder Finger is good? Or
did they say, fuck Matt, Powderfinger is good.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I can bring it up for you in a second. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Actually, while you're doing that, Holly, I do want to
put one other thing to rest. So over the week
I've been putting my well, our really our collecting of
LPs into a little disc hoog, which is really good
for helping you to create your collection, so you don't
do what Holly and I do once we get too
many records and start buying duplicates. And I have a
(01:38):
listing here for our in Excess album actually, and I
think this will actually settle a debate here. So last
week I said, where does in Excess sit?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Now?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Disccog has it officially listed as drum roll please pop rock,
which is what I said.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I said pop. You said pop, whereas I was closely
with pop rock.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So then let's call it halfway then pop rock, as
discog calls it pop rock.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Listener Matt says in Excess is definitely rock, and powder
Fingers also a great bean.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Pop rock, and you're wrong next, so you just have
no conviction. None of you said fuck you Matt first,
So I don't think you've had you've got any conviction people,
what's the next comment?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Tony apologized and said that he sided with me that
in Excess is a good band, and those are the
only two answers that we've gotten so far.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I didn't say an Excess was a bad bean.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
You did. You did that I rolly wooz rock thing
that you were talking about, gorock Maview. Whether on Era
or off you called it woorock.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I can't remember whether it was on er or off air,
but it's certainly pop rock. I will give you pop rock.
I will still feel that it's a bit.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Worse rock apparently. Really like the pop blend genres, so
pop rock pop, what is it? Pop punk?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I think when music starts to get too angry, you
get upset.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, I'm like, I don't need sadness in my life.
That that reminds me too much of like being an
emo kid. I don't need that in my life. I
want my poppy shit.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I'll say I don't like well, I like. I have
a various array of music that I like.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
And then I go and listen to things like Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Under Hollywood Undead is sort of part of that angry.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
One literally a suicide it is.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
It's very emo, bem Hollywood undead.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
It's a rap band though kind of.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
It's that weird hybrid of sort of like how Lincoln
Park had a lot of yelly and screamy and then
also some lyrics you can understand and then back and forth.
Obviously rip Chester fantastic band. Need to get some of
those in my collection. And now, speaking of disc hoog
as well, if you would like to friend me on disccog,
it's just Matthew Soul all lower case one word. I
(03:55):
will be happy to add you to my friend list
as I build up my own collection, which only sits
at forty two lpiece at the moment. All right, Holly,
without any further ado, let's take a look at part
two of In Excess.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
In nineteen eighty two, In Excess signed with WA which
is known better as Warner in Australia and with at
P Records internationally.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So as I was adding in our records, as I
think I've mentioned before, we've inherited a few records from
my dear friend Graham who passed away earlier in the
year and w sorry it was waa right, So they
released what they sort of called these bargain basement LP releases,
(04:40):
and they're quite shit that I have one actually, so
in excess the album we have, which is The Swing Now,
that was released properly by let's call them Wiir and
it's Warner Warner, Yeah, Warner Music, which still makes music
to this day, Warner being as sub area of Warner
(05:00):
Brothers Entertainment, and you know they own Prince's back catalog
for years, which is the reason he changed his name.
But we have a copy of led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti,
and it's a shit copy of it.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You said there was covered in Pipo's, didn't you.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
So the inner labels have spelling mistakes, the spine is missing,
like it's so like the cover is so thin that
it doesn't actually have the name or the number of
the record on it. And that's why I had such
a hard time identifying it. But those were produced the
album came out, I want to say, around nineteen seventy
(05:39):
five for Physical Graffiti. This release is like a weird
nineteen eighty three. Hey want to shit a copy of
this thing that you probably didn't get a chance to own.
Here it is and it's in a bargain bin. So yeah,
it's a little little weird LP obscurity there. But Warner
Music they did this whole long kind of keep shitty releases.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
So if you.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Happen to think you may have a really really good
LP and original pressing, just make sure you've actually got
a spine with the title on it. If you don't,
it is probably one of these shitty Warner Brothers releases.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Warner Music, sorry not Warner Brothers under those same labels
in excess release Shaboo Douba, which annoys me because every
time I read it, I think it's the same word pie.
It's not daboo shuba, That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
So it's not a shaboo shaboo yah.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
No shaboo shubar. Got it an album that changed their
fortunes with the listening public. It featured things like don't
change the One Thing and to look at you. The
One Thing was their first US hit, added by a
slightly risk a music video that MTV picked up.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Why was it slightly risk because there would be much.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Slightly risk, not risk, just slightly riskyed.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I mean MTV. This is a very interesting point when
you know, in music and TV comes out and people like,
do we want twenty four hour music channel? And obviously
when people look at MTV today, it's just reality TV garbage.
You know, it's stuff like teen Mum, I've had a
(07:15):
bajillion kids, I'm a reely fat person, you know. All
that sort of crap is what they released today. But yeah,
back in the day, they were like, well, we're going
to license all this music. And it was actually David
Bowie who called them out or Bowie, depending on how
upper you are about it. He was the one that
called them out for not playing enough rap music, enough
(07:38):
for African music and African American music, and he called
them out for it, and they're like, oh, well, you know,
we don't want to offend people in the Midwest, and
he's like, well, fuck them. There's a really good interview
he did. You can check it out on YouTube where
he's talking to the then president of MTV. And then MTV
we're like, well, we don't know if we can keep
(08:00):
showing just music videos, because at that time to do
a music video was kind of it wasn't really heard of, right, Like,
the only reason that they started doing music videos is
because MTV is like, hey, we would like you to
do music videos, and most of the time they you know,
they were off in other places. So MTV consolidated music
(08:22):
videos and so there was an actual market for making
music videos.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Can just break in for a SECONDE go for it.
So little correction the One Thing's music video, because I
watched a lot of these in successions, so I've just
gone back and checked. The One Thing's music video is
risky because it has not sex with food, but it's
kind of using food sexy like staring down the down
the camera, eating a banana, stuff like.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Right right, eating a hot dog. Yeah, well, making fuck
me eyes.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Fancy banquet tables. So you can imagine all the foods
that they went away with on that one.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yep, sushi, eating a cherry or or a strawberry, real.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Sex era plums, things like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that
makes sense.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
So yeah, MTV starts, you know, branching out and people
start creating music videos, and I mean, you want to
talk about some of the masters of music videos. Duranderels
on film, Girls on film.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Is it's a fucking mud wrestle, isn't it. No, it's
jelly or something.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
A wrestling It's as but the women address very provocatively
in it. I'll show you.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Remind me where there. It's like a mud wrestle or something.
It's two and I know there's one because I've seen it,
but I can't remember what it is.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, Girls on Film Dana, Yeah, we've actually got that
LP as well. Yeah, remind me to show you that
music video. But yeah, some of them got very risky.
Madonna was the queen of that.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Later on in a career as well, around the late
nineties early two thousand's Kylie Minogue, I Can't get You
out of.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
My Head, Damn Golden pot Pants.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah, yeah, the Golden hot Pants is one that people remember.
I remember the princess Leia get up and I Can't
get you out of my head. That's the one I
remember the most. And so, yeah, provocative became the name
of the game. Britney Spears, of.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Course, Christine Aguilera, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
So basically the pop princesses of the nineties, I think
Didner really it wasn't until Lady Marmalay that she hit
that point. Before that she was a tomboy.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, yeah, well I remember her. I actually remember her
debut music video which was like a Pill, and.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
No it's not, isn't it. No? She that was her
first these days and there was something else before that
that she released on her first album, which I actually
owned in Like a Pill.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
She looks very very different, yes, and it's very different
music to what she would eventually.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Sure that's the end of her tomboy era, just before
Lady Marmalay.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Because she became and I'll look I defer to you
on this one, but she became the punk pop princess, right.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
No, no, you don't think Abril Levine.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
No, no, no, because because Pink had more albums and
lasted far longer than Avril Levine.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Doesn't matter, looked like the emos, So she ended up
being elevated for at least a while.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I know, see I disagree. I disagree on that one
because Avril Levine Live It Mare. Avril Levine released what
three albums I have known that Pink has released six.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight nine.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
She's on nine right, and she's maintained that punky esthetic.
She's maintained that punkiness throughout the pop. We shouldn't be
talking about this. We're meant to be talking about excess.
Join us next week for our new podcast, Two Uninformed
Shitheads talk about Music.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I mean it could be if we ever win the lottery,
that'll be one of our first diversionary podcasts. Oh man.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
If I could do this full time, I would be
doing five to six podcasts a week. The one busy.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Making you do film politics, so those are yours?
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Well, politics would be one that I have to do
with Tommy. That's fine, right, because we used to do that.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
We'd have a million dollars we could pay for him
to come in into it.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
But it'd be one of those things where we'd have
like one podcast that we would do. I'd flip the
script on so I'd be the researcher extraordinary. You'd be
the idiot who ask questions and make stupid voices, and
I would cover like a pop culture thing every week. Now,
you know, I would be like, this is you know,
this is this movie, this is its origin, this was
(12:31):
its director, these are its funky stories. So we'd we
you know, it'd be like weird crap and pop culture.
We would do that, right, we would do that. If
everyone signed up to our Patreon set us free anyway
enough diversions back to in excess and their sexy videos
with a banana.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Thanks to the growing world of MTV music, not only
in the USA, but in international audiences. The inclusion of
the One Thing's music video into the Red meant that
the band was suddenly selling album after album around the world.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Except for Wiley Minogue. Isn't that really interesting? He never
really cracked the American market.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Was Britain.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
It was Britain and here lots of Europe. Really the
US cracked the US, but everyone else did through MTV,
ac DC being another one.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
That one wasn't MTV. That was just them going around
drinking in pubs and doing songs.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
But also you know that the act ACDC song started
to make like to this day still have a decent
rotation on an MTV when it does like.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Countrack of how many Marvel movies.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Now at least I am in and it does like
what like MTV now does what two hours of music
once a week? I think so maybe point all their shit.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Shabu Shiba cracked the US Billboard two hundred and went
gold in both the States and in Canada. He climbed
to number five in Australia and established the band as
serious contenders against not only the homegrown competition of the Oils,
the Chisels, and Akadaka, but against people like you two,
the Police, and Duran Duran not just at home, but
(14:15):
on MTV and overseas airways.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Taking all of that into account, it must be said
that manager Chris Murphy had some set of balls. He
was only in his twenties, but possessed the business acumen
of a wizard banker. He set up a company in
the band's name, an entity that served to copyright all
of their music, videos and merchandise. They are one of
the few beans in the world who have owned the
rights to all of their videos from day one, Murphy says,
(14:41):
I told him, you're all going to have to have
kids one day, so let's create a business around you
now that will generate profit on its own for years
to come, because by the time your kids are grown,
you're all going to be too old and fat to
deal with it. Quote from an Excess Story to Story
in Excess and Anthony Bozo, two thousand and five, Curry Books,
page one h two. I'm not going to read that
(15:02):
quote out and it's full again. We quoted a lot
The only other band that I really think had that
sort of big business acumen in mind very early.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
On the Wiggles in Australia.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yeah, they have maintained ownership and control of their work
for a long time, as have ironically Ludo Studios with
Blue Eye. Now obviously blue is a tattoo, but then
now they've got three LPs out there, we own one
of them.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
It's just it's.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
It's so clever to go in knowing what you're doing
when it comes to creative properties, and it's exceptionally important
to know what you're giving away. But when you go
into these endeavors, and they had a very smart business manager,
they had someone who's like, look, you need to own
all of this because look, look I mentioned it earlier
(15:59):
in the podcast.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Look what happened to Prince.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
He lost his entire catalog to Warner Brothers for a
very very long time, and his catalog is one of
the most extensive catalogs in music history. Look at and
it still happens to this day. Look at Taylor Swift.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
She just managed by the last of hers back.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Now, this isn't that crazy, Like to think how much
music she lost, Like you would you would almost assume
in this day and age that you would know to
do this before you get marketed. But how did she
lose all of her music just quickly?
Speaker 3 (16:36):
When you record songs, you record what's called a master. Yeah,
the master is what the studio owns because they paid
for your studio time. Also a doctor who villain. Yes,
when you leave the contract, you do not take the
masters with you, like in this example Warner Brothers would happen. Right.
You cannot re record, You cannot re release those masters.
(16:58):
You have to either pay for a studio time to
re record after doing some kind of contract negotiation to
allow you to do that, or you just give up
and do a new one.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
And she did that for a little while, and she
started re releasing.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
That's why there are versions out there with Taylor's version
at the end, because those are the re released ones.
And then every time someone would play one that wasn't
Taylor's version, they would get a seasoned assist letter.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Right, So so she really went after that.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
So she was consolidating that shit like nothing else.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And I suppose when you go to the catalog, who
owns your masters? And you're like, look, I have killed
these things, so do you want some money for a
worthless product, or should I just keep killing it?
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Basically, but they knew what they had, so they just
kept holding out until she gave them the money that
she wanted. But by then she had billions of dollars,
So who gives a shit. Yeah, you could pay whatever
the fuck they asked for them, and I don't think
it's worth really billions, Okay, the amount of money that
she has generated just on this last tour.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I'm not going to argue that she is not one
of the most successful musicians of all time. Like, I'm
not going to argue that in any way, shape or form,
Taylor Swift is as popular as the Staples.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
She is.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
In my opinion, she has generated more profit than most
of the Staples. When we think of success Elvis, the Beatles,
the Stones, Madonna, Prince YEP, Taylor Swift YEP, Michael Jackson,
Taylor Swift is more successful financially than all of them.
I don't like the music, but that's a matter of taste.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
You're also not a teenage girl, or you would never
were a teenage girl.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
I have a friend of mine who's nearly and he's fifties,
and he fucking loves Taylor Swift as all her albums.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Because it is hard. He's a teenage girl.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
I really want him to go to a Taylor surf
concept because you know that as they're panning the camera
around the audience, he would be there in a Taylor
Swift just enjoying him. This's like slightly shuffling, not even
just so yeah, just rocking the shoulders back and forth
with a big smile on his face. You know, all
these teenage girls around him, like a fantasy movie, like
(18:59):
a giant, like the big Barbarian, the protects or the elves.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
That's how I would say it. In excess spent much
of nineteen eighty three touring North America supporting acts like
Men at Work and Adam INNT and building a dedicated
fan base city by city.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Men at Work we'll have to talk about as well
being everyone knows their most famous track.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I was actually thinking Men at Works come from the
land down under.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
That's kind of what I was doing. But I stoppeduffe, that's.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
What you were doing? Oh I see did yep? Okay, yep, yep,
right right right, got it? I come from the land
now under.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
They celebrated their growing success along the way.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
In nineteen eighty three, we left our homeland at Conquer
America in the world. It took time and relentless toil,
but we did it, and by the time we returned
to Australia we were too popular to play the pubs.
I remember that realization more than any other, made the
scope of out growing success hit home to me. I
was proud, but it was also sad. It was a
(20:05):
classic pace of care for what you wish for in
excess Story to Story two thousand and five.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
And then in nineteen eighty four they released The Swing, which.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
We own an original pressing of this helped you people
who say I don't know anything about music.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
We got real lucky with that.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
We just happened to inherited two weeks before we did
the episode, so now I get the dig points.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
This album was a leap forward, co produced with Nile Rodgers,
who brought slick funk rhythms and dance sensibility to their
guitar driven sound. It features songs like Original Sin, their
first Australian number one single and one of their most
enduring tracks. Original Sin was bold and always puts me
in mind of Great Southern Land. When I hear the
(20:55):
intro lyrically, it touched on race and societal device. You
know the lines dreaming.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Moun white boar, white boar, dream.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Moum black black that one, yeah, dare up to a
brown day.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
And was the cherry in the eye of the band's producer,
Noel Rodgers, was the biggest record producer in the world
at the time.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
He'd done Madonna's Like a Prayer decent song. Well, it's
a very popular song now thanks David Bowie is Let's
Dance and the two biggest records of the day in
Excess had recorded with him in the same studio, using
the same engineers who'd done Let's Dance. Nick Loney recalls
(21:52):
an excess had suddenly gone from this up and coming
band who was edgy and interesting to an act that
worked with Noel Rogers. There was suddenly a very serious
band to watch. Original Sin was so incredible that when
I heard it, I just thought, how I'm earth? Am
I going to follow this quote from Inexcess Story to
Story two thousand and five.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
This song was a departure from their typical new wave
pair and the video showcase their maturing style. More subdued
if you ignore the motorbikes. The album also delivered hits
like I Send a Message and Burned for You, and
it stayed on the Australian charts for over two years.
I didn't even realize the burn for You was an
inexcess song.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
I mean when we went through the swing and we
we flipped the record over so we listened to the
whole album. There is so much recognizable music. I'm not
going to go too deep into it. We went into
it a little bit on the first episode. But you
know far more in excess songs than you realize.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Because they keep changing their style every album.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, go to Spotify check out. Like Spotify always generates
the top five hits of any band, check out the
top five most played hits. I guarantee you'll recognize at
least one of them from there.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Garentee you recognize all of.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Them, regardless of how old you are.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
At this point, Hutchins had fully stepped into his role
as front man. He was confident, charismatic, and dangerously charming.
His voice was now unmistakable, slinky and growling, with just
enough vulnerability to balance the swagger.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
He would have ended up going into movies, like don't
you think you know how some of those actors transit,
Like Madonna tried a few sexy movies.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Kylie Minogue went back to movies.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Well, she went back and forth all the time. You know,
she did a movie here, and then she would go
off and she would do an album, and then she
unfortunately did Street Fighter, and then she went off and
did an album, and then she would do some more
Australian television and then a Doctor Who Special and then
a dance track, and she just went back and forth
and back and forth. I think that eventually Michael Hutchins
would have taken a crack at movies.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
By then, He's definitely popular enough that they would have
let him.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Yeah Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
His magnetic stage presence and sexual energy helps cement the
band's upward trajectory, delivering the boldness and style needed to
break through the sleek, image driven pop rock scene of
the mid nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Women wanted to be with him, and men wanted to be.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Men wanted to punch him because their women were wanted
to be with him. Men also wanted to be with him.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Probably Yeah in Excess was a band at the top
of their abilities after so many years on the road,
and they had to be to meld all of their
influences so naturally. This wing is a true snapshot of
the times. It's black and white, light and dark, embracing
everything from the down wave descent of melting in the
sun to dependsive pogo of I send a message to
(24:40):
the blissful romantic elation of burn for You. In Excess
more than any band, draws influences from everywhere in the world.
Nick Lulney says on that album, they tapped into the
funk dance thing in America, hit on the black and
white soul style that was huge in England, and because
they are such great players made it all work within
the parameters of a rock band. It was truly an
(25:01):
international sound quote from Inexcess Story to Story two thousand
and five.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
By nineteen eighty five, in Excess was ready for their
biggest test yet, going from rising stars to international headliners.
They recorded Listen like These with producer Chris Thomas, known
for his work with the Sex Pistols and Roxy Music.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, Roxy has a great history. If you're a big
muso and you love your music history, you should go.
There is a book I believe that's written about Roxy music.
You should go check it out because they had their
fingers in a lot of different pies from a lot
of different bands. By the way, love my nineteen eighties punk.
(25:43):
They do not love the sex pistols. I know everyone.
Look they had one good song, maybe two, and the
bass guitar wasn't even plugged in because said Vicius couldn't
play anything with shit he was there for looks. There
are much better punk rock bands, but you know, I digress.
Check out any and check out the history of Roxy music.
(26:04):
It's really fascinating.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
The result was punchier, rockier and more focused. Listen like Thieves,
what You Need This Time, and Kiss the Dirt were
all hits. What you Need became their first US top
five single and helped push the album into the top
twenty on the Billboard two hundred. It was certified platinum
in the US and double platinum in Australia. In excess,
(26:29):
headlined major festivals, played to sold out arenas, and took
their place alongside acts like YouTube, Simple Minds and Duran Duran.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Simple Minds and Duran Duran I'm a fan of Do
you like YouTube?
Speaker 3 (26:40):
No One fucking likes you too.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Enough people liked you too.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
No one liked it. It was just because they kept
playing on the fucking radio. Is the only reason I
know them?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Is it that no one likes you too? Or no
one likes Bono?
Speaker 3 (26:54):
All of the above.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
I think it's Bono that's the problem.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Absolutely, but all of the above.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Like, Yeah, see, I'm not a U two fan, but
I'm also not a pop fan.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Really. There are songs that come on that I will
sing along too because I know them, But then I
realize I'm singing along to them, but I stop. Yeah,
this is the problem with working retail.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yeah, You two gets a lot of play in retail settings,
which does make them a bit grating.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yeah. By nineteen eighty six, they were in a rare
position for any Australian band. In Excess weren't just successful overseas,
they were actually building a genuine global following.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Andrew's bus worries that they're worst couldn't compare to the
mental duress that adam Antin doo it with Inexcess on
his tour, because what in Excess wasn't stealing on stage,
they were hijacking doubly afterward. Each night Adam sent party
pimps into the audience to bestow backstage passes upon the
hottest girls in the house, so that his post show
fate would team with the cream of the local crop. Ugh,
(27:56):
that's gross. He started to notice that you too many
times the best girls never made it. Adam's road manager
would have all the good looking girls in the hotel bar,
trying to enforce another level of quality control before.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Her Welcome to the eighties. Yeah, well, welcome to now.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Probably before he chose the girls which would go to
Adam's room to a manager. Gary Grant says, they'd all
be waiting around there for Adam called the guys from
an excess walked in.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
It was hilarious.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
All of the girls would see them and be like,
fuck out a man, we're going with them. I'm sorry
if I'm if I'm a lady or a gang man
and I see Michael Hutchins, I'm sorry he was.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
I don't care who else is in the lot. I'm
going that way.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
To be fair, they weren't unattractive men like they were.
They're a good looking band. I get it makes sense
to me. The whole room of them would follow Inexcess
up to their floor of the hotel and the party
would begin. Do you have you ever known any groupies?
Speaker 3 (28:54):
No?
Speaker 1 (28:55):
So a woman I worked with, Lovely Lady is not
the groupie, but her friend was, and her friend would
be that person that would make a way as close
to stage as possible and end up getting picked. And
the stories that I have heard and can remember at
the very least is how many premature ejaculators her famous,
(29:19):
including Prince. Something to think about, hopefully not too much.
The proceedings continue to deteriorate nightly, so much so that
In excess A's tour manager, Gary Grant, was eventually summoned
to mister Ant's chambers to discuss the problem. The band
had become Adam Sirpine on the bed in a dandy
(29:41):
smoking jacket and oh my god, no wonder you weren't
getting laid atam an smoking jacket and slippers.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Who are you?
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Hugh Hefner in form Grant that In Excess would be
dismissed for their ungrateful behavior if they did not cease
and assist their chicks stealing ways immediately explained that there
are a bunch of working class Australian guys and that
they meant no disrespect by stealing adams girls each night.
After about an hour of chatting away, I got him
and he's tour major to agree to let us finish
(30:10):
the remaining six weeks. Grant says he hadn't been friendly before,
but let me tell you, after that, Adam did not
speak to us or even look at any of us again.
Quote from an Excess story to story in Excess, Anthony Bosa,
two thousand and five. Yeah, look, I'm sorry, but when
you've got some handsome Australian men versus an uptid American
(30:31):
in slippers in the fucking coat, can tell you exactly
who is going to get laid more often?
Speaker 3 (30:37):
The ones not doing quality control that's making them stand
around in a fucking bar for three hours is probably
the winner.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yeah, it's going to be the four handsome Australian dudes
who walk in have a drink with the girls. Put
on a little bit of sorry six, put on a
little bit of that Australian charm that foreign women all
love so much. Hey, young gorgeous, Yeah, you want to
have a drink here at the bar with me?
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Do you want to come up to my room?
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Well, it's probably not even that. It's probably like, you
know what Australian guys like, I'm just going to go
up to the hotel room anyway and keep the party going.
You can come up with me if you want. I
think it's the nope, like, there can be some Australian
men who put on a lot of pressure and fuck
those guys. It's not the really good way to communicate
with anybody. But there is a sort of laid back
time to the Australian men and women, I think, and
(31:23):
I think overseas that makes us popular, excepting places where
we congregate and get drunk, and then really that's BALI
the snow slopes of Canada, they don't like us there
very much, and I get it. I understand why, but yeah,
like fuck out of me.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
People weren't and that's why he was getting upset.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
And if he's dead now good but just a shit, sorry,
that's just robbed me up that story, Holly.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
But despite taking over concerts and stealing groupies in excess,
hadn't yet had that career defining hit that would put
them on of the Billboard Top two hundred, the one
album that makes a band from famous to iconic.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
I mean, you have to go platinum, don't you.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
They're already platinum in the US, but they want to
get a number one. They're only at number five now.
They want to get to number one.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Yes, sorry, So platinum is selling a million.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
Records, I believe so.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah, and then you go, you know, double platinum, triple platinum, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
You get and you get a gold record if you
get a number one, Is that right?
Speaker 3 (32:29):
No, it's always just based on sales.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
It's always based on sales, Okay. I mean I understand it,
like you do want to get to the number one
Billboard charts because that gets more CDs and more LPs
and more cassette tapes. I suppose nineteen A. You should
talk in Olpeace cassette tapes.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Well, when I was a kid, I listened to the
d AFM because I was in Sydney, and yes that
was Kyle and Jackie. Oh and I regret it now,
but they always there was more music back in those
days too. Yes, true, they used to broadcast I think
it was Sunday night. They used to actually broadcast the
Billboard Hot one hundred two Australia. Yeah, which meant that
if you got the Billboard top one hundred, it wasn't
(33:04):
just America, it was worldwide that you were hitting.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Would have been was it Ryan Seacrest at that point
was yeah, Hey, you're listening to Ryan Seacrest and it's
the top one hundred, starting at the top and going
all the way to number one, something like that.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
I think so I only ever chopped into it about
number forty because I didn't really give a shit about
anything that was lower than that.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
On The Model Meltdown, my one and only radio show,
I did a top ten every night because I thought
it was important to do a top ten.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
I'd like ten things that Matthew wrote Matthew decided to
listen to today.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Well, it was called The Model Melting so it needed
a top ten, and I like to do the top ten.
I'd be like, you know, we're going to do the
top ten tonight. We're going to sit here and go
through them all. And I jump in and say, oh,
you know that that's probably going to be something a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
You know that that's going to explode.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
You know you probably want to go grab that album
or I get to number one, and I'd be like
that fucking sucked or you'd.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Play akon and Lonely Island did not realize.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Oh yeah what it was? Yeah it woos Yeah. No,
I got a very I got a very sternly worded
It wasn't sternly worded. It was more passive aggressive because
my argument was if you didn't want me to play it,
why'd you put it in the fucking tracks? And they
were like, oh, well, it's just there, and I'm like, well,
you shouldn't have downloaded it. Who's downloading it? Why are
(34:25):
you putting it in the tracks? I was very feisty
about that. Not enough people heard it, though, like it's fine,
it was only it was only the Truman Shire and
surrounds probably didn't upset that many people, but yeah, I
definitely got a stern talking to about it, well, passive
aggressive talking to about it. The one track that I
played every week consistently for a long time was Eminem
(34:47):
and Rihanna just Love the Way You Like, Yeah, Love
the Way you like Yeah, and it would not go away.
I got sick of that fucking song. So when I
did the Top ten, that was Mike cue also to
go have a break for an hour. Seriously, I'd be like,
so I'm putting on the top ten, and I knew
to interject about thirty minutes in, so I'd set a
little alarm on my phone, interject, and then I'd go
(35:09):
and do something else for another half hour. When Holly
and I first started talking to each other, she verified
who I was by my radio show. By the way, Yeah,
Holly's like, this dude sounds a little bit too good
to be true. Maybe that sounds a bit braggadocious, but
you were like, I'm going to actually tune in, and
Holly literally fell in love with Hey, this is Matthew Sol.
(35:30):
You're listening to the modern meltdown on Sounds of the
Mountains ninety three point seven. That Sounds of the Mountains
ninety three point seven coming up.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Soon is the news.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Never underestimate the power of a good, sexually charged radio voice.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Ladies and gentlemen. The Vandrei group to record their next
album with Chris Thomas behind the desk, but this time
the songs had a little bit more polished, more swing,
and more danger. The result was Kick, released in October
nighteen eighty seven, and it didn't just succeed, it exploded.
Think of an inexcess song off the top of your head,
(36:06):
right if you think need You Tonight, New Sensation, Devil Inside,
Never Tear Us Apart, Mediate, or even kick. There's a
good chance you know the band from this one album alone.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
I do very much remember Never Tear Us Apart because
of the American Supper, because of the amount of play
that it got, both on television on Australian Broadcast TV.
We talked about that in the previous episode, but also
retail settings because I worked. Look, I worked at Target, right,
that was my first job when I was fifteen years old,
(36:41):
and so I'd be there folding fucking jeans to never
Tear or supart And that fucking Missy Higgins song about
not fitting into a square peg or some shit? Is
that Missy Higgins?
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Here was miss Higgins? Yes?
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Uh, so cut me so I fit? Oh fuck it,
f I never I never fucking hear that song again
for the rest of my goddamn life. They both of
those songs still play in a retail setting. Trust me
on that he tried to cut me so I fit?
Doesn't that sound familiar? Doesn't that hit close to your home?
Doesn't that make a sure? The way it should have
(37:17):
gone anyway fucking stream retail.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
If you've seen Coyote Ugly, then you've seen you've heard
Need You Tonight, so you've definitely seen her at least
you know at least one in.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Excess song I remember sexy ladies dancing on a on a.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Bike, I watched Coyote Ugly. Kick wasn't just a hit.
It was lightning in a bottle, a seamless blend of rock, pop,
funk and soul, sleek, confident, and absurdly catchy, from the
opening blast of Guns in the Sky to its final notes.
The album rolled out after hit the very tracks most
people still associate within Excess today. Need You Tonight hit
(37:55):
number one in the US, their only song ever to
do so. With its minimal groove, hutchins, whispered vocal, sultry tone,
and the unforgettable video, it became one of the defining
singles of the nineteen eighties. Never Tear Us Apart, with
its dramatic strings and bluesy Restraint remains one of Australia's
great love songs, not because it's sentimental, but because it isn't.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
But it is used in so many Australian drama films,
TV productions like to a ridiculous extent.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Despite the title and feel of the songs, it's lyrics
lean more towards obsession than romance.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Well, isn't it, isn't it. It's a big misconception, like
stings every breath you take, yeah, which is about a stalker. Yes,
and it became a wedding song.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Yes, And same with this one from our lines like
if I heard you, I'd make one from your tears
or fucking hell, we could fly because we all have wings.
But some of us don't know why. It's possessive, it's dark,
(39:09):
and it's completely Hutchin's mindset at the time.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Which spoiler alert. People look at those lyrics for the
pro he committed suicide.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
Camp twelve years beforehand any way, just spoiler.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Yeah, so there, you know, people are very much in
that site. I'm not in that camp. I'm going to
talk about which camp I mean, and you're not gonna
like it, but I'm going to talk about that a
little bit later on. But they look at those dark
lyrics and they're like, oh, this dude was this dude
was tortured.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
This was a torture tortured.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Men in Excess's next would be nothing but singles written
entirely by Andrew and Michael. That was a fundamental difference
on Kick. Thomas says the songwriting partnership certainly worked. It
worked better than on the album There's Massive success of
What You Need gave Andrew and Markel the optimism and
confidence they needed to go further. They needed to say
(40:05):
that they weren't just getting bigger and bigger in Australia
with Bets's success abroad, and they did. The band gathered
at the Sydney Opera House in nineteen eighty six to
rehearse the songs Andrew and Michael had written for the
next album. From the start, the proceedings were history in
the making. This was a band that was really on
the and all of us knew it. Thomas says, there
(40:27):
was a sense that everything we were doing was moving
towards a logical conclusion and that they were going to
be a really big band. Nevertheless, the genesis of Kick
was nothing like the result The demo of Never Terris,
apart for one, bore none of the gorgeous orchestral majesty
it does on record. Initially it was a piano ballad
closer in tempo to the moody bounce of Mystify than
(40:49):
the pensive ballad it became never Terrorist Appoint was a
piano song. Originally, Thomas says it was a Fats Domino
bluesy kind of Rolling Stone Esy sixty song. I heard
it and thought we could do more, and came up
with the idea to substitute strings for the piano. That
changed everything. It was what the song deserved because its
(41:11):
structure and its lyrics were so strong already quote from
Inexcess Story to Story two thousand and five.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Pick reached number one in Australia, number three in the US,
and went seven times platinum in America alone, crack the
top one hundred.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
Can I can I postulate as to why it's so successful?
It's a great album, good singles on that album, right?
Tell me it was not the soundtrack of a lot
of love making.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
Oh, it definitely was. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
I have a you know, I like you think about
American psycho right, And whether you're reading the book or
watching the Christian Bale adaptation. Hard of luring people to
his dean is his large collection of music is you know,
extensive knowledge of music, right? And then that of course
(42:04):
it's used as a as a satire for the eighties man,
but it's really it's an important conclusion. It's an important
inclusion in that fictional story because it's very indicative what
the eighties was. You know, you bring a girl home,
and you bring a guy home, and you do have
a beautiful stereo system, not like what we have today,
(42:26):
which is just you know, a Bluetooth sound bar spitting
out music from the Internet. No, these were you know,
you had your receiver and you had your amplifier, and
you would have LP at the top and not CD
yet or CD was coming in, but it was pretty rare.
And you had a double cassette deck as well, and
there were these beautiful wood and elaborate pieces of equipment,
(42:50):
and that was a big part of your pickup game.
You had to have some music at home in excess
was the music of lovers? Am I fair to say that?
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Do you think? Probably? Right?
Speaker 1 (43:03):
So all of you people who think it's rock and roll,
stop it love making music? Can't you can't make love
to rock and roll.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
The Kick Tour ran from late nineteen eighty seven through
nineteen eighty eight and took them across North America. Europe,
Japan and back home audiences went wild. Hutchins was an
Australia's answer to Jagger, with the stage presence of Morrison
and the mystique of Bowie.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
More attractive duo than Jagger. Yes, yeah, Jack is such
an odd looking fella, isn't he?
Speaker 3 (43:34):
Yes? He always has been, even when he was younger.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
He had that weird dance that people liked. They wrote
a song about it. It's called dance like Jander.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
He stalked the stage with a wired energy, slinging microphones,
snarling and seducing in equal measure, in leather pants, and
at this point in excess was untouchable.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
How they were plenty touched. I must admit I was worried.
Guns in the Air was the first track, and even
though my sister insisted that it was playing at the
right speed on the sometime temperamental stereo, there was something wrong.
So we reset and we tried again. Same thing, tried again,
Same thing must have been the track slow and tedious.
(44:14):
It sounds like an audio tape being stretched too tight
over a set of none too clean heads. Do I
have to explain that?
Speaker 3 (44:21):
No?
Speaker 1 (44:22):
No, I do, though, don't you don't? So sometimes you
had to clean the heads on your cassette player. They
get dirty, and because cassette tapes had a magnetic strip
that wound and unrew and unwound, their heads were dirty
in the magnetic strip would play incorrectly and it sounded fuck.
So you you know you had to take a bit
(44:43):
of ice. What did you use, Holly? We used a
bit of ice, prople.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
When I was old enough to be cleaning them, we'd
already switched to DVD. So I have no idea or CDs. Yeah,
so I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Yeah, Oh, dear me, thought, have they too gone the
way of so many before them, resting astride their laurels
the world and loose women at their feet, caring not
what they put out as long as it made them
a few million more. A blasphemous thought, I agreed, but
one which readily came to mind at the time. Happy
to say that things got better, much better. Although New
(45:17):
Sensations was neither anything new nor sensational, the mighty guitar
riff of Devil Inside gave me hope. That hope grew
and grew as the minutes flew. Devil Inside is vintage
in excess and leads the way into a fine album, minus,
of course, the slight hiccups at the beginning, Sexy Smooth
(45:38):
Hutchins Shines and Need You Tonight Media eight and a
very nice remake of The Loved Ones. Other highlights include
Mystifying and Calling All Nations. If I would you, I
would skip the first two but play the rest again
and again. Quote from The Camera Time, Sunday twenty seven
and of November nineteen eighty seven, page fourteen qrite tedious, torturous,
(45:59):
fuck hell Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
That was the name of the music reviewer's column.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Yeah, fucking hell, it doesn't look fuck. I remember the
when it wasn't my friend Joanna writing the movie reviews
and biased because I said that she's my friend. It
was this other fucking hack at the Canberra Times. Actually,
I would say the worst movie reviewer in Canberra. Right now,
I think he still writes and we may not. But
(46:28):
at the time when I was working for the Camera
Times from the year twenty eleven till the very end
of twenty thirteen, we had a contemporary over at the
City at City News, and he hated everything he saw.
It was almost as if he hated movies and it
was suggesting an insider who was familiar with this guy
that he was a real hound for freebies, so he
(46:50):
only wrote the articles just to get the free movie
tickets because he was a fucking it was a stingy dude,
let's say. But that's pretty rough, that title. It's pretty rough.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
With the expansion of their popularity, came hangers on.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Sorry, I'm laughing, just because we know what the next
sentence says. And Holly obviously has a bugger bear here,
So go ahead, Holly, who is the hanger on?
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Hutchins gained a new girlfriend in nineteen eighty nine by
the name of Pyli.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
No Wow, Shots Fired.
Speaker 3 (47:20):
He was still launching her career as a pop diav
back then, and was still mostly recognized only for her
role on Neighbors.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Which was pretty fucking popular. Though, like to give Piley
her credit and to give all the people working on
Neighbors and Home and Away their credit, being on that
show at that time major in an Australian icon.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
That's fine. But if you're trying to break into the
movie the music industry and you start dating the lead
singer of a super popular rock band, it looks a
little sasog give it really looks sus it looks saus Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Michael and Kylie thrilled Australia's tamploids. It was a notorious
party hound, sex god and Kylie was Australia's sweetheart. So
find is it to saying that they learned from each other.
Kylie grounded Michael and Michael made Kylie a sex symbol.
There was a reason for him to come back on
his clubbing from Nightly Too every other night, and he
(48:15):
allowed her to go where she'd never gone before. But
many women that comes from the inexcess story to story
Anthony Bosea two thousand and five.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
Their relationship was almost a non event and their breakup
was a bitromat. He broke up with Kylie Minogue to
get with Helena Christensen, a Danish model in nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
I mean you are right for because they did Australia is. Look,
when any of the channels need to fill a bitter
at the time, they go and they do what the
infamous Australian mini drama series right, and they did one
on Hutchins and Kylie Minogue plays a prominent part in
that minise. In that drama mini series. But she really
(48:59):
wasn't there that long. No, not really like it did.
As you guys know, Holly's a great researcher. If there
was a story there to tell, she would have told it.
It's not, there's really not, And at my insistence, she
took it from a sentence, who are paragraphed? Yep? And
then when I said again, are you sure there's nothing there,
Holly's like, there really isn't anything there with these two.
(49:21):
They dated for a little bit. It made the Women's
Weekly and the TV Guide magazines, and then she was gone.
Speaker 3 (49:27):
They dated for about a year and a half and
then he broke up with her to date a model.
And that's it. And that's it.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
Yeah, and there's been like the legend, of course, when
the legend's more interesting, rite the legend, and the legend
is that he was off his chops and going crazy
and party boy, party boy, and she was the sweet, innocent, charismatic,
you know, angel that was sent to save him from himself.
That's old bullshit.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
In excesses. Nineteen ninety follow up album to Kick, titled X,
was always going to be compared to Kick, and while
it didn't hit quite the same commercial height. It was
still a huge success.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
And just quickly he did he do a song with
Kylie Minogue.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
Not with about oh okay.
Speaker 1 (50:15):
And what was it positive or negative or.
Speaker 3 (50:20):
Mix X included the song Suicide Blonde, a snarling pop
rock crack with blistering harmonica, supposedly written about Kylie Minogue.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Why why is it suicide Blonde? Why that he would
commit suicide for her? Or that she was so annoying
he commits suicide?
Speaker 3 (50:38):
Or that true? What's the song about that? What you're in?
I've got Blonde's the shade of hair dye? And she used, oh,
that's why he used it. Just sounded like a cool
rock song.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
Marketing to women is really odd.
Speaker 3 (50:52):
It's fucking weird.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
So you're walking down the healthcare aisle and what do
I want to be today?
Speaker 3 (51:00):
Crashy harmouth or suicidaluant?
Speaker 1 (51:02):
Yeah? Oh and there's also Butthole Brunette over here too.
Meme Il grab that.
Speaker 3 (51:09):
The band returned home for a historic tour that culminated
in a show that would define them both visually and emotionally,
Wimbley Stadium the thirteenth of July nineteen ninety one, which
was later released on home video and as an album
titled Liv Baby Live. In twenty nineteen, it was restored
and re released across many physical and digital platforms.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
It was July thirteen, nineteen ninety one, and the sold
out Wembley Stadium crowd was the biggest in excess it
ever played. Two The band were at their commercial peak,
having performed to roughly one point two million people during
the past and month run and selling close to ten
million albums since nineteen eighty seven's Kick turn them into
international superstars. Quote from The Fateful Punch The Changed Michael
(51:51):
Hutchins Overnight by Nathan Jollynews dot com dot U twenty
third of June twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
Thousands of fans packed the venue to see in excess
headline what would become one of the most iconic Australian
live shows of all time. The band was in top form,
the energy was electric. Hutchins strutted through every track like
he'd been born for that moment and maybe he had.
The footage from that show eventually became the benchmark of
nineteen nineties live performance. But behind the scenes, things were shifting.
Speaker 1 (52:21):
And that Ladies and Gentlemen, is where we have to
leave it before we conclude the story of Inaccess, just
because we're running our time, because I couldn't shut the
fuck up, so we're gonna this is my fault, this
is my pologues extending out into another episode. The interesting
thing about our music episodes because I really hated Midnight Oil,
but we kept talking and talking and talking. A Midnight
(52:43):
Oil turned into a four part fucking series. I don't
mind talking about in excess. But the interesting thing about
music is that music, unlike some of the other things
that we've discussed, you know, be at a true crime
story or be it a film or a historical event,
music has this intro way of locking into history and
television and pop culture and culture in general. And it's
(53:06):
society and historical.
Speaker 3 (53:08):
Band it's the song. If it's not the song, it's
the music video. It's not the music video, it's the
individual members. There's always something about it that ends up
permeating into history.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
There is, and it's always really interesting to talk about.
And we always look at these scripts and think, Okay,
well this is just going to be a two parter.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
And not the one part of four weeks later.
Speaker 1 (53:26):
And I should really remember when we do these that
oh you know, I'm going to interject a lot and
we're going to have this sort of more broader cultural discussion.
So I apologize if you're desperate just to hear the
inexcess story and I've cut in with a lot of
context or mucking around as I like to do, I'm sorry.
I do have a lot of fun with these episodes,
(53:47):
and we release it for free, So fuck you, just kidding.
You know I love all of you. If you take
the time to listen to us being creative, then you're
a fucking awesome person. Go patch yourself off on the
back now. A couple of ways you can support us
here at week Crap in Australia. If you do like
the show, you can head over to our Patreon. After
saying fuck you, I'm asking for your money. Isn't that ironic?
(54:09):
For only five dollars USD a month, you get access
to bonus minisodes as well as these episodes released uncut
and add free and early as a big special thank
you there. So if you would like to get in
contact with us and tell me to go fuck myself,
which is absolutely your right to do after my last comment,
you can check us out on your social media of choice.
(54:30):
Just type in week crap In Australia into the search
bar of your favorite social media We will pop up
if we don't. Shoot us through an email Week crap
In Australia at gmail dot com. We love to get
all of your correspondence here makes us feel very very happy.
You can also help support the show. First and foremost
is our Patreon. For only five dollars USD a month,
you get access to bonus minisodes. These episodes released you
(54:52):
early uncut in at free. You can also grab yourself
the Week crap In Australia book series. Book six is
coming out in September. That's volume six. The cover is done,
the blurbs are written, the intros have been written by myself,
acknowledgments have been committed to word and Holly is just
doing the final edits. Now you'll be able to pick
(55:13):
up book six off our great mates at Impactcomics dot
com dot AU. Shoot them through an email let them
know that you would like to have a copy set aside.
If you would otherwise, we'll let you know when that
is in their store. You can also grab the physical
editions internationally from our print on Demand service Lulu dot com.
That's Lulu dot com and you can grab it from
the Amazon Kindle store while they still allow free speech,
(55:36):
which we assume is not for very much longer, but
you can pick up the digital copy there. Last, but
not least, if you want to grab a wee crap
and an Australia T shirt and show your fanboy or
girlism off in loud and proud, you can grab those
from our Teapublic and Red Bubble stores, just hoping we
crapping Australia into those stirch engines. Just like social media.
(55:57):
You can grab yourself a T shirt, a mug packed
some pants in the shower curtain if you feel the urge.
As is our custom, we give Polly the final words.
Speaker 3 (56:07):
So between us doing the start of this episode, when
I did a shout out to Matt because you know,
he said that I'm excellent with great taste in music,
and right now he's actually messaged us.
Speaker 1 (56:21):
Oh really, so you.
Speaker 3 (56:23):
Just happen to know that we're recording crazy.
Speaker 1 (56:25):
What did Matt say of all the.
Speaker 3 (56:27):
Music episodes that you've done so far in Excess is
by far my favorite band? Awesome?
Speaker 1 (56:33):
Yeah, not that it's his favorite episode, no favorite band,
but it's his favorite band.
Speaker 3 (56:38):
But then again, there are also a lot of of
There are also a lot of bands that we cannot
count because they are not a strange.
Speaker 1 (56:45):
This is true, This is true. Well, Matt, thank you
very much for messaging through. And I'm glad we got
that literally live as we're recording. And I have to
agree in Excess is quite a fun band to listen to.
I'm very happy that we do have the swing album
and I do intend to go and pick up one
or two more for the collection after doing these episodes.
Speaker 3 (57:06):
Listen, let these and pick will end up in our collection.
Speaker 1 (57:09):
Absolutely so I'm right there with you, Matt, and I'm
sorry that you like powder Fingers. All right, and that's
another episode of Weird Crap in Australia. Ladies and gentlemen,
please stay safe, find to each other, burn a Powderfinger record,
and we will see you next.
Speaker 3 (57:27):
Week from Rap in Australia. That was a very indignous
court then for now, by guys.
Speaker 1 (57:51):
The Weird Crap in Australia podcast is produced by Holly
and Matthew Soul for the Modern Meltdown. If you've enjoyed
this podcastest please rate and review on your favorite podcatching app.
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