Episode 369 - The Story of INXS Part 3

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.

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Featured music clips (c) INXS

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.

Episode Transcript

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. They were last seen on the
beach with a tall man and that's the best description
police have ever had of it.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
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 Yowi. It's time for the Weird
Crap In Australian Podcast. Welcome to the wee Crap In

(00:45):
Australia Podcast. It's episode three hundred and sixty nine. I'm
your host, Matthew sol and joining us with the Sniffles
is the one and only researcher extraordin our holy soul.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Better than yesterday when it couldn't breathe through my nose.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
It all. Absolutely, We're at that very fine here, ladies
and gentlemen, where I am most likely about to get
sick and Holly is just getting over the cold. That
she has no doubt given me that is the sweet
spot where you can record during the quite of the
winter virus season. Well, today we are going to conclude

(01:19):
in excess and no more back and forth, no one
more talking about cultural context. We finished this particular story,
not that it hasn't been an enjoyable story now quick correction.
And Holly made this discovery. So when it came to
the music video for the band Duran Duran, Holly and

(01:40):
I made a little well, Holly, I should say, rather
made a little discovery. And what was that discovery? Holly?

Speaker 2 (01:46):
So we were talking about a music video that I
remembered being like mud wrestling and super sexy, and you're like, no,
it's Suma Wrestling. That was Duran Duran's Girls on Film.
I googled it and discovered that we're both right because
they had a version and a night version, so you
could only play the night version on MTV after the
kids went to sleep, which was the mud wrestling version.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
And speaking of the nighttime, Holly, this little quote here
is going to start us off and it is one
of the most popular dance tracks of its release. Here
and that was Listen Like Thieves. The next year, Listen
like Thieves saw them become international stars, with the frantic
and funky What You Need hitting the US Pop five

(02:30):
singles charts. The stage was set for nineteen eighty seven's Kick,
which sold six million copies in America, spawned for top
ten singles in the States, and turned Michael Hutchins into
a rock god pop rock. Rolling Stone magazine came calling
and offered in excess a cover, the only caveat being
that Hutchins alone will be featured. Vehement about all six

(02:53):
members being represented equally, they turned the opportunity down, but
it proved harbinger feature fishers within the group. Quote from
The Fateful Punch That Changed Michael Hutchins over nineteen by
Nathan Jollynews dot com Dot Are You twenty third of
June twenty nineteen. I'm going to have a career as
a single solo artist? Is topping it that Noor Holly.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
But to be fair, tapping in the eighties they were
still going no, We're still a unit, so at that
point there was still cohesion.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Yeah, but the problem is that it's sort of interesting.
I mean, do you blame the media for putting it
in their heads, or do you blame the inevitable consequences
of Hutchins being so popular.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
If you hadn't added that caveat, I would have said,
it depends on the beat So Queen had that problem,
and that was because of the egos in the bead.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
I mean, to be fair, it's still omnipresent even after
Freddie Mercury's death. Emply look at how much work they
did comparatively to Freddie Mercury, like the fact that he
still had to release Bohemian Rhap City as a Queen
song when he played all the instruments, wrote the music,
wrote the lyrics, performed it. Yeah, sang it, I think

(04:18):
said all Now, musos may be wrong, but I'm pretty
sure that's what happened. So you know, you know what
I mean. And I suppose it really depends on the band,
but this is definitely laying the seeds.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, so in excess would be more media, whereas Queen
is ego and the Beatles I think was ego as well.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
I think it was also because of interpersonal issues between
the four of them. The ego, you know, well, when
it comes to the Beatles, people have to also keep
in mind that these were seventeen year old boys who
became as famous, and they grew up in Liverpool, were
in a working class family. When they did their their
first like tour of German they may double their parents'

(05:02):
annual income in a week, you know what I mean. Yeah,
so take those young men, well young boys, and then
throw them into that situation in the four.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Twenty six sixties, Oh dear fifties, I want to say,
it's when they started.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Nearly seventy years ago. Yeah, I'm not up, I'm a
Rolling Stones fan, I'm not a Beatles guy. But yeah,
you know, fame does this to people and constantly referring
to Hutchins as a rock god, as a sex god,
as the you know, the god's gift to the music scene.

(05:40):
I mean, it was gonna happen eventually.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
The early nineteen nineties brought big changes in the music industry.
Grunge was emerging. Nirvana's never Mind hit in late nineteen
ninety one. Suddenly the glossy, stylized production that had defined
the eighties fell out of fashion.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
I mean it really did. And what you ended up
seeing the well pop music was exceptionally popular, spawning out
of you know, the Beatles sort of era of rock.
You know that spawn pop pop, glam pop, you know,
go pop, disco pop. All of that was hugging along

(06:19):
pretty consistently from the sixties to the eighties. But there
was a little secret, quiet little thing happening around, you know,
the music scene behind the scenes in the seventies. It's
a quiet little thing called punk. Punkwardly to grunge, and
grunge and punk would kind of lead to new metal,

(06:40):
and all of that was happening around this time where
pop was very much being relegated to I would argue
it gets relegated to female singers, female solo singers, it
gets relegated to girl groups until the infamous boy India

(07:00):
starts up again. Would you agree or disagree?

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, that leaves him in exile for approximately five years.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. I think
they get exiled for a couple of years. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
In Excess was seen unfairly as a holdover from a
flashier era. They released Welcome to Wherever You Are in
nineteen ninety two. Critically, it was well received. The production
was more experimental, with orchestration and a darker tone because
you've got to fit in with the grunge set, but
it didn't get the US push it needed and sales dipped.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
I mean, this was the generational shift you're talking nineteen
ninety two. The boys aren't getting perms anymore. They're going
out to get, you know, their flannel shirt and hang
out in Seattle.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
So there's a thing called counterculture, and it's especially prevalent
in music. I will let Matthew explain it because he
does it a lot better than me.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Okay, So what happens with pop culture and culture in
general is you have a peak of acceptance of a culture,
and then what happened is something will be introduced which
is counter to that culture. Some people suggest it's almost
a psychological reaction we have. So we're actually experiencing this
in the podcasting world. For example, people like Joe Rogan

(08:13):
and far right influences were incredibly popular the last couple
of years while it was seeing that the world was
a very progressive place. Now those people have become the establishment,
especially in North America where you've seen a more conservative
attitude take place. So now you're going to see a

(08:34):
counterculture to the conservativism again. And this happens frequently all
throughout history. You have the hippie movement. The hippies are
rejected by their children's and that right, it gives rise
to the yuppie movement of the eighties. Then those kids
don't particularly like the yuppies, so they wear flannelette T shirts,

(08:55):
which are you know, they rip their jeans, they're proud
of looking like they're proud of not looking proper and.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Fancy, and they worship Vanilla Ice.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
They certainly did not, And that's why you end up
saying that counterculture. So it always happens as this natural
back and forth between what the mainstream is and what
culture wants to evolve to.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
From grunge, you go from grunge, and I'm going to
use specific bands here as illustrations of the era. You
go from Nirvana, you go to EMC Hammer and Vanilla Ice.
Then you go to to eminem which is then counted
by Justin Bieber, which is then counted by god fucking
knows what because streaming became a thing and it no

(09:43):
longer became relevant streaming.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Streaming is the one part of the counterculture that sorry, no,
streaming has affected counterculture in the way that everything is
there all the time, So it has made hard to
sort of discover what trends, what doesn't, and what something
could trend one week and then be dismissed. You know.

(10:07):
So for example, all right, a friend of mine desperately
wants me to watch a Netflix miniseriies The Lessons. You know,
it's done the rounds, and obviously I'm doing my counselor's training,
so you know, she wants my opinion on the counselor
in the show. I do intend to watch it. What
would have happened when culture was very limited in how

(10:31):
you received it, there would be about twelve clone shows
of adolescence on all of the different networks, right. Yeah.
The problem with that is, and that's what would have
happened back in the day. Now what happens today is
because we're consuming so much media so quickly, there's no
time for a trend to set in, So you don't

(10:53):
have a counterculture in that respect anymore. However, it is
sort of interesting to see that once we sort of
have managed our way through this glut of constant churning,
you saw like the rise of Taylor Swift, like we
talked about that, you know, a couple of podcasts ago. No,

(11:13):
it was last podcast, Well it was last podcast, so
we talked about that last podcast, and so that left
this sort of glut where no one could sort of
work out what the culture was, what the counterculture was.
So Taylor Swift remain the culture, right, she remained the
most popular.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
There was absolutely no contenders to the throne.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
Basically, yeah, and now that everything is settled, we're starting
to see the counterculture. So Taylor Swift is very pop
and she is very mainstream, right, and now the two
contenders Sabrina Carpenter who is extremely not mainstream sexy pop,

(11:55):
Pauline a very Madonna thing going on there, and you
have a couple.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Oh. I would have said Billy.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
No, because her music is too experimental to be included
in that poppy sort of space.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Ah, but she's on Fortnite, so she can't be too
far out of the zone.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
So Sabrina Carpenter Chaperone songs are on there as well.
But as far as pop princesses go, you have basically
both of them represent the counterculture. One is your typical
sort of I'm going to say what I want to do,
goth punky sort of the tune with elaborate costuming, almost
Marilyn Manson liked the other one is incredibly tongue in

(12:35):
cheek about sexual innuendo, and that is completely cult counter
to what Taylor Swift is. So that's a modern day
example of the counterculture. So yeah, in Excess found themselves
being the culture, which was beautiful hi fi surround sound
setups with wood paneling and shag carpets and their music

(12:57):
blaring in the background while you're trying to woo your
significant other.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
Oh you're having a shag on the shag carpet.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Two disgruntled, disengaged and disinterested youth who were far more interested,
neither being generally from the wrong side of the tracks
or looking from that like they were from the wrong
side of the tracks. The poem was out, the leather
pants were gone, looking expensive, looking fancy. That was done,

(13:27):
And unfortunately that was in Excess's look and feel. That's
what Hutchins was. You know, look at this rock god
we are he's over there. His name's Kurt Cobain. He's
wearing flannel and he's got a ratty looking half bit
And that was the culture that that was the countercultural change.
They just it happens to everybody.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
And then at the end of all this, while they're
dealing with this feeling that they're no longer the it thing.
In nineteen ninety two, Michael Hutchins suffered a traumatic brain
injury while he was in Copenhagen. In a late night
altercation with a taxi driver, he fell and struck his
head on the pavement.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
One night in Denmark, everything changed forever. Michael and Helena
rode their bikes, the preferred mode of transport in Copenhagen,
to a club. At the end of the night, Michael
headed outside ahead of Helena to fetch them. Set aside
his bicycle waiting for her. Suddenly, a taxi sped around
the corner, so close to Michael that he fell over.
He got up, pissed off, and punched the hood of

(14:26):
the cab. The driver got out, walked towards Michael, and
without a word, cracked him in the jaw. Michael's knees
buckled as the man hid him again and again until
he fell to the ground, his head smacking the pavement,
rendering him unconscious. He awoke in a hospital bed, where
he remained recovering for two weeks. Whether it was the

(14:46):
blow or the fall, a nerve in his neck had
been destroyed. His sense of smell was lost for the
rest of his life, which virtually eliminated his ability to taste.
He had also suffered a severe concussion that bruised his brain.
Andrew made him a visit at his home in the
south of France and was alarmed by what he saw.
He was badly injured and I could see that he
was very shaken by the incident. Andrews says, Michael wasn't

(15:10):
one to let anyone know when something was wrong, but
he couldn't hide it. Then. A bruise brain can cause
massive mood swings and behavioral problems until the swelling goes down.
Michael's condition turned his otherwise sweet soul sour. He became
inexplicably irrational, violent, and confrontational, as his beanmates learned when

(15:31):
they reconvene to begin work on their next album. Quote
from Inexcess Story to story five. Yes, chromatic brain injuries
can result in massive mood shifts, especially one described like
this after suffering multiple violent punches and being hit and
in the back of the head with impact with force

(15:53):
concussive force, you are looking at the potential of mood swings.
What else isn't really making things better? In my opinion
here is it doesn't seem like Hutchins went out and
got specialized care either. They found him in France.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
Well he was. They found him on the street in Copenhagen.
Someone called an ambulance. He rushed him to the hospital.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
I bet that taxi driver was like, oh, I am fucked.
I am so so very fucked.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
I could find no record of anything happening to the
taxi driver, So there might be stilled out there who
never actually got card for it.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
But I don't know. I mean it's possible.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Back then it was just a random astrayan guy sitting
astrided bike on a Copenhagen street.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
I mean yes, but I mean a very famous Australian guy,
I said, not a bike.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Would you be able to tell his face in a crowd?

Speaker 1 (16:44):
I mean I wouldn't personally, but you would think with
the money and resources he had that he would have
pushed for a conviction.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
He was busy doing a lot of other things and
had a lot of other things on his mind. We
can get through in a second.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Or didn't want to deal with it, yeah too, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
The change Hutchins was noticeable. He was aggravated by the
isolation of their Caprian recording studio, and he became increasingly unpredictable.
He drank heavily to numb the pain, which made his
aggravation even worse. Remember, he can't smell or taste shit,
which means that it was basically l drinking water to him.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
One night, Gary sat with Michael, trying to understand what
his friend was going through. Hutch just sat there, repeatedly
dropping a knife into the wooden floor of the studio. Michael,
why you're destroying this beautiful floor, Gary asked. Michael snatched
the knife out of the floor and turned on Gary.
Of fucking stab you instead. Gary could tell by the

(17:40):
look in Michael's eyes that he meant it. I was
able to wrestle the knife away from him, but it
wasn't easy. Gary says, it was not a good knight.
I don't think Michael even realized that he was behaving.
It was the brain bruising, which is a very serious condition.
Kirk says he was very frustrated at the time and
all he could do was act down. Quote from in

(18:00):
Excess Stories to Story two thousand and five, because he
should have been somewhere he shouldn't. You don't take someone
like that. This is where it always gets extremely difficult
when it comes to this sort of thing, because you
do always have to respect the individual's wishes, and that
makes it incredibly difficult. Hutchins should not have been sitting

(18:22):
isolated in France with a bunch of people trying to
put together an album, knowing full well that he would
most likely be very frustrated in trying to engage in
the creative process due to a multitude of reasons. That
singing would have been probably difficult for him. Now to

(18:45):
write would have been difficult, being able to string together lyrics,
would have been frequent, headaches, absolutely holly, lots of physical
reactions going on, the vulnerability, the fear, the loss, all
of these things. Michael Hutchins should have been monitored at
a hospital. He should have been under the care of

(19:07):
mental health supervisors. He had the money to This is
what's so upsetting about things like this. It reminds me
of one of our very earliest episodes with Martin Bryant.
The money was there to help. The money. They had
more resources than any of us could ever imagine, so

(19:27):
it's a struggle sometimes to get friends and family to
health care they need. These people could pay for the
best of the best, and they didn't do it, and
it's so incredibly frustrating.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
And it's not like it could have been Lowell. No,
he's gone into rehab. Everyone knew that he'd had that
from at a Green injury. It was all through the newspapers.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, he didn't have to hide it. I mean, the
nineteen nineties are obviously not a place where we're going
to talk about our feelings, so you do have to
that to the cultural mix at the time, which is
going to influence his decision making.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
But again, that's better that everyone knows he had that
brain injury, because then that's a medical problem. That's not
him standing up going I feel bad, so I take drugs.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
I totally agree with you, And that is how the
band could have presented it. Look Michael was attacked. Who
was attacked in Copenhagen. He suffered a brain injury. He
will get better, he will recover, We'll be back better
than ever. But right now, the most important thing is
that he is looked after so that we can have
the best possible recovery for him. Nobody has done that.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
You know, they locked themselves on an island with nothing
but alcohol and little bits of food for six fucking months. Yeah,
we're traveling to the island was very problematic, so they
didn't get much human contact.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
They're lucky that Michael didn't hurt them. They're lucky they
didn't get hurt. They're lucky that that is. I mean,
and it's pretty bad when your friend comes at you
with a knight. All of this could have been managed properly,
and it annoys me a little bit. Just obviously I
have read the entire biography, but I'm guessing, as you've
read the book, Holli, that there's no accountability from any

(21:06):
of them other than oh, this was a really sad
thing that was happening at the time, or did.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
They There was a little bit of maybe maybe we
shouldn't have done this, But at the same time, it's
like it was twenty years ago. What can I do
about it now?

Speaker 1 (21:18):
I mean, of course, and I'm glad that there's actually
a little bit of forethought there at the time. This
is when I will never quite understand band managers. Right,
if I was the band manager at this point, i'd
be like, oh, fuck, my asset is damaged. Here, this
is my paycheck. If I just push and push and push,

(21:38):
or don't monitor this situation or don't help, he could
end up doing something terrible to himself and that could
be problematic for all of us. So I'm going to
make sure you get some help, Like why not have
they could have voted in a psychiatry like putting him
on an isolated eyeland, and in that state was the

(22:02):
I you couldn't do anything worse. And I know I'm
speaking about this as someone who now has six months
of counseling training under my belt, and that does you know,
maybe this isn't as obvious to everybody, but yeah, Pollie,
you you just don't do this.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
Oh it's a stupid idea. But despite Hutchin's intolerance to
the conditions he'd agreed to working on the island of Capri,
the work went on and another album was on its way.
Recording with him was a trying process, but his brain
bruise began to heal by Christmas of nineteen ninety two,
and he began to normalize a little bit when the

(22:43):
band returned to the recording studio on Capri. While he
didn't apologize or discuss the events of the last year.
He did throw himself into work, almost like a penance.
Nineteen ninety three is full Moon, Dirty Hearts or a
drop in popularity. Despite strong singles like The Gift and
a duet with Charles on Please You got that, the
album struggled to connect in the changing musical landscape. Hutchins

(23:06):
almost quit over the album art, and he only signed
on to continue touring with in Excess on the condition
that the album art would change.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
I knew that we needed a very strong image from
this album, stronger than any we'd have before. The resulting
shots are arresting, and the one Murphy favored for the
cover is amazing. It is black and white picturing two busty,
leather clad at Dominatrix hookers in an alley under a
billboard bearing the image of a scruffy morning Arthur. After

(23:34):
Mike Hutchins, I thought it was perfect, Murphy says it
was classic black and white sexy. Anyone who saw it
would pick it up and say what what the fuck
is that it would arouse the interest we needed to
get people to dive into the album. But again, see
it's not that this is the problem. Look at the

(23:56):
most popular albums of nineteen ninety three and have a
look that artwork. HOLI, you've got your computer there.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yes, I will do this week.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
I'll finish the quote and then we'll discuss some of
the artwork. You see that. Unfortunately, Michael hated it, really
hated it, and disagreed that it should be the cover,
to the point that he would not sign any contract
obliging him to tour or support the album in any
way if the cover was not changed. In essence, it
was a threat to quit the band over the album art.

(24:24):
I'm just going to believe that this guy who'd always
been so cutting edge would become someone who was insisting
on grunge covers in nineteen ninety three, Murphy says, quote
from Inexcess Story to Story two thousand and five. In
this case, Hutchins was probably right.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
Yeah, he probably was actually at this point.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
So looking at some of those at artwork, what have
you got there in front of it?

Speaker 2 (24:44):
Okay? So some of the well known albums that released
in nineteen ninety three, in Utero by Nirvana, which has
a little angel person on the cover, yep, great album,
bat Out of Hell too by Meatload.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
An amazing throwback to ital In fantasy artwork. That one.
It's an absolutely just insane Balls to the Wall cover.
One of my favorite pieces of album mark.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
The Demon End of a Motorcycle. Yes, Janet by Janet Jackson,
which is literally just a face.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Shot yep, which was standard for pop.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
River of Dreams by Billy Joel, which is a cartoon
version where uses a negative space to put his face
on the cover.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
Yes, the very interesting and visually appealing yep.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
And then the last one that I will say is
Pablo Honey from Radiohead, which was a sunflower with I
think it's a baby's face on it. I can't quite remember,
and I can't see it.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
This summer, so album art was moving into postmodern art, experimental, surrealistic.
It wasn't sexy girls on the cover in this case.
I totally agree with Hutchins. Now, does that mean that
a grunge style cover was right for them?

Speaker 2 (25:57):
No, they are not a grunge bend.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
They weren't. But could you have done an interesting, visually stylistic,
postmodern looking cover. Yes, you could have.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Well see what's the album title. It's full Moon Dirty Hearts,
So there's a lot of cartoony stuff that you can
do with that that would fit around like Nirvana and
Billy Jolan.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
That at least not in so much as the type
of Miln, but yeah, that that that sort of thing
where you're walking through. At this point in time, ladies
and gentlemen a ce D store, they were still selling vinyl,
but it was starting to disappear. Yeah, so you've got
your cassettes, you've got your CDs, you got a little

(26:41):
bit of vinyl for people who's still buying it. Now
you can give vinyl everywhere. It's crazy how how much
that it has made it come back. That's why I
start collecting it this year. You end up we're in
a situation where you want your album cover to stand out.
And I think when you see, you know, Michael Hutchins
pose next to two sexy ladies in leather, all that's

(27:06):
going to screen to the consumer is nineteen eighty's Dad Rock. Yeah,
And I think Hutchins is right on this, And I
think the band was wrong.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Well the manager was wrong.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Well manager was wrong.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
Yeah. Hutchins became increasingly frustrated with the music industry, the
pressure of fame and the tabloid media. His relationship with
Paula Yates, British TV host and then wife of Boomtown
Rats singer Bob Geldoff meet him, constant tabloid fodder.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
Fucking fu Yeah, Michael and Helena still appeared together in public.
The English tabloid press speculated about it on a daily basis. However,
Michael was hounded wherever he went, and in March nineteen
ninety five, just after Paula and Bob split was official,
he assaulted a photographer who snapped a photo of him
and Paula emerging from a luxury country hotel. Michael tried

(27:57):
to kick him kung fu style and allegedly connected with
the paul slob. Nevertheless, the man fell down, suffered a brusney,
and filed a hefty lawsuit against Hutchins quote from Inexcess
Story to Story two thousand and five.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Despite this run in the English press became more journalistically hungry,
and I use that sarcastically, especially when Hutchins's ex girlfriend,
Virginia Hay made allegations that Hutchins had been cheating on
her with Yates as early as nineteen eighty eight.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
The problem here is as well like their little bit
of sarcasm there, Holly, the British tabloids would by the
end of that decade case Princess Diana to her death. Literally. Yeah,
you know, Now, obviously that driver shouldn't have been doing
what he was doing. And I'm not going in anto
the conspiracy theory stuff of it all, but that was

(28:50):
there have been two watershed moments for the British tabloid press.
The first was the death of Princess Diana and the
inevitable blame that they received for that, and then the
second it would be the King of World News was yeah,
the World News and the murder press hacked into victims
phones for they hacked in there illegally for information for

(29:13):
their stories. So those have been two times where the
British press copped a bruised eye. But around this time
it's particularly bad. It's and it's sort of been cops
by anyone who's in the public sphere, be it musicians,
TV stars, movie actors, Gordon Ramsay and his crew. Yeah,

(29:34):
as the celebrity chef movement began in Earnest in the
nineteen nineties, after you know, its inception in the late
eighties and the British tabloid press were probably the worst
in the world.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Hutchins and Yates remained in England and seemed to be
in the tabloids just about as often as Diana and Charles.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
The three people who were on and off of the
covers of the tabloids literally each day were Princess Diana
and Michael and Paula. Andrews says he went in a
very short amount of time from this celebrated, adored, wild
colonial boy misbehaving in London society to a criminal who
was not their boy at all. It was an Australian
who wasn't supposed to be there all. Quote from story

(30:20):
to story in Excess two thousand and five. I'd also
argue that potentially his brain damage is playing a part.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
In his Oh, it absolutely one percent. In August nineteen
ninety six, Yates gave birth to Hutchins's only daughter, Heavenly
Harni Tiger Lily.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Esis, And that's why we just call loqually referred to
her as Tiger Lily. It was just a lot easier.
This was also the beginning of stupid celebrity names. It
wouldn't be too long after this that Gwyneth Paltrow would
name her kid Paul Yeah. Their joy was short lived
the following month, and Nanny, tasked with looking after yates
three other daughters. While the pair were in Australia, found

(30:59):
opium in a Smarties tube in her home and went
to the police. Good woman, I respect that decision. A
couple claimed the drugs were planted, and although Yates was arrested,
no charges were laid. The incident was, however, enough to
see Geldoff grant a temporary custody of the three eldest children,
a situation that sent Hutchins and Yates spirally. Quote from

(31:21):
The Fateful Punch That Change Michael Hutchins Overnight by Nathan
Jollynews dot com dot Au, twenty nineteen.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Despite Hutchins's life falling apart around him, in excess, pressed
on with another tour and another album. In nineteen ninety seven,
they released Elegantly Wasted, a return to their signature funk
rock sound. The title track got airplay, and a live
performance of Searching became considered one of the best live
performances that the band would ever do again.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
Though they're now competing with the grunge movement, the punk movement.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
The ninety ninety seven is the era of Backstreet Boys, Savage.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
Garden, and Yeah, the boy bands have emerged. It feels
to me that this is the part of the story
of the musical bio pic. That the band is done.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
They start fighting and they start pouring at each other,
and if something doesn't happen, they're all going to go
their own ways.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
They've had their run, you know that. It's it's this
inevitability of people who have immense fame who can never
let it go. They outlive their era, they outlive their era. Yeah,
I would love like a solid decade of being a
famous musician and then be able to go up to
the media, tilt my hat and go, ladies and gentlemen,

(32:33):
this is my last album. Music has changed. This music
is not for my generation, is for the next generation.
I've made my millions of dollars. I'm off to be
an entrepreneur. Goodbye everybody, and then I fly away on
my progress.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
I'll do a tour in ten years when you all
think I'm I'm ready.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, when I go back to being nostalgic and there's
there's market for me, I'll see you in ten years.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yeah, pull Over Ghestlie.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
That same month, in Excess performed the as yet release
as it yet unreleased song Searching at the ARIA Awards.
The song's lyrics, penned by Hutchins, include the lines saw
her mother screaming she had lost control of what she
once believed in. She was not alone given his situation.
It was an emotional performance right up until we walked
on stage. Michael was in tears. Tim Farris recalled years later,

(33:18):
Paula had just left the country quickly, something to do
with the custody of the children. All of a sudden,
it was showtime. Michael had to wipe his eyes and
go out there and sing Searching. It is one of
the greatest performances we ever gave on television, he continued.
It was totally live and Michael sang with such emotion,
I am searching, I am not alone. It's still too
heavy for me to look at even today. The Faithful

(33:41):
punched the change Michael Hutchins.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
Elegantly wasted was not celebrated as a return to form
that they had hoped, debuting at number fourteen in Australia,
number sixteen in the UK, and like their last album,
Failing to crack the US Top forty.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Well look, I mean again, look at the U US
Top forty. At the time, they weren't even anywhere near
that what was being released.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
The band to it again. Hutchins was reportedly optimistic, even
talking about future projects, but the cracks were widening.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
When Michael hit his head, he came back a different person,
and I'm sure doctors were prescribing all sorts of weird
and wonderful concoctions. Bassist Gary Gary Beers told Sunday nine
in twenty fourteen. It was a dick and it wasn't him.
That's the thing. It wasn't the Michael we knew, and
that's what was so surprising. He couldn't smell, he couldn't taste.
He was drinking wine by the bottle because it was

(34:37):
just like nothing to him. Hutchins's sensory interest in food
and wine was erased by the attack, and as Beer suspected,
he began taking a cocktail of drugs to treat the
pain cause from the injury. Things got very heavy in
his head. Christians and recalled he didn't seem himself pay
for punch to change. Michael Hutchins overnight look losing your

(34:59):
sense of taste and smell. One of the things that
is part of our culture. It's very important, is to
be able to enjoy things that you like. If I
turned off your sense of smell and handed your chocolate bar,
you would be very You wouldn't be particularly interested in it,
I'll say that much.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Look, when we were organizing our tour of Japan that
we did, there were lots of people who were like,
did you try this? Did you try that? And it
was all food.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Look, one of my good friends will only go on
a holiday if it's good food. Yep. You know, for him,
going on holiday is relaxation and eating good food. Now
myself also enjoy going out and experiencing new things as well.
So you've lost this massive part of human experience. So

(35:47):
you're supplementing that with any barbituate you can get your
hands on, and because you consume a lot of alcohol
very very quickly, that's what you're doing. And you're becoming
more and more reckless, leaving drugs around children and then
getting angry when people point out that you can't do that.
But you're not talking about your pain, you're not getting treatment.
This should have been around the processes that have been

(36:12):
followed here. It's just so textbook as to the expectations.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
Like a certain grunge punk rockman from Seattle, Hutchins eventually
turned to self medication, not to chase a high, but
to quiet the noise.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Yeah, you're talking about a certain blondehaired man that was
doing Heroin like it was going out of fashion.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
Yeah that one, Yeah, that one. What began as pain
relief became habit is coping became escape, and as the
pressures mounted personally, professionally, illegally, so did the isolation. It
all came to a head in November of nineteen ninety seven.
In Excess were back in Sydney, preparing to kick off
the twentieth anniversary tour, one more lap for the band

(36:57):
that had gone from suburban pubs to global stares. But
Hutchins wasn't the same. The years of pressure, pain and
relentless scrutiny had worn him down. On the morning of
November twenty two, just hours before the band was due
to rehearse, Michael Hutchins was found dead in his hotel room.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
Michael Hutchins died on the morning of November twenty second,
nineteen ninety seven in room five two four of the
Ritzkulton Hotel Double Bay in Sydney, where he was checked
in under the name Murray River. That afternoon, housekeeping found
his lifeless body. He was naked on his knees, leaning
face first against the back of the door. There was
a belt fastened around his neck. The other end of

(37:38):
it had been attached to the self closing mechanism at
the top of the door, but the weight of Michael's
body body had broken it free sometime between his passing
and his discovery. In the room, police found photos of
his daughter, as well as a book on auto erotica,
the sexual act of strangulation during masturbation to achieve a
heightened orgasm. There were no illicit substances on the scene.

(38:00):
A bottle of the antidepressant Prozac prescribed to Hutchins. Coroner's
autopsy revealed traces of cocaine, alcohol, prozac what were officially
reported as other prescription drugs in Michael Hutchins's bloodstream. His
death was ruled a suicide by hanging. The estimated time
of death was ten am. Quote from In Excess Story

(38:21):
to Story in Excess and Anthony Bozzer two thousand and five.
All right, time to get to the most famous debate,
suicide or misadventure. I'm glad I actually have some framework
to discuss this. Yep. Keeping in mind I'm a student,
this is not a diagnosis. I am not allowed to diagnose,

(38:41):
or will I ever be allowed to diagnose. So on
the scale of probabilities, I'm going to go with misadventure.
The auto eerotica book that was sitting there, and the
way he was positioned and the he was going about it,

(39:02):
to me, screams of misadventure. Combine a very dangerous practice
and reckless attitude as a result from a brain injury,
you do have a pretty convincing case for misadventure. In
my opinion. I think that at the time, and the

(39:26):
reason that this debate is so prominent, it was ruled
a suicide, which today I don't think you would call
it that. I think it would be ruled misadventure. Death
by misadventure.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
There were no previous attempts to begin with.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
That's a very good point, Holly, and considering his struggles
for many, many, many many years, the fact that there
was no discussion of suicide, there was no There are
a lot there are indicators that sort of tell us,
you know, if someone is close to it. His friends
never reported any discussion of suicidal ideation. There were things

(40:08):
that connected him to the world. You know, his daughter
was here and can could someone completely rule out suicide?
I'd say that there is a chance, but I don't
think it's a very good one. They just aren't the

(40:29):
Like the way he hung himself, for example, does not
suggest the way someone would typically die of asphyxia due
to you know, suicide right like you know, the auto
eerotica book next to him, the fact that he was

(40:49):
trying to supplement a a loss of experience by engaging
in very dangerous experiences autoerotic asphyxiation, constant use of drugs
and alcohol. And the biggest problem is too that someone

(41:12):
could easily parallel what I'm saying and say, oh, that
also applies to people who are suicidal, and that is true.
But I'm just working on the probability of scales here,
And while I'm not going to completely rule out suicide,
I would say that it seems far likely that this
was just death due to misadventure. So that's coming from

(41:35):
a somewhat educated opinion on this.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
Polly, what do you think I'd say that's pretty reasonable.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
I think so too. I think it was just an accident.
Very sadly, people actually die of autoerotic asphyxiation more frequently
than you would probably think that it is happening. It
is an exceptionally dangerous practice. The reason that people get
excited by it is because you're actually killing brain cells.

(42:06):
And during those moments, the body is really good at
trying to manage its own pain, and so when you
put yourself into extreme stress danger pain, you can have
a big endorphin and dopamine release, and so during the
heind of orgasm, those two chemicals interacting in your brain
make the experience far more powerful, and that's why people

(42:29):
engage in it. But it's a very very dangerous practice.
I don't even want to say practice it in safety
unless you have someone standing there watching you, which kind
of changes the social fetish a little bit. I don't
think it could ever be performed safely. I don't think
it can be performed safely with someone in front of you.
I think it is a very very dangerous practice and

(42:52):
not something that should be engaged in. And if you
turn around and say, well, I have all these safety
measures in place. I'm sure you do, but safety measures
fail people all the time. I just don't think it's
worth engaging in personally. I'm not going to yucky yum.
If that's your business, that's your business. But just realize
you are taking that risk.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
Please be careful.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
Yeah, and I'm not going to like I said, I'm
not even going to advocate for safe use here. I
don't think it can be done safely.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
Hutchins had been struggling. His mental health was fragile, his
personal life locked in custody, battles and tabloid harassment was unraveling.
The head injury from nineteen ninety two hadn't helped together.
It all formed a storm he couldn't outrun. Well, it
might not have been a suicide, and there are obviously
a lot of people who believe it was more.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
An accident, and I think that's where we fall on this.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
The result was still the same.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
And also to the media, was not allowed to report
on what it was.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
No, because that's a whole censorship kind of Yeah, to
do name whatever they call.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
It, what they auto eerotic asphyxiation.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
No, no, no, When the media can't say you were raped,
it was sexually assaulted or sexually abused or something fiddled
with or something. Yeah, yeah, it's but they downplay it.
But at the same time they're telling you exactly what
it is.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Yeah, it's using a euphemism. That's the word euphemism. So
in this case, I don't think it was necessarily using
a euphemism. But it's like, what do you pace on you?
What do you pace as a headline Michael Hutchinson dad
while wanking while choking himself to death? Or do you
put Michael Hutchinson tragically died by suicide. Now, obviously they

(44:33):
would never phrase it the way I just did, but
that's really alone.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
In a hotel room is usually how they do it.
At point you go oh yeah suicide, yeah, oh yeah,
drug over.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
So you're really faced with two binary options and people
aren't ready to discuss that sort of sexuality. Sorry. Yeah,
well yeah, now, like even you know, look, I'm a
pretty sexually liberated person. They don't think there's anything wrong
with people engaging in sexual acts as long as they're
legal and no one is getting hurt and it's consensual.

(45:04):
So that's pretty much my attitude to it. But you know,
nineteen ninety seven. Sorry, ninety seven, that's where we're at. Yep, Yeah,
nineteen ninety seven. Most people would never have even heard
the term of erotic asphyxiation, nor would they understand someone
doing that and why they would do that and how
that could lead to death. Like, there's a lot of

(45:27):
stuff that has to go there. So I think the
media is really responsible for this narrative because they turned
around and said, you know, it was a tragic suicide
because he's had a lot of problems that they helped cause.
And you know, that's that's just because there's no accountability
with the media, and so that narrative was pushed out
there pretty pretty hard. You know, was he going through

(45:52):
a lot of battles? Yeah, But he also didn't demonstrate
signs of suicidal ideation. He showed a lot of signs
of manic behavior, which would result from a traumatic brain injury.
Strangely enough, Absolutely, he was manic, and sometimes that can
result in suicide or that can result in death by misadventure. Yeah. So,

(46:16):
you know, it's a very complicated narrative to explain. And
what have we discovered on this podcast, Holly, History is complicated,
Narratives aren't simple, and you do have to take the
time to deal with the tale appropriately, and I don't
think the media in nineteen ninety seven in Australia is
going to be particularly good at doing that.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
The loss was devastating, not just for the band who'd
known him since they were kids, but for fans around
the world. Hutchins wasn't just a singer. He was a
cultural figure with a distinct voice. He was a singer
who managed to balance swagger and sensitivity. He was dangerous,
magnetic and knowable, but never cold. His death echoed others

(47:01):
from the same troubled lineage, Jim Morrison, Ian Curtis Cobain,
talented men who carried too much and left too early.
After Michael Hutchins's death in excess, found themselves not just
grieving a friend and bandmate, but also facing an impossible question.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
You quit the band, you go off and work on
other projects, you start a new band, that's what you do.
They didn't do that.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
They'd lost their frontman, their voice, their presence, and their
most recognizable member, and for a while they did what
many groups of lifelong friends might do. They just stopped.
No tours, no new albums, just a quiet space where
Hutchins used to stand, but In Excess wasn't just Michael Hutchins.
There were six people, and five of them were still standing.

(47:52):
They had a choice that they had to make. They
could go the Nirvana round, break apart, find new projects,
and form new bands, live new lives. Or they could
go the ACDC route and find a new lead singer,
divide fans between eras, and make more money off a
fresh beginning.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
After the initial period of grieving, what followed for In
Excess was behavior a king to a beast, thrushing about
after its head had been cut off. They refused to
say die. They performed with guests. They tried various options
before appointing ex noisework singer John Stevens as Hutchin's placement.
They were clearly never comfortable with their choice. Steven's front

(48:30):
of the band for three years, but when he left
in October two thousand and three, In Excess had managed
to record just one track with him, a charity single
quote from Housepace in Excess July twenty seven, twenty seventeen.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
In nineteen ninety nine, band regrouped cautiously and began exploring
options for moving forward. Their first attempt came with Pence
Trent Darby, who joined them for a brief series of
performances including the Sydney Olympics Countdown Concert. Their shows due attention,
but Darby didn't stay on. His style was distinct, his
presence undeniable, but it wasn't quite a fit. In two thousand,

(49:08):
John Stevens, former frontman of Noiseworks, joined as lead singer.
Stevens was already well known and respected figure in Australian rock,
and his addition brought credibility and vocal power to the group.
In excess, began performing live again, and in two thousand
and three they recorded a single together, I Get Up,
but Stevens left the band in two thousand and three

(49:29):
citing creative differences and frustration with the pace of new material.
I Get Up with such a low burner that you
can't actually find it on Spotify if you want to
listen to.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
It, he ouch, everything's on Spotify nearly.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
You have to go to YouTube to hear it.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
Is it good? Not really?

Speaker 2 (49:45):
It's like it's like he's trying to do a Michael
Hutchard's impression, which is never what you should do. There's
a reason why Brian Johnson decided not to do a.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
Bonsk and he and the Brian Johnson era is very
unique because of that. You can go this is one
era of ac DC, this is the next, and they're
very separate. Like I think what whatever remains of ac
DC now is still touring, Yeah, they are, most of them.
A lot of them are gone now.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
I think there's only like two or three members that
are original now and everyone else is a replacement.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
Yeah. That's when what normally would happen in those instances
is that bean mates would be then like the band
would be dissolved, but then other bands would pick up
the talent.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
Yeah, like oh we like that dramma, So ours is retiring?
You want to come over here?

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Yeah, yeah exactly. It's like, hey, you know, your manager,
this is again this is where music management has probably
fallen to the wayside a little bit. But your manager
would probably seek out new options for you. You know,
you would go off and that's how superbands get formed sometimes,
is you end up you know, this is the basis
from this this particular group and this particular group, and

(50:55):
this is the vocalist, and now they form this new
band and it's going to be very interesting. You know.
That's like obviously Grole controversy, noted as a problematic figure
these days, but when it comes to Gorole, I mean
he made the right choice by starting the Food Fighters. Yeah,
was like, well, I have my own musical direction, you know,
he had his own feel that he wanted to hit,

(51:17):
and he's like, well, I'm going to go off and
I'm going to put together the Food Fighters and I'm
going to try something different. And The Food Fighters is
very different to Nirvana. A lot of people get confused
with me because I'm not a big fan of The
Food Fighters, but I'm a big fan of Nirvana. Like
why don't you lay It's Dave Grohl, and I'm like
Dave Groll as a drummer versus Dave Groll as a singer, songwriter,

(51:39):
guitarist is two really really different things. And I'm not
saying you can't like both or you can't like one
or the other. But I like Nirvana and Nirvana is
not Food Fighters, So I think that's how you do it.
I don't think limping along like a dead dog is really.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
Going to help me eating.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
I know, I think it just jets on your legacy.
I think it ruins things for yourself.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
You want to hear some Milson can ruin your.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
Legacy, Becky, Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
This could have been the end. But in two thousand
and four, In Excess made a bold and divisive move.
They partnered with American television producers Mark Burnett and David
Goffin to launch every reality team reality TV competition rock
Star in Excess. I kind of remember seeing the promos,

(52:32):
but I had absolutely no interest in watching it.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
God, this is tasteless, isn't it it is?

Speaker 2 (52:38):
The concept was simple old global auditions to find a
new lead singer. Contestants could live together, perform covers, and
ultimately vie for the frontman's spot in one of the
biggest bands Australia had ever produced.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
Arguably.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
The show aired in two thousand and five and drew
millions of viewers worldwide. Contestants performed everything from Queen and
Nirvana to classic in Excess tracks.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
It's almost like a proto voice, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
It's point in time, So this is kind of it's
part of that Yeah, that big reality TV.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
Yeah, I mean it still exists to this day, but yeah,
the push for reality TV now is very, very strong.
And yeah, you have the voice and you have American
Idol or what sorry, no, the voice is on its way,
but you have American Idol, You've got Britain's talent talent. Yeah, yeah,
because that was the Spice Girls as well, wasn't it.
They came from They came from a talent show too.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
They did, but that was in the very early nineties,
so that was a very different era.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
Yeah. So yeah, this is if you're going to do it,
now's the time. Is it tasteless? Yes.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
The band members were present throughout, watching, commenting, and judging performances.
In the end, the winner was JD. Fortune, a Canadian
singer with a rock edge and undeniable charisma.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
Mister Fortune, that's my dad. I'm JD. Fortune.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
I mean, I've watched clips of him singing. I completely
disagree with that sentiment, but I found it in a
couple of reviews, so I guess that it's true. He
wasn't Hutchins, No one could be. But he brought energy, confidence,
and a vocal range that worked with the band's catalog.
As part of the finale of the show, in Excess
performed with Fortune on the song never Tear Us Apart.

(54:23):
Which you can watch on YouTube and cry as you
watch the entire legacy fall down around their feet.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
See, you know what I would have done, right right?

Speaker 2 (54:33):
You have split the band out. We've already covered this.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
All right, you want to keep the band together? In
excess comes to me, I'm the band manager. All right, guys,
this is what we're going to do. We're not in
excess anymore. We're going to release a press release and say,
in honor of the passing of our dear friend, we

(54:58):
are retiring the name and Excess. The band will continue
on in a new form. Please watch this space. We
are going to come back as something new, something culturally relevant.
We will return. Right, You go out Holly, find and unknown. Right,

(55:18):
You don't try and grab someone who's famous. You go
out there and you audition, and your audition and your audition,
you find another singer songwriter who is talented, who is
more modern, who has ideas. Right, that's what you do.
You go out there and you sort of put those
feelers out sort of similar. Now, I know it's a
controversial topic. I don't want to fucking get into it,

(55:39):
not even going to offer an opinion on it. But
you do what Lincoln Park has done right, yep, big sert,
big talent sert. But you take the next step and
you ditch the name as well. Right, you drop the
name and you go and you can come back. And
your next media release is we have found out singer songwriter.
We are now known as this band. We will be

(56:01):
working on our new album very soon. We're going on
tour and to honor our dear friend Michael, we will
be closing every concert with a guest singer doing their
rendition of Never Tear Us Apart.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Yes, and it definitely has to be that song.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
And boom you were back. You get media attention in excess.
Fans don't feel pissed off, and they're going to cross
over and support you. You've honored your friend's legacy and
you haven't started a reality television show. This is not difficult.
They make it difficult and they do stupid shit like

(56:43):
this all the time. One of my favorite sort of
proto punk bands is Joy Division. Right, they ended up
landing the I think it was the number It was
the thirteenth spot on the Billboard chart, and they landed
that a couple of weeks after their singer songwriter had

(57:03):
committed suicide.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
It was Ian Curtis, who I mentioned earlier.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
Yes, Ian Curtis, Yes, and I love I love his
I can't remember the song. It's like I think it's
love will Never, Love will never tear Us Apart or
love Won't Terrorists Apart and Ian So. Ian Curtis had
had committed suicide due to his epilepsy, and Enjoy Division
became a new band. They split off, they joined up

(57:30):
with other people. They didn't perform as Joy Division.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
Sorry, can I just love will Terrors Apart.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
Love will Terrrist's Apart? So theirs was love love will
never tear Us Apart? And there's is so inexcess is
never tear us Apart? Joy Division is love will terri
will ter US's Apart. It's a great song, Love wll
terroist Apart. Holly does not like it. So just recently,
like they did Cook who was a member of the band,

(57:56):
like did this crazy like big like retrospective on his career.
And the music of Joy Division was a big concept
and they had like guests come on and perform that song,
you know, And it was meaningful and I think it
respected Aan Curtis's legacy that's I think that's how you

(58:17):
do this. I don't think you do it this way.
I think this way kind of shits on the memory
of your friend.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
Oh absolutely yah. With G. D. Fortune at the head,
the band released a new studio album Suit in two
thousand and five. The album featured the single Pretty Vegas
co written by Fortune, and it became a hit, charting
in Australia, the US, and Canada, which debuted at number
seventeen on the Billboard two hundred and reached number eighteen

(58:45):
on the Aria Album's.

Speaker 1 (58:46):
Chut Peel's Dirty Though doesn't it it does?

Speaker 2 (58:50):
The band toured globally once again, hitting the US, Europe,
South America and Australia. For a while, it looked like
the next chapter had begun, but the scenes things were complicated.
Fortune later claimed he was fired from the band at
an airport in Hong Kong in two thousand and nine.
The band denied this, saying his behavior had become a ratic.

(59:12):
Fortune would later rejoin the band, then leave again, and
the cycle repeated itself over the years. Nothing like stability
in Your Bandmates. In twenty ten, they released Original Sin,
a tribute album featuring guest vocalists including Ben Harper, Rob
Thomas and others reinterpreting in Excess pro classics. It wasn't

(59:33):
just nostalgia. It was a reminder that the songs still
held up. Other vocalists were briefly brought in, including Sierian Gribbon,
an Irish singer songwriter, who joined the band in twenty eleven.
With Gribbon in Excess perform live, but did not release
another full studio album.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
What followed was even more astounding survival Yes credibility No.
In Excess became the vehicle for a worldwide television search
for a new singer rock star in Excess. Eventually, Canadian
singer j D. Fortune was anointed winner and rushed into
the studio to record Inexcess's first album for eight years,
which was Switch. Poor sales internationally saw the termination of

(01:00:13):
the band's international recording contract. Still determined not to allow,
Michael Hutchins's absence robbed them of the career they had
worked so hard for and given so much to Inexcess.
They had worked so hard for and given so much too.
In Excess reunited with former major Chris Murphy and in
twenty ten released Original Sin. The band reinventing their past
hits with various guest vocalists including JD Fortune, Ban Harper, Tricky,

(01:00:38):
Rob Thomas, and Suzie Demachi, who had seriously been considered
to fill Michael's shoes very early in this long and
arduous transition, wrote from Housepace in Excess July twenty seven,
twenty seventeen.

Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
In Excess appeared that Australia Celebrates Live on January twenty fifth,
twenty twelve. In the crowd listening to the song's original
sin need You Tonight, New Sensation, what You Need and
Never Tear Us Apart? Were your hosts in our first
ever live concert together.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
Yes, we were with our good friend Joanna and our
friend Graham, who sadly passed away, and I inherited some
of his record collection, which had of course next one
of Edexcess's greatest albums, which is The Swing, which we
listened to this week. So this is don't This is

(01:01:28):
no teary moment. This is a very happy moment because
it's a very happy memory for me because he he
really really loved that band. So we all who was singing?
I can't remember, I.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
Don't remember who it was. I thought it was Jimmy Barnes,
But then I look back and know Jimmy Barnes was
the next year, so was Jimmy Barns Lambert.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
I thought it was Adam, but.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
Adam Lambert was fronting Queen.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
Thank Okay, so we definite because we saw Queen with Lambert, right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
I don't think we've ever been to a Queen concert.
I honestly don't know who was.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
It was a young singer, it was young, maybe it
was Fortune.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
What maybe I know, I really don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
So if you were at that concept for the Love
of God, can you tell us because we just can't
remember and we can't find any listings on it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
No, they just listed as in xs H so fuck
please help us? Were you where was it, Horace?

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
Were you the grasses on Palmer House? That's where it was?

Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
Yeah? So were you there in two thousand and twelve
twelve in Canberra for the Australia Day Concert for the
Love of God? Help us? Hey? We became part of
our own history on the show that's never happened before.
That's cool.

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
By the end of the year, after over three decades
of music, the band had reached the end of the
road on November eleven, twenty twelve, while opening for math
Box twenty in Perth, in Excess announced their retirement from
live performance. The statement was formal, respectful, and final.

Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
After more than done fucked up, We're sorry, bye, Sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
It took us fifteen years, but we're doing it now.
After more than thirty five years, over seventy million records
sold and endless countless tours, in Excess had done what
few bands could end on their own terms. Technically, yes,
because they retired.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
Yeah, I mean yeah, all the decisions were there, as
I suppose.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
In twenty fourteen mini series In Excess, Never Tearist Apart,
produced by the Seven Network, reignited interest in the band's history.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
And probably allotted too much time to Kylie Minogue in
that Joe right. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
The series was a ratings hit in Australia, especially with
younger audiences who hadn't grown up with Pick but now
founded on streaming playlists and Spotify algorithms, and also every
fucking movie that's ever been Never Theresa.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
Yes, it's been there, it's been it's been a soundtrack
for real time. Yeah, for Australian tell not so much,
I mean internationally of course, but in Australian pop culture terms,
television and mini series and docu dramas and commercials and commercials.
It's it's a very prominent song here.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
Tim Farris unfortunately suffered a serious hand injury in twenty
fifteen that left him unable to play guitar, effectively ending
his live performance career. Demand is not to it since,
nor recorded new material. In twenty twenty, In Excess Relieved
Live Baby Live on Blu ray and in cinemas, fully
restored and remastered from the original Wembley tapes. The footage

(01:04:40):
confirmed what fans had always said that In Excess wasn't
just a band, it was an experience and you can
go and watch if you go onto YouTube to the
Never Terrorist Apart video. It scrolled down into the comments.
There are lots of people who were like, I was
fucking there and it would never be the same. Michael
Hutchins has since been the subject of multiple documentaries, including

(01:05:02):
the twenty seventeen film Michael Hutchin's The Last rock Star.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
Everyone's the last rock Star, aren't they? Yep?

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
I'm surprised that Robbie Williams managed to not do better
Man The Last rock Star.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
I mean I still haven't watched Better Man, and I
really need to because I think the concept is delightful.
I really do. And I think the criticism of a
lot of Americans, especially we're like, well, who the fuck
is Robbie Williams, I don't know. Maybe watch the fucking
movie and you might find out.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
Robbie Williams also did a single with Carli Minogue, so
with timees in.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
But you know what I mean, go watch his fucking
movie and you might find out his life story. With
the movie about his life story, it's this insinuation that
because they don't know who someone is, that they don't
that doesn't deserve to be like and look, I'm not
a Robbi Williams fan. I just think the concept of
that movie is fantastic.

Speaker 2 (01:05:55):
Just like the Weird Hol one, it's poking fun. We'll
also convey.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well the Weird Our one it's more
of a comedy parody, which has always been Weird Hour,
which is kind of the point. So I guess you're right.
Never mind, I would draw my objection. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
In the twenty nineteen doc Mister Fire directed by Richard Lowenstein,
Mister Phi focused on Hutton's personal life, his artistic sensibility,
his struggles with fame, and the impact of his brain
injury was raw tender for many of the band members,
it was actually a little bit healing. Hutton's injury and
death contributed to the push for further research into the

(01:06:31):
long term impacts of chromatic brain injuries, particularly their links
to depression, personality change, and self harm. But beyond the
headlines and the tragedy, in Excess remains one of Austraia's
greatest musical exports, a band that mixed soul and swagger
and gave the world a front man who could mesmerize
a stadium with a whisper.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
Come on here.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
From sticky floored pubs to sold out arenas, their rise
was fast, their fall was heartbreaking, and their legacy is
carved into the soundtrack of a generation. Because whatever else
happened for a while there, in Excess really did have
what you need.

Speaker 1 (01:07:13):
Yes, Holly, you could say that as far as Australian
pop culture and in Excess goes, they will never tear
us apart.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
We both didn't it single one.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Look, if you are interested, please go check out their
back patalog. It is a really, really good example of
seventies and eighties pop rock. I would highly recommend it.
The Swing is a fantastic album, so I would recommend
going to check that out. Traumatic brain injuries is something
that we are now taking far more seriously than we

(01:07:47):
used to. There's a lot of crime that has happened
over the years which we can now explain with traumatic
brain injuries. If you or a family member suffer from
a traumatic brain injury, make sure that you get appropriate help.
Very very important.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
But don't exile yourself onto a island with a never
ending supply of alcohol and a knife.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
A knife, Yeah, you know how Australians are with knives.
That's not a knife. This is a knife, you know.
That's what I thinks a spoon. See you play knife?
You spoony before anyway, So yes, please go check out
their album. I hope you've enjoyed it. Obviously, we cannot
cram the entire history of the band into three hours.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
Did a damn good job of it, though.

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
Holly gave you an amazing overview. But yeah, the book
that you used as the backbone of these episodes, Holly.

Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
Yep in excess story to Sorry two thousand and five.

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
Great book. Go check that out. That's from the bandmate's perspective,
manager's perspective. There's some great stories in there as well. Well,
ladies and John before we let you go, don't forget.
You can check us out on the social media. Shoot
us a Bell Weird Crap in Australia at Gmail as well.
We'd love to hear your opinions. We've got some interesting
messages back and forth on this series, as we always

(01:08:59):
do with musical episodes, which is really really cool. We
do have our next one already planned which will be
a little hint to the future Holy Cold Chisel, right, yes,
in the future. Yeah, so we got some Cold Chisel
and obviously we'll be talking about another interesting front of
the Man there with Jimmy Barnes. So model music is

(01:09:20):
on the way if you do dig the tunes. A
couple of ways you can support the show. You can
find us on at Patreon for only five dollars at
USD a month. You get access to our bonus minnesotes
which we produce for you every week, as well as
these episodes released to you at free and early. You
can also kicker out our book series We Crap in
Australia is available at our great mates at impact coomics

(01:09:42):
dot com dot Au for those physical copies. If you're
listening internationally, just check out the book series at Lulu
dot com. That's our print on the mean service, and
you can also grab the book digitally from Amazon dot
com at their Kindle store. You can also grab some
wee crap in Australia. Merchandise are from our teap leak
and a red bubble storefronts. Just typing we crapping a

(01:10:03):
straight into the search bar, just like social media. Otherwise,
this is our custom. We give Holly the final words.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
So Spotify does a repeat reload, so repeat rewinds playlist.
I was just updating it to see how many inexcess
in songs ended up down there. Surprisingly enough on mine,
I've only got need you tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:10:21):
I don't think i'd have any Sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:10:23):
It's not really your forte, but I have been listening
to a lot of inexccess and I've still only managed
yet one song on.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
This, So there you go. Maybe next year will be
the year for more in excess in your top ten there, Holly, Well,
thank you very much for joining us, and of course
a big thank you to Holly for the tremendous amount
of work that you put into this these three episodes.
Reading an entire book in a week to produce this
show is not an easy task, so big thank you

(01:10:48):
to Holly of course for that. And she's been sick
this week so it has been even harder to finish
this all off, so big, big, big props to you, Holly.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
I also had to read another book for next episode.

Speaker 1 (01:10:59):
I already thank you. You get one thank you per week.
That is the rules in our in our what's the
term for it? We had a prenuptial agreement that I
would only have to thank you once a week.

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
Preconceptual agreement conceiving this a podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
Well that's it from us. Ladies and gentlemen. Please stay safe,
be kind of one another, and we will see you
all next week for more Weird Crap in Australia. Until then,
bye for now. By The Weird Crap in Australia podcast

(01:11:42):
is produced by Holly and Matthew Soul for the Modern Meltdown.
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