The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 965: Michael Hutchence, 25 years later

Being a music fan was much different in the era before the internet. News traveled slowly, passing through many, many filters–so many, in fact, that a tremendous amount of information was either stripped out or drastically altered by the time it reached us. If it reached us at all, that is.

This was never more true than in cases when something awful happened such as a rock star death. Think back to all the confusion, speculation, and conspiracy theories that popped up in the wake of Kurt Cobain’s suicide.

Three years after Kurt died, we encountered something similar. It was another suicide–maybe. And for much of the world, this death was treated as a tabloid story because of some speculative and very lurid details involving the three key elements: sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll.=

But for others, especially in Australia, this death was a very big deal and extremely traumatizing. It had such an impact that a quarter of a century later, fans are still talking about what may (or may not) have happened in room 524 of a luxury hotel in Sydney on November 22, 1997.

This is the story of INXS and the death of Michael Hutchence.

Songs heard on this show (all are by INXS):

• Elegantly Wasted
• Simple Simon
• The One Thing
• What You Need
• Need You Tonight
• Suicide Blonde
• Devil Inside
• By My Side
• Never Tear Us Apart

This is Eric Wilhite’s playlist.

The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:

• 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7
• Q107/Toronto
• Live 88-5/Ottawa
• 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener
• FM96/London
• Power 97/Winnipeg
• Sonic 102.9/Edmonton
• The Zone/Victoria
• The Fox/Vancouver
• Surge 105/Halifax
• WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown

We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor,  Montreal, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s, and anywhere else with a transmitter and I’ll see what I can do.