Amplifier

That’s Enough, INXS

By | Amplifier – Wed, May 25, 2011 8:14 PM EDT

Once upon a time, decades ago, INXS were a significant band. They had songs you liked. Unfortunately, their Jim Morrison doppelganger of a singer Michael Hutchence passed away in 1997, which should have meant the end of INXS. However, the band soldiered on. Firs they hired singer Jon Stevens, then they used a reality show in 2005 to find a Hutchence replacement. The winner of the contest was J.D. Fortune, who served as the band's singer until 2009, when the band fired Fortune in a Hong Kong airport because of an alleged cocaine addiction. Now, INXS have announced another tour, only they're not divulging who their lead singer is going to be.

INXS' latest album Original Sin finds vocalists like Rob Thomas, Ben Harper, and John Mayer singing on reworked INXS tracks, but none of those dudes will fill the vacancy this tour. Instead, according to Slicing Up Eyeballs, even though Fortune isn't featured in the band's new promo shots, more than likely he'll rejoin INXS for a second stint. Fortune performed some gigs with INXS in 2010, but judging by his absence in the publicity photos, he's still a "for hire" singer and not a real member of the band. To be honest, we don't really care. We understand this is INXS' livelihood and its within their rights to continue on after their original singer died, but this is getting silly. At this point, Beck and his Record Club do a better impression of INXS than INXS.

The one cool thing about the INXS tour is that fellow '80s new wavers Berlin will open the shows; their song "Masquerade" has been criminally ignored for too long:

 

[Photo:  Dr. Billy Ingram/WireImage.com]

News for You

  • NYers furious over photos taken through windows

    NEW YORK (AP) — In one photo, a woman is on all fours, presumably picking something up, her posterior pressed against a glass window. Another photo shows a couple in bathrobes, their feet touching beneath a table. And there is one of a man, in jeans and a T-shirt, lying on his side as he takes a nap.

  • 'Iron Man 3' races past $1 billion dollar mark on monster foreign take

    By Todd Cunningham LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Iron Man 3" was soaring past $1 billion at the worldwide box office Thursday, in a display of world domination that would make one of Marvel's super villains proud. The box-office bounty - roughly $700 million from abroad and $300 million domestically - is a major triumph for Disney, which bet big on comic book superheroes when it bought Marvel Studios for $4 billion in 2009. And its decision to bring aboard a Chinese partner for "Iron Man 3" and focus the Disney marketing machine on the booming foreign market looks pretty good right now, too. ...

  • Denmark favorite to win Eurovision Song Contest

    MALMO, Sweden (AP) — An ethno-inspired flute and drum tune from Denmark is the bookmakers' favorite to win this year's Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, which also features a bizarre opera pop number from Romania and an Armenian rock song written by the guitarist of Black Sabbath.

  • NYC artist's secret photos raise privacy issues

    NEW YORK (AP) — In one photo, a woman is on all fours, presumably picking something up, her posterior pressed against a glass window. Another photo shows a couple in bathrobes, their feet touching beneath a table. And there is one of a man, in jeans and a T-shirt, lying on his side as he takes a nap.

  • Native American actress proud to walk Cannes red carpet

    By Belinda Goldsmith CANNES (Reuters) - Native American actress Misty Upham never dreamt she would be walking the red carpet at Cannes to showcase a film shot on her reservation. Upham features in "Jimmy P. Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian", focused on the relationship between World War Two veteran Jimmy Picard, a Native American Blackfoot, and Georges Devereux, his psychoanalyst. Upham said like Picard, played by Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro, she is Blackfeet, the largest tribe in Montana state. ...

  • 'American Idol' finale draws record low ratings

    NEW YORK (AP) — Ratings for the "American Idol" finale plunged to a record low for the 12-year-old show.

Show More