Personal Recollections Of Michael Hutchence 20 Years Since His Tragic Demise

Through the pages of Bryget Chrisfield's teenage diaries, we revisit Rocking The Royals, the Dogs In Space set and beyond to pay tribute to Michael Hutchence in the month that marks 20 years since his tragic demise.

Rocking The Royals (4 Nov, 1985) 

While Princess Diana and Prince Charles were in Melbourne for Victoria's 150th anniversary celebrations, a concert was put on in their honour to showcase Australia's finest musical talent at the time. INXS headlined, but Models, Kids In The Kitchen, I'm Talking and comedian Richard Stubbs also performed on the night. For those who weren't fortunate enough to snag $52 tickets to experience the concert from inside Melbourne Concert Hall (now Hamer Hall), giant screens were set up around the nearby St Kilda Road underpass and $2.50 tickets could be purchased to watch the show from Alexandra Avenue. It's estimated that 15,000 punters rocked out in the underpass.  

So which option would a posse of skint, music-obsessed teens go for, do you think? An impressive line-up such as this presented endless autograph/photograph hunting opportunities so a decision was made to hang around the stage door in lieu of actually watching the show. Anticipating soundchecks, we conducted a reconnaissance around Melbourne Concert Hall and took our places among a handful of other fans that had already assembled near the stage door with similar intentions. It bucketed down on the night, but this didn't dampen our spirits as we prepared to meet and greet Australian rock royalty.

Molly Meldrum was there, of course. He put the line-up together and, upon deciding the vibe inside Melbourne Concert Hall needed an injection of teen spirit, he opened the stage door and ushered us all through the labyrinthine corridors into the luxe auditorium. We bolted down the aisles, dripping all the way, to ensure we soaked up the majesty of INXS from as close to the stage as possible.

The whole Rocking The Royals concert is up on YouTube and still holds up as an outstanding document of the band's world-class show. INXS's well-documented relentless touring schedule made them untouchable live. Burn For You's haunting, minimal synth intro (INXS's Rocking The Royals opener) still thrills and takes this scribe right back to that very moment. 

Diary excerpt: "We all got really excited and thoroughly enjoyed the performance INXS gave which was of an excellent, professional standard."   

Even though INXS weren't our favourite band on the Rocking The Royals line-up at the time, one look at Michael Hutchence writhing around up there just out of reach and we were immediately converted. Only a handful of lead singers in history boast Hutchence-level charisma; you simply couldn't drag your eyes away from him. Michael somehow made every single member of the audience feel as if he was performing just for them while also staring directly down the barrels of the cameras (drawing in the underpass partiers) and prowling/cavorting across the entire width of the stage.     

After the band's 11-song set and now with sweat further drenching our rain-soaked bodies, we were ushered back out the stage door. We elbowed each other excitedly while stifling our "ERMAGERD" reactions and trying to act cool. Of course we waited to meet the bands again on their way out - more golden photo and autograph opportunities. And eventually all members of all four Rocking The Royals bands emerged from the stage door.   

Diary excerpt: "Then we waited and now the collaboration of all the absolutely gorgeous guys from the four bands exited the stage door. I honestly couldn't decide where to look or who to talk to. I thought Garry [Gary Beers, INXS] but he was in the car before I could say anything, Sean [Kelly, Models] ran away as usual so I went and talked to Craig [Harnath, Kids In The Kitchen]."

While casually chatting with INXS's limo driver, we half-jokingly asked where the band was staying. "The Regent," he replied casually. What? Is he for real? We froze and then slowly backed away before he could realise his mistake. Given that we'd told our parents we were staying at each other's houses to dodge curfews, this information suddenly gave our night purpose.

After walking one member of our group to the bus stop, we wandered up to The Regent (now Sofitel) and perched on a nearby bench. Shortly afterwards, we sighted Beers who told us he was on his way to the after-party at Inflation. Tim Farriss and Kirk Pengilly also exited The Regent, but we decided to keep our distance because they had ladies with them. Plus, we would still be here when they returned from the after-party so knew we could potentially collect our encounter-evidence then.

We broke up our time with a stint at a 24-hour cafe, deciding to return to The Regent around 3am, because that's when we thought Inflation was licensed 'til. Once back at The Regent, the concierge told us we'd just missed Farriss, Pengilly and Jon Farriss before supplying us with some food and water. The concierge said we were welcome to hang out in the lobby and wait for the other members of INXS so long as we didn't fall asleep. We were still talking to him when Beers pulled up in a taxi. While readying ourselves to approach the INXS bass player, we spied I'm Talking vocalist/INXS backing vocalist Zan Abeyratne getting out of the taxi. She ran around and pashed Beers so we decided to give them some privacy. 

At 4.10am, Hutchence also returned to the hotel in a taxi with girl in tow, but we decided we couldn't let this opportunity slip away given that he was the lead singer. Imagine how jealous all our friends at school would be? We were rewarded handsomely for our intrusion with autographs, individual photos and the opportunity to soak up Michael's bucketloads of charisma. The late INXS singer certainly had the ability to make whoever he was talking to feel like the most beautiful, interesting person on the planet. His eye contact was penetrating and he asked us what our favourite bands were, how school was going and what we wanted to be when we grew up — with genuine interest. Hutchence also cheekily shared that he found Lady Diana sexy and said he'd whispered his hotel room number in her ear when INXS were presented to The Royals earlier.

It definitely helped that we weren't already diehard INXS fans when we made Michael's acquaintance, because we weren't overly gushy. Although we were starstruck Hutch's presence after watching him in action that night, we somehow managed to hold it together and hoped this wouldn't be the last we saw of him. It could definitely be said that we were now obsessed with the INXS singer.

Dogs In Space (10 Mar - 26 Apr, 1986)

As soon as it was announced that Hutchence had been cast as Sam in the Richard Lowenstein-directed film Dogs In Space, we just had to find out the film's locations and make our presence known. We somehow got wind that filming would take place in Richmond so spent a couple of days randomly wandering the suburb's streets in search of a sign. Then once we discovered the name of the production company, Central Park Films Pty Ltd, we decided to look it up in the phone book and mission it over there. A couple of forms of public transport as well as a few pitstops at shops to check out the Melways later and we found ourselves at the front door of Central Park Films Pty Ltd. We knocked quietly and waited. No answer. Rather than walk away, we thought we'd try the door just in case it was open. It was! We gently pushed it ajar and peered inside, where display boards were placed around the room with various photographs and addresses of Dogs In Space's locations. We crept inside and clocked a picture of a house with its address written clearly underneath: 18 Berry Street, Richmond. Bingo!      

The first time we wandered up Berry Street, we saw some suspicious activity that looked like it could be a film crew setting up in an otherwise quiet street and so set ourselves up in a park down the road to observe, hoping for a Hutch sighting. We were prepared to wait. After rocking up a couple of times to no avail, we finally caught sight of Michael but were initially distraught about his transformation for the role, which saw his trademark cascading locks chopped off haphazardly and dyed all colours of the rainbow. But we were delighted when he recognised us and came over for chats. 

What followed were many set visits by a small group of Melbourne school girls and a few select trusted friends until the Dogs In Space wrap party at Metropole Hotel in Fitzroy. We were always made to feel welcome onset and Lowenstein even invited us to be extras on a few different occasions including the opening scene of Dogs In Space, which recreated the queue that formed outside Melbourne Cricket Ground back in 1978 three weeks before tickets for David Bowie's concert even went on sale. There was also a scene filmed in Seaview Ballroom to illustrate Melbourne's little bands scene around which Dogs In Space is set. We were also lucky enough to be let in on one of the locations where the music video for INXS's Listen Like Thieves was filmed, the Valhalla cinema (now Palace Westgarth) in Northcote, so spent a couple of consecutive days there.      

Hutch soon came to know us all by name and always greeted us warmly, asking questions about details he'd remember from our previous visits. He seemed to genuinely enjoy discussing our mundane lives. We'd hang out in the Bridge Road shop that had been converted into Dogs In Space's hair and makeup/wardrobe department and just shoot the breeze.    

Following the 1986 Countdown Music & Video Awards held on 14 April, 1986 at Melbourne Sports & Entertainment Centre - where INXS picked up a several awards including Best Video (What You Need), Most Popular Australian Group and Most Outstanding Achievement (for the second year running) - Hutchence was uncharacteristically down when he turned up to the set. He had caught sight of a banner that read "Fuck Off Crater Face" at the Countdown Awards and was self-conscious about his skin. Michael pleaded with the Dogs In Space makeup artist to please do everything possible to conceal this 'flaw.'

When this scribe developed a crush on another Dogs In Space actor, Hutchence protectively warned against spending alone time with the guy just in case I was asked to do something I didn't wanna do. The INXS lead singer later suggested I pursue a career in journalism, because he thought I asked interesting questions. 

We've never met another man like Hutchence. He was, undeniably, one of a kind. Hutch fucked up our expectations of what kind of man we'd like to be with. And now he's frozen in our teenage memories as the ultimate rock god who was also just a man.