INXS

[Nickatilynx]

Rock band INXS are in London on their worldwide quest to replace former frontman Michael Hutchence. Phil Williams headed to the open auditions at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, but after seeing the depleted pool of hopefuls he pondered whether a good frontman can ever be replaced.
Whether you're a middle aged rocker, a teenie bopper, or a stage diving mosher, the one thing we all look for in our bands is a good frontman.


Michael Hutchence died in 1997
When I use the term frontman, let me be clear with you that I'm using it as a generic derivative term. I'm not discounting Debbie Harry, Gwen Stefani, Justine Frischmann or Cerys Matthews.

The frontman is the person who makes you sit up and take note of the video. It's the person whose animal magnetism draws you to see the band live.

It's the same person who persuades an otherwise perfectly sane individual to raise their hands above their head and clap along with 80,000 others at Wembley.

In Michael Hutchence, INXS had that. In Freddie Mercury, Queen had that. But how feasible is it, that you try and replace the irreplaceable?


Have your say on INXS holding the auditions
Queen are currently touring with the ex-Free singer, Paul Rogers. The tour's pretty much sold out, and I'll defer judgement until I've seen the gig.


Debbie Harry provided the charismatic front for Blondie

INXS have taken a different option. The last great refuge of the scoundrel. The reality TV show. Their global search for a new frontman sees them sweeping the world for talent, before taking a shortlist of potentials to Hollywood where they'll be whittled down before a TV audience.

But given the credentials I've just listed for being a frontman, what chance is there of finding someone who'll do the same for INXS as Michael Hutchence?

Is Diego - the non-English speaking Italian who flew in especially to try out today - really the answer to the band's plea for rock n roll? Could it really be George the Australian, who's lived here for 12 years and told me he'd never seen INXS perform live?

You could argue the band are doing this for publicity. But as I turned up this morning to report on the London open audition, there were more journalists there than auditionees. Surely, that's negative publicity?


Freddie Mercury's flamboyance put Queen in the limelight

We're all fond of nostalgia but the fact that INXS fans were conspicuous by their absence this morning could indicate they'd prefer to remember their stadium sell out band with their enigmatic frontman, rather than see them now in 2005 with a new untried hopeful who can never be expected to fill the boots or the leather trousers of Michael Hutchence.

The point about music, rock or pop, is that it's a transient picture postcard of your life at any particular moment.

You sang along with your first love and Freddie in '86. You danced with your hairbrush in front of the mirror when INXS's Kick came out. You mouthed across the dance floor, "you're one of my kind." Then it became part of your history.

And our great memories are where these band's frontmen should remain, rather than on the repackaged greatest hits circuit under the guise of a Great Pretender whose shoulders are positively buckling under the weight of a reputation and back catalogue to die for.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4246855.stm