INXS Calls It Quits After 35 Years

Iconic Australian rockers INXS have called time on their music career, announcing at a gig in Perth on Sunday night that they were playing their last concert together.

According to the Perth Now website, drummer Jon Farriss announced the news that the group is disbanding and admitted, “I’m getting teary,” before playing one of INXS' biggest hits, "Need You Tonight."

There has been no formal statement from the band since.

Perth was the last date on an Australian tour, supporting U.S. band Matchbox20.

INXS became the pin-up boys of Australian rock after forming in 1977, selling 30 million albums worldwide, their success fuelled in no small part by the charismatic performances of legendary frontman Michael Hutchence and his untimely death in a Sydney hotel room 15 years ago.

The original band members -- the Farris brothers, Andrew, John and Tim; Garry Gary Beers; and Kirk Pengilly -- decided to play on after Hutchence's death, bringing in New Zealander Jon Stevens as lead singer, and flirted with a number of others, including Terence Trent D’Arby and Cold Chisel’s Jimmy Barnes.

They were the focus of CBS reality show, Rock Star: INXS in 2005, to find a permanent frontman, which was won by Canadian JD Fortune.

In September 2011, Fortune was replaced by Irish singer Ciaran Gribbins.

“We do what we love to do, and that's play music together. And we haven't stopped. For us, the knife is never sharp enough; there's always things we hone,” Tim Farris told the Sydney Morning Herald last month before playing what would be their final Sydney gig.

“Yes I am [proud]," he added. "Other bands could have folded. I am proud of it because we've had such an incredible career. We didn't just stick around Australia; we risked everything and put it on a limb, and then we ended up huge everywhere in the world."

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