Earl’s Court, 13 July 1991 must have resembled a ghost town. The sizeable Australian minority of SW5 presumably initiated an exodus to Wembley stadium that day to catch Antipodeon heroes INXS, which makes lead singer Michael Hutchence’s decision to attempt a London accent, straight out of the Dick Van Dyke school of pronunciation, difficult to fathom.

There must, though, have been some native Londoners shaking their bits to the hits in the capacity 72,000 crowd, although Hutchence’s one-man Mary Poppins tribute probably left them as bemused as the Aussies.

Every household should own a copy of 1987’s Kick and unsurprisingly the first two tracks of the set mirror the openers from that album: ‘Guns In The Sky’ and ‘New Sensation’, lyrics from the latter providing the inspiration for the punning title of this DVD. The Farris brothers, who make up three of the six-strong band, are on form tonight, but all eyes are on Michael Hutchence, a Jim Morrison for the MTV generation.

The only downside of watching this performance 12 years on is that some of the songs have aged rather less well than others. Compare and contrast the disappointingly tame ‘Wildlife’ to the track that follows it ‘Mystify’, a ballad that continues to haunt. As does the earlier ‘By My Side’ which Hutchence advises the crowd to get the lighters out, Scorpions-style, for.

Playing in the home of English football, it’s appropriate that the concert lasts 90 minutes. An encore featuring the superlative ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ guarantees something a game of soccer never can: everybody goes home happy.  INXS and Wembley?  A match made in heaven.
(4/5)

Release Date: 27 October 2003

INXS - Live Baby Live