Sexism, Bruhs, and Rock n Roll

Tag: Atco Records

Blog Post 27- INXS at the Metro. Chicago, Illinois, August 19, 1984

This is a photo of Tim Farriss that Jess took at the INXS concert in Hartford on 8/11/1984. Tim is wearing the shirt that we gave him as a birthday present.

In the one week between when Jess and I went to the INXS concert in Hartford, CT and when Jackie would see INXS in Chicago, we had to act quickly. Jess had to have an 8×10 print made of a photo she took of Tim Farriss performing on stage while wearing the shirt Terri gave him for his birthday. She needed to mail it to Chicago so Jackie would get it in time to take it to the INXS show there on Sunday August 19th.

I wrote a card/letter to Michael

I had decided to write a letter to Michael Hutchence and to send it to Jackie in the hope that she would have a chance to deliver it to him at the INXS concert. There wasn’t much time for me to do that because I worked from 5pm to 1am on that same Sunday we got home from Hartford and again from 11am until 3pm on Monday.

The letter was going to take up to three days to arrive so I would have wanted to mail it no later than Tuesday morning. Perhaps I dropped it at the post office on my way to work that day at the Emerson Hotel where I was scheduled to waitress from 12pm until 9pm.

My pocket calendar from August 13 to August 19, 1984.

How Kirk’s letter to me in 1983 came into play

Kirk Pengilly’s letter to me that I received about one year earlier was what I used as a model when I wrote my letter to Michael Hutchence. That letter was a nice, polite letter that fulfilled the promise he made to me to write while at the same time it conveyed to me that we would not be having a relationship in the future. It was clearly not a love letter, but it was caring. Mostly, it was an update on what he had been doing with his time.

What I said in the letter

There is nothing in my diary about the letter I wrote to Michael, and I didn’t keep a copy of it, so I don’t remember everything I wrote in the letter. But I remember that I started the letter by saying, “Sorry I didn’t get to know you better.” When I think of that now, I’m like, “Eeeew, cringe!”

Once I had apologized in that way for not having sex with him like I had sort of promised to do at a later date when I was in his hotel room with him and my friends on July 3rd, I started making excuses about how busy I was with work.

I’m not sure about how much I told him about my life except for one thing and that was that I’m sure I told him that I was studying business at either one of the best schools in the country or the best school in the country. Take your pick.

The Wharton School

I don’t think I told him specifically that I was studying at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance. Back then, mentioning Wharton didn’t mean much to the average person. It was only impressive to people who knew enough to be impressed.

Things are different today, now that the current President of the United States is a graduate of Wharton. The school is more well-known with people outside of the business world. Also, U.S. News & World Report only started ranking universities in 1983 and didn’t start ranking business schools until 1990 so there was less publicity back then.

A link to some info about Wharton:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/wharton.asp#toc-whartons-global-reputation-and-industry-impact

Maybe I’ll see you around

The only other thing I remember writing to Michael Hutchence was “Maybe I’ll see you around sometime.” I hope that came across to him as noncommittal when he read it because I did not want to give him any ideas that something was ever going to happen in the future.

If only I could see the whole letter to know if what I think I remember is correct. What I believe I was going for in that letter was a way of saying, “I had to wash my hair” without actually using that phrase. The internet tells me that “I have to wash my hair” is still being used today as a flimsy excuse to get out of doing something.

When I said farewell to Kirk Pengilly in 1983, he had every bit of contact information for me that existed at that time- every address and phone number. I didn’t give Michael Hutchence any of that information in the letter because I wanted him to get the message that I was not interested in him without explicitly saying that.

Letter from Susan

Around the same time that I was mailing off the letter to Jackie in Chicago, Susan wrote to me. She was at the INXS concert in Cedar Grove, just a few days before she wrote, “I’m still spinning from this weekend! You must be spinning from your entire summer! Are you going to follow INXS around on their next tour? When you write back, please tell me some of the funnier moments! The only things I’ve heard are what Dana’s told me, and she hears it from Terri and Jess so I’m usually the third party! (Then I tell Maria and she tells Dawn…)”

Susan also told me that she wrote to Gary Grant to thank him for going to so much trouble for us and sent the letter to ATCO Records. She also wanted to know if we taped any of the concerts and if she could get a copy if she sent me a blank cassette tape. I’m not sure I even had a tape of the INXS concerts from Atlanta and St Petersburg in my possession at that point, so I doubt I was the one who helped her with that request.

I think I granted her request for a blank sheet of my INXS stationery. That would have been easy because it just was a photocopy of a photocopy of some INXS photo from a magazine that was positioned at the top of a piece of copy machine paper.

A photocopy of a magazine photo and the David Letterman show catchphrase, “They pelted us with rocks and garbage” combined to make some fun INXS stationery!

INXS at the Metro

On 8/19/1984, I wrote in my diary, “Just a few more days of work left. Somewhere in Chicago, Jackie is waiting for INXS.”

INXS was playing that night at the Metro in Chicago. The Metro was a new club back then as it had only opened in 1982. The club is still open and hosting bands today. It holds around 1100 people, and it is general admission so there are no seats.

Wikipedia article about the Metro club:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Chicago

Someone (probably Jess) had given Jackie an idea for how to get backstage to see the band before the show. Jackie had someone, perhaps her mother, call the Metro and say that they needed to speak to Jackie because there was an emergency.

Whoever got the call at the club believed it and went outside to get Jackie. I’m sure she was waiting in line near the door along with her four friends so they could get good seats. She was able to see the band backstage after she was escorted inside to take the “emergency” phone call.

Letter from Jackie

Here is a portion of the letter that Jackie wrote to me on September 12, 1984.

“Well, it’s been about three and a half weeks since I’ve seen INXS, and it feels like it’s been ages. I miss them so damn much. My mom saw “Burn For You” on our local video channel last week. I, of course, was on my way home from work and missed it. I cried when she told me. I heard “The One Thing” on the radio today.

I’m sure Terri and Jess have told you what I’ve told them about the concert at the Metro on the 19th. Everything went pretty well. The “emergency” phone call idea was clever! I gave Michael your card while I was backstage. He asked a few questions about you, like how old you were. I told him you’re 20, even though you weren’t exactly 20 yet! You’re not even 20 now, but it’s close enough! Duh! He said that he was almost finished with the books that you gave him, and that they were good books. He really enjoyed them. He also wanted to know if you were going back to school. He was being his usual sweet self.

Jon was very tired, but still nice to me like he always is. I love that man to death. I also talked to Timmy for a while and had him sign an 8×10 for Terri from Jess, and I got his autograph for Pete, too.

Jackie writes about the show

The concert was good, aside from getting crushed by hundreds of people. It was so uncomfortable that I could hardly enjoy myself. We were up front, but we kept getting pushed around. They did the usual material but threw in “All The Voices”. There weren’t that many voices, but it still sounded okay!

Jon saw me a couple of times, and so did Garry. Michael saw Karen, Sara, and I standing on the side of the stage during the encore and made it real obvious! It was so funny!

After the show, we (the five of us; Karen K from Jones’ Beach, Karen, Heike, Sara, and I) followed a taxi carrying Garry, Jon, Timmy, and Andrew back to their hotel. Sara found out Michael’s room number, so we went up and knocked on the door. Michael answered, and he talked to us out in the hall for a bit. Then he said, “I can’t leave you girls out here. Why don’t you come on in?” So, we walked in; I went first and the first thing I saw was Jon lying on the bed getting a massage, and he had no shirt on. I thought I was gonna drop right there. He looked marvelous!

Jackie writes about INXS dressed in towels

A few minutes later, Timmy came out of the shower, wearing only a towel. All I could say was, “If Terri saw this…!” He looked marvelous as well. We all just basically sat around, talked, and drank their beer!

I talked to Michael quite a bit. He told me that Michele was meeting him when he gets to Japan. Jon was acting strange; he was giving hand massages and talking like a queer. It was too funny! Michael also took a shower and ran around in his towel. Kirk had one on, too. Too bad I missed Jon’s shower!

We stayed in the room for quite a while and then decided to leave since they had a lot of straightening out to do, and Karen K had to have the car home by 2:30 am. I said goodbye to everyone else before saying goodbye to Jon. I saved him for last. I got hugs and kisses from Timmy, Kirk, and Michael, and just kinda said so long to Garry and Andrew who were just vegging out or something.

Jon was sitting on the bed when I said goodbye. I looked at him and thanked him for everything, for always being nice to me no matter what, and for making my summer, in general! He hugged me, and said thanks for the support, and he told me never to doubt his appreciation. We just looked at each other and hugged again.

Sara told me later on that Jon looked like he had just lost his best friend; she said he looked so sad! He gave me a kiss, and we said goodbye, etc., and Michael let us out of the door. I hugged and kissed Michael again, and as soon as I walked out the door, I broke down in tears. I never used to cry, until I got to know Jon Farriss! Saying goodbye to Jon was too emotional. You know how I get. We, yes, Donna- I have stopped crying for now, for the time being, at least! I’m just glad that I got to say bye to all of them.”

Things I can add about that portion of the letter

In my diary, I didn’t write about anything that Jackie told Terri and Jess about this night. All I know now is what is in Jackie’s letter.

I know I heard about what happened from Terri or Jess because I mentioned some of it in a letter I wrote to Dana sometime between August 20-22. But I only know that because Dana wrote to me on August 23,1984 and said “So, Michael wanted to know how old you are. All I can say is you’d better watch out for those rock stars…” I’ll share more from that letter in the next post.

Pete was Jackie’s new boyfriend at the time.

We must have met Karen K at the INXS/Go-Go’s concert at Jones Beach in June when Jackie was visiting us, but I don’t remember her at all from then. Karen K and Sara will appear again in future posts.

Sara probably got Michael’s room number because he was still using Fabian Sparkle as his fake name at the hotel and we knew that one so she could just ask for Fabian Sparkle at the reception desk.

INXS played concerts in Japan from September 10, 1984, through September 20, 1984. Then they had about a week off before playing two more shows back home in Perth, Australia. After that, INXS had a three-month break from touring.

More of Jackie’s letter

Jackie also wrote this in her letter to me:

“Thanks for the Birthday Party tape and lyrics. The album is so obnoxious-it’s so funny! I played it when I was down in Springfield, Illinois, for the State Fair. We were sitting in our hotel room, and everyone started falling asleep. I put the tape on, and everybody got up and left! Michael is wearing a Nick Cave shirt in the picture in Star Hits. Have you seen it?

Have you gotten the pictures of you and Michael yet? I’m enclosing the one of Jon and I.”

Jackie sent me this photo:

Jackie sent me this photo of her and Jon Farriss of INXS. It was taken in 1983 but I don’t know where.

If you remember, both Jackie and I listened to the Birthday Party cassette on Michael’s Walkman. When I wrote an earlier blog post, I was unsure about which album I bought in Toronto. But after reading my diary again and the letters I still have, I know for sure that it was the Junkyard album by the Birthday Party that I bought that day.

Before going back to college

On August 22, 1984, my father called me from the nursing home where he lived, and I mentioned it in my diary. He was somewhere in upstate New York, and I think he was in a VA (Veteran’s Administration) nursing home, but I never wrote it down, so I don’t know. I filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get his records, but I don’t know if I will ever receive anything.

“Dad called today. I’m going to see him next Tuesday. He is giving us $1000 each to try to square things with us. Grandpa’s estate is finally being settled.

That nursing home upsets me. I could hear the screaming in the background. Dad told me not to do anything to make him ashamed of me.

I think that it was very lucky for us all that he had a stroke and ended up where he is. I’d hate to imagine what it would be like if he was around to influence our lives all the time. There is security now that we know he can’t really get to us if he becomes angry.

I feel myself becoming depressed. I’m finally going through withdrawal. I bought Chipwiches to comfort it but I’m to the point where only sleep brings relief.”

The withdrawal I referred to in this entry was because I was no longer going to INXS concerts!

An article about the ice cream sandwich made with chocolate chip cookies called Chipwich:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipwich

This was what that week looked like:

My pocket calendar from August 20 to August 26, 1984.

Why was my father in a nursing home?

In a future post, I will write about my father in greater detail, but in the fall of 1980, when I was sixteen, he had surgery for an aneurysm in his brain. My parents were in the middle of getting divorced for the second time.

The surgery went well but after the surgery he had a stroke and it left him partially paralyzed on his left side. He went to a rehab facility, but I don’t think he did the work and just spent his time feeling sorry for himself, so he didn’t recover.

You can see from my diary entry that I was glad that he didn’t regain the ability to walk. We certainly had no interest in caring for him, so he ended up in a nursing home. I just spoke to my brother, and he said our father was in a place in Liberty, NY.

The drive from Hillsdale NJ to Liberty NY.

My pocket calendar from August 27 to September 2, 1984.

On August 28, I drove up to see my father so he could give me $3,000 for me and my two brothers. I know from my diary that my youngest brother was away so he could not have gone with me, but I don’t know if I went alone or not.

Why was he giving us money?

My father was giving us money from his father’s estate because he had “borrowed” money from his three children when we were young-under age 11. He asked us if he could use the money we had in our savings accounts so he could go to school to become a drug and alcohol counselor.

That is a path that many people take when they get sober. He had gone to Alcoholics Anonymous and gave up drinking. I think my parents were married for the second time when he asked us for the money. We all had money saved from our first communions.

I don’t think any of us actually wanted to give him our savings, but we all said yes because there was no way any of us were going to say no to the guy. Not after our experiences with him.

Two days after I went to see him, I mentioned it in my diary, but I didn’t say much. I wrote, “Well, I went to see Dad. The place is terrible, but his mind seems better. He doesn’t have many teeth left. He looks so old.” He was 49 at the time.

We brought my father to my brother Mike’s high school graduation in June 1983. He is in a wheelchair.

Here is a photo from my brother Mike’s high school graduation which took place in June 1983, a bit more than a year before I went to the nursing home. Now you can see what my father looked like at that time.

This photo was taken after I saw INXS in concert for the first time but before I saw them in concert for the second time and then kissed Kirk Pengilly later in the evening.

Weird INXS dream and The Wild Colonial Boy

In my diary for that day, I devoted as much space to a weird dream about Andrew Farriss and to the refrain of the folk song, “Wild Colonial Boy.”

Back in those days, there was no internet so, no source of information was readily available at your fingertips like it is now. Some homes contained reference books like a set of encyclopedias, but usually information had to be found by going to a library and looking for it in a book or magazine.

I was still home for the summer in Hillsdale, NJ. There was a library within walking distance, and I must have gone there and checked out a book about Australia. How else would some of the lyrics for an Australian folk song end up in my diary?

“So, come all my hearties

We’ll roam the mountains high

Together we will plunder

Together we will die

We’ll wander over valleys and

gallop over plains

We’ll scorn to live in slavery,

bound down with iron chains.”

That last line was what appealed to me, I have no doubt.

Here is a link to a Wikipedia article about the song:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Colonial_Boy

The Wild Colonial Boy video on You Tube:

I dreamed about Andrew??!

The dream I had about Andrew was crazy. Why did I dream about Andrew? Who knows? Probably because he took my hat and I was still thinking about that. There will be more about that in the next post.

In my dream, Andrew Farriss was dead, but he was still in INXS as a ghost. He wasn’t always a ghost because sometimes he turned into my pet cat, Melba. Andrew also stole Carl’s vintage Mercedes because it used to be his.

Carl was my mother’s new husband. He was the one with the bakery-the one where I worked in 1983. I wish I had a photo of his vintage Mercedes-Benz because it was a good-looking car. Then maybe I could figure out when it had been made. My best guess is sometime in the 1960s.

This photo I pulled from the internet is not what his car looked like exactly but it’s close enough.

A vintage Mercedes Benz car. I pulled this photo from the internet. My mother’s husband Carl owned something similar.

My last day of waitressing at the Emerson Hotel for the summer was on August 30th. I had two days to prepare to go back to Philly and I arrived back on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania on Sunday, September 2 which was the day before Labor Day. The summer of INXS was over.

August 5, 2026
Blog Post 14- INXS at Jones Beach, NY. June 30, 1984

Photo by Jess. Jon Farriss playing drums at a concert in September 1983

The day after the show at Radio City Music Hall on Friday, June 29, 1984, INXS opened for The Go-Go’s at a show in Boston. That day, I waitressed at the Emerson Hotel from 5pm until 1am. The restaurant closed at one but if I still had customers I would have to stay until they left. If I was scheduled to work until 2am, that meant I would have to stay until after all the customers left, and then put all the chairs on top of the tables before vacuuming the entire dining area. The only reason I survived the summer of 1984 was because I was 19. And even so, I almost didn’t survive because I almost fell asleep while driving home from my 11th INXS concert in August. More about that in a future post.

June 25- July 1, 1984. Donna’s calendar. INXS and work.

On Saturday, June 30, 1984, INXS opened for The Go-Go’s at the Jones Beach Theater at Jones Beach on Long Island. Jess, Terri, Jackie and I had tickets and as usual, we went early to be there before INXS arrived to do a soundcheck. Soundchecks tended to happen in the afternoon, so we often showed up before 3pm. That meant getting on the road around noon, depending on where we were going. Jess had to come get us and drive us in her car because Terri’s car had to be fixed after the incident coming back from greeting INXS when they arrived in New York City three days earlier.

The theater in Jones Beach is about 57 miles from Hillsdale, NJ and because one must drive through New York City to get there, it takes an hour and a half to two hours to do it.

An idea of how long it takes to drive from Hillsdale, NJ to the Jones Beach theater and the route.

Jones Beach Theater website:

https://www.northwellatjonesbeachtheater.com

Waiting for INXS behind a dumpster

When we arrived at the theater, Jess drove the car into a parking lot that was close to the backstage area and parked the car behind a dumpster so we would not be seen because we were not supposed to be in that lot.

Then we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited for quite a long time. Somehow, we knew what the RV that the roadies for INXS used to get around looked like and noticed when it arrived at the theater.

I decided to get out of the car and move closer to see if anything interesting was happening while trying to stay hidden by crouching behind the other cars. When I got close to the road, two guys saw me. I could tell that they saw me, and I had nowhere to go so I decided to bluff my way out of it by walking over to them and asking if there was a bathroom nearby.

One of the guys walked me out of the backstage area parking lot to the front of the theater. He asked me if I had parked in the lot where he had found me. There was no way I was going to divulge where my friends were still hiding so I told the guy I was there by myself, and I had parked my car “out there” while waving my arm towards the parking lot in front of the theater.

Waiting for my friends to come out from behind the dumpster

There was nothing I could do but stand around and wait for my friends. I had no ticket, no money, and mosquitos were eating me alive. Two other girls were also waiting in front of the theater, so I spoke to them. They told me that they were supposed to be going backstage, but they couldn’t because Atco had not put them on the guest list. Again. So, they were annoyed.

Eventually, Jess, Terri and Jackie drove out from the backstage area because it was getting late and INXS had not arrived. By the time INXS arrived, it was too late for a soundcheck. We were standing near the road to the backstage area and when their bus drove by we waved at them, and they waved back at us.

A clever plan

We had a situation with our seats where Terri had a seat down in the front section of the venue and the rest of us had seats on a higher level. Once we went into the theater, we devised a plan so we could all get down in front. The great thing about INXS being the opening act was that there were plenty of empty seats near the front of the stage that we could take if we could get down there.

So, we all went to the concession stand and we all bought soda and popcorn, so our hands were full. Then we walked down to the section where Terri’s seat was, and she showed her ticket stub to the usher. She told him that we were with her, so the usher let us follow her. It worked exactly as planned and we found ourselves seats on Timmy’s side of the stage in the third or fourth row.

INXS on stage

INXS arranged themselves on stage in the same way at every show. If you are looking at the stage from the audience, Jon, the drummer was in the center at the back. Garry Gary, the bassist, was to the right of Jon. Andrew, the keyboardist, was to the left of Jon. At the front of the stage, Michael, the singer, was in the center, and the two guitarists were on either side- Timmy to the right and Kirk to the left.

Kirk Pengilly was my favorite member of INXS, but I almost always watched the show from either the center or the right side where Timmy and Garry Gary were because I went to concerts with Terri and Jess and their favorites were Timmy and Garry Gary, respectively. So, I was outnumbered.

The concert

Once the show started, the guys doing the security for the theater did their best to make sure the audience did not have fun. They were jerks who constantly came around and told people to sit down.

Michael Hutchence kept making comments like “seatbelts off!” because he wanted people to get up and dance. I would stand up again whenever the security guy walked away after making me sit down. Michael even gave that guy the middle finger when he made people sit down.

I wrote in my diary that Kirk came over to our side of the stage when he was playing a guitar solo. He looked at us and raised his eyebrows a few times.

The last song

INXS was known for ending their sets with the song “Don’t Change.” That didn’t always happen, but it usually did. Certainly, every show I saw in 1984 ended with “Don’t Change.”

When INXS started playing “Don’t Change”, I left my seat and went into the aisle so I could dance. The security guy came over and told me to go back to my seat, so I did, but only for a moment. I went back into the aisle again and I decided I would stay there.

There’s an instrumental break in the song where Jon is only playing the bass drum- two beats in quick succession and then three even beats. During that part I raised my arms over my head and clapped my hands to the beat of the bass drum. I watched Timmy while I was doing this.

The security guy came over and started yelling in my face to go back to my seat, but I kept clapping. Then he grabbed my arms while they were still over my head and started pushing me backwards. At that moment I looked at Timmy and he smiled at me. I smiled back at him and started walking backwards to my row while the security guy was still holding my arms and threatening to kick me out. I felt very defiant and heroic.

INXS video of Don’t Change

This video of INXS playing “Don’t Change” live during the portion of Live Aid that was performed in Australia in July 1985 shows where the band members typically stood on stage. Also, it shows Timmy doing the clapping during the instrumental break. It’s also a performance where Michael gets the words slightly mixed up. “Don’t Change” is a simple song and it was one of their most performed, but Michael often messed up the lyrics. It was one of the first things I noticed about him. I knew the lyrics better than he did.

The Go-Go’s

It would not have mattered if we had been kicked out because we were leaving anyway. We did not stay to see The Go-Go’s perform. Not that day or any other.

A history of The Go-Go’s:

https://www.vogue.com/article/go-gos-40th-anniversary-beauty-and-the-beat-oral-history-belinda-carlisle

The Go-Go’s on the Tonight Show with Joan Rivers, August 7, 1984 after INXS split from their tour.

Near the backstage door

We walked outside to where there was a backstage area of sorts and stood around waiting outside of a chain link fence. I did not want to be outside waiting for the band because I didn’t think it was cool to be waiting there with a bunch of screaming girls. Expressing my displeasure didn’t do me any good. My friends wanted to do it, so we did it. Terri had something she wanted to give to Garry Gary or to have signed by Garry Gary-something like that.

The t-shirt guy for The Go-Go’s (the guy who sold their merchandise) talked to me. About what, I no longer remember. My diary says that I told him that I wasn’t waiting for INXS-my friends were waiting for them.

I also talked to Tony, the guy who sold the INXS t-shirts. Tony was looking around for the 14-year-old girl he wanted to pick up. Disgusting! In my diary I wrote, “it made me ill to listen to them” talk about the girls who were there. But I never called them pigs or said anything about how disgusted I was by what I saw and heard. I only noticed all of it, and wrote it down, and remembered it. The 80s were a time when women and girls smiled, laughed, shrugged it off, took it. I wish I had done more fighting or screaming or something.

Tony asked me if I wanted to dance and I said, “not now” and he said, “Oh, after the guys go by?” I said to him, “I don’t care.” Because I didn’t care if I saw INXS or not. I had already met them, and I didn’t want anything from them. Kirk had a girlfriend, and she was with him.

When INXS came out from the theater, Terri yelled “Garry!” several times from where we were behind the fence- trying to get his attention. Later we found out that Gary Grant thought that Terri was yelling at him to try to get him to come over. I have no idea if Garry Gary or anyone came over or not because I didn’t write it down. I don’t think anyone did.

Following the bus

We ran off to get into the car so we could be ready to follow the tour bus when INXS left Jones Beach. At the time, we did not know where they were staying. I was embarrassed that we were following them like they were the Beatles, and we were crazed fans because we were not. While our car followed right behind them, we could watch the movie that was playing in their tour bus. There was a TV, and we could see it through the back window of the bus. It was National Lampoon’s Vacation, a comedy that starred Chevy Chase and that was released in July 1983.

I think this gave Jess and Terri the idea to tape TV shows and movies for INXS to watch while they traveled by tour bus. It wasn’t me because I didn’t own a VCR. My family had cable TV but no way to record anything. Money was too tight to buy a VCR. Later on, they presented the band with videotapes. I remember that Jess gave them a tape with the mini-series Shogun on it. There were others but I don’t remember how many or what was on them.

The Holiday Inn, Rockville Centre

The bus arrived at the hotel and so did we. I was so embarrassed about following INXS that I didn’t want to get out of the car. But everyone else was getting out and then when we saw Timmy, he invited us to come to the bar and have a drink with him, so I got over it.

A route between the Jones Beach theater and the Holiday Inn in Rockville Centre.

AI Overview of the original Holiday Inn that existed in 1984 and the hotel at the same location today.

Andrew, Timmy, and Jon Farriss were the only members of INXS who were on the bus. Gary Grant also came back to the hotel after the show but the other three did not. We heard that Kirk and Karen went off on their own to New York City. Michael and Garry stayed with The Go-Go’s and also went to the city. My internalized misogyny makes an appearance in my diary from time to time like when I wrote that “Michael and Garry were in NYC with The No-Go’s and fat Belinda.”

The bar was in a building that was separate from the hotel rooms. Walking in, the bar was at the back of the room with the long side facing the door. It wrapped around on the left side and met the wall, and it had an opening on the right side for the bartender to go in and out. On the right side of the room there was a small open area with a jukebox, a drum kit, and dance floor. There were several tables on the left side of the room.

I ordered a drink right away and met the bartender who was an old guy named Danny. He had white hair, so he seemed to me to be over 60. The guy was chatty, and he made a lot of jokes.

Tim Farriss

Andrew, Timmy and Jon sat at the bar. Timmy was with a woman named Barbie and we were told that she was from Boston and in the music business. She must have traveled with INXS from Boston since that’s where they were the night before. In my diary, I called her a bitch. She was unfriendly and I don’t think she wanted us around.

Terri offered to buy Timmy a drink, but he wouldn’t let her. I walked up and introduced myself to Timmy like I had done with Andrew in NYC-told him my name and offered my hand for a handshake. I’m sure there was much more conversation than what I managed to remember and write down in my diary. There always was.

Timmy thanked Terri several times for the “Stay Young” t-shirt that Terri made for James Lee, Timmy’s firstborn son, who was only about two years old. James Lee was taking after his uncle Jon, according to Timmy. He told us how James Lee took cooking pots and set them up on the floor in the kitchen and then asked for sticks so he could bang on them.

Gary Grant

The first thing Gary Grant did when he saw us in the bar was to yell at Terri about what she had done earlier in the day. It was not okay for her to call him over. He didn’t want people to know who he was, and also- he was busy. Terri apologized and explained that she was trying to get Garry Gary to come over and not him. Then she said she understood that he had a hard job and bought him a drink. All was forgiven.

Gary Grant then started joking that he had terrible problems; his wife had been raped, his house and kids had been burned, and he was going to die in an hour.

In the spirit of the Monty Python skit where four Yorkshiremen sit around and tell increasingly horrible stories of what they endured in order to outdo the other guys, I told him I was going to be tortured and die in three hours. He said I beat him.

The Four Yorkshiremen Monty Python sketch

Soon it was just us, Jon, Gary Grant, and a roadie for INXS named Vance in the bar. Timmy left with Barbie and never came back. I don’t think Andrew stayed long in the first place. Andrew wasn’t sociable and he didn’t seem to want to be on tour, so we mostly left him alone.

Vance the roadie

Vance was a good-looking guy; also, Australian. I noticed that he was “giving me the eye” like he was interested in getting to know me. I deliberately avoided making eye contact with him because I was not interested.

After a while, all I wanted to do was go home because I had to start work at noon the next day and work straight through until nine at night. It was a strenuous job-on my feet all day and walking around carrying heavy trays full of plates. I didn’t know how I was going to get through my shift. I was bored and tired, so I walked outside where I sat on some steps that led to the rooms. My head was down, and I was resting when Vance came out to talk to me.

I complained to him that I was tired, and I had to be at work the next day. Bars in New York stayed open until 4am so it was possible to stay out very late. Most of what we might have talked about has been forgotten. What I wrote down was that Vance told me to look on the bright side of things and he suggested that I should have another drink.

That seems like an innocuous thing to say, right? But it’s not. It’s the kind of thing that predatory men do so they have a better chance of getting what they want. Maybe I would loosen up or become interested if I drank more alcohol. When I went back into the bar, I didn’t have another drink.

Gary Grant, on the other hand, was quite drunk. He was singing along to the song “Mona Lisa” that the jukebox was playing and that was funny. Either I blurted out that it was Nat King Cole, or someone asked if I knew who the singer was, and I said it was Nat King Cole. Anyway, Jon was surprised and impressed that I knew it was Nat King Cole.

Mona Lisa video

That was one of many, many things that annoyed me out of everything that happened. Because Jon was only three years older than me and no one in INXS was even born when “Mona Lisa” was released in 1950. The song was a big hit. It was number one for five weeks and it won an Oscar. Why wouldn’t I know it?

Playing the drums

At some point, I got so bored with being in this bar that I took a seat behind the drum kit, picked up the brushes that were there, and started playing along to the music from the jukebox. I was playing a cymbal with my right hand and the snare drum with my left hand.

Gary Grant took a bowl from the top of the bar and placed it on the floor in front of the drum kit. Jon came over and gave me some pointers and complimented my drumming quite often. He told me to use my left hand for the cymbal and my right hand for the snare, so I started drumming that way. But when he told me to start playing the bass drum with my foot too, I was too scared to try because I thought it would be too difficult and I would fail.

Jon told me that I needed some practice, but I would be stupid if I didn’t take up the drums. He said I have rhythm and “when you have it, it’s easy.” “When I show you something, you pick it up right away. A lot of people would sit there and say ‘duh.’”

Truth be told, I never mentioned that my youngest brother had played the snare drum and the bass drum in the school band-marching in the marching band and such. We never had any drums at home and my brother didn’t play a drum kit, but he had drumsticks and a practice drum pad, and I was already quite good at playing drum rolls on it.

When I finished playing, I picked up the bowl. I made 47 cents and a piece of popcorn. Not bad.

Finally, it was time to leave. Danny, the old guy bartender, said he would take me to see the next INXS concert and then we would hang out with Jon in the bar and Jon would give me more drum lessons. As usual, I humored this old guy-just laughed along and agreed. It was just easier to go along in the moment and then either not take it seriously or just not do it because I didn’t want to. I didn’t even know if it was meant seriously anyway.

You Never Used To Cry

Jackie started to cry after Jon kissed her goodbye. She loved him. I did the same thing to Jon Farriss that I had done to Andrew and Timmy. I held out my hand and told him my name. “Hi, I’m Donna!” Jon and I shook hands. Then we left and drove back to New Jersey.

Jackie with Jon Farris of INXS in 1983

Don’t Change official video

October 24, 2025
Blog Post 12- INXS releases The Swing, Spring 1984

The fourth album by the Australian rock band, INXS.

This post contains diary entries and a letter. There is information about the Australian rock band, INXS, and about what I was doing, thinking, and feeling.

Working graveyard shifts

It’s towards the end of spring semester of my sophomore year in college. I am working at my work-study job for West Campus which oversees the student dorms in the western part of Penn’s campus. That includes the three high-rise apartment buildings where I worked and lived.

Here are a couple of diary entries from when I was working the overnight (graveyard) shift at the desk in the lobby of one of the high-rise buildings. There was an intercom system that broadcast into the stairwells that could be switched on at the desk. There was a hand-held microphone at the desk that was part of the system. It was there for fire safety. During fire alarms, the students were trained to leave their rooms and wait in the stairwells. The intercom could be used to tell them to evacuate the building if it was necessary. Usually, it was used to tell them to remain in the stairwell.

The two tall buildings in the bottom right are High Rise North and High Rise East. West Campus. University of Pennsylvania.

4/27/84

Another night, another graveyard. INXS is keeping me awake tonight. Now I’m playing with the mike and singing to the lobby. A guy with a New Order and Bauhaus tape left me the case and took my INXS one. He said I had a pretty good voice and asked if I was in a band.

All the weirdos are out tonight. Some guy wanted to know if I did crank. I said no and he said, “what are you doing tonight?” Nada. INXS and Dr. Pepper make for a natural high.

Time to wake up Ralph-he’s coming in to replace me at 4. Someone showed me a death star instead of ID. Very comforting.

4/28/84

I’m at work again. I’ll be at work later tonight. Hopefully I won’t be incoherent by the time I finish tomorrow.

It’s graveyard time again. I’ll probably be incoherent soon. At 2am it will instantly be 3.

It’s 5am and I’ve lost it completely. Don just left. We had an interesting conversation. I bought a pizza at a discount. I don’t know why because I ate three pieces and gave the rest away and it cost five dollars. Someone could sell me the Brooklyn Bridge at this point.

A guy claiming to be a social worker almost duped me. Luckily, Victor was around because he found out that the number the guy was calling was for a Honda dealership. The guy left. I am very stupid when it comes to believing people.

I don’t think I’ll remember anything if I study. Just have to keep awake. I’m glad the elevators are here to swallow up the people as soon as they come in. I wonder if my saying I like graveyards is a form of relieving dissonance. I don’t think so because I do like the peace and quiet. I’m the owner of the building. I’m in charge-I put my feet on the desk and blast music. It’s all mine. People think I’m crazy when I say I have fun. I’m getting paid for hanging out and having a private party. I only have to stay awake to make sure that only Penn jerks get in and not jerks off the street.

I’ve been up for 17 hours. That’s not even close to a record. Why it’s nothing really. I should be sharp as a knife. I think I own a dull blade.

The sun is peeking out from the horizon. This dawn used to be sunset in Australia. It’s amazing what a little light does to me. Sunrises are amazing.

It’s fun whirling in my chair. If I ever become an executive- God forbid, I want a chair I can spin around in.

I’m ruining my teeth drinking all this Dr. Pee Pee. Here comes Mr. Sunshine. Here comes Mr. Rainwater. Here come the Anarchittys running up the street.

The trees are a nice color green today. I don’t want to study my schoolwork. I want to be rich. I want to go traveling. Gonna blast some German music. [Falco] I wish I knew the words. My bladder is becoming really efficient because of this job. There’s a funky pigeon outside the door. I’m having a Dr. Pepper overdose. When I go home this summer, I’m going to have nicotine and pepper withdrawal.

4/29/84

It seems these past couple of days I was either sleeping or at work.

Well, I just got up, so it is off to work in a few.

Original Sin finally debuted on the charts here at #87.

I’m getting depressed. I have to figure out a way to get out of lunches at the Emerson Hotel. Fran is going into the hospital, so they’ll probably want me to work as soon as I get back. Terrific. I just have to think of the money. The whole thing is depressing.

I spoke to Mom on the phone. It doesn’t help my mood at all. Sleep will be good tonight. I’m so tired. I won’t dream. I won’t think. I’ll have an eight-hour vacation from this world.

The weather is nice. A cool breeze is coming in through the door. Danny is getting a computer. I might be able to use it over the summer.

Chris invited me to an EST meeting on Tuesday. I haven’t gotten mail in two or three weeks. I want my Trouser Press. I have to subscribe to it again.

From my collection of Trouser Press magazine. October 1983 issue.

5/1/84

Another graveyard. This one hasn’t been much fun. It is 6:20am. I want to die. I have so much work to do.

I went to an EST guest seminar, and everyone gives me the hard sell to do the training. I don’t know. I feel like hell.

5/3/84

It is 2pm and I’m about to take a nap because of a graveyard tonight.

I’ve been keeping weird hours. I worked graveyard Tuesday then slept from 8-3 then stayed up until midnight and got up at seven this morning for my Sociology final which went OK. I got my paycheck today.

Some woman from EST called here to talk to me. I don’t know how she got my number, but they better stop bothering me.

5/4/84

Nan just told me that the light under the desk was on meaning that everything going on at the desk was being broadcast into the stairwells- how embarrassing. A girl came down from the stairwell while I was playing INXS and singing to it and she said I had a good voice so it must have been on then. I wondered how she was able to hear me. It was bound to happen sooner or later. A total of about seven people offered to get me coffee or breakfast. I never expected so many considerate people to be around.

5/5/84

It is almost 10 pm and once again I am behind the desk. My feet are vibrating because they are on top of the refrigerator. I’m listening to the Swing. I made a special trip downtown to buy it. I told Chip from WQHS it was a great album so maybe they will play it. I should be getting paid for PR work.

Letter from Terri

A letter from Terri who was still in school in Florida arrived. It seems to be the last letter from her for the next few months. We were both about to go back to New Jersey for the summer, so we didn’t need to communicate by mail once that happened.

Terri gave me news about INXS. She said that “The Swing” was supposed to be out in a few days. One of her pen pals in Australia recorded it on cassette for her so she had already listened to it and said it was great.

Gary Grant was still in Australia, so she was not able to speak to him when she called Atco Records. The receptionist finally put her through to someone else and whoever it was said that “there was nothing definite, but there was talk of a spring tour with the Cars. If they plan to come in OUR spring, they better get something settled soon!!”

A friend of hers left for Australia so Terri told her about Gary Grant and gave her the address for their office in Sydney so she could go there if she had a chance. I don’t know if she actually did.

An MMA Management ad from Billboard magazine. Date unknown.

Terri heard “Original Sin” on a “real” radio station for the first time in Tampa- on a commercial station and not a college station. “They are still trying to figure out who Inkses is in Florida, for the most part!”

An Australian friend sent her a nice poster of INXS, and she told me all about it. The Farriss brothers looked stunning. Timmy looked cool. Jon’s hair looked like it did this time last year at the Ritz. Andrew had shaved and looked adorable. “Michael is too busy looking evil, so the heck with him.” Garry looked like he had a cold but his hair looked good. Kirk’s hair was going back to brown. She didn’t like the haircut, “but at least he doesn’t look like a lawn mower’s been in his head! And a new pair of frames-this guy is the Elton John of INXS!”

The back of the poster contained information about the band. The members of INXS chose their favorite songs from The Swing. Kirk chose “I Send A Message” while everyone else chose “Dancing on the Jetty” except for Michael who couldn’t decide.

Everyone but Andrew gave the names of their girlfriends. Terri wrote, “I won’t tell you Kirk’s unless you want me to!” She also wrote about some of the answers the band members gave when asked what their first love was. Tim said Annette Funicello and Garry Gary Beers said surfing and surfboards. Jonathan James Farriss said, “My first orgasm, I guess. When I was fourteen and a half!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX6NeYHVWuk Video of Annette Funicello

5/9/84

Almost time for my management final. I’ve been up at 5:30am for the past two days because of finals. Tomorrow is the last one and then I have to pack up my shit and hit the trail back home. I’m just so excited. I hope I can stay awake for this exam. Hopefully I can answer the questions.

I want simplicity, doldrum, sleep, boredom, to twiddle my fingers, to watch TV, to avoid thinking, to avoid this.

5/10/84

Last day of finals, last full day in Phila. There must be more important things in life than brand loyalty.

Back in Hillsdale, NJ for the summer

The portion of Hillsdale, NJ that includes my house, Terri’s house, Friendly’s, the supermarkets, library, and my high school.

I had to walk to many places. The supermarkets were half a mile from my house. The Hillsdale Library was three-fourths of a mile away and Terri’s house was another two hundred yards further up the street from the library.

5/11/84

I’m watching MTV. That’s right I’m home. I just got back and already I’m scheduled to work tomorrow and Sunday. Keep thinking of the money-what I can do with it, where I can go.

Saw “Eat It” for the first time. [Music video by Weird Al Yankovic. A parody of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”] I’m going to miss school. Well maybe not the work. I better get used to not eating. I made myself a hamburger omelet- it was good at least for scrounging. It takes so long to walk to the stores. This is going to be a long, long summer. I hope it doesn’t kill me.

I’m going down to the Meadowlands tonight with Terri and Jess to hang around and maybe see Randy and Eddie Money. I’m dressed to kill in my fedora and Michael Jackson earrings. [Randy was the keyboard player for Eddie Money. Terri and I met him when I was thirteen and Terri was fourteen and we went to Central Park for some soundcheck.]

Randy Nichols, keyboard player for Eddie Money

Eddie Money backstage at the Wollman Ice Rink in Central Park. NYC. Dr Pepper Summer Music Festival. August 9, 1978

5/12/84

11am- Just got out of bed. I could sleep all day, but I have a lot to unpack before I go to work. Urgh. My feet are aching in anticipation.

5/13/84

I’m exhausted. I worked Sat. night until one am. and then today (Mother’s Day) from 12-9. I made $90 which makes it worth it. It wasn’t really hectic tonight. I was managing OK. My brain is in a daze and my body hurts. My feet ache and itch and they swell up after I work.

5/14/84

Ho hum. Going to NY [New York City] tomorrow perhaps to spend money on whatever. I have been spending money so fast because there is so much to buy. I’m becoming manic again. I want to get away from here, but I know I’m stuck for now. I’m looking for a way to be free and hopefully I’ll find it. Mother dear better keep her nose out of my journals.

Showed Terri where Kirk and I ate. Stopped by INXS’ record company. Dirtbag men followed us in Greenwich Village.

5/15/84

Next summer I’m definitely going to stay in Philadelphia. This place is going to drive me nuts. My only desires are becoming food and sleep. There is no privacy here. I can’t live my own life here.

I went shopping in the city today. I bought some cool shoes, a couple of pocketbooks, t-shirts, and assorted other things. I have a headache now. We passed the Milford Plaza and Beefsteak Charlies, and I showed Terri where we sat. We also spent some time and energy searching out the Power Station. We went to Atco but no word. We hit the village and saw lots of interesting looking people. We caught the attention of a couple of skeevs who followed us for a block but finally left when we ducked into a store to get away from them.

5/16/84

I’m going for a walk as soon as I get dressed. I need to get out. I want to cry again.

I’m in Lisa’s Pizza before I go to Terri’s for a Cosmos meeting. This area is the pits. If I don’t go nuts, I’ll be thankful. I’ve been debating whether or not to buy cigarettes. I bought a Lotto ticket instead.

In Music Merchant [Record store in downtown Westwood, NJ that survived until 2024] some people were trying to decide what record to buy for some kid as a gift. I suggested the Swing. I don’t know why I should bother.

This meeting tonight will probably be boring. I don’t think I’m going to shake my mild depression but at least I’ll be bored and depressed away from home. I don’t belong there. I’m too used to being on my own and now I have to tell mommy where I’m going when I leave the house. I should have been born with money. I know money doesn’t solve all problems, but I would be better off with it than without it.

I wish there was a decent cafe around. Somewhere quiet that I could go to for a cup of coffee and some inspiration. I sound like a member of the coffee generation. [Reference to a “Coffee Achievers” TV commercial for the coffee industry.]

Coffee Achievers video

5/17/84

Eskie [Eskandarian] and Johan [Neeskens] [NY Cosmos soccer players] were at the meeting but I spent the time rewriting the Swing album. I did three songs. I’m beginning to feel panicky about everything. NAUSEA. I am hyper. I just got back from Bamberger’s. [A New Jersey department store owned by Macy’s. All the stores were renamed as Macy’s in 1986] I lost my card, so they gave me a temporary one but the Casio thing I want to buy is out of stock. [Casio portable music keyboard]

I have to save up for tuition. I don’t know what is wrong with me. Now I’m becoming vain about my appearance. I shouldn’t worry because I can’t change what I was born with, and I didn’t get a raw deal so why this urge to look in the mirror all the time? Maybe I’m going through adolescence at the age of 19.

Rewritten songs from The Swing

Dancing on the Jetty video-INXS

Walking off the Jetty [My version]

INXS Video Melting in the Sun

Lying in the Sun [My version of Melting in the Sun by INXS a la Weird Al Yankovic]

Sung to the tune of Melting in the Sun by INXS

More from the diary

5/18/84

I just got out of work. I go back to work dinner in a couple of hours.

I’m hyperactive again but I’m not depressed because I’m raking in the dough, and I got a nice letter from Jackie Fuhrmann. [I still have this letter. Jackie wrote about how she was planning to come visit once she knew when INXS would be touring the east coast. She also asked me if I had heard from Kirk Pengilly again. She asked me that every time she wrote. But no, I only heard from him that one time back in November 1983] Tonight, when I get home, I have to write to Jackie and Jen.

My Michael Jackson t-shirt came out well. Mom and Dan thought I bought it with sunglasses and burning hair.

I hit four numbers the first time I played Lotto. I’m psyched.

I’m back from work. I got a tip from one of my customers that included a balloon cat and mouse. It was great.

5/19/84

A Saturday night off! This event should be marked down in history. I have to eat dinner soon. I’m starving. I’m sitting on the living room couch. Junior [our dog] is lying on the floor next to me and my mother is in the kitchen. Barbara Streisand is blasting on the stereo.

My mother changed the record to Neil Diamond. I bought a Weekly World News at Quick Chek. The headline is “Famed Psychic’s Head Explodes”. The National Examiner had an interesting story about Jesus’ secret life, but I didn’t buy the paper. I think it is owned by Rupert Murdoch, the wealthy Australian newspaper magnate, who wanted to buy Warner Communications. All My Children [my favorite soap opera] had on someone named Hubert Drydoch-I think that he is supposed to be Murdoch because of the accent and the allusions about newspapers and magazines.

[I was wrong about the National Examiner. The tabloid was never owned by Rupert Murdoch. He owned The Star. Read about it on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Examiner]

Dr. Pepper tastes best when it is warm and flat. Gary Grant is supposed to be back in America sometime in the next couple of days. I had a really severe muscle cramp in my leg last night. I thought I would never be able to use my leg again.

Tonight, I’m going to read my paper, watch Tootsie on TV, and then INXS on MTV. [I don’t know what MTV showed. Maybe the debut of I Send A Message? INXS were in Europe at the time.] Tomorrow is going to be a long day, but I should survive. I hope I’ll get decent tips. I’m only halfway through Nausea. [Book by Jean Paul Sartre] I hope Mom and Carl leave soon. I like having the house to myself.

Cover of the Weekly World News from May 22, 1984

5/20/84

I like my job for the most part. It is just very painful to the feet and back. To most people there I am still a baby. I’m not supposed to know about sex and all of the other grownup things. I’m too young. They should think back to the time when they were my age. Some of them were already married. My job is less frustrating and easier than last summer. I even found out when I was home for Christmas that I could handle five tables no sweat. Now that it has gotten easier, it is also more profitable.

5/22/84

I was just at the Emerson Hotel nine hours ago and I’m going back in another hour to work lunch.

I would rather be reading

5/23/84

I slept so late this morning. Carl is home. [My mother’s husband. The guy who owned the Ho-Ho-Kus bakery.]  I’m so tired. I bought my Casio thing yesterday. I have to figure it out. Junior is barking now. He is such a pain. One minute he wants in and then out again. I hope I get my paycheck from school sometime soon. This town is getting boring. I need to find a place to go away from here where I can sit and think or read. Maybe the library is open. Maybe I can go see a movie tonight.

I wonder if I am sane. I was walking backwards down the railroad tracks singing earlier this afternoon. I went to the bank and just made it into Friendly’s before it started to pour. The lightning was really close. It scared the shit out of me. I had a cup of coffee and now I’m at the library. I brought my backpack just in case I found some books to take out.

There are so many things I should read and learn and know about that it all gets overwhelming. Insignificant things like working to earn a living and sleeping get in the way.

[Friendly’s was an ice cream place with food that was half a mile from my house. The one in Hillsdale closed and is now a Chipotle.]

Modeling doesn’t sound so great

5/24/84

Lunch was sooo dead today. I only made ten dollars. I have to go back in two hours and work 5-10. I’m working in the middle, so I have two big tables and three little ones. I hope I’m not run to the ground tonight although I would like to make some money.

I told them about my school job. They listened to me like I was E.F. Hutton. I guess because I don’t talk much. I don’t know why they expect me to talk more. What am I supposed to say? Frank and Toni always tell me to shut up because I’m talking too much or giving them a headache. They must tell me this at least ten times a day. It’s getting on my nerves.

I read a book about modeling, and I don’t know if I want to be bothered that much. Every part of your body has to look perfect. You have to get test shots and then maybe you’ll get some work, but it is long hours. I don’t know how much money it takes before I would even get work. My waist is too thick. The book talks about how guys that are halfway decent are almost impossible to find if you are a model. How about decent guys are hard to find period? Everyone tells me how lucky I am not to have a boyfriend. Freida, Joanne, and even my grandmother approves of not having one.

Well, I’m not a millionaire this week. I only got one number. I might have been a bit richer if we weren’t on pool. I had eight tables, and we were busy. I worked extremely hard and I’m tired. On one twelve-dollar check the people left me a twenty-dollar tip. That has to be the best tip I’ll ever get. I had to give it in to the pool. I’m expected back at work in eleven hours. Tomorrow, hopefully it will be busy for two hours then I can get paid and leave. I’ve certainly changed. Work is not as bad as it used to be, and I’ve become almost ambitious.

5/26/84

I try to convince myself that school is worth the cost. I’m sure I won’t regret it later so I can’t be too impulsive now. I went to a store on Route 4 and played with some keyboards. Today’s technology blows me away. It is so cool.

5/27/84

It’s good to be home. Work was long, slow, boring, and not very profitable. I’m tired from standing around all day. At least I got out around 8:15 and didn’t have to do ketchups. I had to eat Cornish hen because they didn’t sell any. Yuck. Everyone has been giving me compliments on how good a waitress I am. Barbara is back for the weekend and then she goes back to school for the summer. A new girl named Valerie is starting on Tuesday. I’m still the youngest there. Joanne thought I was about 22. I’d like to be 21 so I could do anything I want without a hassle. Tomorrow, we have to be in at 4:45 in case the rush starts early (if there is any).

I must stop thinking before I depress myself. I can see where drugs might come in handy at times like these-to forget everything: good, bad, or otherwise.

[The restaurant used to have bottles of ketchup on the tables and we would have to fill them up by pouring the ketchup from almost empty bottles into half-full ones to fill them up. I didn’t like to do this task.]

September 19, 2025
Blog Post 10- Waiting for INXS, Spring 1984

INXS stationery, Someone decorated the xeroxed photo. I think it was Terri.

As I wrote about in my last post, it was fall semester of my sophomore year in college when I got that letter from Kirk Pengilly. I managed to pass all my classes that semester, but I did not want to be in school. I wanted to learn things, but I didn’t want to be in school.

Letter from Terri about INXS

Terri sent me a letter dated January 19, 1984. She said that she was answering a letter from me that was dated December 5, 1983, and apologized for the delay. She had some INXS news for me-she told me she got INXS played on the radio again, “just a few minutes ago”, and said that they should pay her for doing promotions. That’s funny because I wrote the same thing in my diary a few months later-that they should be paying me for promoting them. We were great fans.

Jess called Terri and told her that MTV had announced that INXS would be back in the U.S. in early March and that the new album would also be out in March. “A little later than they expected,” according to Mark Goodman, the MTV VJ who reported the news. This information turned out to be wrong and the album showed up even later than that in the U.S. and the band didn’t show up until June! Terri wanted to know what was taking so long!

I know I visited the Australian consulate in New York City with somebody, but I can’t remember exactly when or with whom. It was during the fall of 1983 because Terri wondered in her letter how Kirk Pengilly, of Neutral Bay, with the silent listing was. Apparently, I called the operator in Australia to ask for his number and I was told that it was unlisted. When I was looking through the Sydney telephone books at the consulate, I ran across a listing for a K. Pengilly who lived at 59 Yeo Street in Neutral Bay. “That must be him” is what I thought so I gave it a try. I didn’t know he had a girlfriend when I did that.

Terri “lurved” the poem I wrote about Kirk Pengilly. If only I had a copy or remembered anything about that! It was probably at least somewhat flattering because I liked him a lot; unlike any poems I wrote about Michael Hutchence, but I probably also mocked him a little. No one in INXS escaped that treatment. Perhaps I mentioned his dislike for clothes dryers because Terri makes a reference to that. He must have talked about that when we were with him in Poughkeepsie, and he was washing his shirt in the bathroom sink.

The jerk from Scotland

Spring semester of college started out terribly. I wanted to do something else so badly. Instead, I was taking five classes and four of them were in business. My mental health was poor-a constant cough kept me from sleeping for over two weeks. And to top it off, I dated a jerk from Scotland who went to my school. He was very charismatic, and people flocked to him. I thought he liked me, and I came close to having sex with him, but I lost my nerve. After that he said we would go out but then he didn’t call and in the following days he started ignoring me.

My roommate Karen spoke to him at a party, and he told her that his friend had asked me out and he couldn’t believe it that I turned him down, so she walked away thinking he was an asshole too. And he was. A couple of weeks later, I ran into a fellow student, and she told me about her experience with the Scottish guy. They had dated during the fall semester, and he told her that he had an impotence problem. She helped him “solve it.” Then he spent Thanksgiving at her house and when he got back to campus, he had sex with a friend of hers.

In my diary, I asked, “why did he have to bother me?” and “how could I ever fall for him?” “This hasn’t been a good experience, and I don’t want to go through it again.” “He’s really done a number on me and I still don’t understand exactly what happened.” I said I was sick of people pestering me.

My world blew up. I felt on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Dropping my accounting class eased some of the pressure. I considered transferring to Terri’s school in Florida, but my mother wouldn’t let me. Trying to find the bright side of meeting this awful jerk, I told myself that maybe it was good because it caused me to think about why I was in school and what I really wanted to do with my life.

The movie, “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” was a big influence on me and especially the song, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” I quoted a lyric from it in my diary while I was writing about my problems.

After thinking about it, I decided to stay in Wharton and major in marketing instead of accounting because I couldn’t afford to switch to the College of Arts and Sciences and stay in college an extra year to study something else. My diary says, “I just have to get through the semester without killing myself and I should be OK.” I wished I could afford to quit school and travel and bum around. My financial situation depressed me. I owed $5200 in student loans at that point, and I would still owe that if I quit.

Billboard magazine

The management class I was taking did not interest me. The professor made me come talk to him after the first exam and he told me I had to do a lot better on the paper and the final exam. I used to go to the Lippincott Library of the Wharton School, but it wasn’t to do my schoolwork. It was to read the copies of Billboard magazine that they had there. Billboard magazine covers the music industry.

Here are links to a Wikipedia article about Billboard magazine and an actual copy from April 28, 1984 that has information about INXS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_(magazine)

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/80s/1984/BB-1984-04-28.pdf

It was important to find a topic for my paper that would interest me, so I chose to write a paper on the mergers and acquisitions of Warner Communications. Why that company? Because it was related to INXS, the Australian rock band, and the New York Cosmos soccer team. They owned Atlantic Records and the Atco imprint that was INXS’ record label in the U.S., and they also owned the Cosmos.

Both Atlantic Records and the NY Cosmos were founded by Ahmet Ertegun who was a horrible pig of a man who abused numerous women. That was not something I was aware of at the time, but I absolutely believe the accusations. I will write more about that in a future blog post.

Original Sin

It was now March and almost time for spring break. Terri heard that “Original Sin” would be released during the second week of March, 1984 and that INXS would be the opening act for Duran Duran. I called Capitol Records, Duran Duran’s record label, to ask if INXS would be opening for them. The person I spoke to didn’t know and suggested that I call Madison Square Garden, so I did, and they didn’t have any information either. None of this turned out to be true. It’s hard to find an exact date for when the song was released in the United States.

3 Ways Nile Rodgers Made “Original Sin” One of INXS’ Most Enduring Hits

Towards the end of March, I wrote in my diary that I called WKDU which is the student-run radio station for Drexel University and asked them to play “Original Sin”, but they didn’t have it. The first time I tried calling, I dialed the wrong number and said to the old woman who answered, “Do you have original sin?” She said, “Excuse me?” so I said it again. Then she told me I had the wrong number. That was both embarrassing and hilarious because I must have sounded like a religious freak.

A screen shot from the April 28, 1984 issue of Billboard magazine.

On April 5, 1984, I saw in Billboard magazine that The Swing, the fourth album by INXS, had debuted at number one in Australia and the song “I Send A Message” had debuted at number seven there. Original Sin had been released in Australia in December 1983. It wasn’t until April 28, 1984 that Original Sin debuted on the Billboard chart for the U.S. at number 87.

Big Country

Big Country. Trouser Press magazine. March 1984

Big Country concert in Tampa, Florida with Jess and Jen. March 1984.

Jess is a big part of my story but this is the first photo of her to be included in the blog. From left to right is Jess, Jen from Florida, and me with my permed hair. A guy at college told me I looked like David Lee Roth.

For spring break, I took a trip to Tampa, Florida to visit Terri. I needed a vacation. Jess came down for the week too. We went to a couple soccer games and hung around at Jen’s house. We also saw Big Country in concert and met Stuart Adamson and his young son.

Me with Big Country singer Stuart Adamson in Tampa, Florida

My diary says that I was reading A Clockwork Orange (not for school). I also had to read books and work on a paper for my sociology class. The conversations that my friends and I were having were about Duran Duran, INXS, and soccer. I also spent time drawing pictures of punk-rock cats that I called Anarkitties.

Big Country video

Graveyard shift

Two things I started doing during spring semester were smoking real cigarettes and working the graveyard shift at my work-study job in the dorms. The previous semester I had started smoking clove cigarettes. I stopped smoking them after they made me nauseous but unfortunately, I switched to smoking the regular kind. They helped me stay awake through my midnight to eight am shifts. It wasn’t a regular habit yet-that came later. When I worked all night, I drank Dr. Pepper and listened to music-sometimes INXS, Falco, Tenpole Tudor or something else I had on cassette, or I listened to the radio.

I wanted a boyfriend, and I wanted to have sex, but I still didn’t have any luck there. Hookups were not for me. My diary at the time said “I’ve never had any qualms about sex before marriage although I wouldn’t sleep with just any Joe Schmo off the street.”

I went to parties and met guys. One of the guys was named Mike and I wrote about him in my diary. He was funny. He showed me the P-Funk All-Stars sign which is when you make your hand into horns by holding your middle fingers down with your thumb. And he told me to sing, “Shit, Goddamn, Get off your ass and jam!” That was fun. We tried out different accents on each other. I used to pretend to be Irish or Scottish from time to time. When I came back to college for my junior year, I finally found a boyfriend and it was Mike!

Before I left school for the summer break, I went to an interview with Reinhard Modeling agency. They had advertised in the school paper that they would be on campus looking for models. I wasn’t sure if they were legit, and I wondered how much of the money they would get. One woman I spoke to said that models in Philadelphia were paid $100 an hour. The agency was interested but I was unsure-I thought my waist was too big and I was leaving Philadelphia for the summer so pursuing modeling would have to wait.

Modeling is another one of those industries where a lot of disgusting and bad things happen-especially to women. But the agency I went to is still operating and seems to be legit.

http://www.reinhardagency.com

My next blog post will back track a bit and I will talk about soccer, and then I will get back to INXS.

August 16, 2025