Sexism, Bruhs, and Rock n Roll

Tag: The One Thing

  • Blog Post 28- The bird named Fabian Sparkle. September 1984

     

    Michael Hutchence of INXS. From our front row seats at the Beacon Theatre on July 31, 1984. Photo taken by Jess.
    Michael Hutchence of INXS. From our front row seats at the Beacon Theatre on July 31, 1984. Photo taken by Jess.

    When I left for Philadelphia over Labor Day weekend to start my junior year of college, I was not alone. I had a Lutino cockatiel of unknown sex with me. 

    That fall, my youngest brother and Terri’s younger sister were off to college for the first time. Terri’s sister Renee was going to California for college, and she needed someone to take care of her pet cockatiel. So, I agreed to take the bird to school with me. 

    I was moving back into the same apartment I lived in the year before, the place where Kirk Pengilly had sent me a letter. Karen and Dohi were my roommates for a third year. Our dorm room was a bit unusual because it was in a building that was a dorm, but it was also an apartment in a high-rise apartment building. So, we had a kitchenette, a living room, and two bedrooms for the three of us.

    If I recall correctly, Renee had named the bird of unknown sex Boy George. A great name for this attractive, fancy bird with its crest of yellow-white feathers but I decided to change it to Fabian Sparkle, an even more fabulous name. So, I named the bird for Michael Hutchence but in a roundabout way. An inside joke of sorts. 

    This was funny to me on all sorts of levels. And I didn’t even know that sometime in the future, around 1988, Michael would take to wearing a white suit and then pretend to be Fabian Sparkle. I don’t know where or why he came up with that name to use in 1984 in the first place, but he must have liked it too if he resurrected it. I haven’t found the reference for this yet, but I will eventually. Martha Troup said it somewhere. 

    What is a Lutino Cockatiel?

    The cockatiel is a smallish Australian bird that is related to the much larger cockatoo. The bird in the 1970’s American TV show called Baretta was a cockatoo. It’s a type of parrot. 

    Standard cockatiels are gray. Lutino cockatiels with their white and yellow feathers started as a mutation and then were bred to be a new variety of cockatiel. 

    I borrowed this photo from the internet because I don't have a photo of Fabian Sparkle. But this is what the cockatiel looked like.
    I borrowed this photo from the internet because I don’t have a photo of Fabian Sparkle. But this is what the cockatiel looked like.

    Lutino Cockatiel

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

    Terri goes to Los Angeles

    Terri traveled out to Los Angeles when her sister did and that gave her an opportunity to see INXS at the Hollywood Paladium on September 1, 1984.

    In my diary, at the end of September, I wrote that we spoke on the phone for four hours, so she probably told me lots about it. Unfortunately, I only wrote a couple of sentences in my diary about what was said in the call, and it wasn’t about the concert. I’m sure she probably told me that Andrew did not wear my hat out in LA either. 

    This is what I wrote in my diary- “She thought that I should have called in sick to work and we could have stayed on Michael’s floor.” That was about what happened on July 2, 1984.  And I also wrote- “Wishy Washy is on-fond memories. Terri and I talked about it. She thought it was great. She said most people would have just watched Michael, but I was just doing my thing and enjoying the spotlight.” That was about what happened on August 10, 1984

    Terri sees INXS in Los Angeles

    But in a letter from her from October 1984, she mentioned the concert. She said that some bums kept climbing up on stage and then diving off into the audience. At the time, stage diving had been occurring at some shows, mostly punk shows, for about twenty years but there doesn’t seem to have been a name for that behavior until 1985.

    According to Terri, Michael Hutchence was amused by it at first but then asked them nicely to stop doing it. Well, they kept on doing it. After about the 10th time, Timmy grabbed Michael’s microphone and said something like, “Stay in the audience or I’ll kick ya in the nuts!” Terri thought that was hilarious and so did I!

    This article about when the term “stage diving” first appeared in print mentions an article about INXS in Billboard magazine in November 1985! They were playing the Paladium in Los Angeles again.

    https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/482863/when-and-by-whom-was-stage-diving-coined

    What Jess wrote to me

    Before INXS played in Los Angeles, they played at the California Theater in San Diego on 8/28. Jess had a friend there who went to the concert and who also met the band. I think Jess had written a letter to Garry Gary Beers and sent it to her friend so she could give it to him. 

    According to the letter Jess wrote to me on 9/19/84, Garry received the letter and her pal had a great time meeting “the guys.” Jess told me that her friend told her that Michael wore a cowboy hat. Her friend had also sent her photocopies of some pictures she had taken of INXS. That’s often what happened-instead of people sending actual prints of photos they would enclose photocopies instead. It’s cheaper that way to send them to all of your friends. 

    Jess wrote to me that the photocopies were very dark and that she might send them to me in the next letter. She still needed them because she was thinking of buying prints of the photos. I don’t think I ever got those photocopies, and I don’t know if Jess ever got prints of the photos. 

    One of the complaints in the letter was about being too busy with school to write letters so she was keeping all letters she wrote to only one page. Just enough to let people know she was still alive. 

    She also asked me, “Why does reading about INXS annoy you? I think a lot of this stuff is hysterical. (Especially the things you know are wrong.)” 

    I think her question is what caused me to write in my diary about a week later, “I’m sick of reading articles where the answers seem to be made up in order to give a good image and not promote controversy.” It doesn’t say in my diary that I was referring to INXS here but it’s a feeling I have had about things that members of INXS have said publicly and the feeling remains even to this day. 

    Jess also talked about how she had to go to a reference library in NYC often to read Australian literature for her independent study class. She mentioned that she was in the village (Greenwich Village) the other day and she passed by the store where we bought Timmy’s shirt. (His birthday present.) 

    One other thing she wrote about was her plan to travel to Australia after she graduated from college and she invited me to go with her. With the letter she enclosed a photocopy of a brochure for a package-deal trip to Australia. 

    Back to Fabian Sparkle

    The bird named Fabian Sparkle lived in a cage in the living room of our apartment. He/she did not seem to care for me because the bird would try to bite me if I put my hand too close, but the bird also did not seem to like being alone. 

    Cockatiel calls

    Fabian Sparkle was only quiet if I was in the living room. If I walked out of the room, the bird would start making a noise that sounded like “Weet!” The video I posted explains the different calls that cockatiels make. The bird was calling me to come back. I figured this out on my own when I stepped in and out of the room and bird would either call when it didn’t see me or be quiet when it did see me.

    The problem with keeping this cockatiel in my dorm was that the call could be heard outside of our apartment, but I don’t know how long Fabian Sparkle continued to call for me after I left for class. No one ever complained so I guess it was okay, but I felt bad when I was standing in the hall waiting for the elevator to arrive and I heard a constant “weet, weet, weet, weet…” 

    There is an entry from my diary about Fabian Sparkle from 9/22/84, just a couple of weeks after classes started, that I wrote while I was working a graveyard shift at the front desk of my apartment building. 

    I wrote, “Brian and Jeff from across the hall came in and said I missed their heroin party, but that Fabian Sparkle (the bird) was the life of it. I died laughing because it was a hilarious connection even though it was unintentional on their part.”

    What happened to Fabian Sparkle

    Fabian Sparkle was only mine for the school year. At the end of my junior year in college, I decided to stay in Philadelphia for the summer so I could no longer take care of the cockatiel.

    Jess graduated from college at the same time I ended my junior year and she was able to take the bird and keep it at her parent’s house in Wayne, NJ. Eventually, Fabian Sparkle started laying eggs, so we finally knew that she was a female cockatiel. Jess changed Fabian’s name to Fabianette and the bird lived happily for many years until she died. 

    Fall semester and INXS

    My pocket calendar from September 3 to September 9, 1984.
    My pocket calendar from September 3 to September 9, 1984.

    You can see from this calendar page that my classes started on September 6th and after a full day of classes, I worked the graveyard shift at the front desk of High Rise South. Where I lived on Penn Campus was and still is called Superblock. 

    Superblock has three high-rise apartment buildings and back then they were nicknamed High Rise South, High Rise North, and High Rise East, based on where they were located. I’ve mentioned before that I lived in High Rise East as a freshman and then in High Rise North as a sophomore and junior. 

    The Man Behind Superblock

    In between the three high-rise dorms is a giant red sculpture called The Covenant and it was made by the sculptor Alexander Liberman. The nickname for the sculpture then and now is “Dueling Tampons.”

    "Dueling Tampons" or its real name "Covenant" by Alexander Liberman. 39th St. & Locust Walk. Penn campus.
    “Dueling Tampons” or its real name “Covenant” by Alexander Liberman. 39th St. & Locust Walk. Penn campus.

    During my graveyard shift that night, I wrote a poem about Glitter Girl. I wrote five letters to my friends, and I also wrote in my diary. From what I wrote in my diary, I can assume that I took up smoking cigarettes as soon as I left my mother’s house and moved to campus. This is what I wrote:

    “9/7/84

    GRAVEYARD POEM

    There was a girl all done up in glitter

    The sight of her made us all titter 

    Her makeup was three inches thick 

    All she wanted was poor Garry’s dick 

    I thought I was gonna be sick

    I hope the sun comes up soon so I can play Burn For You.

    I’m afraid I’m ruining my health from the caffeine and nicotine. At least when I sleep my body takes a break from my nasty habits. 

    I need to exert more control over myself. I know I’m not doing the best thing for my body, and it probably isn’t good for my mind either. 

    I still look at people sort of strangely as if I was not one of them and that I can’t relate to them. 

    These last two hours are always a bit difficult to get through. Five lucky people are getting letters from me in a few days. I need to find a product for my marketing class. It is almost sunrise. I still have Naseem’s autograph. I like that name. 

    I don’t have a good view of the sunrise from High Rise South. I’m making a mess of this desk and of course I didn’t do any reading. I’m out of stamps again already but it is worth it if I get mail often. I hate an empty mailbox.”

    The poem ended up in at least one of the letters I wrote while at work that night because Susan mentions it in a letter she wrote to me, and some other friends mention that they heard it from her. 

    Letter from Jess

    Jess wrote on 9/10/84 that Susan had recited my poem “Glitter” for her. She wrote, “Cute-real cute! Maybe you should send a copy to Garry. I’m sure he’d love it.”

    She also wrote this about INXS in recent magazines: 

    “Video Rock Stars Oct/Nov issue has a one page article on INXS also. Dana has a Rock Show mag with these funny pics of Garry, Michael and Jon. They are pushing Jon off the couch. Also there is a pic of Michael and a girl in Japan (Japanese mag-so where else?) It’s on a page of couples-it might be Michele with short, straight hair. I’ll get your pics soon! TC! Lots of love, Jessy jesy.”

    Letter from Susan

    Susan also wrote back to me on September 10th. In her letter she wrote:

    “Hiya! How are you? I’m fine! Wow! I got two letters from you, in a row! I feel so honored, especially since you’re in college and I’m just a lowly high school senior!

    You’re right, you do do strange things to pictures of INXS! Guess what? On Saturday night, I was watching “Nite Tracks.” It’s a video show-they showed “Burn For You”!! I totally freaked out! I called Jess and woke her up, but later she said she was glad I called, and if I had just told her the next day that it was on, she would have killed me!!

    That’s pretty funny that some girl rode all the way to Hartford from NJ! How did she get back? 

    Are you serious about Michael and heroin? That’s a pretty stiff drug, worse than cocaine! Anyway, if he ran out of heroin, he wouldn’t have been able to stand at the bar and calmly buy anybody a drink, because the “cold turkey” (withdrawal) from heroin is really rough. You see, while you are reading about philosophy, I’m reading about drugs! I have a good book called Christiane F. It’s an autobiography of a drug addict. Pretty disgusting habit, if you ask me. 

    I can tell you wrote your second letter at 5:00am! That poem is definitely middle of the night material! I loved it! Oh-I may be in high school, but I’m not that dumb! I know what ‘titter’ means!

    Did you kill your bird yet? You could gag him! I suppose I should go now and look for some fb’s to send ya! Keep ya busy in the wee hours! Write soonly! Love, Susan”

    She must have been responding to some of what I wrote in those letters she got from me. 

    If you have a couple of hours to kill, here is a compilation from the TBS show “Night Tracks” from 1984. I have no idea if INXS is in this. It has some commercials in it from back in the day. 

    Letter from Dana

    In my last post, I said I would mention the rest of what Dana had written to me in a letter. I’ll just put the whole letter from 8/23/84 here.

    “Dear Donna,

    Hiya! I’m not holding up too well- I guess INXS withdrawal has set in. So, I’ve tried to go to as many other concerts as possible- I saw Illustrated Man, and I saw Echo and the Bunnymen and The Fleshtones twice. Still, nothing beats those clowns up there. God. When will they get back here? Anyway, so Andrew still hasn’t worn your hat? That’s not very nice…

    Jes came over today and we spent most of the time going through pictures and FBs. I borrowed a bunch of pictures to put in the next newsletter. Speaking of the alliance, if you want your name and addy, etc., in, fill out the index card and send it back soon.

    So Michael wanted to know how old you are. All I can say is you’d better watch out for those rock stars…

    I worked at MTV the other day as relief receptionist. It was hectic, but fun. Some offices have magazines in their reception areas, they have MTV. Too bad it was only a one day job! Oh well. I’m finished with work for the summer-I’ll need the rest of the time to get ready to move to Barnard. Fun, fun, fun. One good thing-I’ll be on my own in the city! Yay!

    Hey-next summer I’ll be 18, so if I want to go to Canada or anyplace else for that matter, my parents won’t be able to stop me. Wow. We’d better think up something good!

    So you’ve got yourself a new Fabian Sparkle disguised as a bird. Does it have glittery feathers? Does it have a friend with leopard feather? Sorry-bad joke.

    I’d better sign off. Take care and write soon! Dancing on the Jetty, Dana”

    References in the letter

    When Dana mentioned “those clowns up there” I’m sure she was referring to a photo of INXS at the top of the paper she was writing to me on. If I still have the original somewhere, I can’t find it. I started “digitizing” my letters and diaries early on to save space. First by typing them and later scanning them into a computer. 

    I don’t think I ever saved a copy of any of the INXS Alliance newsletters that she made and sent out, if I ever even put myself on the mailing list at all. It would be so great to have some of those newsletters right now. 

    FBs are short for friendship books. I wrote about those in an earlier post. It’s funny that the abbreviation is the same as Facebook because those friendship books were a form of social media before personal computers, the internet, and Mark Zuckerberg started what we call social media today. 

    After the graveyard shift

    After my graveyard shift, I stayed awake long enough to go to my first statistics class. Then I went back to my apartment and slept. The next day I wrote in my diary that I went out dancing that night and I danced to some INXS.

    “9/8/84

    The sucko bank machine is closed. I’m broke, hungry and tired. 

    I Send a Message dropped out of the charts after a climb to #82 while meanwhile in Oz, Burn For You fell from #3 to #5. I went dancing last night and requested INXS. They played the One Thing and Original Sin back to back. That was very nice. My brain is still mush.

    Well, I’ve run into some more people I met last year through Bill. Eric told me that Lynn is dealing in speed and heroin now. She is getting herself into some deep shit. I probably won’t see her at all because I’m not going to hang out with that crowd.”

    References in my diary entry

    Philadelphia had one of the first ATM networks in the United States. But we called those bank machines MAC machines because they were called Money Access Centers. It was Saturday and I wanted to withdraw money but the ATM at my bank two blocks away was not available.

    Wikipedia article about Money Access Centers:

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

    Bill had a punk rock sensibility and style and the way he looked reminded me of David Bowie. 

    Spending library time looking at Billboard magazine

    It looks like I spent some time at the library on 9/8 and looked at the latest issue of Billboard magazine to see how INXS was doing when I should have been studying. 

    The Hits of the World section of Billboard magazine from September 8, 1984. This was where I saw that Burn For You had dropped to number five from number three in Australia.
    The Hits of the World section of Billboard magazine from September 8, 1984. This was where I saw that Burn For You had dropped to number five from number three in Australia.

    Letter from Terri written on 9/18

    “Four letter word for Aussie wild life- INXS!

    Dear Donna,

    What it is? Nice talking to you, although brief. Isn’t that phone of Susan’s a trip? She and Jes called once and totally confused me! I liked that-“What’s Susan doing in Florida?”

    My mother said you were going to teach Fabian Japanese? (Japanese for travelling birds?)

    I think I can buy your “feel as if I’ve eaten twenty field mines!” They’re a riot! Thanx ever so much again for lending me those tapes. Some if it’s just too happening for words.

    You and your dreams (poor Andrew) and poems! Another goody! What’d Jes think?

    Your picture order is 15 pix, not 13 like I originally counted (I counted a date and didn’t count that you want four of you and Michael.) Duh! They’re not here yet-I’ll just hold this until I get around to getting the pix! 

    I don’t know why they bother-#82! Gee whiz! When they can reach #3 and up down under, I don’t know why INXS even bothers with this stupid place! The only thing INXSive I’ve done lately was I wrote to Tim. He won’t get it, I’m sure. But I don’t buy strange albums or look up weird amphibians (Jess lurves axol) And I’m sure Susan told you about the Aussie girl she’s chasing all over her school!

    Did you hear about INXS on “Rock of the 80s?” It’s good. It’s got its highlights, boy! Like Michael falling flat on his back! He’s a piece of work!

    Eksesu? Yeh, good friends of mine! I love Mr. Beer’s name- Kari-Kari?!! I had to laugh at that one. Yeh, right! You can impress Michael with your knowledge of T-Rex, Violent American Femmes, and the Japanese language! Whatever turns you on! I won’t even bother to show up. 

    Thanx for the Tim thing. Here’s something from Toronto-we already knew, but I found it interesting to see it in print!

    Why don’t you ask Dana to put you on the Alliance list? Hmmm!?

    Gotta go to Differential Equations. That class is like a big suck! Please return the stamps that will be on your present to me!!! Keep swinging, Terri”

    Rock of the 80s

    One reason why it takes me so long to write new posts is because I try to find some of the things that are mentioned in these letters and in my diary. Searching for “Rock of the 80s” using Google got me nowhere. But the gigography that INXS included with it’s Calling All Nations Deluxe set had the concert listed. They recorded it on 6/19/1984 at the Hollywood Palace theater. That was before we even saw them for the first time in 1984, but it wasn’t shown on television until September.

    I scanned the cover of this list of INXS shows from 1979-2012 that came with the Calling All Nations Deluxe Set that I bought.
    I scanned the cover of this list of INXS shows from 1979-2012 that came with the Calling All Nations Deluxe Set that I bought.

    Once I had the name of the venue, I was able to find the video for it on YouTube. 

    INXS live at the Hollywood Palace

    Michael fell flat on his back at the beginning of the second song which was Melting in the Sun. When I watched this video, I noticed that Michael messed up the lyrics of the first song which was “The Swing.”

    More about Terri’s letter

    I had loaned some Tenpole Tudor cassette tapes to Terri and she was continuing our discussion about the lyrics for the song “Love and Food.” Here’s a video:

    I’m pretty sure that we read or saw that Garry Gary either had a pet axolotl or he was fascinated by the prehistoric fish. 

    Axolotls as pets

    https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/axolotls-amphibians-that-never-grow-up.html

    Terri wasn’t the only person I mentioned the Violent Femmes to in my letters. Their first album was one I listened to over and over at that time and I must have just recently acquired it, but my diary doesn’t say if I bought it. I have a feeling that my friend Adam owned it and he taped it for me. 

    It looks like I was using my “Japanese For Travellers” book to transcribe some Japanese articles about INXS into English. I told people that I would teach Fabian Sparkle, the bird, some Japanese but that didn’t work because it is cockatoos who can mimic words and not cockatiels. 

    This is the cover of the Japanese phrase book I bought in 1984 when I got back to college.
    This is the cover of the Japanese phrase book I bought in 1984 when I got back to college.

    The “Tim thing” and what it was that we found out about INXS in Toronto that appeared in print is a mystery. Perhaps I had photocopied the photo of Tim and Nile Rodgers that appeared in the same issue Billboard magazine (September 8, 1984) where I learned that “I Send A Message” fell off the Hot 100 after reaching number 82. 

     

    A photo of Tim Farriss and Nile Rodgers from the Beacon Theatre show that appeared in Billboard magazine in the September 8, 1984 issue.
    A photo of Tim Farriss and Nile Rodgers from the Beacon Theatre show that appeared in Billboard magazine in the September 8, 1984 issue.

    Maria tells her Kirk Pengilly story

    “9/4/84

    Dear Donna,

    Hi, How are you? Do you remember that poster you made at Dana’s the day of INXS at the Beacon? Well my friend Dawn has it. I mentioned it to Dana that Dawn ended up with it, and Dana got real mad. Well since it was your poster, I hope you’re not mad about it. If you want it back I can talk to Dawn when I see her-I just wanted you to know. Okay!

    Oh…We Are The Vegetables(WATV)-it’s my only INXS story! (Except for the soundcheck, but you guys were there also!) 

    WATV has to be one of their craziest songs and I’ve been dying to know about it for a long time! So that night I had the perfect opportunity to ask Kirk, so I went over (Susan followed me).

    Kirk was impressed-I guess because WATV isn’t on any albums, and it’s pretty much unheard of-even in Australia. Kirk said it was the song they used for the B-side of their first single. He kept saying how it was such a fun song…and he’s like to do it again-then I said that Michael probably doesn’t remember the words-and Kirk laughed and agreed!

    Let’s see, he also said that back in the days of Perth they used to end their gigs with that song and they made a big finale out of it! The funniest part about what he said was that they used to call each other vegetables! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to find out more about that because Susan wanted to show Kirk her pen!

    How’s Fabian Sparkle doing? Wasn’t Tim’s name Alvin Purple? Now how did this thing with Fabian Sparkle come about? Is it just a name Michael used or what?

    Did ya see newsletter #5. I thought it was great how it was dedicated to Gary Grant. He seems like he’s really nice. Ah, and Vance…#1 roadie that was funny!

    Did I tell you I wrote to the other Vance “fan”-Chris from Fla. She’s in love with him, she said he has a place in NYC and she wants to go when she gets enough $. 

    Well Donna I gotta go. School started yesterday and I already have a ton of things to do-I hope I’m not this busy the whole year-I love to goof off and I’m good at it. I loved your INXS stories, they’re great! See ya and write soon. Luv, Maria”

    We Are The Vegetables on YouTube

    Letter from Dana with some INXS info

    “9/10/84

    Dear Donna,

    Hiya! Nice Nick Cave paper. He’s kind of funny looking, though.

    School’s okay so far. I’ve only had 2 of my classes. I’m taking Logic, Intro to Psychology, Freshman Seminar, Intro to Music, and Jazz Dance. Ha. I’ve never really taken dance before. This will be pretty funny!

    How’s U. of P.? Is Philly a nice place? New York is great when you’re on your own! I don’t have to report to anyone now, so it’s really a totally new experience even though I’m in the same city. 

    Marc Bolan is dead, or, as my friend said, very dead. It seems that he was one of those “rock-hero” type people and his death was an event in rock history. Shows how much we know…

    I’d love to hitchhike to Guam, but we might drown. How about a nice long swim?

    Guess who I got a letter from last week! Here are a few hints. He plays bass, he’s got a double name, and his picture is up there. I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now! Yes, Garry Gary actually wrote to me again! He told me to call Connie at MMA, so I did and I’m going there on Tuesday to help out with the fan club. Should be fun…

    I’ve just reread your letter and discovered that I haven’t responded to anything you wrote! Well, here goes. I don’t know of any companies that have sold stationery with rock stars as a business in itself. I have seen Menudo stationery, and Culture Club cards, but nothing more, except in London, where they have postcards.

    Cute poem about Glitter Girl. Connie told me an interesting Garry story. One night he took a girl back to his room to talk. She wanted to sleep with him and he didn’t so she left the room. The next morning he got really upset ‘coz she came down hand in hand with Vance. Connie said he started complaining about all the sluts, etc. Oh-it seems that Garry and his girlfriend broke up right before the tour.

    Garry wrote to me from Arizona. He told me that some guy in Texas threw a brand new Colt 45 on stage with a fan letter. Pretty weird, huh? [8/22, 8/23, and 8/24/1984 INXS played shows in Texas. 8/27 they were in Arizona so Garry wrote to her on 8/26 or thereabout]

    How’s Tae Kwon Do? I took karate for 3 years. I had to quit ‘coz I have bad knees, but it was fun while it lasted.

    My sister Jenny likes the Violent Femmes. The picture in Star Hits is really cute. Check out that Nick Cave shirt!! 

    If your friend Carlos thinks the cover of Shabooh Shoobah is kinky, you should show him the inside sleeve…

    I think I’d better go now! Take care, Happy Birthday,  Dana on the Jetty (Terri’s new name for me.)”

    Last little bits from my diary

    My pocket calendar from September 10 to September 16, 1984.
    My pocket calendar from September 10 to September 16, 1984.

    “9/16/84

    I went shopping yesterday and bought cool boots and cool earrings and a Nick Cave album that I have to get Adam to tape for me. I’ve totally blown off studying and I’m reading Shogun. I’ve been smoking like a maniac. School sucks again. It hasn’t changed from last year and my mood and attitude is quite familiar. I’m so disorganized and apathetic.”

    The Nick Cave album was “From Her To Eternity”. It was the last thing by Nick Cave that I ever bought. I loved his cover of “In The Ghetto” but that’s about it. 

    You can listen to the song here:

    I’m sure I was reading Shogun because Tim Farriss was reading it in Florida. 

    Procrastination problems

    9/18/84

    “I have to get my ass in gear. At least Astronomy requires no work. I have to start reading statistics, accounting, and history. 

    9/20/84

    I just saw a guy who looked like a Buddhist monk like in the video. [I Send A Message by INXS]

    I’m taking a short break from reading statistics. I’m up to last week. Oh boy!

    There is a five-year-old kid in England who got kicked out of kindergarten because he had a punky haircut. His picture is hanging on my wall. [I saw the article in the Weekly World News. I also used the photo from the article to make the photocopier stationery for when I wrote my friends.]

    I met someone wearing an Original Sin t-shirt and talked to him. He was right behind us at the Mann Music Center and also walked out on The Go-Go’s.”

    9/22/84

    Saturday night graveyard. The last one. I hope there will be good parties next week. Last night during graveyard I wrote a twelve-page letter to Susan and told her some of my INXS stories.

    Brian and Jeff from across the hall came in and said I missed their heroin party, but that Fabian Sparkle (the bird) was the life of it. I died laughing because it was a hilarious connection even though it was unintentional on their part. 

    I brought all my books but probably won’t use them. Dana might be in charge of the INXS fan club. That is cool.”

    I’ll have to leave some of the letters from the end of September 1984 for my next post because this one is already too long. 

  • 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.
    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.
    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!
    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.
    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.
    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.
    The drive from Hillsdale NJ to Liberty NY.
    My pocket calendar from August 27 to September 2, 1984.
    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.
    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.
    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. 

  • Blog Post 21- INXS at the Beacon Theatre, NYC. July 31, 1984

    Nile Rodgers, Tim Farriss and Garry Gary Beers. INXS at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. Photo by Jess
    Nile Rodgers, Tim Farriss and Garry Gary Beers. INXS at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. Photo by Jess

    Michael Hutchence and Belinda Carlisle’s last night together

    INXS opened for The Go-Go’s for the last time on July 29, 1984 at a show at Kings Dominion amusement park near Richmond, Virginia. Neither INXS nor The Go-Go’s had a concert on July 30. It’s not clear whether Belinda Carlisle and Michael Hutchence spent a final night together after the last show or if it was the following night. INXS did not arrive in New York City until the day of their show at the Beacon Theatre on the 31st. 

    Belinda Carlisle wrote in her book, “Lips Unsealed: A Memoir”, that she and Michael spent a sweet, sad, romantic, and passionate last night together where they promised to remain friends. 

    The Go-Go’s did their next show in Berkeley, California on August 1, 1984. INXS presumably traveled by bus to New York City from Richmond on July 31 to perform. 

    A screenshot from Google Maps showing the drive from the last INXS concert with The Go-Go's to New York City where INXS would perform at the Beacon Theatre.
    A screenshot from Google Maps showing the drive from the last INXS concert with The Go-Go’s to New York City where INXS would perform at the Beacon Theatre.

    Front row seats

    We had front row seats to the show because Jess, Terri and Dana had waited in front of the theater all night on the night before tickets went on sale to buy tickets for all of us. When that was, I don’t know because it isn’t in my diary. Probably some day or night when I was working and couldn’t spend all night on the sidewalk with them. 

    The page from my 1984 pocket-sized appointment book showing July 30 to August 5. INXS concerts and waitressing shifts.
    The page from my 1984 pocket-sized appointment book showing July 30 to August 5. INXS concerts and waitressing shifts.

    The day before the show-a diary entry

    7/30/84

    I’m all hyperactive because I’m excited about tomorrow. We have front row seats. It is going to be great because no one can kick us out and it will be a longer show cause The Go-Go’s split. Oh, I hope they aren’t too weepy about the separation. They will get over it. I think Belinda set the whole thing up. 

    Renee [Terri’s sister] is coming along with us. She is a great kid and a lot of fun. She isn’t a wet rag like some people I know. I’m going to run into Susan and Maria tomorrow and they’ll want to know everything that has ever happened to me. It might be fun to be infamous, but I don’t know. If I don’t want other people to spread gossip around, I have to watch what I say.

    I think deep down inside I want to be notorious and have people whisper when I walk by. It might be fun to be on people’s bad side for a while. I am a weirdo. 

    I’m bored now. I have stuff I could do but I don’t feel like it. I’ll watch TV.

    The morning of the show

    On Tuesday morning, July 31st, Jess, Terri and I went into New York City. Terri or Jess would have driven us in. I’m 61 years old now and I have never driven into New York City. It’s too scary. If I was in charge of this stuff, we would have taken a bus into the Port Authority Bus Terminal. 

    Dana was having a bunch of girls over to her parent’s apartment which was a nice place in the 80s somewhere. Whether it was Upper East Side or West Side, I don’t remember. It’s why I wrote in my diary that I would see Susan and Maria.

    While we were there, I made an INXS poster to take to the venue. If I didn’t have a letter from Maria that she wrote on 9/4/84, I would not know about the poster because I don’t remember. 

    It’s possible I also filled out a form for Dana’s INXS Alliance club. I remember writing that my goals were to be independently wealthy and a world traveler, but I don’t remember if that was at this gathering or some other time.

    Back in 1984, I was envious of Dana. If I recall correctly, both of her mother and father were entertainment lawyers and based on their nice apartment in New York City, they seemed successful at their jobs.

    They also had connections, so I was envious that Dana had opportunities that I did not have. My family could not fully foot the bill for my education even with financial aid, so I had to earn money to pay for part of my tuition and all of my expenses.

    The waitressing job I had was essential because I made well above the minimum wage there. The tips were great because the Emerson Hotel was popular and busy, and I was a pretty young woman. It would have been stupid and dangerous for my future to blow off my job to stay with Michael Hutchence. 

    Some books by Jean Paul Sartre, French Existentialist

    Sometime between July 4th and July 30th, I decided to give Michael Hutchence the two Jean Paul Sartre books I told him I had read when we were in his hotel room on the night of July 2nd. 

    After thinking about it, I went out and purchased another book by Sartre so I could read it and then also give it to Michael. I didn’t write any of this down, so I no longer remember the name of the book I bought but I believe it was a different book in Sartre’s trilogy of novels than the one Michael showed me that night.

    It was quite nice of me to spend some of the little money I had to buy a book for someone who had a hit record album in Australia. And it wouldn’t be the last time I gave him a book or spent money on a book that I tried to give to him when I barely had money myself. Lots of fans give gifts but I think Michael misconstrued what it meant when I did it. In a way, I was like Oprah Winfrey and wanted to share books I loved. 

    Waiting for INXS in the lobby of their hotel

    At some point before we expected INXS to arrive from Richmond, Terri, Jess, and I got back into the car and drove to the Barbizon Plaza Hotel where INXS was staying. 

    The hotel at 58th Street and 6th Avenue was across West 58th Street from the Helmsley Windsor hotel where INXS had stayed when they played Radio City Music Hall with The Go-Go’s on June 28. 

    A screenshot from the website nycago.org with a photo and description of the Barbizon Plaza Hotel.
    A screenshot from the website nycago.org with a photo and description of the Barbizon Plaza Hotel.
    A screenshot from the website nysonglines.com that shows that the Barbizon Plaza Hotel was across from the Helmsley Windsor Hotel back in 1984
    A screenshot from the website nysonglines.com that shows that the Barbizon Plaza Hotel was across from the Helmsley Windsor Hotel back in 1984

    As we waited in the hotel lobby, Jon and Garry walked in and walked straight into an elevator. When Andrew walked by, he said hello to us. Then Timmy and Michael came into the hotel and the two of them looked extremely tired. 

    We stopped Michael and asked him to please wait because we had something to give him. Jess left to go to the car and retrieve the books and magazines. I asked him if he had read “Nausea” and when he said he had not, I told him that I had it for him.

    I think it’s funny to say that I gave Michael Hutchence nausea. 

    Here is a video about the book. It’s a weird book.

    Jess came back with the three Jean Paul Sartre books and also a couple of magazines about flying airplanes that she had found at her house in the den. She brought them for him because Michael had said he wanted to fly a plane that night when we were all in his room. 

    Michael’s manners

    Michael said, “I’m forever in your debt” after I solemnly handed over the books to him. That was a bit much although I think it turned out to be true in the end. He was using the manners he had learned somewhere whether from his father or from the British community in Hong Kong. 

    Many people have remarked upon his somewhat unusual way of behaving. In this case I would describe him as being dramatically debonair. To me, it was memorable but weird. A regular “thank you, that’s nice of you” would have been better. I suppose I was being weird too by acting like books are holy. But they are!

    Someone came over to ask us about Michael Hutchence. This person wanted to know who he was, so I said he was Michael Jackson and he was playing across the river. Michael Jackson and his brothers were doing a concert at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.

    https://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/22/nyregion/jacksons-to-hold-3-concerts-in-jersey-and-2-in-new-york.html

    We left the hotel after that because Michael had gone to his room to sleep. I have no idea what we did until it was time to see the concert. Maybe we grabbed something to eat or went back to Dana’s apartment? If Dana lived on the Upper West Side, then we would have been able to walk from her place to the theater.

    Beacon Theatre

    The Beacon Theatre was and still is at 2124 Broadway between 74th and 75th Street. In Manhattan, 20 north-south blocks equal one mile. It would have been no more than fifteen blocks to walk there. But that is another thing I no longer remember.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beacon_Theatre_(New_York_City)

    Like I said earlier, we had front row seats, and they were near the middle of the stage. At least six of us, perhaps even a couple more girls I didn’t know, were there too. The concert itself is another thing I don’t remember. I’m sure I enjoyed it. If INXS had not been a good live band, I would not have wasted my time going to eleven shows that summer especially after Kirk Pengilly had brought his girlfriend over for the tour. 

    Screaming girls

    The main things that I disliked were when girls screamed or jumped on stage to attack Michael and when Michael messed up the words. And by screaming, I don’t mean cheering. I didn’t mind cheering. Some of the girls let out the loudest, high-pitched screams like they were seeing the Beatles and while I hate to describe it as hysterical, the word fits. It was painful and I think it damaged my hearing. 

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/our-natural-history/202102/why-do-female-fans-scream-for-the-beatles-and-other-megastars

    Nile Rodgers joins INXS onstage

    Nile Rodgers, former guitarist for Chic and famous record producer, came onstage and played guitar when INXS performed Original Sin. The photo at the top of the page is from the concert. Nile Rodgers had produced the song almost a year earlier in New York City at the Power Station.

    If it wasn’t for the letter from Maria that she wrote on 9/26/84, I wouldn’t know that Michael Hutchence came over to me during the show and sang The One Thing right into my face. She wrote, “Something like that is hard to forget!” and yet, over the years, I forgot! 

    The Beacon Theatre stage door

    After the show, we waited along with dozens of other INXS fans on 75th Street where the stage door to the Beacon Theatre is located. There must have been some kind of lounge on the second or third floor where the band was hanging out. 

    There were windows facing 75th Street and we saw Tim Farriss at one of the windows. He was looking at the crowd of fans who had gathered and he yelled, “No shit!” to all of us because he was pleased to see so many fans.

    Michael then leaned out of the window and threw a bunch of white, rectangular cards that were about 3 inches by 5 inches in size. We grabbed some and saw that it was an invitation to an after-show party at some club called Pizza A Go Go. 

    The invitation to the INXS concert after-party that Michael Hutchence threw from the window of the Beacon Theatre.
    The invitation to the INXS concert after-party that Michael Hutchence threw from the window of the Beacon Theatre.

    When Michael saw Terri, Jess and I, he tried to pour beer on us from the bottle he was holding. He missed. That was not the kind of behavior that I found amusing. It was not something that would win me over. Just the opposite-it was the behavior of a 12-year-old boy in middle school who was a jerk, and I hated those boys. 

    After a while, everyone with INXS came out from the theater except for Timmy and Jon. We stayed and waited for Timmy because Jess and Terri wanted to show him a list of VHS videocassette tapes they had made with movies and shows on them and find out which ones he wanted. 

    When Timmy and Jon came out of the stage door, some weird guy walked by and asked us where the stars were. I pointed to the sky and told him, “Up there.”  Timmy had hurt his head somehow, so he didn’t want to look at the list of tapes and we let them leave.

    Pizza A Go Go

    We decided to drive downtown to check out the club. When we got there it did not look interesting but then I saw that Ronald, a guy who sold t-shirts for INXS, was there and that seemed like a good sign so we decided to stay for a while and see if anyone from the band would show up.

    Eventually, all members of INXS came to the club except for Timmy and Kirk. Gary Grant and Nile Rodgers also showed up. A few people we had seen at the Barclay Hotel in Philadelphia were there: Bonny and Franny, Ellen, and the sleazy-looking woman who was with Michael and Belinda was with Michael again.

    Dancing with Michael

    When Michael walked into the club, he looked around and proclaimed, “This is fucking happening!” Apparently, like me and my friends, he had adopted Nile Rodgers’ famous phrase from the recording studio. As I mentioned before in the blog post I wrote about being at The Power Station, I loved it when Nile said, “This shit is happening!”, so I told my friends, and we incorporated it into our speech and into our letters to each other whenever possible.

    We greeted Michael and he kissed each of us hello. Michael was wearing a bright blue shirt. When a song by the Talking Heads started playing, all of us went out on the dance floor and danced together. The lead singer of INXS danced in the club the same way he danced when he was performing onstage.

    Talking to Nile

    After the dance we did not hang around with Michael and I don’t think we talked to him again that night. I saw Nile Rodgers and went over to him because I had something I could talk to him about. But when I said hello to him and told him that I had been in the studio when INXS was recording Original Sin with him, he asked me if I was the girl with the shaved head. 

    Nile told me he didn’t remember me after I said that I was not the girl with the shaved head. You can read about that day in the studio in Blog Post 5. He was friendly and nice, but I don’t think we talked for long after that. Maybe I talked to him about the concert, but I don’t remember.

    We saw Gary Grant making out with Ellen, someone we had met in Philadelphia, so we left him alone. Bonny and Franny were glommed on to Jon Farriss, same as they were in Philadelphia, and they also recognized me from there. They were talking his ear off again, so we spent most of our time at Pizza A Go Go chatting with Garry Gary Beers.

    Talking to Garry Gary

    Garry Gary was very friendly, and I was surprised when he apologized to us for not being friendly when we saw him in Florida. He said he didn’t stop to talk to us because he was in a bad mood. Then he explained that while on tour with The Go-Go’s he had had an affair with their laundress. 

    On that day in Florida, the tour with the Go-Go’s was close to its end and Garry had told the woman who took care of the Go-Go’s clothes while on tour that he would be breaking things off with her and she was very upset about it. He felt bad about that so that’s why he didn’t feel like talking. 

    Later, I asked Garry, “How is Eric doing?” and I don’t think he knew what I was talking about. Eric was the name of the bird-shaped plastic whistle I had given him as a gag gift a month earlier. So, I said, “the bird whistle” and he remembered and told me that Eric was fabulous, but he still can’t whistle well. That whistle was probably thrown in the trash the night I gave it to him! It was a piece of junk after all. 

    Leaving INXS at the club

    Terri, Jess and I left the club before the band did and drove home. Timmy had not shown up at the club so there was no reason why Terri would want to stay. 

    We had spent a lot of time with Garry Gary, so Jess was happy. I didn’t have to work the next day for a change, but I usually didn’t want to be out with INXS in the first place, so I didn’t mind leaving. 

    We needed to get some rest because we would be driving to Toronto, Canada in about 24 hours, on the night of August 1st, to see INXS play at The Concert Hall in the Masonic Temple. It was going to be an eight-hour drive. 

  • Blog Post 16- Hanging out with Michael Hutchence 7/2/1984

    Michael Hutchence, INXS. Photo by Terri. July 3, 1984. The Jag Club in East Hampton, NY
    Michael Hutchence, INXS. Photo by Terri. July 3, 1984

    This photo of Michael was taken by Terri on July 3, 1984 at The Jag Club in East Hampton on Long Island.

    When I ended the last blog post, Michael had gone into the hotel with his British friends and left Terri, Jess, Jackie, and I standing in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn in Rockville Centre, NY. We got into the car so we could find a fast-food place and grab something to eat. On the way out, Jess and I got out of the car and made sure there wasn’t anyone from INXS in the bar and there wasn’t.

    There still wasn’t anyone from the band in the bar when we came back so we sat down outside for a while. Danny, the old-guy bartender from the other night, wasn’t working so we didn’t have him to talk to. 

    Eventually, Michael came back down and went to the bar. That’s when we decided to go inside and sit down at a table. Michael was sitting next to Vance, the INXS roadie. The two of them were sitting on the left side of the bar so they did not have their backs to us. I was sitting in a spot at the table where I was facing the bar, so I was looking in Michael and Vance’s direction. 

    Vance the Australian Roadie for INXS

    I watched Vance talking to Michael and from time to time, Vance would turn his head and smile at me. After a while, Vance got up from his seat and came over to our table to talk to me. He sat down and we had a conversation. I wasn’t going to be rude and tell him to go away or anything. For my part of the conversation, I talked about what life was like in America and that I had to work so I could pay for college. He told me he got into the music business when he was 19. Vance had a very optimistic view of things and told me that if I wanted to do something then I should do it. I heard from him that Australia is the best country in the world and that he wouldn’t be back there until October or November because of the tour.

    Then he asked if I had any drugs with me and he asked if I ever smoked pot. I told him that I didn’t have any drugs. I’ve already mentioned in other blog posts that my friends and I weren’t illicit drug users. My friends didn’t usually drink either because they were driving while I sometimes had a drink when the bartenders were lax and didn’t check ID. Legally, I was too young at 19. Jackie was still in high school. Terri was too young at 20. Only Jess was 21 and allowed to drink alcohol.

    I told Vance that I smoked pot once in a while but that was a massive exaggeration. Marijuana was another thing I decided I didn’t like after I had tried it a couple of times. But I didn’t want to say that and look uncool. Vance asked me if I wanted to go up to his room with him to smoke pot. To me that sounded more like an invitation to have sex with him, and I didn’t want to have sex or smoke pot so I said I wasn’t sure, and I would think about it. That was my way of saying no without saying no. Rejecting a man can be a dangerous thing so it’s often best to do it in a way that doesn’t seem like rejection. Vance told me he was in room 599 and then he left and went to his room.

    William the Roadie for The Stray Cats

    Once he was gone, I ordered a drink at the bar- a drink I knew of as a Southern Belle. It was a drink made with Southern Comfort, Amaretto, and pineapple juice- very sweet. These days the drink is known as a Hawaiian Hooker. 

    After Vance left, we talked to the guy named William. That was probably how we found out that he was a roadie for The Stray Cats. I don’t remember much about the conversation. My diary says that William told Terri that she wasn’t pretty but that she had interesting features. He should have kept that to himself. 

    While we were talking to William, Vance came back; I think it was to check on me. But first Vance and William made jokes about sex because Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing” was playing on the jukebox. The actual jokes went unrecorded in my diary probably because they were tacky and gross.

    Vance again

    Vance invited me up to his room again and this time I said, “I don’t think so.” He left the bar and didn’t come back again. Michael was still sitting at the bar in the same spot. While I was finishing my drink, I saw Michael look over at me a couple of times. Kirk had not come down to the bar, so we were thinking about leaving for home. 

    Saying goodbye to drunk Michael

    Terri wanted to wait a little longer because she said that a drunk Michael saying goodnight was something else. I think what she meant by that was that Michael was extra friendly and liked to kiss people when he was drunk. Terri had enjoyed a previous experience of saying goodnight to drunk Michael. Must have been one of the times when I was not there in 1983. 

    The Ant Shirt

    When we got up to leave, Michael came over to us and we told him we were leaving. Michael was wearing a white shirt with bugs on it. I asked him, “Are those cockroaches?” and he said, “No, ants.”

    This video of INXS performing “I Send A Message” on television in 1983 shows Michael wearing the shirt. The lighting is good, so it is easy to see the pocket on the shirt.

    We were standing around talking about what Michael was wearing and someone asked him about his shoes. He said something about his feet, and I said, “Oh! is that what they’re called? Feet! I’ll have to remember that.” I was trying to be funny by pretending I had no idea what feet were, and it seemed like Michael thought it was funny. Then he told us that he had to wear braces on his feet when he was young because he couldn’t walk right. Back then I took everything he said at face value and what I am writing here is what Michael said. But it turns out that what he said was often fabricated, embellished, exaggerated, a lie, bullshit, or whatever you want to call it. 

    Michael’s Hair

    Terri just loved Michael’s hair a lot and I think she was the one who took the opportunity to touch his hair. Then Jackie and Jess also touched his hair. I did not have a crush on Michael or his hair like so many girls and women did. To me he seemed kind of dumb, kind of crazy, and kind of a jerk and I didn’t think he was as good-looking as Jon Farriss, Kirk Pengilly, or Garry Gary Beers. He was kind of cute sometimes. 

    But I thought I should play along and touch his hair while also showing my disdain for what my friends and I were doing. So, I grabbed a strand of hair from near his shoulder, taking it between my thumb and my index finger at the bottom of the strand, and I rubbed it between my fingers once before letting it go. Like whoop-de-doo it’s hair. 

    Michael doesn’t feel like sleeping

    After that, we announced we were leaving. Michael kissed Terri on the cheek and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. We were about to walk away but then Michael said to all of us, “Would you like to come up to my room? I don’t feel like sleeping.” So, the four of us looked at each other and we all seemed fine with it, so we accepted his invitation. It was a friendly invitation, and it didn’t sound the slightest bit sexual.

    Cigarette machine

    Before we went up to his room, we had to find change for the cigarette machine so Michael could buy cigarettes. William threw some change down on a table. The cigarette machine was just outside the entrance to the bar. I was feeling tipsy and silly because of the drink I had. Michael stood in front of the cigarette machine looking at the choices and I stood there next to him. It was taking him a long time to decide so I said, “I vote for Marlboro Lights”, and he responded, “Oh, you vote, do you?”  

    Finally, he pulled the knob and a pack of Vantage cigarettes came out. As you can see from the photo, the graphic on the package looks like a bullseye, so I said we could use the package for archery practice. That led Michael to ask if he had mentioned archery earlier (when he was drunk in the parking lot), and I told them that he had talked about archery. Have you ever met a chatty five-year-old who wanted to have a conversation with you and show you his toys? That’s what Michael was like sometimes. 

    A 1980s advertisement for Vantage cigarettes.
    A 1980s advertisement for Vantage cigarettes.

    This is how children and teens could buy cigarettes back in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Funny video of how to use a cigarette machine. 

    Going Up to the Fifth Floor

    Now that the cigarettes were bought, we had to make our way to an elevator. While I was walking behind Michael, I imitated the way he was walking. He was quite peculiar back then- he was like a fairy from another planet and he often seemed to be prancing on the balls of his feet. I stopped imitating him when we all got to the elevator.

    Once we got in, Michael slid down the wall and sat on the floor. When the elevator got to the fifth floor, he was able to get up. We weren’t sure he would. The corridor we walked down was open on one side- the rooms were all on the left and the night air was to the right. Michael stopped at a door and started to open it (the door was unlocked) and we were all ready to follow him inside but when he opened the door halfway, I could see there were people inside. He realized it wasn’t his room, so he shut the door. I didn’t think to look at the room number to see if it was Vance’s room. It’s bothered me since because I’m wondering if he made a mistake or if he opened the door to that room on purpose so the people in there could see that I was with him. Because who knows what Michael and Vance were talking about in the bar.

    Michael’s hotel room

    Michael was in room 589. The room had a low dresser and a desk on the left wall as you walked in and two double beds on the right wall. There was a nightstand between the two beds and the bathroom was on the right past where the beds were. We looked around and saw that Michael’s belongings were strewn around on top of the dresser and the desk. I described the room as messy in my diary. 

    All five of us sat down on the beds. I sat on the bed closest to the door right up against the nightstand. Michael sat in the same spot on the other bed. When I sat down, I looked at what was on the nightstand and that’s when I saw the gun. It was a toy gun made of black plastic and there were several one-inch white, hard-plastic bullets on the nightstand with it. 

    Michael’s gun

    In those days, I would do whatever I needed to do to protect myself and I didn’t trust Michael Hutchence so I discreetly scooped up those loose bullets and put them in the pocket of my shorts so he wouldn’t be able to shoot more bullets than what was already in the gun. They looked dangerous. 

    I was wearing Bermuda shorts and a light gray top that was slightly cropped. It was boxy but fit very tightly around my shoulders-it had been very difficult to put my arms through the armholes when I put it on that day. It was not revealing.

    Michael picked up the gun from the nightstand and shot it towards the dresser a couple of times. The bullets looked like they had a high velocity. It looked like it would hurt to be hit by one and I was thinking about that when I said, “I wonder what it would feel like to be shot by one of those bullets?” Michael immediately put the gun against my knee and said, “Do you want to find out?” I quite adamantly said, “No!” He immediately changed his tone from being mischievous to being all sensitive and caring. “I would never do that. I would never hurt you”, he said, really emphasizing “never.” It was weird.

    Nick Cave

    Also on the nightstand was a Polaroid picture of Michael wearing a t-shirt with a guy’s face on it. I asked him who was the guy on the t-shirt in the photo, and he said it was Nick Cave who was the singer for The Birthday Party. I’d never heard of either of them. According to Michael, Nick Cave was a friend of his. He said, “He’s a genius and a heroin addict but we have fun together.” 

    I think it was a Polaroid from a photo shoot for Star Hits. A picture of Michael Hutchence wearing a Nick Cave t-shirt appeared in the October 1984 issue. Star Hits was a short-lived American version of the British music magazine Smash Hits. They produced the magazine in New York City which was where INXS was at this time. It makes sense that the band would have done promotional work like this while they were in town. 

    The Birthday Party

    Michael got up and grabbed his Sony Walkman. The cassette tape in the Walkman was Junkyard by The Birthday Party. He offered it to Jackie so she could listen to it. Then when Jackie was done, I put on the headphones and listened for a minute. The song was Dead Joe which has something of a fast, hardcore-punk sound. I nodded my head slightly in time with the fast beat. It just so happened that I listened to one of the few songs I like. 

    Wikipedia article about the Sony Walkman.

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

    Dead Joe by the Birthday Party

    Michael’s family

    My friends and I started getting Michael’s life story as he brought out different items he had with him. He had at least two watches with him. One was a watch that his father had given to him. “This was one of the first thin watches”, he told us. We saw a family photo from when he was ten. I think he told us the story about his sister Tina being a go-go dancer. It’s not in my diary but I knew that story long before I ever read about it in any of the books that came out after his death. We were in his room for at least two hours so there was a lot of ground covered in that time and I didn’t write it all down.

    Michael’s girlfriend

    Michele, Michael’s girlfriend in Australia, became a topic of conversation. Michael wanted us to be impressed by her, I think. He showed us a wallet-sized photo of the two of them together. We were told it was taken when “she was 16 and still a virgin.” Which was wild to me because Michele and Michael were topless. They were embracing and their chests were touching so that Michele’s breasts were not visible. Their faces were turned towards the camera. It was a different pose from a similar photo that was published in “Just A Man”, the book by Michael’s mother and sister that came out after his death.

    Michael kissed the photo and exclaimed, “I love her!” and said, “she’s very intelligent.” He told us that she knew how to speak Mandarin and I said, “Wow, she speaks Chinese?” We heard that she was in “The One Thing” video but that she didn’t like to do that sort of thing. So, she was too cool for music videos, and she was so smart that she could speak Chinese. 

    In “The One Thing” video, Michele is the woman sitting between Kirk and Garry Gary. 

    Michael’s net worth

    There was a leather folio lying on one of the beds and it looked like it was there because Michael had been looking at it earlier. The folio was like something a lawyer would carry to hold documents-it looked fancy. Michael picked it up and asked us if we wanted to see how much he was worth. I was studying at the Wharton School of Finance (Michael Hutchence didn’t know that) and I had already taken a financial accounting class, so I said, “Sure!” It would have been interesting to me as a real-life example of finance. He changed his mind about showing us right after I said yes. I asked, “Is that your portfolio of investments?” Michael seemed amused that I used that lingo. 

    Michael’s book purchases

    Next, he pulled out a couple of books he had bought, maybe to try to show me that he wasn’t stupid. My diary does not say the titles of the books probably because it was something I thought I would remember forever. That’s a problem now because there are some key bits of information that I cannot recall no matter how hard I try. 

    Anyway, Michael pulled out a slim book written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I looked at it and said “Wow, Dostoyevsky!” Jess looked at it and said, “I can’t even pronounce that!” The book was likely “Notes from Underground”, but it could have been “The Gambler.” There’s no way based on the size of the book that it was “Crime and Punishment” or “The Brothers Karamazov.” 

    Jean Paul Sartre and Existentialism

    Then he pulled out a book by Jean Paul Sartre. I’m pretty sure it was one of the three novels from The Roads to Freedom series. It was not one of the two books I had read- “Nausea” or Sartre’s autobiography “The Words.” I saw the Sartre book and got all excited because I loved books. Books were holy to me. I was waving my arm, pointing, and going ooh, ooh, ooh. “I just read Nausea!!” After hearing that, Michael came toward me and hugged me while saying, “This could be true love!” Both of us had been standing when he was showing us the books.

    It was back to sitting on the beds after that and Michael and I talked about existentialism for a bit. What I wrote in my diary was that Michael said he used to be into existentialism but now he thought it might be silly, so he wasn’t into it anymore. The way he described existentialism was more like mindfulness. He moved is foot forward and said, “Now I’m doing this” and then he moved his foot back while saying, “And now I’m doing this.” I laughed and said, “yeah.” Because there is an element of what he described in existentialist philosophy. 

    I also told Michael that I had read “The Words” by Jean Paul Sartre and told him what it was about and that it was good. 

    Around this time, I got up to use the bathroom. Later, after we had left, I heard that while I was in the bathroom, Michael started telling Jess, Terri and Jackie that he liked me. He said, “I like Donna. She’s lovely.” Things got weirder from there.

    Smoking

    When I came back, I sat down on the bed opposite of the one Michael was sitting on. He had the pack of cigarettes he bought in the chest pocket of his shirt. I wanted to smoke a cigarette, so I reached over and took the pack of cigarettes out of his shirt pocket without asking first. That caused Michael to say to me, “You’re wonderful.” 

    Terri was upset and said, “Since when do you smoke?” and I said, “For a while now.” Back when I was smoking clove cigarettes in school, I mentioned it to Terri, and she said that I had better not start smoking or else. She was correct that smoking is a terrible habit, and no one should do it but that didn’t stop me. I had not been smoking while at home for the summer because I would have had to hide it from my mother, and it wasn’t worth the trouble. It wasn’t an addiction for me yet.

    Michael asked me if I smoked because I needed to do something with my fingers and I said yes. His question made me think that one of the reasons he smoked was to keep his hands busy. He told me that I shouldn’t smoke so I didn’t open the pack of cigarettes and put it down. Maybe on the nightstand where earlier I had discreetly removed the plastic bullets from my pocket and put them back where I found them.

    It was a surprise when Michael declared that if he was president, he would make cigarettes and alcohol illegal. He said it was hypocritical for those things to be legal when other drugs were illegal and that they both killed a lot of people.  

    I don’t remember the conversation that followed except that I said I thought hypocrisy was a basic trait of mankind and you had to expect hypocritical behavior from people but that religious people were the worst hypocrites.

    My friends were part of the conversations, but I don’t remember much of what they said. My diary is largely about me so…but I did write things down about them here and there. 

    Staring and smirking

    Things were getting to a point where every time I looked over towards Michael, he was looking at me, but I’ll get back to that. 

    There was this one conversation that we were all participating in, and I can’t remember what it was about except it was about something mundane, some everyday kind of activity. First Terri said something and whatever it was made Michael start smirking. I could tell that he was turning her words into something sexual; either about the first time she had sex or the last time she had sex when there was nothing sexual about them. Then Jess said something about the same subject, and he smirked some more. Same thing when Jackie spoke. My turn came and I looked at Michael, shook my head, and then mouthed the word no. I was not going to fall for that shit. 

    Girls jumping on stage

    Terri brought up what happened at the concert at Radio City Music Hall where the one girl jumped up on stage and grabbed him more than once. At first, he said he didn’t mind and that there was nothing he could do about it. We hated it when girls did that stuff because it’s rude and it messes up the show and we said so. After that Michael said that he had wanted to tell her to fuck off. She was pinching his ass, but he still felt he wasn’t allowed to do it. 

    I told the story about what happened to us on the night before the Radio City show when we hit a pothole on the way home and how I used my belt to tie the oil pan up so it didn’t scrape the ground and we could drive home. Michael said I was clever. 

    Sometime during the hours, we spent with him Michael yelled “Jackie Muthafucka” very loudly at Jackie. He was doing an imitation of an American inner-city black man. 

    Flying planes

    It’s possible that INXS thought we were rich because they saw us in so many places, but we were economizing in many of the same ways that they were. We shared hotel rooms or just drove back and forth from New Jersey and split the gas and toll expenses. Terri and I both had jobs. Jess and Terri had economy cars and I had no car because their parents were well-off compared to mine. I was lower middle class, and they were more like regular middle class or upper middle class. We shopped in New York City sometimes, but it was to find bargains on clothes. No expensive designer stuff for us.

    But I think that was why Michael asked us if any of us knew how to fly an airplane. He said he wanted to learn how to be a pilot. The answer from us was no. I said to him that I didn’t think I was allowed to fly a plane because my eyesight was very bad. My impression was that there were restrictions for people who did not have 20-20 vision. I told Michael that I was wearing contact lenses and he looked into my eyes. When I said that I was afraid I would go blind someday, he looked very sad and said, “Don’t say that!” which I thought was weird. Then he said, “You can’t go blind” like that would be a tragedy for him so right away I told him, “Don’t worry, I won’t go blind” just to make him feel better and so he could stop being weird. 

    The conversation got around to my job as a waitress at the Emerson Hotel. Whenever I mentioned the Emerson Hotel to someone who didn’t know the place, I said that it’s not a hotel, it’s a restaurant and I said that to Michael. I said it was on Emerson Road in Emerson, New Jersey. He repeated, “Emerson, Emerson, Emerson” like he was trying to memorize it and he said he would come visit me at work. 

    Graveyards

    I also talked about my love for the Old City neighborhood in Philadelphia. When I was in the city for school I liked to go down there and look around. The burial ground of Christ Church is where Benjamin Franklin is buried. I liked to hang out in that graveyard and when I said that Michael said “Wow, you like graveyards?” He looked and sounded smitten. 

    More staring

    Around this time is when I noticed once again that when I looked his way, he was staring at me. I thought, “You want to stare? I can stare!”- like a staring contest but I didn’t know I was about to make a big mistake. As many, many people have said, Michael Hutchence could be quite mesmerizing so staring at him was not the smart thing to do. But I did it. Because I intended a staring contest, I stared back at him for a long time and then it had the effect that he wanted it to have. I started smiling at him. And then I got up and sat next to him on the other bed.

    Attempted seduction

    My friends now had to watch as Michael and I ignored them and focused on each other. I asked him, “Besides the Birthday Party, what are you into?” My desire was to get to know more about him. He answered, “You.” His desire was to seduce me. It’s hard to know if he had asked me if I had ever had a tan during this time or if it had happened earlier in the evening. But I see that now as “negging.” My skin was very pale and maybe he thought I was insecure about it but unfortunately for him, I was not an insecure person. Inexperienced was more like it which worked in his favor too, but not as well as insecurity would have.

    Michael’s approach to seducing me was like a pick-up artist. He flattered me and laid it on thick. He said he loved me and that I was sweet, gorgeous, and he told me, “You understand things.” I said to him something like, “Gee, I’m flattered.” Not because I felt flattered but because he was obviously trying to flatter me, and I was trying to be polite. When he saw that I wasn’t buying it, he said, “You probably think I’m throwing you a bush but I’m not. I mean it.” The way he said it was like he really did mean the compliments he was giving me. But still, for me, it was hard to believe. 

    Kissing in front of my friends

    The flattery wasn’t working so next he whispered in my ear, “Give me a kiss.” And that worked on me. I turned and looked at him and I gave him a kiss. When I gave him another kiss he put his tongue in my mouth. It was very enjoyable, so we made out for a while. I stopped a couple of times to catch my breath. After the second time I put my hand underneath his hair and held the back of his head while we kissed. 

    My poor friends. Michael was getting out of control. He started stroking my inner thigh and he grabbed my shirt and started tugging on the side it. He then grabbed the neck of the shirt and pulled it towards him while trying to stick his other hand down the front of my shirt. It was then that I smacked his hands off me and told him to “cut it out!” I realized that this had all just happened right in front of my friends and it seemed like he would have had sex with me right in front of them if I had not stopped him. 

    Trying to get me to stay

    After I stopped him, he basically told all of us that he wanted to make love to me. I looked at my watch and I no longer remember what time it was exactly but it sometime between 3:30am and 5am. So, I told him that I couldn’t because I had to be at work in a few hours and we still had to drive back to New Jersey. 

    My friend Jess suggested that I call out sick and stay. She had the idea that they could pick me up in East Hampton. Michael jumped all over that idea and said that I could stay and then ride on the tour bus to the show in East Hampton and meet up with my friends there. I said that I would get fired if I didn’t go to work.

    Michael suggested that my friends could sleep in one bed and that he was willing to have one guest in his bed-he meant me, of course-and he said that we wouldn’t do anything; we would just sleep. I insisted that I had to go home. He said, “It’s okay, I understand.” The way he said that bothered me-like he was a great guy for being so understanding. It was like he was giving me permission to go home.

    He offered to give Terri some cocaine to help her stay awake for the ride home. We never saw the drug because Terri immediately declined. While we were in Michael’s room with him, nobody drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes, or did drugs of any kind. 

    Telling us what to wear

    Now that it was clear that we were going to leave, the talk turned to clothes. Michael said, “Two years from now, I’m going to see you in a club in New York City. You will be wearing a tight, metallic, 50’s style dress that is down to your knees, and you are going to look unbelievable.” Then he told me that I should go to New York City and buy the dress on Broadway. I guess that was where the band shopped for clothes. He told Terri that she would look good in a cheap, black suit. 

    Time to leave

    It was time to leave so Michael hugged Terri, Jess, and Jackie and they left the room. Michael wanted to know if my parents were the reason why I wasn’t staying and I said, “No, it’s my friends.” It was a lot more complicated than that but throwing my friends under the bus was the easy thing to do at the time. 

    We kissed a little more, but I was too distracted to enjoy it because Jess was yelling, “What about Kirk?” and Terri was yelling something too and I was worried about them waking up the other hotel guests. 

    Michael asked, “Will I see you again?” and I said yes. “Maybe” would have been a more honest answer because he was really asking if I would sleep with him in the future and I was going to consider it. Technically speaking, what I said wasn’t a lie because I already had plans to go to more INXS concerts and he did “see” me. He kissed me again and called me “smiley”. Before I left, he took my hand in his and bent down and kissed the back of my hand and then he said, “I want to ravish you.” I think I laughed and told him I had to go. And then I walked out of his hotel room and met up with my friends.

    I felt about bad about what happened. I didn’t think I was the kind of person who would be rude enough to ignore my friends and then make out with a guy right in front of them. I didn’t want to be that kind of person either. In the car, Jackie told me that she would have done the same thing if she had been in my place.