Tag: Toad’s Place

Blog Post 22- INXS in Toronto, Canada, August 2, 1984

Tim Farriss, INXS, photo by Terri, 8/15/1983

I don’t know if this was one of the photos that Terri and Jess sold at the concert in Toronto. I can’t find the original print to confirm who took it but I’m pretty sure it was taken by Terri on August 15, 1983, in New Haven when INXS played at Toad’s Place. I was not at that show.

Terri, Jess, and I left for Toronto, Canada on Wednesday night, August 1st, around 11:30pm. We borrowed a Chevy Suburban that belonged to Jess’ father to make the trip

Brochure for the 1982 Chevrolet Suburban.

The drive to Toronto

It was dark and rainy when we set off with me driving the car on Route 17. Not long into the drive, I almost drove off the road and onto the grassy median because I was following the wrong line. But I didn’t and I managed to drive most of the way to Toronto-probably five or six hours-without crashing the car. Either Terri or Jess took over when we stopped for gas and to use the bathroom.

Screenshot from Google Maps of the drive from Hillsdale, NJ to Toronto, Canada.

Gasoline cost about 90 cents a gallon at the time. If we were lucky, that giant gas-guzzling car got about 18 miles to the gallon so we would have used 26 gallons of gas to get to Toronto at a cost of $23 which we would have split among the three of us. In 2026 dollars, what each of us would have to pay now would be the total cost of the gas then.

Buying concert tickets and LP records in Toronto

When we arrived, it was Thursday morning around 7:30am. The first thing we did was check into our hotel where we slept for a couple of hours. After that we had to buy tickets for the concert, so we went to a shopping mall. I no longer remember if we bought our tickets there or if we were told to buy them somewhere else. My diary only says that we went to a mall to find out about tickets and that on the way to the Masonic Temple where the show would be, I bought two LP records somewhere.

Here is some information about the Concert Hall in the Masonic Temple in Toronto. Two different articles.

https://www.torontojourney416.com/masonic-temple

Tales from The Concert Hall at the Masonic Temple

Fad Gadget and The Birthday Party

The albums I bought were Junkyard by The Birthday Party and Gag by Fad Gadget. I had either read somewhere (maybe in Trouser Press magazine) or noticed it when looking at both albums, that Rowland Howard, the guitarist for The Birthday Party, had played guitar on the Fad Gadget album.

The main reason I bought the Fad Gadget album was because I already liked a song from a different album (Under The Flag) called For Whom The Bells Toll. That song was played on college radio in Philadelphia.

The song Collapsing New People from the album, Gag

Here is a documentary of Frank Tovey aka Fad Gadget who was a British artist who experimented with synthesizers and industrial music.

The line at the Masonic Temple

When we arrived at the Masonic Temple on Yonge Street, there were three young women already there and waiting at the front entrance.

The Concert Hall inside the temple was a general admission venue. The ground floor had no seats, it was an empty space. Because there were no seats, if you showed up early and were at the front of the line, you could get a spot against the stage. Upstairs there was a wraparound balcony with seats.

We took our places in line behind Patra, Marnie, and Melissa. I think we must have either seen the INXS tour bus drive by or else it was close to the time when INXS would normally show up for a soundcheck. Patra, Marnie, and Melissa agreed to save our spots in the line while we walked around the building to the stage door to try to meet INXS.

When we got there, we discovered that the band had already gotten off their bus and had gone inside to do their soundcheck, so we waited outside for them to come out.

Getting autographs for our new friends

My plan was to get autographs for the three young women as a thank you so when Michael came out, I asked, “Michael, can you do me a favor?” and I explained to him that we were only able to talk to them because Patra, Marnie, and Melissa were at the front door saving our spots in line. I asked if I could get his autograph for them which was something that I never got for myself because it seemed beside the point after we had made out in July. (see blog post 16 )

Both Michael and Garry Gary signed their autographs for the three of them. What I used for the autographs is something I no longer remember. Perhaps I had a small notebook in my purse.

Once that was done, I went back to the front door and got back in the line. My diary doesn’t say if Terri and Jess came with me or stayed behind to talk to the band and joined me later. In any case, I gave the autographs to the kind Canadian women, and they were happy I did that for them.

The INXS concert

Eventually, the doors opened, and we all went inside the venue. Terri and Jess took spots against the stage-on the right side, of course, in front of where Timmy Farriss and Garry Gary Beers would be.

Being down on the floor and close to the stage meant that you would be on your feet being jostled and potentially crushed for the entire concert. I was tired and didn’t want to suffer through that, so I went up to the balcony on the left side on the stage.

Instead of taking an actual seat, I sat down on the concrete floor and dangled my legs over the edge of the balcony. At the time, there was a railing, so I wasn’t in any danger. My legs fit under the first bar and my chest was up against the next bar and I could hold on to it. The view I had of the stage from there was great.

Based on what I wrote in my diary, I must have been wearing shorts. My legs, bare except for some pink Day-Glo ankle socks, were dangling above the crowd. Day-Glo, also known as neon or fluorescent, colors were popular in the 1980s. Madonna often wore bright neon green or other colored clothes.

Day-Glo colors of the 1980s

Terri and Jess had brought some prints with them of photos they had taken of INXS when they were at other shows. Some were shot during the concerts, and some were from when INXS were signing autographs or showing up for soundcheck. They sold some to other fans in the crowd.

This concert was one of my favorites because no one blocked my view or screamed in my ear, and I wasn’t far from the stage. No one pushed me or touched me; no one told me to move or threatened to kick me out. I wasn’t told I had to sit down but I wasn’t forced to stand up either and I was able to relax and enjoy the show.

Saving Tim Farriss

During the show, Tim Farriss was nearly pulled off the stage while he was playing guitar by some woman in the audience who had reached up and grabbed his shirt. The shirt was being torn while Tim was being pulled closer to the edge of the stage.

I watched from the balcony as Terri punched that woman’s arm repeatedly until she let go of Tim’s shirt. Terri saved Tim from falling off the stage, but his shirt was destroyed.

Michael climbs the stack of monitors

Also, while watching the show it looked like Garry Gary had noticed where I was sitting.

Michael, however, appeared not to notice me this time. During the song Wishy Washy, which is from the first INXS album, Michael climbed up a stack of large monitors to reach the level of the balcony. He was about 12 feet away, but I guess he was looking elsewhere. My diary is not super specific about most things. Sometimes I remember the details I left out of the diary, and sometimes I don’t.

When INXS performed Wishy Washy during this tour, Michael usually did something during the long musical interlude before the last verse of the song, whether it was taking off his shoes, or having a rest, or drinking water, or climbing up some monitors. About a week later, he would be joining me on a different balcony, but I will get to that in a future post.

I’m saving the good video for that post but here is the album version of Wishy Washy.

Outside after the show

As usual, we waited outside after the show for INXS to come out. The first person we saw was Gary Grant. He stopped to talk to us, and he pointed out a dark-haired man and told us he was Chris Murphy.

Chris Murphy was the main manager of INXS. You can read more about him here.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/visionary-manager-s-belief-in-inxs-paid-off-in-spades-20210120-p56vow.html

Gary Grant told us that we should scream at Chris Murphy when he walked by us. I told Gary that I would do my imitation of a hysterical fan. He left and we waited for Chris Murphy to walk by.

Instead, Chris Murphy headed for the tour bus. When Chris was about to get on the bus, I screamed, “Oh my God, it’s Chris Murphy!” in the same way a girl might scream “Oh my God, it’s Michael Hutchence!” I didn’t see how Chris reacted. Terri told me that the look on his face was “priceless.”

I was disappointed that Gary Grant wasn’t there to see it so I decided I would act like a hysterical fan when I saw him again. While we waited for him to reappear and for the members of INXS to leave the venue, I sat on a wall near the back door.

Michael’s hat is snatched

Michael Hutchence came out and he was wearing his green hat. It’s the one in this picture that was going to be taken by Jess in Montreal in a couple of days.

Montreal, Canada. Michael and Tim of INXS doing an interview. August 4, 1984. Photo taken by Jess.

A young man walked up to Michael, snatched the hat from his head, and started running.

When I saw that happen, I pushed myself off the wall with the intention of chasing the guy and getting Michael’s hat back. I had been a track star in high school (only two years before) so I had no doubt I could catch him. But I didn’t have to run because someone else closer to Michael caught the guy and brought Michael’s hat back to him.

Oh my God, it’s Gary Grant!

Then I saw Gary Grant step off the roadies’ tour bus, which was parked near the band’s tour bus, so I walked over to him and started acting like a hysterical fan. I’m proud of the acting job I did. I started saying, “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” over and over, very quickly, and my voice sounded like I was going to cry. Also, I was flapping both hands near my ears like I was standing in front of Paul McCartney and adding, “Oh my God, it’s Gary Grant!” to the mix.

Coincidentally, Kirk Pengilly had left the venue and was walking to the tour bus near where we were. I was facing the direction Kirk came from. Just when Kirk came near was when Gary Grant grabbed the sides of both of my arms near my shoulders with his hands and started shaking me back and forth while yelling, “shut the fuck up!”, and I was still crying, “Oh my God!”

The look on Kirk’s face when he saw us was funny. It looked like he was thinking, “What the fuck?” I’m sure what we were doing looked crazy. So, I stopped doing the imitation and started laughing because I had gotten Gary Grant really good.

Gary let go of me and then gave me a hard time because I fucked with him. He probably said some things like, “you weren’t supposed to do that to me”, “don’t ever do that again”, etc. I think he used a few more curse words. His use of profanity was one of the things I liked most about him.

I told Gary that I had no choice but to do that to him because he didn’t get to see it when I did it to Chris Murphy and I had to show him.

Talking to Kirk Pengilly

Kirk came over and chatted with me, Jess, and Terri. He said hello and while we were talking, he said he would try to put us on the guest list for the upcoming INXS show at the Meadowbrook in Cedar Grove, New Jersey on August 10th.

The subject of the videotapes that Jess and Terri gave to INXS must have come up. I had nothing to do with taping movies or Shogun for them because my family did not own a VCR, so I don’t remember when it was that they gave the band those tapes. They most likely gave them to INXS that day. It was the first time we had seen INXS since we saw them at the Beacon Theatre and we wanted Tim to look at a list of tapes.

Kirk offered to mail the videocassette (VHS) tapes back to Terri and Jess when INXS was done watching them.

What is a VCR (Videocassette Recorder)?

This post on the history of the VCR points out that before 1985, VCRs were expensive.

https://everpresent.com/vcr-history

Wikipedia post about the VCR

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

I can’t remember if Terri and Jess said yes or no to that offer. Kirk was a responsible guy, so we had no worries that he would not come through for us. We trusted Kirk, Timmy, and Gary Grant as being reliable. Michael was seen as unreliable, so we didn’t ask him to put us on guest lists and I don’t think our judgment was wrong. Terri or Jess might have given Kirk their address so he could send the tapes. Maybe there is something in a letter that mentions it.

Did they ever get the videotapes back?

I’ve looked and there is no mention of Kirk, but Terri mentions a couple of times in October and in November that she hasn’t received her tape back from Tim. She had spoken to Gary Grant on the phone in November 1984 and Gary said he was due to pick up fan mail later that day, so Terri asked him to tell Tim “Hi” and ask, “Where’s my tape?”

I don’t know if Jess or Terri got any videotapes back from INXS.

We parted ways with INXS until it be morrow

We did not hang out with INXS that night. Once they all walked out of the Masonic Temple and got on the tour bus, they left, and I don’t know where they went. We went back to our hotel to sleep because we had to drive ourselves to Ottawa City the next day for the next INXS show.

March 23, 2026
Blog Post 15- INXS Concert July 2, 1984, Holmdel, NJ

Terri took this photo of Michael in front of Toad’s Place in New Haven on August 15, 1983.

This photo of Michael Hutchence was taken by Terri on August 15, 1983. INXS played at Toad’s Place in New Haven, Connecticut. I was not there but my friends were. That INXS had just seen them on the 15th probably explains why they let us into soundcheck on the 16th in Poughkeepsie (see Blog Post 3 for more).

I have this photo because I bought it from Terri back in the 80s. Both Terri and Jess sold photos that they took of INXS to fans to help defray the costs of film and developing. I think Terri got this shot when Michael was posing for some other photographer because a similar shot ended up in some magazine somewhere.

To recap: The first week that INXS was back in the New York City area for the first time since September 1983, my friends and I were either seeing them or I was working. INXS had concerts at Radio City Music Hall, Boston, and Jones Beach. Then they had off while I worked. The next day was the concert I’m about to write about. They played at The Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. Still opening for The Go-Go’s. I was scheduled to work the day after that from 12-9pm.

Week of July 2-8, 1984. INXS and work. Donna’s calendar.

Wikipedia article about the Garden State Arts Center

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

The ride to Holmdel to see INXS

To get to the Garden State Arts Center, we drove down the Garden State Parkway. The Parkway has always had tolls. These days many of the tollbooths have been removed and replaced by sensors and you don’t have to stop at the ones that remain if you have EZ-Pass. You can drive right through at a slow speed.

Back in the 1980s, if you had exact change then you could stop and throw coins through your open car window into a bucket before proceeding. If not, then you went to a tollbooth with an attendant who could take your money for the toll and give you your change.

An example of what we threw our coins into from the car window.

This photo of the toll booth coin bucket is from this article-

https://whyy.org/articles/end-of-an-era-garden-state-parkway-coin-booth-phase-out-begins/

You can see the route and distance to get from home to the INXS concert in Holmdel, NJ.

On our way down, we noticed that some of the tollbooths had posters advertising the concert we were going to. Jackie wanted one so the next time we saw one at the toll plaza, she got out of the car and took down the poster while we were stopped at the tollbooth.

The warning from The Go-Go’s bus driver

When we arrived at the Arts Center, we walked over to the backstage door. It wasn’t long before we were told to leave but that didn’t happen until after we spoke to The Go-Go’s’ tour bus driver.

My impression was that he was in his forties- old enough that he could have been our father. His name was Frank. We told him we were there to see INXS, and he said, “Watch out for that singer.” It was weird when he said something along the lines of “he was in some pants he couldn’t get out of.” I’m not sure what exactly he meant by that, but it was clearly something sexual. Now, at this time, none of us had any idea that he was messing around with Belinda Carlisle, but it turns out he was. Did he have his hand down her pants and wouldn’t or couldn’t take it out? We did not ask for clarification. Anyway, The Go-Go’s’ bus driver felt the need to warn us about Michael Hutchence. He told us to be careful and “don’t get hurt for a night of fun.” Clearly, he didn’t think that Michael Hutchence would have our best interests in mind.

I’m grateful for the warning even though it didn’t work at the time. It’s illuminating now. Frank was the bright spot among the men we met while we were doing this stuff. I don’t even know how much he would have seen. INXS had only been part of The Go-Go’s tour since June 22- eleven days at that point. Was he even their bus driver for the whole time? Who knows?

Ever since I watched the Richard Lowenstein documentary, Mystify: Michael Hutchence, in 2020, I have been doing a lot of research so I can know as much as possible about what really happened in 1984 and beyond.

Mystify: Michael Hutchence documentary trailer

What I didn’t know about Michael and Belinda in 1984

Belinda Carlisle’s autobiography contained the most useful information of the books I have read by members of The Go-Go’s. Kathy Valentine’s book didn’t have much useful information to offer about INXS. Gina Schock’s didn’t either-there was nothing that I didn’t already know.

The Go-Go’s started their tour with INXS as the opening act on June 22, 1984 with two nights at the Pine Knob Music Theater in Michigan about 40 miles outside of Detroit.

Wikipedia article about Pine Knob Music Theater

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

Belinda wrote that she and Michael hooked up about two days into the tour. So, around the time that Jackie saw INXS in Chicago on June 24, the third date of the tour, is probably when Belinda and Michael started having sex.

As I wrote in my first blog post, I joined a Facebook group for INXS fans back in 2019. One of the women in the group shared a story about having seen Michael Hutchence and Belinda Carlisle in a club in Cleveland and they were rolling around on the floor together. Belinda in her book said that she was partying even harder than Michael was at the time and both were partying very hard. They had a show in Cleveland on June 26, 1984, so this sighting occurred either that night or the previous night if both bands had already arrived in town from Chicago.

On the morning of June 27, 1984, INXS did a live show for a Cleveland radio station. I have the CD from that show. Michael mentioned in an interview during that concert that the band had to catch a flight to New York. They did and we met them when they arrived at their hotel in New York.

The cover of the INXS CD of the special morning radio concert at the Cleveland Agora on June 27, 1984

Screenshot from Amazon that gives information about the concert CD.

Based on what Gina Schock wrote in her book, Michael and possibly other members of INXS went out to clubs with her and Belinda that night. This was not something we heard about when we saw them. We weren’t invited and I’m not sure we would have gone if we had been. It would have been boring for me as it usually was because I didn’t care for clubs and bars. I only drank a little and I didn’t do drugs and neither did my friends.

The drummer for The Go-Go’s, Gina Schock, had a book published.

According to Andy Warhol’s diary and Belinda’s book, there was a party thrown for The Go-Go’s after they played Radio City Music Hall on June 28th at a club in New York City. I don’t know if anyone from INXS was invited or was at the party. The books don’t say.

I ordered Belinda Carlisle’s book to read on my Kindle.

Now that I am done adding some information that pertains to Michael and Belinda and the tour up until now, I will get back to the story.

Back to July 2nd. Birthday Presents for Kirk

After we were kicked out from the area near the backstage door, we stood near the road where the tour bus would have to come in and we waited for INXS to arrive. When we saw the bus, I think Terri waved to get the bus to stop. We had presents to give to Kirk for his birthday on July 4th. The bus stopped and Gary Grant opened the door. Jess was the one who handed him our gifts and told him they were for Kirk’s birthday. My friends told me that everyone in the band waved to us from the bus windows, but I only saw Andrew Farriss wave.

I gave Kirk a coffee mug, an American flag, sparklers (for the 4th of July), and an entire issue of The Weekly World News. The main story was about a priest who burst into flames while performing an exorcism.

The actual cover of the Weekly World News I gave to Kirk Pengilly.

When we went into the venue, we ran into a girl named Maria. We first met her at the show at Radio City Music Hall a few days earlier. Like me, her favorite member of INXS was Kirk Pengilly so I liked her. Maria and I became pen pals.

The INXS concert

Security was a pain at this concert too. It was very difficult to find seats down in front when everyone was forced by security to sit down and there were more people than there were seats. We didn’t have tickets for seats near the stage. Jackie, Jess, and Terri had to move around a lot. I spent most of the show over on Kirk’s side of the stage and I was able to do that because a nice girl named Joyce let me share her seat with her when we were told to sit down.

During the show, the band noticed where we ended up whenever we had to move. It was always fun to interact with them. Sometimes, we would put our arms up and sway or clap and some members of the band would pick it up from us. Other times, the band would do something, and we would copy them. During the song “I Send A Message” my friends and I would all yell “Hey, Timmy” just before his guitar solo.

While INXS played the song “Original Sin,” Michael Hutchence came over to Kirk’s side of the stage and he noticed that Joyce and I were sitting together in the same seat. When he did, he smiled at us, and I smiled back at him. When the show was over, I asked Joyce for her address so I could write to her. She gave it to me. I think I might have told her that we knew the band and I would write to her about it.

Following the bus again

Once again, we waited in our car for INXS to leave the Garden State Arts Center in their tour bus and we followed the bus when it left. This time we lost the bus for a bit after we stopped in a highway rest stop and made a wrong turn. But we found them again when we saw the tour bus stopped at a different highway rest stop. We pulled over on the shoulder of the highway and then waited for the tour bus to return to the road. Once it did, we pulled out behind the bus again and followed them-we didn’t know where we would end up.

After over an hour of driving, the bus carrying INXS pulled into the parking lot of the Holiday Inn in Rockville Centre on Long Island and so did we. INXS was still staying at the same hotel we followed them to a couple of nights earlier.

The time and distance between the INXS concert and their hotel on Long Island.

INXS gets out of the bus at their hotel

All of us got out of the car and went over to the bus to wait for the band to emerge. I no longer had a big problem with doing it as we seemed to be welcome. Kirk and Karen got off the bus. Karen was holding the American flag that was part of my birthday present to Kirk. Kirk thanked us for the presents. He said, “I got the whole paper”, and it sounded like he was bragging. It was also a reference to the fact that Garry only received part of the Weekly World News when I gave him a birthday gift. Yes, Kirk was my favorite, and I gave him a much better present than the one I gave to Garry Gary. Kirk told us that the paper was passed around the bus so everyone could look at it during the ride. He also said that he would stop by at the bar later, but he never showed up. More about that in a future post.

Jon Farriss got off the bus and we talked to him. We asked him where INXS would be playing on their own the next day, July 3rd. He said, “I don’t know. East Hampstead, New Hampshire, East Hamster, something like that.” The official list of concert dates that INXS compiled has the wrong town listed too. They played in East Hampton on Long Island the next day. More about that in the future post I mentioned. I bought the deluxe edition of Calling All Nations from INXS because I wanted the list of their shows which they call Gigography.

It seems that Michael spent the long bus ride drinking alcohol and having his hair braided by Karen. At that time, Karen was a hairdresser. I don’t remember how I knew that-did someone from the band tell me or my friends or did we read it somewhere- I have no idea, but it was something I knew.

Michael drunk on the pavement

Michael came out of the bus, and he was very drunk. He took a few steps and then decided to make himself comfortable on the pavement near us in the parking lot. He was lying on the ground. The rest of the band just left him there and went about their business.

Garry Gary came off the bus and he was carrying his bass in a case. Michael saw that and said that Garry had a gun. Then Michael started babbling about the gun that he had. It was the replica of a Russian gun, and you could flip up one of the pieces, etc., etc. I had no idea what he was trying to describe to us.

Michael was still on the ground when he took out a cigarette and a lighter. Jackie ended up lighting Michael’s cigarette for him while he insisted that he was able to light the cigarette himself. But people were happy to do things for him and always willing to do things for him and to give things to him. Jackie wanted to do it.

He made a very interesting remark about the drunken state he was in. He said that if he kept up what he was doing that he would be an alcoholic by the end of the year. But we shouldn’t worry about him because he would not keep it up. Incredible that he would say that to us when he barely knew us. Did we look so concerned that he felt he needed to say that? Or was he just kidding himself that he didn’t really have a problem?

Eventually he stood up and he continued to talk to us. The subject turned to cars, and he told us he had a Citroen and that he was going to buy a new car when he got home- a five speed. We also heard about Kirk’s old car and how they used to drive it at a low speed and then one of them would jump on the hood of the car and then roll off it on the other side-like stunt men in the movies getting hit by a car.

Michael acting stupid

When a big car drove by us as it was leaving the parking lot, Michael went to jump out in front of it like he was going to demonstrate what he and Kirk did but then he stopped. After that, I thought Michael was fucking crazy. Then he said that the car that drove by was “awful.”

Michael told me that he saw me in the audience at the show and noticed that I was sharing a seat. I’m sure I told him all about that. Terri asked Michael to take his hair out of the braid it was in because she didn’t like it that way. And Michael did it while telling us that he doesn’t care about hair. He said in his soft, lispy, voice that he was trying to grow his hair long like a hippie and that many people complained to him that it “looked uncool or something.”

I decided to get lottery numbers from Michael, so I asked him to pick a number for me. Jackie suggested 69- ha, ha, ha, get it? The first number he chose was 4. I told him I already play that number so he should pick another one. He picked 8. Then I asked him if he could even count as high as 36. (The NJ Pick-6 Lotto at the time had numbers from 1-36.)

What I said was a joke that was meant to mock him and insult him because I didn’t have a high opinion of him, and I didn’t like or respect him. Michael was offended and hurt by it. He seems to have thought that everyone considered him stupid. I had touched a sore spot. He said, “I’m not dumb” and asked, “why do people always think I am?” His reaction told me something about him. He cared too much about what other people thought of him.

Michael’s British friends show up

Our time with Michael in the parking lot came to an end when three British guys who knew Michael showed up. One guy was named William, and he was or had been a roadie for The Stray Cats. Michael went into the hotel with them.

INXS opened for The Stray Cats a few times in 1983 when they came to the United States for the first time. First, they opened for Adam Ant. Then they opened for The Kinks for one show, played at the US Festival, and opened for The Stray Cats before going back to Australia in June of 1983. So, he would have met William then.

This story will continue in the next blog post because the night is not over for us.

November 1, 2025