Sexism, Bruhs, and Rock n Roll

Tag: University of Pennsylvania

Blog Post 18- INXS at Mann Music Center, July 7, 1984

Kirk Pengilly, guitarist, saxophonist, singer for INXS, photo by Terri, Atlanta 9/5/1983

Before I even went to any INXS concert in 1984, I had asked my boss at the restaurant for the day off on July 7 so I could go to the INXS concert at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia. So, I was planning to go to this show before I ever saw Kirk or Michael and I liked to stick to my plans.

After what happened with Michael Hutchence in his hotel room on July 2, I went to work from 12pm to 9pm and my friends went to see INXS in East Hampton, NY on July 3. On July 4, Kirk Pengilly turned 26, INXS traveled to the Midwest, and I went to work from 11am to 8pm. The Go-Go’s and INXS played Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 5 and I had the day off from work. I was back at work on Friday, July 6, 1984, from 5pm to 1am while INXS and the Go-Go’s did a concert in New Haven, Connecticut.

Ticket for The Go-Go’s and INXS concert at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia July 7, 1984. Not my ticket. I got this photo from the internet.

The concert in Philadelphia was on Saturday, July 7. It took Terri, Jess, Jackie, and I about two hours to get to the Mann Music Center by car. The Mann Music Center was an outdoor theater located in Fairmount Park in West Philadelphia.

The route from Hillsdale, NJ to the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia from Google Maps.

Do I have to be harassed everywhere?

When we arrived, we all had to pee, so we walked into a seedy-looking bar in the neighborhood. It was five o’clock somewhere, but I don’t think it was five yet when we got there.

The bathroom was too small for all four of us, so Jess and I had to wait near the bar. Sitting at the bar was a skinny black guy (we were in West Philadelphia where most people were black). This guy looked like he was in his late 30s and he was drunk.

When he saw me, he asked if I was married. Jess told him I was engaged. He said I should break up with my boyfriend and marry him instead because he had a great chest. Then he unbuttoned his shirt and took it off to show me his bare chest! Pointing to his chest, he said, “Does your boyfriend have anything as good as this?” It was scary. What is wrong with men? I couldn’t even use a bathroom in peace.

I had no choice but to be as polite as I could be until the bathroom was free and I could go in it. After that we left as quickly as we could and walked back to the Mann Music Center where we found out that the INXS tour bus had already gone inside.

Hey, Timmy!

We were still outside the venue, but we could watch INXS do their soundcheck from there. Timmy heard us all yell, “Hey, Timmy” in unison. He waved to us and then raised his fist in the air.

The Hooters

As usual, our plan was to find seats down near the stage so we were sad to learn that The Hooters would be going on before INXS. The Hooters were a popular Philadelphia-area band, so a lot of people showed up early to see them and that messed up our plan.

Philadelphia rock band The Hooters

The Hooters- All You Zombies

Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman, the founding members of The Hooters, went to my school, The University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, but at least ten years before I was in college. They met each other while at Penn. They formed The Hooters in 1980.

INXS on stage

When INXS took the stage, I decided to stay in the seat I had a ticket for. It was about twenty-five rows up from the stage. Terri, Jess, and Jackie decided to see what they could find near the stage, so they left.

After a few minutes, I saw them waving to me, urging me to come down. They found seats in the second row on Timmy’s side of the stage and there was one for me too. So, I got up and walked down the aisle to where they were. When I walked down the row to take my seat, Michael saw me, and I noticed it when he recognized me.

I also noticed Michael looking over at me from time to time during the concert. One time, he was in front of us when “Dancing on the Jetty” started. I was standing there swaying to the music at the very beginning of the song and Michael was staring at me. I was feeling the music. Then he stopped staring and sang the song.

Dancing on the Jetty

There were a lot of screaming girls at the concert. Girls acting all hysterical over seeing INXS or any other musician never made sense to me. Really, I don’t get it at all. Why scream because of some guy? I wrote in my diary that those girls made me laugh and that I thought INXS liked us because we treated them like they were normal people.

Following the bus again

After the concert, we had to follow the bus again because we didn’t know where they were staying. This time there were guys in a car behind us and they also followed the bus because Belinda and Charlotte from The Go-Go’s were on the INXS tour bus.

It was an exciting ride as we were following them through the streets of Philadelphia. We ran a couple of red lights so we could stay right behind the bus. The destination turned out to be Rittenhouse Square and the Barclay Hotel. At the time, it was the classiest hotel in Philadelphia. Or if not the best, it was the most famous.

A picture of the Barclay Hotel on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia that I took from the internet. The bar was on the right side of the ground floor.

The Barclay Hotel impressed me when I saw it with its marble floors and palace decor. I don’t think I had been in any hotel as expensive-looking before.

Rittenhouse Square at 18th and Walnut Street is a small park and one of the original squares William Penn planned for the city in the 17th century. It’s one of the best and fanciest neighborhoods to live in or hang out at in Philadelphia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barclay_Hotel_(Philadelphia)

The Go-Go’s and their fans

The two guys who ended up at the Barclay with us seemed to be the same age as we were-between 18 and 21. I wrote in my diary that Charlotte was on the bus, but today I don’t remember seeing Charlotte at all.

When Jackie and I reconnected on Facebook, she said that she remembered being on an elevator with Belinda Carlisle and that she wanted to punch Belinda.

That is something I don’t remember but I do remember both Michael and Belinda being super-fucked-up on drugs. Michael was even worse than the last time we saw him just five days earlier when he was lying down drunk on the pavement. It wasn’t just alcohol this time-I could tell that other drugs had also been consumed.

Thank you, Gary Grant

The first thing many members of INXS did when they arrived at the hotel was look for a cigarette machine. The hotel did not have one. We gave Gary Grant a bottle of wine to thank him for being so nice to us. He had just gotten Jackie into the show on Long Island. Gary gave Jess a kiss so she must have presented it to him.

I had nothing to do with buying the wine other than chipping in to pay for it. Terri and Jess did all the planning and were the ones who contacted Gary Grant. If they had not done those things, I wouldn’t have a story to tell. I was just along for the ride.

After we gave Gary Grant the wine and the band went to their rooms, we waited around in the lobby. It wasn’t long before Kirk came down and said hello to us. In my diary, I wrote that he was wearing an ugly outfit. Unfortunately, I didn’t describe it at all. I wish I had. The members of INXS often wore clothes that we didn’t like, and I often never described the clothes and just wrote my opinion. If I had a chance to go back and do it again, I would write down more descriptive details!

Going out for cigarettes

Kirk told me that he had told Terri and Jess to say “Hi!” to me for him when he saw them in East Hampton. He said he was going out to buy cigarettes so I told him that I knew which way to go and would show him. Everyone in our group and the two guys who had followed us, all went with Kirk to the store.

We headed north on 18th street towards Chestnut Street and Kirk walked very fast. It was almost hard to keep up with him. After a couple of blocks, we found a store that sold cigarettes. Kirk bought a pack of Vantage cigarettes and we all headed back to the hotel.

While we were walking back, the two guys who were fans of The Go-Go’s asked Kirk several questions about them. Again, the actual questions and answers were not written down by me so I no longer remember them. All it says in my diary was that Kirk was nice and he answered the questions about what The Go-Go’s were like.

When we got back to the hotel, the guys didn’t come inside with us, and when they were gone, Kirk laughed about them asking him those questions. Before he went upstairs, he told us he would come down to the bar later and then we did not see him again. Just like that night five nights earlier, he didn’t come to the bar.

The hotel bar

Jackie and I decided to check out the bar which was on the ground floor near the lobby. When we looked in, we discovered that Jon Farriss was at the bar so we went in and sat down at a table near the entrance.

Jon Farriss was sitting at the bar with two older women in their thirties. Jackie bought him a drink and when he got it, he looked over at us and smiled. I got up and sat at a table near where the three of them were talking at the bar so I could eavesdrop on their conversation.

That’s how I found out more about those women. One was named Bonnie, and the other was Franny. I don’t remember who was who but one had been a former model who now had a business baking brownies. The other woman was acting like a fool in love or a crazy fan. She told Jon very seriously that she knew his soul because of the way he looked at her. Then she said that she could sense that there was something between them.

I’m sure I looked like I wanted to bust out laughing. The woman saying that nonsense noticed that I was sitting very close by and listening so then she told Jon that she felt like she was making a speech and that I was taking notes to write an article for the National Enquirer. The National Enquirer was a weekly tabloid paper mostly devoted to celebrity gossip.

A photo of an April 1984 edition of the National Enquirer that I found on the internet.

After she said this, Jon turned and threw a swizzle stick at me. It didn’t hit me, but I got the message and went back to the table my friends were sitting at. But I don’t think he was upset because a little later he came over and sat with us.

Chatting with Jon Farriss

When he told us that the men’s bathroom was incredibly fancy and had a spiral staircase made of marble, Jackie and I went out to look for ourselves. There wasn’t anyone in there, so we went in and looked around right quick.

All the conversations I write about here were a lot longer than what I remember of them or wrote about them. What I remember is a minute here or a minute there and I rarely took note of what my friends talked about in my diary because it was my diary. Sometimes we spent a lot of time in the same room with members of INXS without talking to them. Other times we hung out with them for minutes or for hours.

During our time with Jon, he talked about his American girlfriend from Texas named Lisa. He met Lisa when INXS toured the United States in 1983 and they were still together. Jon was upset that Lisa was going on a ski trip with two guys and he would not be there. He didn’t trust those guys and was worried something would happen. He told us that one of the guys was Swedish, had big thighs, and only had sex on his mind. It’s in my diary because I found the jealousy to be amusing and his concern to be stereotypical: guys only want sex. And it was a surprise to see a handsome, attractive guy like Jon Farriss be insecure like that.

We were ready to leave and make the two-hour drive back to North Jersey and were saying goodbye to Jon when some girls outside of the hotel started banging on the window because they saw Jon. He decided to leave the hotel with us to meet his fans.

Michael, Belinda, and Michael’s “friend”

While we were in front of the hotel, Michael walked out of the hotel accompanied by a sleazy-looking woman who we had never seen before and Belinda Carlisle of The Go-Go’s. All three of them were incredibly wasted as I mentioned earlier. Belinda looked like a warmed-over corpse. They stopped when we said hello. Michael said hello to Terri and gave her a kiss but didn’t seem to see me at all. I think he was pretending not to see me so he could ignore me because the situation was a bit awkward but who knows? Maybe he was too wasted.

Belinda asked us “what day is it?” (which I thought was pathetic) and we told her. I think Michael said they were going to buy cigarettes and then the three of them started skipping down the street towards Spruce Street. That was the wrong direction to go if they wanted to find cigarettes. They were headed to a residential neighborhood. None of us stopped them.

Going home

Jackie cried for the whole car ride back because she was going home to Chicago and would not be seeing Jon Farriss again. I had to be at work that day but not until 5pm for a change so I had 10-12 hours between getting home and starting my 8-hour waitressing shift.

The concert had started at 8pm and likely lasted three hours. We would have gotten to the hotel around midnight. Bars in Philadelphia closed at 2am so we likely left the hotel around the time the bar closed. I don’t know how long we stayed outside because I just didn’t write all those details down.

My diary entry for an INXS concert later in July mentions a woman named Ellen who we had met in Philadelphia so we could have been talking to her. Anyway, it was another two hours or so to get back home so I don’t think I got back until 5am.

Information gleaned from old letters

At the end of the summer of 1984, having met many new people while going to 11 INXS concerts, I had many stories to tell them. I wrote a lot of letters when I got back to college to tell them of my adventures, and they wrote back. Because of that, I believe that the mystery woman with Michael and Belinda, a woman I saw with Michael again later in July, was someone named Sherri.

A letter, dated September 26, 1984, from a woman named Kirsten (also known as Kira) who we met in Connecticut and who was from there mentions a woman named Sherri. Sherrie was described as being extremely sleazy-looking and a druggie. Kira said that she had “seen/heard of a woman named Sherri who supposedly gives Michael drugs and sleeps around with him throughout the tour!”

Kirsten told a story that she had heard from a friend. This friend named Corine told Kirsten that she was in Tim’s dressing room and Michael and Sherri were also there. According to Corine, Michael and Sherri went into the bathroom several times to fuck.

This was something I had not heard until after we stopped following INXS that summer in 1984 so while I had some idea of what Michael was like based on my own experiences up until then, I was still quite naive and my opinion of him was too high.

January 3, 2026
Blog Post 12- INXS releases The Swing, Spring 1984

The fourth album by the Australian rock band, INXS.

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

Working graveyard shifts

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

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

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

4/27/84

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

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

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

4/28/84

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4/29/84

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5/1/84

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

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

5/3/84

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

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

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

5/4/84

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

5/5/84

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

Letter from Terri

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

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

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

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

An MMA Management ad from Billboard magazine. Date unknown.

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

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

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

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

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

5/9/84

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

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

5/10/84

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

Back in Hillsdale, NJ for the summer

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

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

5/11/84

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

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

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

Randy Nichols, keyboard player for Eddie Money

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

5/12/84

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

5/13/84

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

5/14/84

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

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

5/15/84

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

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

5/16/84

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

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

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

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

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

Coffee Achievers video

5/17/84

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

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

Rewritten songs from The Swing

Dancing on the Jetty video-INXS

Walking off the Jetty [My version]

Why don’t you take a long walk

Off a short pier

Who’s gonna teach you

Teach you how to swim

You could talk forever

Just never get tired

Listen to your words

Find out why you get us down

Long stories, bad jokes

Loud clothing

Go walk off the jetty

Cause we’re sick of you

Why don’t you take a long walk

Off a short pier

Who’s gonna teach you

Teach you how to swim

You told your life story

You started years ago

Prayed like hell that you’d shut your mouth

Another story and I’d kill myself

Bore the world, too sorry

Give anything

for a moment’s silence

We want to stop you from making noise

Nothing but trouble, leave town

Don’t you come back

We hope you got the hint.

INXS Video Melting in the Sun

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

Sung to the tune of Melting in the Sun by INXS

More from the diary

5/18/84

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

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

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

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

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

5/19/84

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

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

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

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

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

Cover of the Weekly World News from May 22, 1984

5/20/84

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

5/22/84

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

I would rather be reading

5/23/84

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

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

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

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

Modeling doesn’t sound so great

5/24/84

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

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

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

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

5/26/84

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

5/27/84

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

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

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

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

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

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

Letter from Terri about INXS

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

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

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

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

The jerk from Scotland

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

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

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

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

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

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

Billboard magazine

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

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

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

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

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

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

Original Sin

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

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

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

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

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

Big Country

Big Country. Trouser Press magazine. March 1984

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

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

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

Me with Big Country singer Stuart Adamson in Tampa, Florida

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

Big Country video

Graveyard shift

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

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

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

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

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

http://www.reinhardagency.com

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

August 16, 2025