INXS’s legendary performance at Wembley Stadium almost 35 years ago is still rocking.
Channel 7’s Sunday night broadcast of “INXS: Live At Wembley” gave a solid kick to the commercial network’s results, bagging a national TV average audience of 404,000, and a national reach of 1.292 million, according to overnight figures released by ratings specialist OzTAM.
That result was good enough for seventh overall, placing the INXS spot ahead of Nine’s NRL coverage and 10’s Masterchef, but well behind the winners The Block (Nine) and Seven News.
Narrated by journalist Michael Usher, the program revisited INXS’s landmark 1991 Wembley Stadium performance, captured in front of a sold-out crowd of 72,000, and later released as the Live Baby Live triple-LP.
The special included new interviews with founding INXS members Jon Farriss and Kirk Pengilly, reflecting on the concert’s significance at a time when the new wave band was touring constantly.
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“It was just another stadium show… or was it?” Pengilly remarked in the program, which aired at 8.30pm Sunday. “The most iconic stadium in the world, and we sold it out. Incredible. The guest list alone was over 2,000 people. It was an unforgettable, electrifying night that I will be forever proud and grateful that we captured it on film.”
Seven’s broadcast was opportunistic, coming just days after INXS topped triple j’s Hottest 100 of Australian Songs with their 1987 hit “Never Tear Us Apart”.
The network has a decade-long association with INXS. It was Seven that aired the docudrama INXS: Never Tear Us Apart in 2014. Produced by Shine Australia, that two-part miniseries was a ratings hit, and added fuel to the band’s substantial catalog, several years after INXS called time on touring.
Formed in Perth in 1977, INXS rocked their way to the summit with six U.K. top 10 albums (including a No. 1 with Welcome To Wherever You Are from 1992) and five U.S. top 20 albums, a BRIT Award (in 1991 for best international group) and, in 2001, elevation into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Career streams top 4 billion and their diamond-certified 2011 release The Best Of was one of just three homegrown recordings to crack the ARIA year-end chart for 2024, dropping in at No. 81 – proof that their music has stood the test of time.
The only thing missing from the INXS treasure chest is induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame.