DATE: Tuesday, November 25, 1997            TAG: 9711250095

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SUE VanHECKE, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   78 lines

A TREND-SETTING VOICE OF ROCK IS SILENCED WITH THE DEATH OF MICHAEL HUTCHENCE

IT'S LIKE LOSING an old friend.

Whether you were a fan or not, those of us for whom the '80s were formative years have been touched in some way by Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of INXS who was found dead in his Sydney, Australia, hotel room Saturday.

The man was inescapable, a true pop-culture icon of the day. By decade's end, he had handily conquered nearly all media: INXS's mega-selling, easy-funk hits ``Need You Tonight'' and ``New Sensation'' saturated the radio waves; Hutchence could be seen ceaselessly shaking his tousled tresses and skinny hips all over MTV; his sexy-sensitive rock star gaze smoldered from magazine covers; he even brooded convincingly in the indie film ``Dogs in Space.''

And though the Australian rockers did not enjoy the same degree of success into the '90s, Hutchence was still never far from the spotlight, his globetrotting romances with singer Kylie Minogue, model Helena Christensen and Paula Yates - Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof's ex-wife with whom Hutchence had a daughter - keeping him in gossip columns the world over.

When I spoke with Hutchence in late August, before an INXS performance in Norfolk, he seemed sincerely optimistic about his music and absolutely effusive about fatherhood.

``I love it, I really love it,'' he said of his new role as daddy to 15-month-old Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily. ``She's a wonderful kid. She doesn't cry or anything. She's just like a little friend.''

Hutchence was also thrilled about writing and recording fresh material with INXS - at the time of his death, the band was in rehearsals for a 20th anniversary tour.

``I look forward to it. (The outcome) depends on the mood of everybody,'' he said. ``You tend to kind of make the album that you can make. We enjoy playing together, and as long as the songs are turning out good, then it's really exciting. This album was a breeze, the best time we've had in a long time making a record.''

He was referring to the recent ``Elegantly Wasted.'' INXS received favorable notices, if not widespread commercial acclaim, for the album, a dynamic outing that harkened to the band's early vibrant - and undeniably influential - sound.

Indeed, we have INXS to thank for bringing alternative rock - for better or worse - into the Madison Avenue-co-opted mainstream.

With their idiosyncratic, post-new wave albums of the early '80s - ``Shabooh Shoobah,'' ``The Swing'' - and 1987's multi-platinum breakthrough ``Kick,'' INXS helped transform the artsy, underground niche once called ``progressive'' or ``post-modern'' into the stylistically broad, big-bucks bonanza we know today as the alternative genre.

Stardom didn't happen easily or overnight, Hutchence said in August.

``We put out albums internationally and we toured very hard,'' he recalled, ``and slowly but surely we got a following. I guess when you're working that hard, you don't even notice. The main thing I noticed is the States suddenly going crazy and then a little bit later England suddenly, at last, getting it. I guess `Kick' was the one when everyone caught up.''

``Kick'' was also the one that made Hutchence a bona fide pin-up.

His sex object status came as a surprise, Hutchence told me, because ``at the very beginning, when we toured the States, we weren't used to playing to people under 18. We had pop culture shock, really. We'd just played the pubs in Australia, where you had to be 18 to get in.

``We just laughed a lot (at the female fan frenzy). We didn't really relate to it at all. I guess we kind of shook it off a bit and moved on.''

However, Hutchence still had a way with the women, if his September reception at the Boathouse was any indication.

Midway through the concert - a kinetic performance played to a packed audience - he waded through the mob to croon from the rear of the building. Standing atop a crowd barrier, Hutchence, a true pro, didn't miss a note as he casually brushed away countless long-nailed fingers that reached to fondle the fabric of his pants and tug at his shirt.

And so, now, what of INXS?

It's anyone's guess whether the band, whose sound and image have been so reliant on Hutchence's signature voice and visage, would - or even could - continue in his absence.

So they, and we, must say goodbye to an old friend. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

Michael Hutchence... KEYWORDS: SUICIDE

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