INXS Access All Areas Podcast Review

The INXS Access All Areas podcast. As an INXS fan, have you listened in yet? If not – why the heck not? At the time of writing, the podcast has just reached the 100 episodes milestone, and that’s playing right now while I wax lyrical about my favourite subject. INXS.

The thing is, I can’t quite remember how I discovered the Access All Areas podcast – it’s just one of those things that happens. Incredibly (to me, anyway), I only wrote my first blog post on INXS last summer, when I wrote a very personal piece on what Michael Hutchence means to me.

My favourite Australians

Since then, though, my interest in INXS has been thoroughly rejuvenated. Much to the chagrin of my long-suffering other half – who often pops into my office to find me open-jawed while watching a live video featuring my favourite Australians – I’ve become a bit obsessed. Completely, some might say.

Fast-forward some months and there is now a dedicated INXS category on this very blog. This is my 10th post on the sextet from Sydney – with lots more to come. One post even attracted a comment from Tina Hutchence herself, founder of the Michael Hutchence Foundation. I now network with other fans of the band and its erstwhile frontman on social media. Daily.

A love of INXS is for life

If you want to interpret that as me drooling over smokin’ pictures of a certain lithe, cat-like lead singer, then so be it. Guilty as charged and grinning from ear-to-ear about it. Just like a lovestruck teenager – and just as I actually was when I first got into INXS well over three decades ago.

The one consolation I can offer Mister – when it comes to my adoration of hair-flicking, gyrating, gravelly-voiced, flirtacious and sometimes sweaty members of the best band ever – is that I’m not discussing their general shirtlessness tendencies in public. Unlike a certain Brit whose name begins with the second letter of the alphabet. Yep, Bee, I’m lookin’ at you kid. Good on ya, as your adopted countrymen and women would say.

A meeting of minds

Apparently Bee met Haydn at a Mystify premiere, and the podcast was born. The stars surely must have been aligned that night, as he and she are the perfect foil for one another. Their self-professed roles are tragic fan girl and INXS nerd, and each plays their part with total precision. A bit like good cop, bad cop, but far more fun.

I’m not going to go into what the podcasts contain too much, as the delights are for you to discover for yourself. Just don’t miss episodes 86 and 87 on the dream INXS concert, nor any featuring interviews with or tributes to band members. Oh, and you must take a ‘deep dive’ if your favourite track is featured, too.

The INXS nerd

Haydn, your knowledge of INXS is encyclopaedic – I salute you sir (and mention you when people roll their eyes when I share an INXS-related snippet that precisely no-one present is interested in.)

From one writer to another, may I also state my appreciation for the perfectly-phrased summaries of each episode you provide on the website (from one writer to another, I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that at least one person reads them).

The tragic fan girl

As for Bee – you’re just like me. Obsessed with INXS, and not all sorry about that. Any why should we be? Your humour and infectious enthusiasm really makes the podcast what it is – serious about music yet light-hearted enough to thoroughly enjoy.

The fact that luminaries like Mark Opitz, Richard Simpkin, Nick Egan and even Mr ‘play the f**ing riff Timmy’ Farriss are honorary patrons is simply the icing on the cake. The ultimate seal of approval for what you do.

Shirtless rockers

As I reach the end of this review, I’ve just realised something. I am indeed discussing the hot rockers’ sex appeal in public. Just like Bee. The fact that you can’t hear my voice (English, with a slight Geordie accent) is purely academic when you can actually read my thoughts on the world wide web.

Long live INXS Access All Areas. Maybe one day I’ll even get to meet Haydn and Bee over a beer at my favourite Sydney bar, the Coogee Bay Hotel. Stranger things have happened, and who knows where life will lead? After all, the very music blog you’re reading was started almost-by-accident…

Marcy x

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• Best covers by INXS
• Finest INXS lyrics