INXS played 2,145 gigs during their career in front of 30 million people in 49 countries and it all started from humble beginnings in Sydney, Australia.
The first INXS gigs were small. The very first gig was at Whale Beach in Sydney on 16 August 1977.
Map designer Damien Saunder has documented the entire live career of INXS as a map. He tells Noise11.com that “INXS are in a rare club of bands that have played +2000 global gigs, including the Stones, Bob Dylan and Bon Jovi”.
The map shows the start of INXS performances and for the first two years only lights up in Sydney regional New South Wales. By 1981, INXS have expanded in Victoria and Queensland and in 1982 conducted their first world tour … Australia AND New Zealand. Perth also got its first INXS show in 1982 even though the Farris Brothers and Michael Hutchence had their origins in the Western Australian capital as The Farris Brothers.
1983 was when INXS went to the USA and explodes. The map starts to light up at that point. Europe and Hong Kong follow in 1984.
Buenos Aires lights up in 1986 off the back of ‘Listen Like Thieves’ but it isn’t until the 90s when any serious work is done in South America.
Africa is treated to INXS live for the first time in 1997.
Damien Saunder is an Australian map designer based in California. His INXS map is the first of his artist map documentaries.
