By Christie Eliezer
INXS’ fifth studio album Listen Like Thieves – the one that broke them worldwide in the mid 80s – is getting a 40th anniversary deluxe treatment.
The original included classics as “What You Need”, “Listen Like Thieves”, Kiss The Dirt (Falling Down The Mountain)”, “Shine Like It Does”, “Biting Bullets” and “This Time”.
The deluxe set, due in May, has new 2025 remixes by Giles Martin and Paul Hicks, demos and outtakes, a recently discovered BBC recording live from London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1986, extensive liner notes from English journalist Paul Sexton, a new band interview, and a Dolby Atmos mix.
The band had forgotten they’d played the Albert Hall. But it was the time INXS were coming into the spotlight as a great rock-funk band, and in the audience were Mick Jagger, The Cult and Psychedelic Furs.
Pivotal
Says Giles Martin, the band’s executive music producer “It’s been such an honour to work on this pivotal album from INXS’s career.
“It’s a collection of recordings masterly produced by Chris Thomas, which helped the band define their own style and reach a massive global audience.
“It’s an iconic rock album of its age.”
In Australia, INXS had notched up a couple of #1 albums Shabooh Shoobah (1982) and The Swing (1984) by the time of Listen Like Thieves. Their manager, the late Chris Murphy, brought in fashion designers to turn them into flamboyant rock stars. He also aimed at getting them coverage in fashion, business and “women’s” media without alienating much of the rock press. By this time, Michael Hutchence had already become a grade-A celebrity. The song “Listen Like Thieves” is Hutchence’s take on the power and ulterior motives of the media. It was OK for him to be used as consumer fodder by the entertainment media. But for serious news in the political, social and business media, we consumers needed to be on guard, to listen like thieves, and be prepared to read between the lines.
Gamechanger
The gamechanger on Listen Like Thieves was the arrival of Chris Thomas as producer. The English producer had already made a name for himself, starting as an apprentice with the biggest band in the universe, The Beatles.
Classically trained as a kid on piano and violin, he played bass in bands around London – even turning down the chance to play with an unknown guitarist who’d just moved to London from America called Jimi Hendrix. At 20, Thomas wrote to The Beatles’ producer George Martin saying he wanted to become a producer. Martin enlisted him as an assistant at his company AIR. The Beatles were working on their 1968 double album The Beatles (aka The White Album).
Drifting
At this stage they were drifting apart as people, most of the songs were recorded separately, and the business problems that would eventually help towards their break-up. Tensions were so bad that Martin decided he needed a break. Thomas returned from holidays to find a note on his office desk:
“Dear Chris, Hope you had a nice holiday. I’m off on mine now. Make yourself available to The Beatles.”
Awaiting the next day at Abbey Road Studios, the first one to arrive was Paul McCartney, just back from a business meeting and not in the best of moods. “What are you doing here?” grunted Paul. Chris told him. “OK, you can produce us. If you’re no good, well tell you to fuck off.” Chris Thomas went on to produce (without being credited) “Birthday” and “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”.
He also played harpsichord on “Piggies”, mellotron on “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill”, piano on “Long, Long, Long” and electric piano on “Savoy Truffle”. He then remixed Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. Gilmour described his role as a referee for the arguments between Roger Waters and he.
Pretender
He worked with Badfinger, Procol Harum, Roxy Music, The Sex Pistols, Wings, The Pretenders (they credited him in the liner notes as “the fifth Pretender”), Pete Townshend, Elton John, the Human League, U2 and David Gilmour.
He also programmed Moog synthesizer on David Bowie’s first two albums and George Harrison’s triple album All Things Must Pass. Thomas was a big INXS, having seen them at the Hollywood Palladium in 1984, and thought it was one of the best gigs by a band, and its singer as among the most exciting in rock.
Sydney
When he flew to Sydney to work with INXS at Rhinoceros Studios, everyone immediately struck up a friendship with him. INXS in 1985 were Michael Hutchence (vocals), Andrew Farriss (keyboards, guitar), Tim Farriss (guitar, synths), Kirk Pengilly (sax, guitar) Garry Gary Beers (bass) and Jon Farriss (drums).
Thomas broke the ice by asking each of them what their favourite album was. Tim opted for Roxy Music’s For Your Pleasure. “I produced that,” he was told. “Bullshit, no way!”
Thomas’ approach was, for the first time, translate that live sound onto the record. “We decided to write the album in a rehearsal situation,” Hutchence told Rolling Stone Australia in October 1985.
“Everybody had ideas in their heads but not many of the songs were written before we rehearsed, and we wrote one song in the studio. “It wasn’t the kind of album where you put tracks down bit by bit. We’ve done the album like a live show and what is there is there.
“We want to present this record as a band – the idea of six people playing together and using traditional sounds.”
Tough
Over the next three months, they made a record that was tough rock but also had enough funk elements that made INXS one of the first white rock bands that drew black crowds in the USA.
Using Rhinoceros made all the difference. The studio, which INXS had put some money into as part of their policy of giving back to the Australian music industry, had some fantastic gear. As a result it was so much in-demand that it was pumping 24/7 and booked out six months ahead.
Owners David Nicholas and Andrew Scott installed Australia’s first SSL 4000 console at a cost of $250,000 (their second one would cost $750,000), its first Live End/Dead End spacious control room, and first Lexicon 224 digital reverb.
Live Room
It’s all-wood live room had big resonators to underpin the bottom end, and developed a reputation for awesome drum sounds.
It was in this environment that INXS and Chris Thomas created Listen Like Thieves. But at the end of the sessions, with just one more day to go, Thomas announced, “This is a damn good album, but I don’t think you have the absolute smash hit that you guys need internationally.”
Night
Thomas suggested the band break for the night while Hutchence and Farriss would remain behind inn the studio, and go through some demos that Andrew had made for the album.
He expected the pair to have something to offer when he and the band returned in the morning. “No pressure!” the two called after them.
Funk Song
Through the night, the pair chose three demos. Thomas particularly liked “Funk Song No 13”, which is included on the 40th anniversary set.
He loved the groove: “It was great. I thought, ‘I could listen to that groove for 10 minutes!”
Sax
Within a day, the band had turned the groove into “What You Need”, featuring a sax solo by Kirk Pengilly. They managed to make the deadline to finish the album and get it ready to start manufacturing.
Breakthrough
“What You Need” was the US breakthrough they needed, reaching #5 in the Hot 100 and #3 in Mainstream Rock Hits. It streaked up to #2 in Australia, and also in New Zealand (#14), Canada (#23) and the UK (#51).
Farriss: “The band’s performance on that track is amazing. We absolutely nailed it. It had the power of rock but you could also dance to it.”
Archetypal
Garry Gary Beers regards it as the most archetypal INXS track. “INXS really nailed that one. Andrew and Michael wrote a great song and Chris Thomas produced it perfectly.
“It’s always fun to play, it’s got a great groove and it makes people dance.” Great music should be a means to escape to a better place for that moment and What You Need demonstrates that to perfection”.
Video
The video, using an animation technique called rotoscope and made by Richard Lowenstein and Lynn-Maree Milburn, won Best Video at the Countdown Music and Video Awards.
A remixed version of “What You Need” was featured in the soundtrack of sports video game FIFA Football 2005.
It was also used in TV shows Miami Vice, Coronation Street and Sex Education and the movies Hysterical Blindness, Monster, Hot Tub Time Machine and Take Me Home Tonight.
Thieves
The Listen Like Thieves album expanding their following to what “What You Need” had done, bringing in Europe, and later Asia and South America.
The album sold 2.30 million worldwide, of which 2 million was in the US (where it reached #11) and 280,000 or 4 x platinum in Australia where it went to #1. On the day “What You Need” went to #5 in America, manager Murphy rang Andrew with the news, and said, “Now we have to top that.”
Farriss had mixed feelings about this success. He explained in the book INXS: Story To Story: The Official Autobiography, “It took me a while to figure out why I wasn’t happy about it.
“The thing was, if you’re at #5, you can still go up to #1 and that’s something to look forward to. “But after that the only direction you can go is down.
“In order for us to do better than #5, we would have to write a song as good, if not better than, ‘What You Need.’
“It struck me that in achieving your goals you’re also losing something.
“It had felt like our career had been a game of cat and mouse, and suddenly we were catching the mouse. Or was the cat catching us?”
He rang Hutchence and asked him what he thought. The singer nodded, “How do you come up with something like that?”
The pair spoke to the rest of the band, and asked what they thought of becoming more dance-able on their next album Kick, also to be made with Chris Thomas.
Hated
The band agreed. But when their US record label Atlantic heard Kick, they hated it, and told INXS they’d give them $1 million to re-record it as an album that was more Rock Radio-friendly. The band and Murphy stood their ground, and Murphy sneakily got some of the label’s PR people to get the record to college radio.
Result: Kick yielded 5 hit singles and sold 16 million worldwide, and 6 million in America.
It made them global celebrities. All but Hutchence would cope with stardom, living quiet lifestyles, some out in the countryside. Michael, unfortunately, had failed to listen like a thief to the consequences of the media spotlight.
Listen Like Thieves (40th Anniversary Edition) Deluxe LP + 3CD
RELEASE DATE: May 9th, 2025
Listen Like Thieves 40th Anniversary is a deep dive celebration into INXS’s global breakthrough album. The Deluxe Edition is a 1LP + 3CD set containing a brand-new 2025 stereo mix of the Listen Like Thieves album by Giles Martin; Paul Hicks on CD and vinyl. Built from the ground up in partnership with the band, they have been able to find new layers of sonic depth and a fresh dimension giving fans a new listening experience with the record. Also included is a trove of previously unreleased sessions tracks, outtakes and demos curated by Giles Martin, a rare BBC Recording; ‘Live From The Royal Albert Hall, London, 1986’, and extensive liner notes that include a brand new interview with the band by renowned journalist Paul Sexton.
Listen Like Thieves (40th Anniversary Edition) Deluxe LP + 3CD