INXS director Chris Murphy is dead at 66

Chris CM Murphy, longtime Australian band manager INXS (From 1979 until 1995 and again in 2000), he died in Sydney after a battle with a mantle cell lymphoma. He was 66 years old.

A representative of Murphy Petrol Group shared the news in the early hours of Saturday (January 16): “It is with great sadness that Caroline Murphy and her family confirm that Christopher (CM) Mark Murphy, Chairman of Murphy Petrol Group, is gone today. Is far away in peace at his beloved home, Ballina. “Sugar Beach Ranch” surrounded by his family. CM has celebrated a brilliant career for 40 years and has had an incredible impact on the global music and entertainment industry. Known for taking INXS “his band” to stardom around the world, CM Murphy has influenced the lives of many around the world With his endless passion and leadership, we will miss him very much. “

INXS members said: “It is with great sadness that the remaining INXS members mourn the death of our brother, Chris Murphy. Without Chris’ vision, passion, and hard work, the INXS story would be very different. Chris’s star shines hard and we’re celebrating a life lived well and sending all our love to his family. “

INXS was among the most successful groups to appear in Australia, with tens of millions of albums sold worldwide. The band witnessed several commercial summits in the United States, the most important of which were: the 1987 album “Kick”, which sold more than 7 million copies. Its predecessor, “Listen like a thief” in 1985, and the follow-up, “X” in the 1990s, was also a multi-platinum smash in the INXS magnetic program in the United States, Michael Hutchins died in 1997 at the age of 37.

In the documentary “Mystify: Michael Hutchence”, Murphy talks about his decision to run the group. He told the band, “I’ll only do it on the grounds that we do it internationally” (founding members included Gary Byers, Andrew Faris, John Faris, Tim Faris, Kirk Bingley, and Hutchins). Murphy has had experience in the global music market having worked at a theatrical reservation agency for his father, Mark Murphy & Co., since he was a teenager. He later switched to management under the tutelage of Gary Morris, whose clients included Midnight Oil and INXS, launched MMA Management.

Murphy wisely negotiated a deal for INXS directly with an American company, Atco and later Atlantic, a move widely seen as playing a major role in its surprising success. Still so, Atlantic initially had reservations about launching Cake. As Murphy recounted in interviews, the label offered the band $ 1 million to re-record it. Instead, he suggested combining the album’s lead single, “Need You Tonight” (whose guitar tone can be heard currently on Break My Heart by Lipa) with a two-minute, 37-second coda called “Mediate”. The song hit # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Said Murphy: “Kick looks like four different bands playing. There were great poems, rock, funk … Kick is great, but they’re all over the place and I thought,” How am I going to pull this together in what kind of campaign? “

INXS went on to become a mega business of tourism, filling arenas all over the world. Speaking to the Music Network in 2019, Murphy was asked about the band’s climax. “I’ve never been to INXS parties,” said Murphy. “After they did a huge show at Madison Square Gardens in New York, they hit the clubs. I’ll go back to my hotel room and work on my plan on how to take them to the next level.”

Murphy, who also managed the group’s models during the 1980s, has been described as a major marketer, but there have been pitfalls, such as the short-lived Max Q, a 1989 collaboration between Hutchence and Australian musician and producer Ole Olsen. At the same time, Murphy indulged his entrepreneurial side and spent decades investing in a variety of businesses, including Supplier of organic foodsThe magazine and radio station in Sydney. In 1988, he launched the independent brand rooART, which was home to works such as Crash Politics, The Hummingbirds, Ratcat, You Am I, Wendy Matthews, and The Screaming Jets.

After a 10-year hiatus, during which he sold his musical assets, he is back in the industry to build new companies. Petrol Electric Records launched in 2001 (INXS signed with the label in 2008) and Murphy Rights Management in 2014. In 2018, he took on another stint from the Australian fraternal business, The Buckleys Country Group.

“Chris has been our guardian angel since the day we met him and he will remain so for the rest of our lives,” said Sarah Laclan and Molly Buckley. “As with every person who has been so fortunate to know him – the strength, passion, guidance and love that he ignites lasts forever. We are so grateful that we walk on this earth with him, our best friend, greatest hero and teacher. His spirit and light will live forever within us and around us.” .

Recently, it was Development of the retirement community For Musicians and Music Professionals in NSW. Speaking about the project in 2019, Murphy explained: “There are a lot of people getting old. And what will these people do? They have been working in a very creative industry all their lives; what are you going to do now and have no work? Sit in a quiet retirement village with People you don’t know or share common interests with? … the people in retirement villages, as we speak, are the people who built this bloody country. Merchants, all kinds of people who lived in an age when you really had to work. ”

Murphy survived his wife, Caroline. Children of Stevie, Jerry, Jack, Lewis and Charlie; And their descendants Asher, Samantha, Bella, Axel, Harley, and Robin; His mother is Janice and sisters Charn and Tania.

The family says Murphy “had a passion for farming, horse breeding, pigeon racing, surfing and rugby. His competitive spirit seen at the polo court and ice hockey arena was alive to the end as he battled a mantle cell lymphoma.” They asked, instead of flowers, to give trees to “create a permanent and growing monument in the beloved residence of Chris Ballina”. For information, contact [email protected].