It’s been a pretty big year for INXS, despite the notable handicap of having officially broken up five years ago. In addition to marking 20 years since the death of Michael Hutchence, having been the subject of a documentary about their famed frontman, and having celebrated 30 years since the release of the landmark record Kick, the band are now set to be honoured with a massive museum in Northern NSW.
As The Northern Star reports, plans for the museum were presented at a meeting hosted the by Northern Rivers NSW Business Chamber in Ballina on Tuesday afternoon.
The plans, presented by INXS band manager Christopher Murphy and project partner Sara Szabo, show a museum that is set to take the shape of a large ‘X’, and promises to be “an ultra-modern, all encompassing arts, business and entertainment hub near the Ballina-Byron Gateway Airport”.
In an interview with The Music Network, Murphy, who has managed the band since the late ’70s, states that financial advisors believe the museum will bring “at least $200 million per annum to the local economy.”
“There are tens of thousands of rare and one of a kind archives,” he noted. “There are near 10,000 original photos alone.”
Murphy reportedly stored the vast majority of this memorabilia, which includes photos, video, and other musical artefacts from the bands career, on his farm near Ballina until they were rediscovered recently. There are also plans for ‘the Wembley Room’, a room which focuses on the band’s landmark 1991 performance at Wembley Stadium to be used a performance space for local artists.
While the museum has been in the planning stages for the last two years, current estimations say the museum is set to open in 2019, just in time to mark 40 years since the band’s first started releasing music in 1980.
Check out INXS’ classic, ‘Need You Tonight’:
