[ad_1]
Chris “CM” Murphy, the longtime manager of Australian band INXS (1979-1995 and again in the 2000s), died in Sydney following a battle with mantle cell lymphoma. He was 66 years old.
A representative of Murphy Petrol Group shared the news early in the morning of Saturday January 16: “It is with great sadness that Caroline Murphy and her family confirm that Christopher (CM) Mark Murphy, President of Murphy Petrol Group, has passed away today. ‘hui. away peacefully to his beloved Ballina ‘Sugar Beach Ranch’ property surrounded by his family. CM celebrated an illustrious career spanning over 40 years and had an incredible impact on the global music and entertainment industry. Best known for making his “group of brothers” INXS a global celebrity, CM Murphy has influenced the lives of many people around the world with his endless passion and drive. He will be sorely missed.
INXS members said: “It is with great sadness that the other INXS members mourn the passing of our brother, Chris Murphy. Without Chris’ vision, passion and hard work, the story of INXS would be totally different. Chris’ star shone very bright and we are celebrating a life well lived and sending all our love to his family.
INXS has been one of Australia’s top performing bands, selling tens of millions of albums worldwide. The group experienced several sales peaks in the United States, the main one being the 1987 album “Kick”, which sold over 7 million copies. Its predecessor, “Listen Like Thieves” in 1985, and the follow-up, “X” of the 1990s, were also multi-platinum smashes in American INXS magnetic frontman Michael Hutchence died in 1997 at the age of 37 .
In the documentary “Mystify: Michael Hutchence”, Murphy recounts his decision to lead the group. “I will only do it if we do it internationally,” he told the group (founding members included Garry Gary Beers, Andrew Farriss, Jon Farriss, Tim Farriss, Kirk Pengilly and Hutchence). Murphy had experience in the global music market after working in his father’s theatrical booking agency, Mark Murphy & Associates, since he was a teenager. Later, pivoting to management under the tutelage of Gary Morris, whose clients included Midnight Oil and INXS, he started MMA Management.
Murphy wisely brokered a deal for INXS directly with an American label, Atco and later Atlantic, a move widely considered to have played a major role in their success. Even still, Atlantic was initially reluctant to release “Kick”. As Murphy has recounted in interviews, the label offered the group $ 1 million to re-record it. Instead, he suggested combining the album’s first single, “Need You Tonight” (whose guitar riff can currently be heard on Dua Lipa’s “Break My Heart”) with a two-minute 37 coda. seconds titled “Mediate”. The song reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Said Murphy: “’Kick’ sounds like four different bands playing. There were big ballads, riffy rock, funk… Kick is great, but it’s everywhere and I was like, “How am I going to put it all together in any campaign?”
INXS has become a massive touring act, filling arenas around the world. Speaking to the Music Network in 2019, Murphy was asked about the group’s golden age. “I’ve never been to INXS parties,” Murphy said. “After playing a huge show at Madison Square Gardens in New York City, they hit the clubs. I would go back to my hotel room and work on my plan to take them to the next level. “
Murphy, who also led Models in the 1980s, has been described as a master of marketing, but there have been stumbles, like the fleeting Max Q, a 1989 collaboration between Hutchence and the Australian musician and producer. Ollie Olsen. At the same time, Murphy indulged in his entrepreneurial side and spent decades investing in various businesses including an organic food supplier, magazine and radio station in Sydney. In 1988, he launched the independent label rooART, which was home to bands such as Crash Politics, The Hummingbirds, Ratcat, You Am I, Wendy Matthews and The Screaming Jets.
After a 10-year hiatus, during which Murphy sold his music assets, he returned to the industry to start new businesses. Petrol Electric Records was launched in 2001 (INXS signed with the label in 2008) and Murphy Rights Management in 2014. In 2018, he took over another group of Australian brothers, country band The Buckleys.
“Chris has been our Guardian Angel since the day we first met him and he will continue to be for the rest of our lives,” said Sarah, Lachlan and Molly Buckley. “As with everyone who was lucky enough to have known him, his strength, passion, guidance and love are eternal. We are so grateful to have walked this land with him, our best friend, our greatest champion and mentor. His spirit and his light will live forever in us and around us.
More recently, he had developed a retirement community for musicians and professionals in the music industry in New South Wales. Speaking about the project in 2019, Murphy explained, “There are a lot of people getting old. And what are these people going to do? They have worked in a very creative industry all of their lives; what are you going to do now that you don’t have a job? Sit in a quiet retirement village with people you don’t know or who share common interests? … The people of the retirement villages, as we speak, they are the ones who built this bloody country. The traders, all kinds of people who lived through a time when you really had to work.
Murphy is survived by his wife Caroline; the children Stevey, Jeri, Jack, Louis and Charlie; and grandchildren Asher, Samantha, Bella, Axel, Harley and Reuben; his mother Janice; and sisters Charne & Tanya.
The family says Murphy “was passionate about farming, horse breeding, carrier pigeons, surfing and rugby. His competitive spirit seen on the polo field and on the ice hockey rink was alive to the end as he battled mantle cell lymphoma. They asked that, instead of flowers, trees be donated “to create an everlasting and ever-growing memorial on Chris’s beloved property, Ballina.” For more information, contact [email protected].
[ad_2]
Source link