Surviving INXS Members to Tour

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The surviving members of INXS will get together for a short tour as part of Tim Rice's Musical Spectacular, which kicks of in Brisbane, Australia on April 25.

Don't expect updated versions of the band's greatest hits on this go-round, however, as group will only be playing music penned by Rice, whose credits include Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar, among other things. "We've never done anything quite like this before," said Tim Farriss during a press conference held Wednesday in Sidney. "Quite simply to not be playing INXS for a change and performing someone else's songs and with the backing of a large orchestra is a really interesting and challenging concept."

The band members are currently sifting through Rice's extensive catalog to see whether they can really wrap their voices around the theme from the Lion King. The band has tapped a number of guest vocalists, including David "Rock On" Essex, Icehouse's Iva Davis, Kate Ceberano, Anthony Warlow and Bachelor Girl.

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Song Stories

“V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.”

Fishbone | 1985

Quite a few musicians have utilized initials for song titles -- Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T.," Abba's "S.O.S.," Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y.," etc. But the more curiously initialed tune has to be "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.," short for "Voyage to the Land of the Freeze-Dried Godzilla Farts." Fishbone's original guitarist, Kendall Jones, explained to Rolling Stone, "When Norwood [Fisher] wrote it, he introduced it to the band saying, 'Man, I've been hearing about all these Nazi right-wing groups on the news saying the Holocaust was staged. So what if America said it never dropped two atom bombs on Japan, that it was actually Godzilla popping a couple off?' Only Norwood would come up with something that out." The same year "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F." was released, the film Godzilla 1985 appeared in North America.

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