The late Chris “CM” Murphy, the enigmatic businessman who guided the career of INXS and mapped out a series of projects that kept their music alive long after the band had taken time off from touring or making new music, has been posthumously awarded his Medal Order of Australia (OAM).
Murphy, who died in January 2021 after a battle with canceris awarded for “service to the performing arts through music” and is one of 1,042 Australians recognized for “distinguished and conspicuous service” on Australia Day, January 26.
Murphy managed the new wave legends from 1979 to 1995 and again in the 2000s – following the death of frontman Michael Hutchence.
Formed in Western Australia in 1977, INXS scaled the mountain that is popular music with six UK chart-topping albums (including a No.1 with Welcome wherever you are since 1992) and five US Top 20 albums, a BRIT Award (in 1991 for Best International Group) and, in 2001, induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
The band's journey was tragically derailed by Hutchence's death in 1997, aged just 37, although INXS continued with replacement singers. The end of the road came in 2012 with a show in Perth, where the group's journey began all those years ago.
It was Murphy who saw a golden future — and opportunity — for INXS and its catalog that wasn't based on performance or new music.
Through a combination of strategic music releases, remixes, films, exhibitions, merchandise, media partnerships and more, INXS will become the biggest selling band in Australia in 2014, two full years after the band played their last concert. Indeed, the band's best-selling compilation from 2011 was the biggest-selling album by a homegrown act in Australia last year.
The surviving members of INXS last year reunited in Sydney to kick things off Calling all nationsa love letter of over 400 created by a global fan base and the band and released through the partnership of Murphy's Petrol Records, UMe, uDiscover Music and This Day In Music Books.
“Chris was hungry,” said founding saxophonist and guitarist Kirk Pengilly during this rare reunion. “He just took no prisoners.”
Other music industry standouts listed on the Australia Day 2024 honors list include; Milly Petriella, managing director of Milk and Honey's Australian and New Zealand operations, who is being commended with an OAM for “service to music and the performing arts”. This service included a 27-year stint as director, member relations and partnerships at APRA AMCOS, from 1995 to 2022, where she gained a reputation for moving mountains for PRO members.
During her tenure at APRA AMCOS, Petriella founded the Vanda and Young World Song Contest, which has raised over A$2 million for Nordoff-Robbins since its inception in 2009. She served as creative producer of the Music Awards APRA. He supported the SongHubs program. managed the society's Ambassador program. the Professional Development Awards; the Women In Music Mentorship programme; the Vanda and Young World Songwriting Contest; and grew Los Angeles, London and Nashville as Director of Global Music Export Offices.
Other music figures being punished today include Dennis Burgess, president of the Australian Singers Association and patron of the Association of Artist Managers, who is being awarded an OAM “for service to the performing arts and the music industry”. John Foreman OAM, the music director, event manager, pianist and composer, who now receives an AM. and Max Lambert, the composer and musical director for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and winner of an ARIA Award for The boy from Oz (2000) and Children's school (1998), who receives AM.
Read the full list here.
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