- Posted by: Erin
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- Sep 27, 2011
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INXS’ new singer Ciaran Gribbin, aka Joe Echo
After booting singer JD Fortune from the INXS lineup recently (for the second time!), the band has introduced Irish singer Ciaran Gribbin to the world as their new front man.
Gribbin, 35, first met INXS songwriter and keyboardist Andrew Farriss a couple years back at a party in Australia, through a mutual friend, according to Billboard.com. Gribbin says that night he ended up “sitting on a balcony, singing ‘Mystify’ with the guy who wrote it,” calling it, “pretty surreal.”
Talk about fate!
Gribbin sat down with Billboard, along with Farriss, to talk a bit about his new role in the group and their plans for the future.
Gribbin, who has worked with big names like Madonna (the hydrangea hater), and as a solo artist under the stage name Joe Echo, says that he has always been a big fan of INXS. “Without a doubt I was a fan”, he says, “I remember ‘Kick’ like it was yesterday. I remember seeing the guys on MTV and then on Jools Holland’s BBC show…watching as a kid, just blown away by them.” He goes on to say that INXS played a big role in his “musical education as a songwriter” and says that being in the band now is a dream-come-true.
According to Farriss, the rest of INXS’ crew “don’t have a master plan” on how they will proceed with Gribbin, but he says, “We’re just really enjoying being creative and seeing where that leads.” He adds that they “almost have too many ideas for the moment” and is hoping that the band will have new songs available once they head out on tour.
Gribbin is set to join the band on the road starting in November for a short tour through Australia, Europe, and South America.
Gribbin is the band’s third singer, following JD Fortune, 2005’s winner of the TV show contest Rock Star: INXS, and of course the group’s original singer (for twenty years) Michael Hutchence, who passed away in 1997.
Hopefully Gribbin will prove to be a good fit for the band…good luck to him!
