At last, it seemed there might be an outbreak of peace among the warring factions of rock superstar Michael Hutchence's grief-stricken family. His father, Kelland, had organised a memorial service for next Sunday and taken care to invite everyone. He was hoping that bringing the family together to share in an emotional ceremony paying tribute to Michael's memory would help heal the wounds caused by his death. But now it looks as though there is only more pain ahead. A biographer who has had unprecedented access to the INXS frontman's most loyal friends and relatives has chosen this weekend to ask a series of devastating questions about his death. And Hutchence's lover, Paula Yates, still furious over Kelland's attempts to take over the care of the couple's daughter, Tiger Lily, has declared there is "absolutely no way" she would attend. Instead, she plans to spend the day at a secret location in Britain, with her daughter, her confidante Belinda Brewin, Australian rock star Nick Cave, and the famous sequinned pillow that contains Hutchence's ashes. It's just one more chapter in a story of sex, drugs, rock'n'roll and death, betrayal and agony that has left the public enthralled.
"It's been a terrible year," said Kelland Hutchence, quietly. "And you can't help wondering when, and how, it's all going to end." Now the one asking the hard questions is Vince Lovegrove, rock journalist, author and documentary maker. Lovegrove is ready to reveal the results of a year spent trying to untangle fact from fiction and actual events from the lurid tabloid accounts for a book - Michael Hutchence, The Biography - which will be published early next year. Lovegrove is used to enduring tragedies of his own - he is the man who captured the hearts of the nation as the husband of AIDS victim Suzi and the father of Troy, who died aged 7 after contracting the HIV virus while in his mother's womb. And he has never been known to shy away from demanding answers, however agonising the process.
"It seems there are many discrepancies in the Coroner's report, many questions unanswered, and possibly no way we will ever know the answers," he told The Sun-Herald this week from his base in London. "This is not some clandestine (set of thoughts) on an insidious theory as to how or why Michael Hutchence died, but a question of an accurate report on the precise circumstances surrounding his death. "Do we have the right to know exactly how a person dies, and if there are doubts, should the results be hidden?" he asked. It's tragedy piled upon tragedy that when Hutchence, 37, was found dead at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Double Bay on November 22 last year, the controversy he sometimes courted in life did not die with him. Instead, the discovery of his body hanging from the room's door stop set off a chain of events that is still reverberating around the Australian and British rock industries. There are almost more writs than there ever were hits. There are claims of a missing fortune. And the singer's closest relatives are a family torn apart. Hutchence's mother, Patricia Glassop, and her daughter, Tina Hutchence, have launched a court battle to try and uncover his missing $30 million, believed to be in obscure trusts and tax havens all over the world. "It's all very difficult," said Tina on Friday. "We just don't talk to anybody now."
His father, Kelland, is still consumed with grief and distressed that his attempts to look after Tiger Lily while Yates was ill were misunderstood as a bid to win permanent custody. "They say time heals, although frankly, these days, I'm inclined to feel very sad about everything," he said. "I think I've been in shock all this time. I've kept myself very busy and in a subconscious way I sometimes think Michael's out there on tour and we'll see him soon. "But then reality sets in as the first anniversary of his death gets closer," he said.
Paula Yates has been the target of fears about her health and sanity after a spell in a rehabilitation clinic - and an affair with fellow patient and former heroin addict Kingsley Okeke - following a suicide attempt. Her ex-husband, Sir Bob Geldof, has frequently been drawn into the melee and has now won custody for most of the year of his own three children, Fifi Trixibelle, 15, Peaches, 9, and Pixie, 8. He's poised to make almost $30 million from the sale of his production company Planet 24, which makes the Big Breakfast show, the program on which Yates once worked and where she met Hutchence. However, Yates remains defiant in the face of Kelland's attempts to smooth over the rifts. "I'll be spending the day with Tiger Lily and Michael, because I have him," Yates, 38, told the Sun-Herald. "I certainly wouldn't dream of going to Kel's memorial in any situation. I won't ever put myself or Tiger Lily in any position which would enable us to be hurt any more by Michael's family. No way." The most enduring mystery is what happened in room 524 of the Ritz-Carlton that fateful night. It is now established that Hutchence died after a night of carousing. We've read about the alcohol, drugs and desperate attempts to be reunited with his lover and his daughter - and rumours of odd sexual practices. Lovegrove has received unprecedented access to members of the Hutchence family and their friends, and he now believes there is a growing list of question marks over the way the death was investigated. "Twelve months down the track and we can look back at the hysteria surrounding last year's mysterious death, and attempt to sort fact from fiction," said Lovegrove, who was the last person to interview Hutchence. "The Coroner's report, on the surface of it, does appear to be worth scrutinising, if only for its inaccurate and, in some cases, deficient findings. There also appears to be a lack of openness in both the police reports and the toxicology report." Lovegrove raises a number of questions about Hutchence's death, including casting doubt on the timing of the phone conversation with Geldof, the call that was believed to be the trigger for his death. His records show the call was made much earlier than the Coroner believed. Indeed, the timing spoken about in police reports is known to have puzzled Geldof himself - all the more since Yates told newsmen she believed that phone call had driven Hutchence to suicide. Lovegrove also asks why the toxicology report did not reveal what were the prescription drugs found in Hutchence's body, information that may have been critical evidence in the cause of death, and, finally, for the Coroner's verdict that he took his own life by hanging. He then wonders why the statements given to police by actress Kym Wilson and her barrister boyfriend Andrew Rayment, who spent time with Hutchence just before he died, were never made public. There is also the question of what happened to a roll of film, a CD and a lyric sheet that were apparently in the room. "What other small pieces of forensic information went missing that morning?" Lovegrove asks. All such mysteries could have been cleared up, or at least raised, if there had been a formal inquest into Hutchence's death, he said. Instead, Coroner Derrick Hand decided the public interest would not be served by such an open inquiry.
Lovegrove's questions come at the same time that a Sun-Herald investigation reveals that police failed to pursue claims that a Sydney drug dealer supplied Hutchence with the batch of cocaine he used during his last hours. It has emerged that detectives declined to investigate how he procured his illegal stash. Sources have suggested police considered it impractical, given their limited resources, to try and identify his supplier here or overseas. A source close to the investigation said: "It was not even considered to be a factor." Meanwhile, Kelland Hutchence can only continue his lonely vigil and just hope that the fresh wave of controversy will not deter his family, friends and fans from attending the memorial service at the Northern Suburbs Crematorium at North Ryde. A memorial is also to be unveiled in the park grounds on the day. "I'm always trying to get this dysfunctional family together and I've asked them all to the memorial service, and I just hope they all come," he said. "I still get phone calls from all over the world about Michael, expressing sympathy. I get beautiful letters from fans, and sometimes photographs they have taken of him. I love getting all this stuff, but it does make my recovery all that much harder. And now the closer we get to the 22nd, the harder it will be all over again."
Last fight to see family
The last telephone conversation between Michael Hutchence and Bob Geldof played a pivotal role in the inquiry into events immediately before Hutchence's death. According to Geldof's statement to the police, this is what he said: It was 6.40pm on Friday London time - 5.40am on Saturday Sydney time - when the second of two phone calls came in for Sir Bob Geldof from Michael Hutchence. Geldof can be this precise, according to friends, because he was on his way to meet his eldest daughter, Fifi, who was due to arrive on the school bus. The timing was, Geldof claims, 40 minutes after the coroner stated the call occurred. According to Geldof's statement to police, Hutchence was "a bit dopey, a bit sleepy, but not unusual. I had always considered it his telephone style, or drugs, or a mixture of both". Geldof stated that he had eight phone conversations with Hutchence during a period of 2 1/2 years, and he had sometimes found them "hectoring or threatening". The two rock stars spoke about a court application made by Paula Yates to take the three daughters she had with Geldof to Australia for three months. This would cause absence from school. Yates still sought permission from the Family Court, knowing there was little likelihood of the children being allowed to leave the country.
According to Geldof's statement, he tried to tell Hutchence he "had to accept that the Dad part of me, despite my own academic record, felt it better that the children finish the school year". Geldof said that Hutchence responded" "I'm their father, little man, (a term Geldof said Hutchence often used on the phone to him). When are you going to realise that?" Geldof said the conversation then focused on the previous three years. Geldof said: "I said we probably could never be friends which was unfortunate and that may be a good or bad thing, but we would have to be able to talk like we presently were if things were not always to spin out of perspective and end up in court." These two themes, the holidays now or in three weeks and the need for co-operation, had dominated the call, according to Geldof.
[transcribed by karen lobb at lobb@idl.net.au]