OM DENNE EPISODE
Michael Browning was the first manager of AC/DC and the man who signed the fledgling INXS. Boy, does he have a story to tell! In the 1960s, London was in the mecca for music, fashion and design. But it wasn't the only city on earth that was swinging. Melbourne was driven by the same cultural forces and it was most definitely rocking. It was a flashpoint for musicians from all over Australia. It wasn't unusual for a band to play four gigs a day: An afternoon pub set, an early suburban dance spot, a mid-dance spot, followed by the midnight club shift at either the highly fashionable Thump'n Tum, The Catcher, Sebastian's or Berties. Michael Browning was a young Melbourne street kid with an uncanny ear for music, and he ran the latter two venues. His agency business, Consolidated Rock, booked early Australian greats like the 'Purple Hearts, the Loved Ones, the Wild Cherries', Max Merritt and the Meteors and Doug Parkinson In Focus. By the early seventies this dance and club scene evolved into a uniquely Australian phenomena, known simply as 'pub rock', spawning local legends like Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, who Michael managed, and the Colored Balls. In September 1974 Michael spotted AC/DC for the first time at his Melbourne club The Hard Rock Cafe. They were raw and rough, and much of the crowd, Michael included, was bewildered by the flashy guitarist dressed as a school kid. But Michael knew they had something. Within a week he signed them to a management contract and duly embarked on a shared journey that within five years would take them to international prominence. Michael was the band's first 'legit' manager, the man who helped guide AC/DC to world stardom. In the 1980s Michael signed an up-and-coming band named INXS to his label Deluxe Records and also set them on course to superstardom. After basing himself in Los Angeles for many years he returned to Oz and achieved great success with the band Noiseworks - whose singer Jon Stevens would one day replace Michael Hutchence in INXS. This is the story of one of the true believers of the local music industry, the man who helped launch Australia's two biggest ever bands - AC/DC and INXS - to world domination ... and survived to tell the story.
