Kylie (2026) s01e02 Episode Script
Episode 2
[crowd cheering]
[woman] Come on!
["What Do I Have to Do?"
by Kylie Minogue playing]
[camera shutters clicking]
[reporter] Kylie Minogue
has been showing off her new man,
INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence.
The couple at last going public
with their romance.
There was concern from my team.
They thought, "Uh-oh."
[laughing]
Uh-oh!
She's too cute and good for him,
and he's too bad and hot for her.
My heart is my alibi, only you… ♪
Yeah, well, I think people
are going to be a bit shocked.
-Like I do, do ♪
-Do ♪
[interviewer] Kylie Minogue has come out
and said she has never used hard drugs.
Do you, uh, ever try
and tempt her to do anything harder?
[producer] What were the nights out like?
-Just fun.
-[man] Good.
[laughing]
What do I have to do
To get the message through…? ♪
[Michael] No, she can do what she wants.
I never tempt anybody to do anything.
She's on a real high herself.
She doesn't need anything, you know.
[producer] How much fun?
It was a lot of fun.
-[producer] How much?
-[laughing]
[TV host] According to some newspapers,
I read you've discovered sex.
Would you like me
to comment further on that?
Yes, I would.
Um, well, no I can't. Sorry.
What are you trying to get to?
How devilish was I?
I was devilish enough.
What do I have to do
To get the message through? ♪
[interviewer] Let's get your sister
out of the way quickly. Is she in love?
He was this sexy rock god
that men and women just went…
[gasps]
[laughing]
He just oozed confidence,
and confidence is sexy.
How can I prove
That I really love you, love you? ♪
In her world back then
confidence was just everything.
How can I prove
That I really love you, love you? ♪
But I remember
it was like she'd fallen head over heels.
That's for sure.
[crowd cheering]
[Michael laughing]
-Yeah.
-[man] Okay, it's okay.
We are now
on the Orient Express on June 26th.
This is an American couple
filming this young Australian couple,
who are here to have a great time.
-You're on the air.
-Yeah.
[laughing]
[Kylie] Yes, he was this wild guy.
But his intention was good,
even if we weren't being so good.
Everything was done with a lot of love.
[woman] They've drunk all the champagne.
-Oh, cut.
-Cut.
Cut.
[Kylie] I had so many firsts with him.
[Michael] Kylie.
Hi.
I'd never felt like I had blinkers on.
But he took them off.
[dreamy music playing]
I was at the perfect age.
I was 21 years old.
That's nice.
[gentle piano music playing]
He was hilarious.
And cultured.
And tender.
I love seeing the ones that are…
That's not the shot.
The moments around the shot.
[calming music playing]
I just felt like I had my person there.
Can I film you?
I really did.
-[in Italian accent] Movie star.
-[Kylie] Oh!
-Movie star in Italy.
-[Kylie, in Italian accent] In Italy.
You can see it
in any pictures from then as well.
Maybe life wasn't going
so fast for a second,
because I remember all of it.
Like being on that boat
in Hong Kong with that feeling of promise.
I felt like a jewel.
If you dropped it,
it would smash, but if you protected it…
it could shine.
[interviewer] Are you going to marry him?
It would be nice to be proposed to,
but I don't know, we'll have to see.
At the time I got in to see INXS
recording in the studio.
And I loved it.
I loved being in amongst that.
I felt like I'd discovered a tribe.
I thought it was amazing
to see them write songs together
and have ownership over the end result.
[Michael] You know,
we're pretty much equal.
We tend to discuss things.
I'll say, "I think this,"
and if they all go,
"Oh, yeah, we agree with that,"
then it'll go into songs.
It must be that way.
You have to be true to yourself.
[Kylie] Then it was like a light bulb.
[woman vocalizing]
I wanted to express myself more,
and I just hadn't had that before.
[scoffs]
[woman vocalizing continues]
[Pete] I knew this was the turning point.
She had a rock-star boyfriend.
Michael gave her the confidence
to be confident.
Whatever I did,
I knew she wasn't going to like.
Remember the old days ♪
Remember the… ♪
The snare drum in.
…days ♪
The guitar.
Rhythm ♪
A bit more guitar.
Here's a hi-hat.
[Kylie] I'd started making noise.
I've got an idea. I mean,
what about this and what about that?
We hadn't got time to discuss anything,
because, you know,
we didn't have the time.
[Kylie] I became really frustrated.
It felt like fighting against the system.
[Pete] Another 15 number ones.
I know we've had 142 top 20s.
I mean, I've lost count.
I wanted to explore different ideas,
be open to… to change.
That's not what the public want.
That's not what the public want.
The public want "I Should Be So Lucky."
Ooh, well, um…
I'm just tired of playing it so safe.
And I should be allowed to speak.
I should be allowed to have some input.
Just to be able to have something
to do with my work, you know.
Not just be the face for it.
[electronic music playing]
It's like someone was strangling
any creativity that I had.
And by being forced to be quiet,
shut up and listen,
I learnt a lot that way.
And so, if things don't change,
I won't be here anymore.
[electronic music continues]
Unless I could have things my way.
Listen, I have two daughters,
and at some point,
the old man don't know as much as they do.
That's called growing up.
I didn't use to be able to say "no."
[interviewer] You do now.
[laughing] I certainly do now.
Yeah, I do.
[electronic dance music continuous]
[music ends]
I was reclaiming my sense of self.
[woman vocalizing]
[low chatter]
And that's when I discovered that
there were many more Kylies out there.
[announcer] It's on the hour
to come amongst you and amaze you
with absolutely incredible,
out-of-this-world sounds.
Look out. Here we go.
["The Loco-Motion"
by Kylie Minogue playing]
[Kylie] I think my manager had said…
"There's a Kylie night."
And I'd never heard of a Kylie night.
Like, "What?"
Everybody's doing
A brand-new dance now ♪
Come on, baby, do the loco-motion ♪
"There's drag performers dressed as you."
"Do you want to go?"
"Yeah."
When you can't find the music
To get down and boogie ♪
It was like, "Wow."
…step back in time ♪
In my imagination
There is no hesitation… ♪
Like, supersonic versions of me.
I'm dreaming ♪
…such a fool, I couldn't stop myself… ♪
And this was a time
when it was in to really not like me.
I know you'll wait for me
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ♪
And I ended up on stage
at this drag bar.
And I felt like the least Kylie there.
Yeah, I thought, "I gotta step it up."
"I gotta get some lashes on
and some eyeliner."
["Shocked" by Kylie Minogue playing]
Pete Waterman had been badgered
sufficiently to go,
"All right kid. What do you want?"
"What kind of music do you want to make?"
And I think that might be
the first time he really asked me that.
[Pete] I just had had enough.
She was going to clubs.
She's now part of that whole club scene.
If you're in that, you'll want
your records to sound like that.
Tell me… ♪
Why do you think it suits people
to portray you as a bimbo?
Because it's easy
and then I'm not a threat to them.
[reporter] There's something pretty
remarkable about young Kylie Minogue.
Gossip columnists write her off
as "the Singing Budgie."
Well, the budgie's feathers are ruffled.
Monday, 29 Jan. 10:30 sharp.
I remember that gig.
Call you a liar to your face
Because I'm shocked by the power ♪
We called ourselves "Singing budgies."
Shocked by the power… ♪
I remember what I was wearing.
My amazing shiny tights
that I was obsessed with.
Shocked by the power… ♪
I remember Michael being
smack bang in the middle of the crowd.
[Michael] Kylie's got this real sweet,
innocent image.
Kylie's really not the person
that people think she is.
There's a lot of strength.
[Kylie] "Singing Budgie," you know,
it's a horrible title.
Whoever wrote that is probably fat
and bald, and 50 years old but look 70,
and they've got bad breath
and can't control themselves.
Um, and they're probably jealous.
…you are really mine
Because I'm shocked by the power ♪
[Pete] We'd gone
from "I Should Be So Lucky"
to Kylie the diva in one fell swoop.
She wanted to see the video makers.
She wanted her own stylists.
The guys that
we worked with here for years,
she just went,
"I won't work with them anymore."
[Kylie] Whether it's stylists
or photographers or whoever,
I'm working with them rather than
just being force-fed their ideas.
Shocked by the power… ♪
I was running from the '80s.
The sheen of it. The era of it.
The puppeteering
or the having no substance.
[man speaking indistinctly]
[Kylie] And as soon as I had
my image in my little grasp…
…all over you, I'm high… ♪
…by God, I would turn into a lunatic.
…track of time and falling free
I can't believe that you are really mine ♪
Because I'm shocked by the power ♪
Ooh, ooh, shocked by the power ♪
[reporter] Those few bars we heard there
are the first time
anybody's heard your new single.
-Yeah, that's right.
-And a videotape.
Yeah, that's being sent over tomorrow,
actually, and it's quite different.
Is it?
Oh! Oh my God. Oh my God.
This is it. This is the moment. Ooh!
[woman] Watch the hair.
[Kylie] Holy Mary Mother of God.
[Kylie giggling]
I guess I was taking the power back.
Shocked by the power… ♪
[indistinct chattering]
Yeah, just saying, "All right."
"Let's go."
♪…shocked to my very foundations ♪
Okay, your thoughts, please?
Oh my God, the press will ban it.
I think it'll be banned. I know it'll be.
-[Kylie] Terry?
-Perfect. They're gonna hate it.
-[Kylie] Mum?
-What's your dad gonna say?
[all laughing]
[Terry] It's gonna be banned.
[reporter 1] Kylie Minogue,
the squeaky-clean next-door neighbor,
kicks off her tour tonight.
[reporter 2] She'll be putting her new
look and new sound through their paces.
-[all shouting]
-[man] Here we go.
Right, right, right.
[reporter 3] Kylie,
what can the fans expect?
It's lots of fun.
It's just an hour and a half
of letting go
and just enjoying themselves.
[reporter 3] The papers in England
have said your show's raunchier this time.
-Is that right?
-Well, they've gone a little extreme.
It's not an X-rated show or anything.
Is that when I was wearing,
like, really raunchy outfits?
[dramatic music playing]
She couldn't have picked
a worse thing to do.
[reporter 4] Kylie arrived
by coach in Dublin
after a four-hour journey from Belfast.
[Kylie] It's great to finally be here.
[interviewer 1] There's been talk
about a changing image for Kylie Minogue.
Yeah, I saw that in the paper today.
-Nice hairdo, Yvonne!
-[Yvonne] Good.
[dramatic music continuous]
[interviewer 2] What can people
expect when they see you?
[inhales sharply]
Well…
[indistinct chatter]
Lots of choreography.
Fabulous costumes.
My outfits have been designed
by John Galliano.
After checking her out,
seeing how she danced, how she moved,
getting to know her personality,
I went away and did some drawings.
So, my first outfit
was very inspired by Lolita.
[excited chatter]
And it's worn over a frilly bra
and body slip with built-in knickers.
Everybody's going, "Oh, this is…"
I was going, "No, no, no. Whoa!"
"This is Kylie's wish."
-Ready? Five, six, seven, eight.
-[Kylie] Five, six, seven, eight.
And one, two, three, four.
[Pete] "This is what she wants to do."
Hi, Kylie!
Hey!
Three. Wiggle the bum.
That's it, girls. Wiggle it, wiggle it.
She's got to find out for herself.
[Kylie] I don't want people
to know what to expect.
I want them to come with an open mind.
[audience cheering]
[cheering intensifies]
[dramatic music playing]
Yeah, it was-- We went a bit far.
I'm not going to lie. We went a bit far.
[dramatic music continuous]
I mean, maybe it was good in real,
but it didn't look good in a freeze-frame.
I'm going to defend it with that.
Does that help? I think it does help.
But I know what you're going to cut to.
[TV host] Now our next guest
shocked her young fans
by strutting across the stage
in some of this getup.
I don't have to describe it too much.
-Kylie, good morning.
-Hi, how are you?
I'm very well. How do you react?
I mean, did you read all the criticism
or did you throw most of it away?
I… I saw some of it.
["Habanera" from Carmen playing]
[TV host] They say that you look
a bit like Madonna now,
or you're trying to model yourself on her.
When we say "they,"
we're talking about tabloid press.
Yeah.
That was tricky,
to defend those decisions.
[sighs]
[sheep bleating]
[interviewer 1] With your new tour now,
there is such controversy.
Yeah, I'm a bit surprised.
[man] She kind of went too far
prancing around
the Dublin stage in lingerie.
She went from the girl next door
to the girl next door
who's been around the block.
It's much raunchier.
Yes, I mean, I don't really like
to call myself raunchy.
[interviewer 2] We've just seen
your raunchy new video.
[interviewer 3] That new raunchy image.
-It's certainly fairly raw, isn't it?
-Raw?
Well, raw as in raunchy, I mean.
Now, there was a time when you said
you were raunchier than your sister.
She's changed the image, hasn't she?
Yeah, she has lately.
I remember thinking, "This is so boring,
repetitive…
stupid."
[TV host] To hear
that Kylie Minogue is too sexy
is a bit like hearing that Mary Poppins
has turned into a hooker.
I mean, imagine you just show up
to work every day and you just…
[chuckles] Like…
There's even been speculation
in Australia that you've had a boob job.
[laughing] Oh, dear.
One magazine even went
as far as showing before and after shots.
It's exhausting.
[chuckles softly]
And then as a female pop artist,
if you say something,
you're a bitch,
you've got an ego, you're a diva.
[interviewer 4] Many mothers
are complaining.
No, well, you know,
if you're going to interview me
having researched tabloid newspapers,
there's no point talking to me
because I didn't see loads of mothers
storming out with their children.
And if you're a guy and you say,
"Shut up, that's not true," people go,
"Fair enough. He's right."
One mother. So, I get questioned.
God, well, you know,
parents were storming out with their kids.
It's rubbish.
I am disappointed at the moment
because I'm not trying to--
I'm trying to be myself.
[airplane engine powering up]
But whenever the going got tough,
I had that love and support from Michael.
[man] "INXS is the first
non-American group
to land six consecutive
top ten hits in the Hot 100
since Culture Club in 1983-84."
-Wow.
-[band member] Serious?
Really?
[somber music playing]
[Kylie] But Michael was touring
all over the world.
So, it became really hard
for us to see each other.
[lips smacking]
So I would send video messages to him.
Is it telling you it's low light?
One, two, three.
[all] Kylie says, "Hello to Michael"!
[all laughing]
-Mum and Yvonne.
-Hi!
Hi, Michael!
-[crowd cheering]
-Just going on again.
I'll think of another message
to give you very shortly.
["Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS playing]
But it just became
more and more difficult.
Are you still in love with Kylie?
[laughing] God, Jeff.
Don't ask me… ♪
Don't ask me ques--
No, that's too private, you know.
At the very least, we're very good friends
and always will be.
Yeah.
-It's not…
-And at the very best?
Who knows?
Who knows?
I was standing ♪
You were there ♪
[Kylie] He was the first in many ways.
Two worlds collided ♪
And they could never tear us apart ♪
And one of those firsts was
heartbreak.
[band playing "Never Tear Us Apart"]
I was devastated.
We could live ♪
He was a rock star.
Which doesn't just mean
that he needs to have
many women in his life,
but he needed to go where he needed to go.
[somber music playing]
But I know from people in his circle
that he talked of me and thought of me.
We were good together.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda, whatever.
You know, you go on and live your lives.
But it was definitely an amazing
point in time.
I've probably been looking
for that ever since,
and I haven't got it.
[producer] Really?
Yeah.
[producer] Can I ask,
when you think of him today,
how does it make you feel?
Good, even if I'm getting teary,
because it's just-- It's like,
it was all good.
Yeah.
But to have
someone that you really felt like
you were a good team.
Yeah.
Anyway, we gotta get past that.
[dramatic music playing]
I didn't know where to go, what to do.
And I didn't want to be in London,
I didn't want to be in Australia.
And so,
I went to Paris.
I remember having
a tiny English to French dictionary.
I didn't know anyone there,
but I had two phone numbers
scratched on a bit of paper.
And one of those numbers was
a friend of a friend
of a friend of a friend of mine.
And…
she lived with a girl called Kat.
My best, oldest girlfriend,
Katerina Jebb, whose apartment we're in.
Kat doesn't like
to be in front of a camera.
-[Katerina] I'm out of here.
-À tout à l'heure.
-[Katerina] Tell me if you need anything.
-Okay.
I'll wail.
She is an amazing photographer
with an incredible eye and heart.
[Katerina] Bye.
-Corners.
-[Katerina] Corners and corners.
And more corners.
And we say,
"Corners. Love from all corners."
Kat Jebb prints. What do we have here?
Paris.
[whimsical music playing]
I moved myself into her apartment.
I got a sleeping bag, I slept on the sofa.
I was feeling heartbroken
and was escaping my feelings.
But we would do photo sessions.
Just the two of us.
[Katerina] I didn't know who she was
because my exposure to pop culture
was not very voluminous.
But it was an instantaneous understanding.
Going for it?
[laughing] I don't know.
I've been the subject
pretty much my entire life.
But this was different.
We're not doing it
because someone's asked for it.
We're doing it because we want to do it.
[Katerina] The public persona
versus the private persona.
How many people can unveil themselves,
completely unfiltered?
I'd been doing very dark lashes
and kind of bouffant,
and it was Kat who said to me,
"What about you just let your hair,
just let the curls out
or maybe less of the brows or…"
And then I went, like, to nothing.
Even though a photograph
can capture a moment,
can capture a story,
it's really hard to see yourself.
There's this camera, there's--
There's a wall. There's a--
You see through it.
You can't see it, but there's a divide.
And I felt with her,
the invisible wall was gone.
And I was looking
through Kat's photographs,
and I thought, "Wow, I can see me."
She was a real savior to me.
I started to feel good and confident
as a woman on my own.
[reporter] She has called it
the end of an era
and they have refused to comment.
But Kylie Minogue's relationship
with Pete Waterman Ltd.,
her record company
of five years, has ended.
Kylie told MTV News that PWL
found it hard to accept the changes.
To be honest, I wasn't sad.
And I remember,
honestly, I'm not telling you--
I had to sit with the staff here
and explain that, at some point,
you left home from your mum and dad.
Well, this is Kylie leaving home
from her mum and dad
and making it on her own.
That's all it is.
And that's part of growing up.
You know, so, um…
we'd come to an end.
Things do come to an end, you know.
["Confide in Me" by Kylie Minogue playing]
[Kylie] I signed
to Deconstruction Records.
[indistinct chatter]
They had a very independent feel.
-David.
-Kylie, how do you do? Nice to meet you.
[Kylie] They were open to experimentation
and wanted me to be much more involved.
And we talked about
a very different vocal delivery.
We all get hurt by love ♪
And we all have our cross to bear ♪
I hadn't done those kind of notes before.
But it was like,
feel the fear and do it anyway.
Problems should be shared ♪
Confide… ♪
I'd never done anything like that.
[orchestra playing "Confide in Me"]
Confide… ♪
[reporter] Kylie Minogue returns
to the pop scene this week
with a new record and a new sound.
Confide in me ♪
[interviewer] The new album
has widely been greeted
as your bid to become treated
as a serious artist for the first time.
-Is that how you see it?
-Um…
…in me ♪
I can use whatever language I like?
[crowd cheering]
[band playing rock music]
[reporter] If Kylie Minogue
represents the Australian dream,
then Nick Cave
is surely the Australian nightmare.
[vocalizing]
Attracting a cult following
with his twisted lyrics
and darkly wasted image.
-Hi.
-Hi.
Uh, go all the way down to the end.
[singing indistinct lyrics]
I think-- I think those songs are written
with a fair amount of disgust for things.
[continues singing indistinctly]
Because I'm a pretty disgusted person.
You know.
Look, I was, um,
an observer.
And I just always liked her.
Whenever I saw her on the TV,
there was something
about her that I liked.
But, you know, I didn't sit around
and listen to her records or anything.
I wasn't, like, a "fan" fan.
But there was something that
I recognized in her that I responded to.
[photographer] You don't like
to be photographed?
No, I don't, really.
So, let's move it along here.
[laughing]
[Nick] It was a strange thing with Kylie
because even though she had mass appeal,
you know, she had everything
but credibility.
And I looked at her because
I had credibility, but not much else.
[laughs]
Thank you.
[crowd cheering]
At that time,
I was writing a bunch of murder songs,
so I had a kind of audacious idea
for Kylie Minogue to do a murder ballad.
Yeah, hello.
But there was terrible opposition
from management and so forth,
that this is just a fucked-up idea,
which it was.
This is cool.
Storyboard for
"Where the Wild Roses Grow."
This is so cool!
"Nick observes Kylie's face
and body in water."
I was a well-known sort of drug addict.
"Close-up angle, static.
Kylie lays in water, tear on cheek."
"Flies possibly buzz around face."
And the nature of the song was dubious.
"Close-up, static.
Nick reaches for rock, again."
[inhales sharply]
Yeah, I mean,
that's always been close to my heart.
[Kylie] Nick reached out and I was like…
"Who?" Like, "Huh?"
I was not the demographic
of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
fan club.
But there is an Australian thing.
They just do shit, right?
They just do stuff.
And they don't think about it too much.
They just give stuff a shot, you know.
And she's like, "Yeah, okay." And…
I was… I was naive. I didn't know.
[band playing rock music]
[Nick] We were waiting for her
to come into the studio.
I don't think anyone had met Kylie before.
And the Bad Seeds, we were a dark force.
This group of weird,
fucked-up, sort of broken men.
A lot of drugs and a contemptuous,
pessimistic view of the world.
But when she came into the studio…
[door opening]
…she was like this sort of beam of light…
["Where the Wild Roses Grow"
by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds playing]
…with this incredible positivity.
I don't think we'd ever met anyone
in our lives, really, that liked life.
Just this sort of bold
brightness.
And we were really--
We were terrified of it to some degree.
From the first day I saw her
I knew she was the one ♪
And when she went to record,
she sang in a kind of
"Kylie-esque," trained,
a lot of vocal tricks, I guess.
And we were like, "Look, forget all that.
Just sing it straight."
When he knocked on my door ♪
And entered the room ♪
Sing it less, like,
almost make it a story.
He would be my first man ♪
And be a character.
And with a careful hand ♪
He wiped at the tears ♪
And she just did this version of it that
so beautifully haunted the whole thing.
They call me the Wild Rose ♪
[Nick] We were just staggered.
But my name was Elisa Day ♪
Why they call me that, I do not know ♪
Good evening, and we have
something very special for you tonight
on Top of the Pops.
[audience applauding]
[Nick] I remember doing Top of the Pops.
I think you can see by the performance,
I don't know what's going on.
[no audio]
I'm just sort of bumbling around.
You know, the people that turned up
to my concerts were psychos.
We would be taking iron bars
and scissors and knives
off people in the front row,
so I know about a dangerous audience.
But I've never experienced
anything like Kylie Minogue's…
[laughing]
…audience.
They-- They were terrifying.
Just these sort of monstrous,
awful teenage girls.
They did not like me.
They did not like me
to go near their princess.
Well, Nick gets worried that my--
My fans didn't like him
or didn't like the project.
I don't-- I don't think that's so.
And these little girls say,
"You fucking old bastard."
"What are you doing,
you horrible old cunt?"
They were just evil.
So, I couldn't help
but throw my arms around Kylie.
And they're just running
their fingers across their throats
and saying, "Just don't fucking…"
Then they'd turn the cameras towards them,
and they'd be like, "Yay!"
[laughing]
-[cheering and applause]
-Kylie with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
Right, well, uh, Madonna…
Evil, evil people.
[laughing]
[indistinct chatter]
I'm a hell of a lot better for seeing you.
-Did you read about us in the paper?
-No.
-[Nick] Um…
-What happened?
Well, apparently, we're snogging.
[people laughing]
-And?
-[Nick] And…
So?
-They haven't seen tonight's show.
-More snogging than singing was the thing.
[Kylie] Our worlds collided.
But it was like another kind of
love.
[tender music playing]
I sound like I was falling in love
all the time, but it was really,
um…
some kind of union that wasn't romantic.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Nick] I think we recognized
a vulnerability in each other
that we were sort of
I think at that time trying to
escape.
I was locked into a kind of lifestyle
that was becoming
increasingly problematic.
[camera shutters clicking]
But with Kylie,
I could see the world…
in a positive way.
[audience cheering]
Thank you. I'd like to invite now
Miss Kylie Minogue to come up here.
[all cheering]
And I think she wanted to break free
from the sort of constraints
that she thought she was imprisoned by.
The prisoner of an image.
That she was a sort of brainless
pop pablum, you know, mush.
But she had
things to say.
Particularly with the lyrics.
It's, like, the most important thing
you can do, really.
If you're writing your own lyrics,
you don't have others' thoughts
coming out of your mouth.
You're sort of defining yourself in a way.
You don't have…
[Kylie] Nick Cave says to me,
"Where are your lyrics?"
I'm not really
a fully-fledged songwriter yet.
[Nick] If you feel things,
then you're able to write them.
So, I hope you do that, Kylie.
[Kylie] You know what I did find. Lyrics.
I remember trying
to write something that would talk to me.
"I wanted to be your lonesome cowboy.
I wanted to love you till it hurt."
Oh, wow.
That-- That was a lyric.
That's not my writing.
Someone else wrote in my book.
"She wanted to be stopped
in time suspended. It was the best ever…"
So, that obviously didn't make it.
I mean, it's really terrible.
This is going to sound really terrible
when I say it. You can't wait, can you?
"Who would have thought that little girl
would end up living out
her wildest dreams?"
Sometimes it sounds
really not so great saying it.
There's a lot of absolute tosh in here.
There's got to be something in here.
Huh.
"I wanted to sometimes be irresponsible.
I wanted to own the choice I made."
Quite revealing.
[producer] In what way?
If it's not self-explanatory,
it's not very revealing at all.
["Too Far" by Kylie Minogue playing]
But then I caught something
from the creative ether.
Caught up in this house
Trapped my very own self in… ♪
It felt like
a fire
was just, like, coming out of me.
Oh, gosh.
[Kylie breathing heavily]
It was like contained rage.
Lured into this den ♪
It's bitter and I want… ♪
"I wanted to find a way
to put an end to all of my destruction."
"I wanted to know what I was worth."
She really was… She, I.
Too many, too much, too hard
Help me… ♪
I was just really in it.
I wasn't separate to the song.
Well, I would make it slower and shorter.
…this time I went too far, too far… ♪
I really wanted to be more than one facet.
I have so many characters
lurking in my body, it's frightening.
I'm possessed.
Too far ♪
It was much more on the edge.
I was very on the edge, clearly.
[laughing]
[producer] I didn't want to say it.
What do you mean?
Too many, too much, too hard ♪
[TV host] Her new album,
two years in the making.
Let's get this lady out here.
The impossible princess herself.
Ladies and gentlemen, Kylie Minogue!
[audience cheering]
Have you totally disowned
those really early songs now?
[Kylie] I've not been able to say,
"I should be so lucky," in so many years.
And in a way, it was a slight exorcism.
Too far, too far ♪
There was an honesty and a purity
and a "I'm just putting it out there."
[over phone] It's definitely the most
personal work I've ever done.
Too far ♪
[reporter] Is that nerve-racking,
when it goes out?
[Kylie] Yeah. Scary.
Too many, too much… ♪
And then I saw it on a billboard.
You didn't know about the billboard?
Look.
There was a billboard that said,
"We've decided what to do
with Kylie's music."
"Don't play it."
Boom!
A royal slap.
-[interviewer] Test for sound?
-[man] Go on.
[interviewer] One, two, three, four, five.
Here we are at Tower Records.
-[woman] Have you started? Sorry.
-[interviewer] Just about to.
-[door closes]
-[woman] Thank you.
[interviewer] Okay?
If I could first start
by asking about the new album.
[Kylie] I don't think
I was on the radio at all.
[interviewer] How did it all come about?
Uh…
In fact, some stations
were actively not playing me.
[dramatic music playing]
[Jo] In the house tonight,
wielding the new Mohican, Jason Donovan.
Kylie Minogue. Do you follow her career?
Her kind of venture
with the latest album, doing indie stuff.
-What do you think of that?
-It hasn't worked, I don't think.
[photographers] Kylie!
Kylie! Kylie!
[photographers shouting faintly]
[Dannii] Some people just want to
watch you crumble,
and they're on to the next person.
Pop. Disposable. Pop. Disposable.
[reporter] Other teen sensations
have come and gone.
What do you think your appeal is,
and why haven't you sort of disappeared?
You'd be better off asking
other people that than me.
I can't be that self-analytical,
I don't think.
Many, many times I just thought,
"I don't-- I just honestly
don't know if this is worth it."
[reporter] Just tell me about the album.
It's not an overly imaginative title.
And the minute
you start trying to defend yourself…
they've won.
[reporter] Is there truth to the rumors
you and Dannii aren't talking?
Excuse me, where are you from?
-Is that a serious question?
-Yeah.
-Is there any truth we're not talking?
-Yeah.
I find that so ridiculous.
[Jo] Do you think she's had it
in terms of the music industry?
I-I never thought she had it
in the first place.
[Kylie] I made Deconstruction no money.
Zippo. Nada. Rien. Nothing. So,
she's off the books.
I thought, "I'm going to act again,"
because there was enough people
who were thinking, if not saying,
"That's it. It's done."
[dramatic music swelling]
I got a phone call.
And yeah.
I don't remember what words she said,
but it was, like, "He's gone."
I got the flight back
to Sydney for the funeral.
[camera shutters clicking]
And I just went, "Oh!"
"That's another first. It's my first, um,
service that I've been to. Like…"
"Okay, always with the firsts."
[laughing] You know?
[priest] We gather to mourn the death
of someone whom most of us barely knew.
We listened to him sing…
and felt that it was for us alone.
We're here today to mourn the death
of Michael Hutchence.
[Kylie] It might seem disproportionate,
the emotion and the memories
I have with him and with that time.
But I just felt protected
and nurtured and valued
and believed in.
[priest] Someone you counted on is gone.
[Kylie] I remember being at the church,
and it was overwhelming,
the outpouring of love for him.
[priest] Someone who was your rock
is no more.
[Kylie] It's going to sound totally crazy,
but I felt him just saying,
"It's okay. It will be okay."
[audience cheering]
I always feel he's with me.
[somber music playing]
It's kind of crazy, but I do.
[laughing]
Which is so, like, you can--
You can have relationships with…
as I have had, you know,
relationships with different people
but someone that really just believed in…
believes in you so much.
[camera shutters clicking]
Here's an important point.
He really didn't want me
to be someone else for him at all.
He was encouraging me
to discover me.
Fuck.
[laughing]
[applause]
[Nick] I had a kind of harebrained idea.
[emcee] Now without further ado,
I'd like to introduce
the first of the talented
and totally diverse artists and writers…
I was asked to go and perform
at this thing called the Poetry Olympics.
Two days and nights
of continuous poetry
that was put on at the Albert Hall.
"Here is a love
that makes its bargain with bad habits."
"Tell me lies about Vietnam."
"You can have sex with anyone,
but with whom can you sleep?"
This had some great poets in it,
but mostly it was just this endless,
worthy
art.
"When I take off my head,
the head looks into my bleeding neck."
"The fucking baby's crying,
the fucking flower's dying."
[speaking Japanese]
People had been sitting in their chairs,
I think, for, you know,
a day listening to poetry.
[blowing horn]
I was seeing Kylie quite a bit.
-Thank you.
-[applause]
And I'm like, "Why don't you come along
and recite something?"
I was thinking, "Are you mad?"
"The sword of Damocles
is hanging over all of us."
This is not my world.
I'm not-- I'm not from the literary world.
"In view of that,
what subject can we sensibly discuss?"
[Kylie] So, I tried
everything to get out of it.
[producer] She said
she tried to get out of it.
-Really? We weren't having any of that.
-Yeah.
[chuckles]
"For what is liberty
without the liberty to act?"
[Kylie] And I said to Nick,
"God's on stage. How do we follow that?"
He said, "Jesus did okay."
And then he went out.
[discordant accordion music]
The way I remember it is that,
which-- Which I'm surprised
I can remember anything at all
because we were so out of it.
-[discordant accordion continuous]
-"Ho, ho, ho."
"Ho, ho, ho."
-Thank you.
-[applause]
I would like to bring out the flame-like
Kylie Minogue, ladies and gentlemen.
[whoops and cheers]
She walked on…
this pop princess up against
the most elitist art form
there is, of poetry.
-Why, thank you.
-[audience applauding]
Well, I didn't expect to be here,
but I-I have come
with words that I did not write,
which I shall read to you.
[accordion being played]
"In my imagination,
there is no hesitation."
"I dream about you all the time."
[audience laughing]
[Kylie] And I could hear the recognition,
that the audience--
They were with me and with us.
"In my imagination,
there is no complication."
"We walk together hand in hand."
[Nick] She just broke the night open…
"And I'm dreaming
that you're in love with me."
…with poetry that we could understand.
"I should be so lucky."
[laughter and applause]
"Lucky, lucky, lucky."
"I should be so lucky in love."
Thank you.
[cheering and applause]
[Kylie] It was like being
face-to-face with my old self.
[gentle music playing]
The one that I was trying
to turn my back on.
[Nick] I don't know
if I said this outright,
but I'm like,
"What the fuck are you doing?"
Like, "Indie?" I mean,
no one willingly wants to be indie.
[laughing]
They may say they do.
-[applause continuous]
-[accordion music playing]
Kylie Minogue, ladies and gentlemen.
But that's not what Kylie is, you know.
Kylie is this force…
[dramatic music playing]
…that is there to affect thousands
and thousands and thousands of people.
[dramatic music continuous]
It's all outward.
It's all giving.
[cheering]
You have an enormous positive influence.
These people that go along
to their first pop concert,
it's a life-changing moment
where they feel
something that they've never known before.
The great beauty of pop music
is that it is a joy machine.
[dramatic music swelling]
[Kylie] You've got
the coolest guy on the planet…
saying, "Where's the pop tunes?"
["Spinning Around"
by Kylie Minogue playing]
Right, let's get the jet packs on
and get back to the dance floor.
But if this doesn't work, I am finished.
I'm spinning around ♪
Move out of my way ♪
I know you're feeling me
'Cause you like it like this ♪
I'm breaking it down ♪
I'm not the same ♪
I know you're feeling me
'Cause you like it like… ♪
[whimsical music playing]
[woman vocalizing]
[music ends]
[woman] Come on!
["What Do I Have to Do?"
by Kylie Minogue playing]
[camera shutters clicking]
[reporter] Kylie Minogue
has been showing off her new man,
INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence.
The couple at last going public
with their romance.
There was concern from my team.
They thought, "Uh-oh."
[laughing]
Uh-oh!
She's too cute and good for him,
and he's too bad and hot for her.
My heart is my alibi, only you… ♪
Yeah, well, I think people
are going to be a bit shocked.
-Like I do, do ♪
-Do ♪
[interviewer] Kylie Minogue has come out
and said she has never used hard drugs.
Do you, uh, ever try
and tempt her to do anything harder?
[producer] What were the nights out like?
-Just fun.
-[man] Good.
[laughing]
What do I have to do
To get the message through…? ♪
[Michael] No, she can do what she wants.
I never tempt anybody to do anything.
She's on a real high herself.
She doesn't need anything, you know.
[producer] How much fun?
It was a lot of fun.
-[producer] How much?
-[laughing]
[TV host] According to some newspapers,
I read you've discovered sex.
Would you like me
to comment further on that?
Yes, I would.
Um, well, no I can't. Sorry.
What are you trying to get to?
How devilish was I?
I was devilish enough.
What do I have to do
To get the message through? ♪
[interviewer] Let's get your sister
out of the way quickly. Is she in love?
He was this sexy rock god
that men and women just went…
[gasps]
[laughing]
He just oozed confidence,
and confidence is sexy.
How can I prove
That I really love you, love you? ♪
In her world back then
confidence was just everything.
How can I prove
That I really love you, love you? ♪
But I remember
it was like she'd fallen head over heels.
That's for sure.
[crowd cheering]
[Michael laughing]
-Yeah.
-[man] Okay, it's okay.
We are now
on the Orient Express on June 26th.
This is an American couple
filming this young Australian couple,
who are here to have a great time.
-You're on the air.
-Yeah.
[laughing]
[Kylie] Yes, he was this wild guy.
But his intention was good,
even if we weren't being so good.
Everything was done with a lot of love.
[woman] They've drunk all the champagne.
-Oh, cut.
-Cut.
Cut.
[Kylie] I had so many firsts with him.
[Michael] Kylie.
Hi.
I'd never felt like I had blinkers on.
But he took them off.
[dreamy music playing]
I was at the perfect age.
I was 21 years old.
That's nice.
[gentle piano music playing]
He was hilarious.
And cultured.
And tender.
I love seeing the ones that are…
That's not the shot.
The moments around the shot.
[calming music playing]
I just felt like I had my person there.
Can I film you?
I really did.
-[in Italian accent] Movie star.
-[Kylie] Oh!
-Movie star in Italy.
-[Kylie, in Italian accent] In Italy.
You can see it
in any pictures from then as well.
Maybe life wasn't going
so fast for a second,
because I remember all of it.
Like being on that boat
in Hong Kong with that feeling of promise.
I felt like a jewel.
If you dropped it,
it would smash, but if you protected it…
it could shine.
[interviewer] Are you going to marry him?
It would be nice to be proposed to,
but I don't know, we'll have to see.
At the time I got in to see INXS
recording in the studio.
And I loved it.
I loved being in amongst that.
I felt like I'd discovered a tribe.
I thought it was amazing
to see them write songs together
and have ownership over the end result.
[Michael] You know,
we're pretty much equal.
We tend to discuss things.
I'll say, "I think this,"
and if they all go,
"Oh, yeah, we agree with that,"
then it'll go into songs.
It must be that way.
You have to be true to yourself.
[Kylie] Then it was like a light bulb.
[woman vocalizing]
I wanted to express myself more,
and I just hadn't had that before.
[scoffs]
[woman vocalizing continues]
[Pete] I knew this was the turning point.
She had a rock-star boyfriend.
Michael gave her the confidence
to be confident.
Whatever I did,
I knew she wasn't going to like.
Remember the old days ♪
Remember the… ♪
The snare drum in.
…days ♪
The guitar.
Rhythm ♪
A bit more guitar.
Here's a hi-hat.
[Kylie] I'd started making noise.
I've got an idea. I mean,
what about this and what about that?
We hadn't got time to discuss anything,
because, you know,
we didn't have the time.
[Kylie] I became really frustrated.
It felt like fighting against the system.
[Pete] Another 15 number ones.
I know we've had 142 top 20s.
I mean, I've lost count.
I wanted to explore different ideas,
be open to… to change.
That's not what the public want.
That's not what the public want.
The public want "I Should Be So Lucky."
Ooh, well, um…
I'm just tired of playing it so safe.
And I should be allowed to speak.
I should be allowed to have some input.
Just to be able to have something
to do with my work, you know.
Not just be the face for it.
[electronic music playing]
It's like someone was strangling
any creativity that I had.
And by being forced to be quiet,
shut up and listen,
I learnt a lot that way.
And so, if things don't change,
I won't be here anymore.
[electronic music continues]
Unless I could have things my way.
Listen, I have two daughters,
and at some point,
the old man don't know as much as they do.
That's called growing up.
I didn't use to be able to say "no."
[interviewer] You do now.
[laughing] I certainly do now.
Yeah, I do.
[electronic dance music continuous]
[music ends]
I was reclaiming my sense of self.
[woman vocalizing]
[low chatter]
And that's when I discovered that
there were many more Kylies out there.
[announcer] It's on the hour
to come amongst you and amaze you
with absolutely incredible,
out-of-this-world sounds.
Look out. Here we go.
["The Loco-Motion"
by Kylie Minogue playing]
[Kylie] I think my manager had said…
"There's a Kylie night."
And I'd never heard of a Kylie night.
Like, "What?"
Everybody's doing
A brand-new dance now ♪
Come on, baby, do the loco-motion ♪
"There's drag performers dressed as you."
"Do you want to go?"
"Yeah."
When you can't find the music
To get down and boogie ♪
It was like, "Wow."
…step back in time ♪
In my imagination
There is no hesitation… ♪
Like, supersonic versions of me.
I'm dreaming ♪
…such a fool, I couldn't stop myself… ♪
And this was a time
when it was in to really not like me.
I know you'll wait for me
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ♪
And I ended up on stage
at this drag bar.
And I felt like the least Kylie there.
Yeah, I thought, "I gotta step it up."
"I gotta get some lashes on
and some eyeliner."
["Shocked" by Kylie Minogue playing]
Pete Waterman had been badgered
sufficiently to go,
"All right kid. What do you want?"
"What kind of music do you want to make?"
And I think that might be
the first time he really asked me that.
[Pete] I just had had enough.
She was going to clubs.
She's now part of that whole club scene.
If you're in that, you'll want
your records to sound like that.
Tell me… ♪
Why do you think it suits people
to portray you as a bimbo?
Because it's easy
and then I'm not a threat to them.
[reporter] There's something pretty
remarkable about young Kylie Minogue.
Gossip columnists write her off
as "the Singing Budgie."
Well, the budgie's feathers are ruffled.
Monday, 29 Jan. 10:30 sharp.
I remember that gig.
Call you a liar to your face
Because I'm shocked by the power ♪
We called ourselves "Singing budgies."
Shocked by the power… ♪
I remember what I was wearing.
My amazing shiny tights
that I was obsessed with.
Shocked by the power… ♪
I remember Michael being
smack bang in the middle of the crowd.
[Michael] Kylie's got this real sweet,
innocent image.
Kylie's really not the person
that people think she is.
There's a lot of strength.
[Kylie] "Singing Budgie," you know,
it's a horrible title.
Whoever wrote that is probably fat
and bald, and 50 years old but look 70,
and they've got bad breath
and can't control themselves.
Um, and they're probably jealous.
…you are really mine
Because I'm shocked by the power ♪
[Pete] We'd gone
from "I Should Be So Lucky"
to Kylie the diva in one fell swoop.
She wanted to see the video makers.
She wanted her own stylists.
The guys that
we worked with here for years,
she just went,
"I won't work with them anymore."
[Kylie] Whether it's stylists
or photographers or whoever,
I'm working with them rather than
just being force-fed their ideas.
Shocked by the power… ♪
I was running from the '80s.
The sheen of it. The era of it.
The puppeteering
or the having no substance.
[man speaking indistinctly]
[Kylie] And as soon as I had
my image in my little grasp…
…all over you, I'm high… ♪
…by God, I would turn into a lunatic.
…track of time and falling free
I can't believe that you are really mine ♪
Because I'm shocked by the power ♪
Ooh, ooh, shocked by the power ♪
[reporter] Those few bars we heard there
are the first time
anybody's heard your new single.
-Yeah, that's right.
-And a videotape.
Yeah, that's being sent over tomorrow,
actually, and it's quite different.
Is it?
Oh! Oh my God. Oh my God.
This is it. This is the moment. Ooh!
[woman] Watch the hair.
[Kylie] Holy Mary Mother of God.
[Kylie giggling]
I guess I was taking the power back.
Shocked by the power… ♪
[indistinct chattering]
Yeah, just saying, "All right."
"Let's go."
♪…shocked to my very foundations ♪
Okay, your thoughts, please?
Oh my God, the press will ban it.
I think it'll be banned. I know it'll be.
-[Kylie] Terry?
-Perfect. They're gonna hate it.
-[Kylie] Mum?
-What's your dad gonna say?
[all laughing]
[Terry] It's gonna be banned.
[reporter 1] Kylie Minogue,
the squeaky-clean next-door neighbor,
kicks off her tour tonight.
[reporter 2] She'll be putting her new
look and new sound through their paces.
-[all shouting]
-[man] Here we go.
Right, right, right.
[reporter 3] Kylie,
what can the fans expect?
It's lots of fun.
It's just an hour and a half
of letting go
and just enjoying themselves.
[reporter 3] The papers in England
have said your show's raunchier this time.
-Is that right?
-Well, they've gone a little extreme.
It's not an X-rated show or anything.
Is that when I was wearing,
like, really raunchy outfits?
[dramatic music playing]
She couldn't have picked
a worse thing to do.
[reporter 4] Kylie arrived
by coach in Dublin
after a four-hour journey from Belfast.
[Kylie] It's great to finally be here.
[interviewer 1] There's been talk
about a changing image for Kylie Minogue.
Yeah, I saw that in the paper today.
-Nice hairdo, Yvonne!
-[Yvonne] Good.
[dramatic music continuous]
[interviewer 2] What can people
expect when they see you?
[inhales sharply]
Well…
[indistinct chatter]
Lots of choreography.
Fabulous costumes.
My outfits have been designed
by John Galliano.
After checking her out,
seeing how she danced, how she moved,
getting to know her personality,
I went away and did some drawings.
So, my first outfit
was very inspired by Lolita.
[excited chatter]
And it's worn over a frilly bra
and body slip with built-in knickers.
Everybody's going, "Oh, this is…"
I was going, "No, no, no. Whoa!"
"This is Kylie's wish."
-Ready? Five, six, seven, eight.
-[Kylie] Five, six, seven, eight.
And one, two, three, four.
[Pete] "This is what she wants to do."
Hi, Kylie!
Hey!
Three. Wiggle the bum.
That's it, girls. Wiggle it, wiggle it.
She's got to find out for herself.
[Kylie] I don't want people
to know what to expect.
I want them to come with an open mind.
[audience cheering]
[cheering intensifies]
[dramatic music playing]
Yeah, it was-- We went a bit far.
I'm not going to lie. We went a bit far.
[dramatic music continuous]
I mean, maybe it was good in real,
but it didn't look good in a freeze-frame.
I'm going to defend it with that.
Does that help? I think it does help.
But I know what you're going to cut to.
[TV host] Now our next guest
shocked her young fans
by strutting across the stage
in some of this getup.
I don't have to describe it too much.
-Kylie, good morning.
-Hi, how are you?
I'm very well. How do you react?
I mean, did you read all the criticism
or did you throw most of it away?
I… I saw some of it.
["Habanera" from Carmen playing]
[TV host] They say that you look
a bit like Madonna now,
or you're trying to model yourself on her.
When we say "they,"
we're talking about tabloid press.
Yeah.
That was tricky,
to defend those decisions.
[sighs]
[sheep bleating]
[interviewer 1] With your new tour now,
there is such controversy.
Yeah, I'm a bit surprised.
[man] She kind of went too far
prancing around
the Dublin stage in lingerie.
She went from the girl next door
to the girl next door
who's been around the block.
It's much raunchier.
Yes, I mean, I don't really like
to call myself raunchy.
[interviewer 2] We've just seen
your raunchy new video.
[interviewer 3] That new raunchy image.
-It's certainly fairly raw, isn't it?
-Raw?
Well, raw as in raunchy, I mean.
Now, there was a time when you said
you were raunchier than your sister.
She's changed the image, hasn't she?
Yeah, she has lately.
I remember thinking, "This is so boring,
repetitive…
stupid."
[TV host] To hear
that Kylie Minogue is too sexy
is a bit like hearing that Mary Poppins
has turned into a hooker.
I mean, imagine you just show up
to work every day and you just…
[chuckles] Like…
There's even been speculation
in Australia that you've had a boob job.
[laughing] Oh, dear.
One magazine even went
as far as showing before and after shots.
It's exhausting.
[chuckles softly]
And then as a female pop artist,
if you say something,
you're a bitch,
you've got an ego, you're a diva.
[interviewer 4] Many mothers
are complaining.
No, well, you know,
if you're going to interview me
having researched tabloid newspapers,
there's no point talking to me
because I didn't see loads of mothers
storming out with their children.
And if you're a guy and you say,
"Shut up, that's not true," people go,
"Fair enough. He's right."
One mother. So, I get questioned.
God, well, you know,
parents were storming out with their kids.
It's rubbish.
I am disappointed at the moment
because I'm not trying to--
I'm trying to be myself.
[airplane engine powering up]
But whenever the going got tough,
I had that love and support from Michael.
[man] "INXS is the first
non-American group
to land six consecutive
top ten hits in the Hot 100
since Culture Club in 1983-84."
-Wow.
-[band member] Serious?
Really?
[somber music playing]
[Kylie] But Michael was touring
all over the world.
So, it became really hard
for us to see each other.
[lips smacking]
So I would send video messages to him.
Is it telling you it's low light?
One, two, three.
[all] Kylie says, "Hello to Michael"!
[all laughing]
-Mum and Yvonne.
-Hi!
Hi, Michael!
-[crowd cheering]
-Just going on again.
I'll think of another message
to give you very shortly.
["Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS playing]
But it just became
more and more difficult.
Are you still in love with Kylie?
[laughing] God, Jeff.
Don't ask me… ♪
Don't ask me ques--
No, that's too private, you know.
At the very least, we're very good friends
and always will be.
Yeah.
-It's not…
-And at the very best?
Who knows?
Who knows?
I was standing ♪
You were there ♪
[Kylie] He was the first in many ways.
Two worlds collided ♪
And they could never tear us apart ♪
And one of those firsts was
heartbreak.
[band playing "Never Tear Us Apart"]
I was devastated.
We could live ♪
He was a rock star.
Which doesn't just mean
that he needs to have
many women in his life,
but he needed to go where he needed to go.
[somber music playing]
But I know from people in his circle
that he talked of me and thought of me.
We were good together.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda, whatever.
You know, you go on and live your lives.
But it was definitely an amazing
point in time.
I've probably been looking
for that ever since,
and I haven't got it.
[producer] Really?
Yeah.
[producer] Can I ask,
when you think of him today,
how does it make you feel?
Good, even if I'm getting teary,
because it's just-- It's like,
it was all good.
Yeah.
But to have
someone that you really felt like
you were a good team.
Yeah.
Anyway, we gotta get past that.
[dramatic music playing]
I didn't know where to go, what to do.
And I didn't want to be in London,
I didn't want to be in Australia.
And so,
I went to Paris.
I remember having
a tiny English to French dictionary.
I didn't know anyone there,
but I had two phone numbers
scratched on a bit of paper.
And one of those numbers was
a friend of a friend
of a friend of a friend of mine.
And…
she lived with a girl called Kat.
My best, oldest girlfriend,
Katerina Jebb, whose apartment we're in.
Kat doesn't like
to be in front of a camera.
-[Katerina] I'm out of here.
-À tout à l'heure.
-[Katerina] Tell me if you need anything.
-Okay.
I'll wail.
She is an amazing photographer
with an incredible eye and heart.
[Katerina] Bye.
-Corners.
-[Katerina] Corners and corners.
And more corners.
And we say,
"Corners. Love from all corners."
Kat Jebb prints. What do we have here?
Paris.
[whimsical music playing]
I moved myself into her apartment.
I got a sleeping bag, I slept on the sofa.
I was feeling heartbroken
and was escaping my feelings.
But we would do photo sessions.
Just the two of us.
[Katerina] I didn't know who she was
because my exposure to pop culture
was not very voluminous.
But it was an instantaneous understanding.
Going for it?
[laughing] I don't know.
I've been the subject
pretty much my entire life.
But this was different.
We're not doing it
because someone's asked for it.
We're doing it because we want to do it.
[Katerina] The public persona
versus the private persona.
How many people can unveil themselves,
completely unfiltered?
I'd been doing very dark lashes
and kind of bouffant,
and it was Kat who said to me,
"What about you just let your hair,
just let the curls out
or maybe less of the brows or…"
And then I went, like, to nothing.
Even though a photograph
can capture a moment,
can capture a story,
it's really hard to see yourself.
There's this camera, there's--
There's a wall. There's a--
You see through it.
You can't see it, but there's a divide.
And I felt with her,
the invisible wall was gone.
And I was looking
through Kat's photographs,
and I thought, "Wow, I can see me."
She was a real savior to me.
I started to feel good and confident
as a woman on my own.
[reporter] She has called it
the end of an era
and they have refused to comment.
But Kylie Minogue's relationship
with Pete Waterman Ltd.,
her record company
of five years, has ended.
Kylie told MTV News that PWL
found it hard to accept the changes.
To be honest, I wasn't sad.
And I remember,
honestly, I'm not telling you--
I had to sit with the staff here
and explain that, at some point,
you left home from your mum and dad.
Well, this is Kylie leaving home
from her mum and dad
and making it on her own.
That's all it is.
And that's part of growing up.
You know, so, um…
we'd come to an end.
Things do come to an end, you know.
["Confide in Me" by Kylie Minogue playing]
[Kylie] I signed
to Deconstruction Records.
[indistinct chatter]
They had a very independent feel.
-David.
-Kylie, how do you do? Nice to meet you.
[Kylie] They were open to experimentation
and wanted me to be much more involved.
And we talked about
a very different vocal delivery.
We all get hurt by love ♪
And we all have our cross to bear ♪
I hadn't done those kind of notes before.
But it was like,
feel the fear and do it anyway.
Problems should be shared ♪
Confide… ♪
I'd never done anything like that.
[orchestra playing "Confide in Me"]
Confide… ♪
[reporter] Kylie Minogue returns
to the pop scene this week
with a new record and a new sound.
Confide in me ♪
[interviewer] The new album
has widely been greeted
as your bid to become treated
as a serious artist for the first time.
-Is that how you see it?
-Um…
…in me ♪
I can use whatever language I like?
[crowd cheering]
[band playing rock music]
[reporter] If Kylie Minogue
represents the Australian dream,
then Nick Cave
is surely the Australian nightmare.
[vocalizing]
Attracting a cult following
with his twisted lyrics
and darkly wasted image.
-Hi.
-Hi.
Uh, go all the way down to the end.
[singing indistinct lyrics]
I think-- I think those songs are written
with a fair amount of disgust for things.
[continues singing indistinctly]
Because I'm a pretty disgusted person.
You know.
Look, I was, um,
an observer.
And I just always liked her.
Whenever I saw her on the TV,
there was something
about her that I liked.
But, you know, I didn't sit around
and listen to her records or anything.
I wasn't, like, a "fan" fan.
But there was something that
I recognized in her that I responded to.
[photographer] You don't like
to be photographed?
No, I don't, really.
So, let's move it along here.
[laughing]
[Nick] It was a strange thing with Kylie
because even though she had mass appeal,
you know, she had everything
but credibility.
And I looked at her because
I had credibility, but not much else.
[laughs]
Thank you.
[crowd cheering]
At that time,
I was writing a bunch of murder songs,
so I had a kind of audacious idea
for Kylie Minogue to do a murder ballad.
Yeah, hello.
But there was terrible opposition
from management and so forth,
that this is just a fucked-up idea,
which it was.
This is cool.
Storyboard for
"Where the Wild Roses Grow."
This is so cool!
"Nick observes Kylie's face
and body in water."
I was a well-known sort of drug addict.
"Close-up angle, static.
Kylie lays in water, tear on cheek."
"Flies possibly buzz around face."
And the nature of the song was dubious.
"Close-up, static.
Nick reaches for rock, again."
[inhales sharply]
Yeah, I mean,
that's always been close to my heart.
[Kylie] Nick reached out and I was like…
"Who?" Like, "Huh?"
I was not the demographic
of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
fan club.
But there is an Australian thing.
They just do shit, right?
They just do stuff.
And they don't think about it too much.
They just give stuff a shot, you know.
And she's like, "Yeah, okay." And…
I was… I was naive. I didn't know.
[band playing rock music]
[Nick] We were waiting for her
to come into the studio.
I don't think anyone had met Kylie before.
And the Bad Seeds, we were a dark force.
This group of weird,
fucked-up, sort of broken men.
A lot of drugs and a contemptuous,
pessimistic view of the world.
But when she came into the studio…
[door opening]
…she was like this sort of beam of light…
["Where the Wild Roses Grow"
by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds playing]
…with this incredible positivity.
I don't think we'd ever met anyone
in our lives, really, that liked life.
Just this sort of bold
brightness.
And we were really--
We were terrified of it to some degree.
From the first day I saw her
I knew she was the one ♪
And when she went to record,
she sang in a kind of
"Kylie-esque," trained,
a lot of vocal tricks, I guess.
And we were like, "Look, forget all that.
Just sing it straight."
When he knocked on my door ♪
And entered the room ♪
Sing it less, like,
almost make it a story.
He would be my first man ♪
And be a character.
And with a careful hand ♪
He wiped at the tears ♪
And she just did this version of it that
so beautifully haunted the whole thing.
They call me the Wild Rose ♪
[Nick] We were just staggered.
But my name was Elisa Day ♪
Why they call me that, I do not know ♪
Good evening, and we have
something very special for you tonight
on Top of the Pops.
[audience applauding]
[Nick] I remember doing Top of the Pops.
I think you can see by the performance,
I don't know what's going on.
[no audio]
I'm just sort of bumbling around.
You know, the people that turned up
to my concerts were psychos.
We would be taking iron bars
and scissors and knives
off people in the front row,
so I know about a dangerous audience.
But I've never experienced
anything like Kylie Minogue's…
[laughing]
…audience.
They-- They were terrifying.
Just these sort of monstrous,
awful teenage girls.
They did not like me.
They did not like me
to go near their princess.
Well, Nick gets worried that my--
My fans didn't like him
or didn't like the project.
I don't-- I don't think that's so.
And these little girls say,
"You fucking old bastard."
"What are you doing,
you horrible old cunt?"
They were just evil.
So, I couldn't help
but throw my arms around Kylie.
And they're just running
their fingers across their throats
and saying, "Just don't fucking…"
Then they'd turn the cameras towards them,
and they'd be like, "Yay!"
[laughing]
-[cheering and applause]
-Kylie with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
Right, well, uh, Madonna…
Evil, evil people.
[laughing]
[indistinct chatter]
I'm a hell of a lot better for seeing you.
-Did you read about us in the paper?
-No.
-[Nick] Um…
-What happened?
Well, apparently, we're snogging.
[people laughing]
-And?
-[Nick] And…
So?
-They haven't seen tonight's show.
-More snogging than singing was the thing.
[Kylie] Our worlds collided.
But it was like another kind of
love.
[tender music playing]
I sound like I was falling in love
all the time, but it was really,
um…
some kind of union that wasn't romantic.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Nick] I think we recognized
a vulnerability in each other
that we were sort of
I think at that time trying to
escape.
I was locked into a kind of lifestyle
that was becoming
increasingly problematic.
[camera shutters clicking]
But with Kylie,
I could see the world…
in a positive way.
[audience cheering]
Thank you. I'd like to invite now
Miss Kylie Minogue to come up here.
[all cheering]
And I think she wanted to break free
from the sort of constraints
that she thought she was imprisoned by.
The prisoner of an image.
That she was a sort of brainless
pop pablum, you know, mush.
But she had
things to say.
Particularly with the lyrics.
It's, like, the most important thing
you can do, really.
If you're writing your own lyrics,
you don't have others' thoughts
coming out of your mouth.
You're sort of defining yourself in a way.
You don't have…
[Kylie] Nick Cave says to me,
"Where are your lyrics?"
I'm not really
a fully-fledged songwriter yet.
[Nick] If you feel things,
then you're able to write them.
So, I hope you do that, Kylie.
[Kylie] You know what I did find. Lyrics.
I remember trying
to write something that would talk to me.
"I wanted to be your lonesome cowboy.
I wanted to love you till it hurt."
Oh, wow.
That-- That was a lyric.
That's not my writing.
Someone else wrote in my book.
"She wanted to be stopped
in time suspended. It was the best ever…"
So, that obviously didn't make it.
I mean, it's really terrible.
This is going to sound really terrible
when I say it. You can't wait, can you?
"Who would have thought that little girl
would end up living out
her wildest dreams?"
Sometimes it sounds
really not so great saying it.
There's a lot of absolute tosh in here.
There's got to be something in here.
Huh.
"I wanted to sometimes be irresponsible.
I wanted to own the choice I made."
Quite revealing.
[producer] In what way?
If it's not self-explanatory,
it's not very revealing at all.
["Too Far" by Kylie Minogue playing]
But then I caught something
from the creative ether.
Caught up in this house
Trapped my very own self in… ♪
It felt like
a fire
was just, like, coming out of me.
Oh, gosh.
[Kylie breathing heavily]
It was like contained rage.
Lured into this den ♪
It's bitter and I want… ♪
"I wanted to find a way
to put an end to all of my destruction."
"I wanted to know what I was worth."
She really was… She, I.
Too many, too much, too hard
Help me… ♪
I was just really in it.
I wasn't separate to the song.
Well, I would make it slower and shorter.
…this time I went too far, too far… ♪
I really wanted to be more than one facet.
I have so many characters
lurking in my body, it's frightening.
I'm possessed.
Too far ♪
It was much more on the edge.
I was very on the edge, clearly.
[laughing]
[producer] I didn't want to say it.
What do you mean?
Too many, too much, too hard ♪
[TV host] Her new album,
two years in the making.
Let's get this lady out here.
The impossible princess herself.
Ladies and gentlemen, Kylie Minogue!
[audience cheering]
Have you totally disowned
those really early songs now?
[Kylie] I've not been able to say,
"I should be so lucky," in so many years.
And in a way, it was a slight exorcism.
Too far, too far ♪
There was an honesty and a purity
and a "I'm just putting it out there."
[over phone] It's definitely the most
personal work I've ever done.
Too far ♪
[reporter] Is that nerve-racking,
when it goes out?
[Kylie] Yeah. Scary.
Too many, too much… ♪
And then I saw it on a billboard.
You didn't know about the billboard?
Look.
There was a billboard that said,
"We've decided what to do
with Kylie's music."
"Don't play it."
Boom!
A royal slap.
-[interviewer] Test for sound?
-[man] Go on.
[interviewer] One, two, three, four, five.
Here we are at Tower Records.
-[woman] Have you started? Sorry.
-[interviewer] Just about to.
-[door closes]
-[woman] Thank you.
[interviewer] Okay?
If I could first start
by asking about the new album.
[Kylie] I don't think
I was on the radio at all.
[interviewer] How did it all come about?
Uh…
In fact, some stations
were actively not playing me.
[dramatic music playing]
[Jo] In the house tonight,
wielding the new Mohican, Jason Donovan.
Kylie Minogue. Do you follow her career?
Her kind of venture
with the latest album, doing indie stuff.
-What do you think of that?
-It hasn't worked, I don't think.
[photographers] Kylie!
Kylie! Kylie!
[photographers shouting faintly]
[Dannii] Some people just want to
watch you crumble,
and they're on to the next person.
Pop. Disposable. Pop. Disposable.
[reporter] Other teen sensations
have come and gone.
What do you think your appeal is,
and why haven't you sort of disappeared?
You'd be better off asking
other people that than me.
I can't be that self-analytical,
I don't think.
Many, many times I just thought,
"I don't-- I just honestly
don't know if this is worth it."
[reporter] Just tell me about the album.
It's not an overly imaginative title.
And the minute
you start trying to defend yourself…
they've won.
[reporter] Is there truth to the rumors
you and Dannii aren't talking?
Excuse me, where are you from?
-Is that a serious question?
-Yeah.
-Is there any truth we're not talking?
-Yeah.
I find that so ridiculous.
[Jo] Do you think she's had it
in terms of the music industry?
I-I never thought she had it
in the first place.
[Kylie] I made Deconstruction no money.
Zippo. Nada. Rien. Nothing. So,
she's off the books.
I thought, "I'm going to act again,"
because there was enough people
who were thinking, if not saying,
"That's it. It's done."
[dramatic music swelling]
I got a phone call.
And yeah.
I don't remember what words she said,
but it was, like, "He's gone."
I got the flight back
to Sydney for the funeral.
[camera shutters clicking]
And I just went, "Oh!"
"That's another first. It's my first, um,
service that I've been to. Like…"
"Okay, always with the firsts."
[laughing] You know?
[priest] We gather to mourn the death
of someone whom most of us barely knew.
We listened to him sing…
and felt that it was for us alone.
We're here today to mourn the death
of Michael Hutchence.
[Kylie] It might seem disproportionate,
the emotion and the memories
I have with him and with that time.
But I just felt protected
and nurtured and valued
and believed in.
[priest] Someone you counted on is gone.
[Kylie] I remember being at the church,
and it was overwhelming,
the outpouring of love for him.
[priest] Someone who was your rock
is no more.
[Kylie] It's going to sound totally crazy,
but I felt him just saying,
"It's okay. It will be okay."
[audience cheering]
I always feel he's with me.
[somber music playing]
It's kind of crazy, but I do.
[laughing]
Which is so, like, you can--
You can have relationships with…
as I have had, you know,
relationships with different people
but someone that really just believed in…
believes in you so much.
[camera shutters clicking]
Here's an important point.
He really didn't want me
to be someone else for him at all.
He was encouraging me
to discover me.
Fuck.
[laughing]
[applause]
[Nick] I had a kind of harebrained idea.
[emcee] Now without further ado,
I'd like to introduce
the first of the talented
and totally diverse artists and writers…
I was asked to go and perform
at this thing called the Poetry Olympics.
Two days and nights
of continuous poetry
that was put on at the Albert Hall.
"Here is a love
that makes its bargain with bad habits."
"Tell me lies about Vietnam."
"You can have sex with anyone,
but with whom can you sleep?"
This had some great poets in it,
but mostly it was just this endless,
worthy
art.
"When I take off my head,
the head looks into my bleeding neck."
"The fucking baby's crying,
the fucking flower's dying."
[speaking Japanese]
People had been sitting in their chairs,
I think, for, you know,
a day listening to poetry.
[blowing horn]
I was seeing Kylie quite a bit.
-Thank you.
-[applause]
And I'm like, "Why don't you come along
and recite something?"
I was thinking, "Are you mad?"
"The sword of Damocles
is hanging over all of us."
This is not my world.
I'm not-- I'm not from the literary world.
"In view of that,
what subject can we sensibly discuss?"
[Kylie] So, I tried
everything to get out of it.
[producer] She said
she tried to get out of it.
-Really? We weren't having any of that.
-Yeah.
[chuckles]
"For what is liberty
without the liberty to act?"
[Kylie] And I said to Nick,
"God's on stage. How do we follow that?"
He said, "Jesus did okay."
And then he went out.
[discordant accordion music]
The way I remember it is that,
which-- Which I'm surprised
I can remember anything at all
because we were so out of it.
-[discordant accordion continuous]
-"Ho, ho, ho."
"Ho, ho, ho."
-Thank you.
-[applause]
I would like to bring out the flame-like
Kylie Minogue, ladies and gentlemen.
[whoops and cheers]
She walked on…
this pop princess up against
the most elitist art form
there is, of poetry.
-Why, thank you.
-[audience applauding]
Well, I didn't expect to be here,
but I-I have come
with words that I did not write,
which I shall read to you.
[accordion being played]
"In my imagination,
there is no hesitation."
"I dream about you all the time."
[audience laughing]
[Kylie] And I could hear the recognition,
that the audience--
They were with me and with us.
"In my imagination,
there is no complication."
"We walk together hand in hand."
[Nick] She just broke the night open…
"And I'm dreaming
that you're in love with me."
…with poetry that we could understand.
"I should be so lucky."
[laughter and applause]
"Lucky, lucky, lucky."
"I should be so lucky in love."
Thank you.
[cheering and applause]
[Kylie] It was like being
face-to-face with my old self.
[gentle music playing]
The one that I was trying
to turn my back on.
[Nick] I don't know
if I said this outright,
but I'm like,
"What the fuck are you doing?"
Like, "Indie?" I mean,
no one willingly wants to be indie.
[laughing]
They may say they do.
-[applause continuous]
-[accordion music playing]
Kylie Minogue, ladies and gentlemen.
But that's not what Kylie is, you know.
Kylie is this force…
[dramatic music playing]
…that is there to affect thousands
and thousands and thousands of people.
[dramatic music continuous]
It's all outward.
It's all giving.
[cheering]
You have an enormous positive influence.
These people that go along
to their first pop concert,
it's a life-changing moment
where they feel
something that they've never known before.
The great beauty of pop music
is that it is a joy machine.
[dramatic music swelling]
[Kylie] You've got
the coolest guy on the planet…
saying, "Where's the pop tunes?"
["Spinning Around"
by Kylie Minogue playing]
Right, let's get the jet packs on
and get back to the dance floor.
But if this doesn't work, I am finished.
I'm spinning around ♪
Move out of my way ♪
I know you're feeling me
'Cause you like it like this ♪
I'm breaking it down ♪
I'm not the same ♪
I know you're feeling me
'Cause you like it like… ♪
[whimsical music playing]
[woman vocalizing]
[music ends]