Max Q was a short-lived Australian rock band, active in the late 1980s, essentially a vanity recording project for INXS frontman Michael Hutchence. It consisted of Hutchence (vocals) and Ollie Olsen (production), accompanied by key members of the Melbourne post-punk scene, most of whom had previously collaborated with Olsen.
The project followed on from Hutchence and Olsen's work on the film Dogs In Space, where they met. Max Q released one critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful self-titled album in 1989 and had minor hits with the songs "Sometimes" (originally recorded by Olsen with Orchestra Of Skin And Bone) and "Way of the World". They toured briefly before Hutchence went back to his day job with INXS.
The other members of INXS have been reported as being unhappy with Hutchence's solo "career" . As of 2005, The Max Q album has not been re-issued.
The band name "Max Q" is an aeronautical term, short for "Maximum Quotient": the point of maximum stress on an aircraft during flight that it can sustain without failing. Another band called Max Q consists of astronauts assigned to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The Hutchence/Olsen band was named after Ollie Olsen's dog, Max.
In October 2006, two of the Max Q songs had been featured in the Triple M Essential 2006 Countdown which had been voted by listeners :
Max Q is the barbershop quartet that won the gold medal Barbershop Harmony Society International Barbershop Quartet Contest at Denver's Pepsi Center July 7 2007.
