"I think that the last time we played near the peninsula would have been at the Frankston pub, when Hutch [Michael Hutchence] was in the band.

''I remember there was a lot of stairs that the crew had to load the gear up," Pengilly told the Weekly from his home on the NSW south coast a day before flying to Peru.

"Some very close friends of mine used to live down at Rye and I used to visit and stay for a few days. We're very excited about the tour and we will be going to a lot of places that we have not been to for 20 or 30 years.

''We love playing to country audiences, I think they're the best in the world and it's great because it's going to be holiday time - but we've also got something up our sleeve for the [capital] cities."

Since the death of lead singer Hutchence in 1997, INXS has been fronted by an A-list of singers including Jon Stevens, JD Fortune, Rob Thomas, Terrence Trent-Darby, Jimmy Barnes and Deborah de Corral.

New singer Ciaran Gribbin will be with the band when they hit the peninsula. Gribbin is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter who has worked with Snow Patrol, Groove Armada, Paul McCartney and Madonna.

The addition of a new lead vocalist means revisiting every song that's being primed for the stage. "We've changed the set around. We just did four months in North America that was the final tour with JD.

''We're still doing some of the versions from the Original Sin tour, but it's quite a different set and it takes bits and pieces from most of our albums, right up to Elegantly Wasted and The Swing.

''It's not all hits - there is a mixture of things including some songs that Ciaran felt strongly about. We finished rehearsals yesterday and it's very exciting," Pengilly said.

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