Slow ticket sales have resulted in the cancellation of next week's planned New Zealand tour by the surviving members of INXS [ tickets ], which was to feature Jon Stevens of Australian rock band Noiseworks in the place of deceased frontman Michael Hutchence, according to the tour’s promoter.

The shows were to take place in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Palmerston North from August 20-26.

"It is with great reluctance that we have made this decision," a spokesman for donedeal productions said in a statement. "We had the distinct pleasure of seeing INXS and Jon Stevens play in Sydney in May and were absolutely blown away by the performance. The plans were formulated in the days following to bring a tour through NZ and we were all very excited at the prospect of the guys playing here for the first time in over 10 years. The announcement generated a similar response from the media.

"Unfortunately despite everyone's best efforts and extensive promotion by the various band members and Jon Stevens on TV, Radio and in the nation's press, the shows have fallen victim to the current market conditions here, which have seen similar cancellations in recent weeks (Bardot and the World Championship Wrestling), with a lot of other international concerts suffering from poor attendances. There seems to be a very serious problem facing the local industry at present and how this impacts on future tours to New Zealand remains to be seen."

According to the official INXS website, the band had hoped that promoters would allow the shows to go on.

"INXS has always had the policy that if you say you are going to play, then you play--full house or not,” the site quotes a band spokesperson as saying. “Everyone is extremely disappointed the concerts will not be going ahead, but the promoter's decision is to cancel and there is nothing we can do to change that decision.”

The band plans to head into the studio in the coming weeks, and hopes to return to New Zealand in the future, the statement said.