Divinyls

The Divinyls’ Christina Amphlett ranked as Australia’s most electrifying female stage presence, whether at home or abroad. Together with guitarist Mark McEntee and an ever-shifting roster of supporting players, she assembled a durable catalog of hard-hitting pop releases.

After fleeing home at fourteen to trail her favorite band, Amphlett landed her first musical gig in Melbourne. By 1971 she had surfaced in Sydney as a featured vocalist with the ambitious country-rock outfit One Ton Gypsy. At seventeen she departed Australia for a solo trek across Europe that included stretches living rough on the streets of Paris and a brief stay in a Spanish jail after busking without a permit.

Once back in Sydney she entered a church choir solely to strengthen the upper range of her voice. During one service her stool toppled and became caught in the microphone cable; Mark McEntee watched from the audience as she hauled the stool across the stage without interrupting her singing, an image that prompted him to seek an introduction. That encounter launched an enduring professional partnership.

In December 1980 the pair began gigging in Sydney’s seedier venues with a Divinyls lineup drawn from veteran Australian rock musicians who had yet to taste mainstream success—except bassist Jeremy Paul, an original member of Air Supply. The group had barely begun live work when filmmaker Ken Cameron spotted them while scouting for a band to appear in his movie Monkey Grip. Impressed by Amphlett, Cameron wrote her a small speaking role and, unexpectedly, discovered that the same musicians could also supply the film’s soundtrack.

The resulting single “Boys in a Town,” drawn from the soundtrack mini-album, reached the Australian Top Ten. Jeremy Paul exited just before its release and was succeeded by Richard Grossman, later of Hoodoo Gurus.

Armed with a one-off deal tied to Monkey Grip, the Divinyls fielded multiple label offers and ultimately secured a worldwide contract with Chrysalis despite having only one prior hit. Their first full-length album, Desperate, was cut in New York under Australian producer Mark Opitz.

Extensive world touring followed, yet personnel continued to rotate around the Amphlett-McEntee core. Managers and record companies came and went with equal frequency, and the constant reshuffling delayed new recordings. The 1985 album What a Life required three separate producers to finish; while the protracted gaps between releases frustrated everyone involved, they may also have helped sustain the group’s career.

In 1991 the Divinyls returned to prominence with “I Touch Myself,” a worldwide smash that topped the Australian chart and reached the American Top Ten. By then any notion of a stable band had dissolved, leaving Amphlett and McEntee to tour as a duo backed by session players.

Amphlett further explored her acting gifts with the lead in an Australian staging of Blood Brothers and a memorable turn as Judy Garland in the Peter Allen-themed musical The Boy from Oz. Christina Amphlett passed away in New York City in April 2013 at the age of fifty-three following an extended struggle with breast cancer.