Divinyls Essentials

Divinyls Essentials

Chrissy Amphlett wasn’t always the onstage firebrand of legend. It took relentless gigging around the early-’80s Sydney pub rock scene and a little inspiration from Angus Young—the day after seeing AC/DC play, she went out and bought her trademark schoolgirl uniform and fishnet stockings—to transform this shy performer into a fearsome frontwoman. That schoolgirl image became synonymous with the Divinyls, even as Amphlett steered away from the look later in their career. Over the space of five albums (and one soundtrack, 1980’s Music From Monkey Grip), Divinyls penned a slew of Australian rock classics, veering from the jagged edges of earlier material such as “Boys in Town” and “Science Fiction” to the more nuanced, pop-inflected “I Touch Myself”, the single that placed them in the global spotlight. Even as the band went on hiatus in the mid-’90s, their songwriting drew international acclaim, with The Pretenders covering “Human on the Inside” in 1999. After an 11-year break, 2007’s “Don’t Wanna Do This” marked both the return of Divinyls and one of their final singles. Amphlett passed away five years later.

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