Chrissy Amphlett of Divinyls fame has died at the age of 53 after a two year fight with breast cancer.
Chrissy Amphlett, Photo By Ros O'Gorman
Chrissy was one of Australia’s greatest female rock voices of the 80s and 90s.
Christine Joy Amphlett was born in Geelong outside Melbourne on October 25, 1959. She is the cousin of Australian 60s pop star Little Patti.
Chrissy formed Divinyls with Mark McEntee and Jeremy Paul (ex-Air Supply) in Sydney in 1980. Her ‘schoolgirl in fishnet stockings’ hard rock image made her stand out from the crowd and Divinyls soon had their first hit song with the electrifying ‘Boys In Town’ featured in the movie Monkey Grip. ‘Only Lonely’, another song from the movie gave Divinyls their second hit.
Divinyls signed to Chrysalis Records for international distribution and began a string of hits starting with ‘Science Fiction’ from the ‘Desperate’ album in 1983.
Four albums followed. ‘What A Life’ (1985), ‘Tempermental’ (1988), Divinyls (1991) and Underworld (1996).
‘Pleasure and Pain’ became their first international hit entering the Billboard chart in the USA in 1985 but the big one was ‘I Touch Myself’. It reached no 1 in Australia, no. 4 in the USA and no 10 in the UK in 1990.
Divinyls last release was the 2007 reunion single ‘Don’t Wanna Do This’, released to mark the band’s induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Divinyls hits songs were:
1981:
Boys In Town (8)
1983
Science Fiction (13)
Casual Encounter (91)
1984
Good Die Young (32)
In My Life (47)
1985
Pleasure and Pain (11)
1986
Sleeping Beauty (50)
Heart Telegraph (90)
1988
Back To The Wall (33)
Hey Little Boy (23)
1990
I Touch Myself (1)
Love School (43)
1991
I’m On Your Side
1992
I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore
1993
Wild Thing (39)
1995
I’m Jealous (14)
1996
Human On The Inside (59)
Hard On Me (94)
