IT'S DELIGHTFUL, IT'S DELICIOUS, IT'S DIVINYLS

IT'S DELIGHTFUL, IT'S DELICIOUS, IT'S DIVINYLS

FEATURES

Billy Altman

Talk about doing your time on the road. Christina Amphlett, the smashing lead singer of Australia’s equally smashing group Divinyls is sitting in a Mexican restaurant on Manhattan’s upper west side, “reminiscing,” between sips of a marguerita, about an episode from her past that sounds like a scene from the imaginary screenplay for Midnight Express Meets Caged Heat. “It was a couple of years ago, before Divinyls came into existence, and I was bumming around Europe,” she explains. “In Spain, I got arrested and thrown in jail for six weeks, without any formal charges ever even getting mentioned. I think it said in the papers that I was a ‘suspected drug addict’ or something equally as ludicrous.

“Anyway, after the six weeks were up, I was thrown on this bus with 36 male convicts, and they put me in a locked cage at the front of the bus to ‘keep me safe.’ We were traveling through Barcelona and, one day, these gypsies who were being carted off to prison came on with us, and they were dancing and singing by my cage all the time, even with their handcuffs on. We stayed in local jails overnight until the two weeks trip was over and then they dumped some of us out—that is, set us free—when we finally reached the French border. They even put cognac in our coffee whenever we stopped during the day so we’d be quiet and drowsy by nightfall and not try anything. It was fun!

“In fact,” Christina continues, “it felt like quite a parallel when, last year we did a three week tour with Simple Minds and Icehouse by bus. All the roadies were riding with us, and, being the only girl on board, I had to keep one eye open all the time for my own protection.” The lead singer who used to come onstage in a formal schoolgirl outfit adorned by a dead mouse pin lets out a wicked laugh. “I guess you could say I’ve been well prepared for the rock ’n’ roll life, eh?”

Actually, Christina Amphlett, Mark McEntee and the rest of the Divinyls appear to be well prepared for lots of things these days—most notably, a nice healthy dose of real rock ’n’ roll stardom. With their fine second album, What A Life!, finally released this winter (talk about your “long-awaited”—we’ve been twiddling our thumbs anticipating a follow-up to their exceptional debut LP, Desperate, for well over two years), and a national tour to take them through the spring set in place, 1986 is quickly shaping up as the probable breakthrough year in the U.S. for this quintet from Sydney’s notorious “Sin Capital” district, King’s Cross.

Watching the band in action two years ago, it was impossible not to be affected by 1) the power of the group’s music—a gut-wrenching, take-no-prisoners assault of fast and furious hard rock, spearheaded by McEntee’s slashing, emotional guitar playing; and 2) the distinctive singing and singular stage presence of Miss Amphlett, who would, at some points, spin across the floor in a pogoing danse macabre of the disenfranchised and

then, at others, smear lipstick across her body in a defiant symbol of anti-conformity. Even better, the Divinyls’ album, the all-too-appropriately titled Desperate, featured some CONTINUED FROM PAGE 38

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authentically eye-opening treatises on loneliness, longing, frustration, and hope as the riveting “Boys In Town,” the tough and tragic “Elsie,” and the shoulda-been-a-hit pop-eyed “Only Lonely.”

As stated before, it’s been a good two and then some annums between Desperate and What A Life\ “Actually, it only took us, all told, just 13 weeks to record this record,” says Christina, explaining the circumstances of What A Lifel’s creation. “We toured for almost half a year after Desperate came out in the U.S., and then we rushed into the studio when we got back to Australia. And we realized that we weren’t really ready. So we decided to step back and take stock for awhile.” Ultimately, the band wound up using three separate producers, but it’s testament to their faith in what they wanted to accomplish that the record doesn’t sound at all disjointed, which is what usally happens when too many cooks get involved. As amply demonstrated by rave-ups like “Motion” and the passesfor-the-Stones-in-a-blindfold-test “Don’t You Go Walkin’,” the band’s ferocious live sound is still being well-harnessed in the studio, but other, more depthful tracks such as “Heart Telegraph” and “In My Life” show the group’s growth and maturity. Toss in a few potential hits like the video-aided “Pleasure And Pain” and the Mott The Hoople-like “Sleeping Beauty”

courtesy of Mr. Chapman, and you understand the band’s satisfaction at the time and effort spent in getting it right. “The album debuted at number eight in Australia,” grins Christina, “so at least we’re safe at home.”

Given the tough stance taken by the band onstage, I’m curious as to what the Divinyls’ image is back at the home. “Well,” says Christina, “let’s just say that when Charles and Diana came over to visit, we weren’t asked to take part in the command performance. And when we’re on a television show, they really batten down the hatches. They seem to think we’re going to wreck the joint, but we never do. I guess people over there think of me as, un, er...”

“As a bit of a girl, eh?” laughs McEntee, who’s accompanied Amphlett on her publicity tour here in the States. “As a bit naughty, I suppose,” continues Amphlett. “There are the goodie goodies and not so goodie goodies. And, coming from King’s Cross, where there a lot of teenage runaways and homeless kids, well, they look at our crowd and expect trouble.”

But aren’t the Divinyls a band that forces one to react? “Well, I guess we are a bit confronting,” says Mark. “I like to entertain people, sure,” says Christina, “but our songs are a reflection of what we’ve been through and seen, and a lot of it is about hard times. Like I said in ‘Elsie,’—‘life can be lonely, life can be very bad, life can be something you wish you never had.’ And I go through a lot when I’m performing. I know when I first got to America, some people might have been put off, because they didn’t comprehend what I was doing. I know when I first started, I used to think that the audience was my enemy, and maybe, subconsciously, I was pushing people away. But I’m a bit different now. I do want everyone involved and for people to have a good time. Hopefully, I’ve learned to make people understand what I’m about.”

“It’s funny, though,” Christina points out. “When we first played in England, people said, ‘Why doesn’t she put on more makeup or dye her hair, or cut it better?’ I guess my life was just a bit too ugly for them. I’ll tell you, though, all that make yourself more pleasing, ‘Boytoy’ object stuff can make it very hard on you. There’s all that pressure to go along with the crowd, to ‘fit in.’ And if that’s part of what’s set us apart, so be it. We’re just not very good at being trendy. There are kids whose lives are so lonely, and I’m just glad that some of them relate to us, relate to something. When I was in jail last year for parking fines in Sydney...”

Wait a minute! You were in jail again last year? “Oh, yeah,” Christina shrugs. “It was no big deal. I just had accumulated all these parking tickets and they shut me away for about a week to cover the fines. Anyway, when the girls in the dormitory found out who I was, they all started hanging out in my room to talk—they wanted someone from the outside, a celebrity, to know their stories, why they were there. Course, a few of them doubted who I was. Especially because while I was in there, I never heard any of our songs on the radio.”

“Right,” deadpans Mark. “And when she got out, she said ‘we better get another record out. Everyone’s forgetting us.’”

Ah, yes, I can just see it now: Our Bodies, Our Cells: The Divinyis Live From Debtor’s Prison...