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Rock stars at their peak and many years later


Len Colby

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Divinyls - The Good Die Young (1984)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KfGEJQgsTo

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Christina Amphlett

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Christine Amphlett 267px-Chrissie_Amphlett.jpg

Background information

Birth name Christine Joy Amphlett Also known as Chrissy Amphlett Born 25 October 1959 (age 52) Origin Geelong, Victoria, Australia Genres Rock, New Wave Occupations Singer, songwriter, actress Instruments Singing Years active 1982-present Labels Chrysalis Records, Virgin Records, RCA Records Associated acts

Divinyls

Christine Joy Amphlett (born 25 October 1959 Geelong, Victoria, Australia) was the lead singer of Australian rock band Divinyls. She is also known as Chrissy Amphlett.

She grew up in Geelong as a singer and dancer. She left home as a teenager and travelled to England, France and Spain where she was imprisoned[1] for three months for singing on the streets.

In May 2001, Divinyls' "Science Fiction", written by Amphlett and lead guitarist Mark McEntee, was selected by Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time.[2] Amphlett and McEntee barely spoke after the band had separated in 1996, but resumed contact when they were inducted in the 2006 ARIA Hall of Fame, eventually announcing a new tour and album.[3]

Contents

Divinyls

Main article: Divinyls

Amphlett met Mark McEntee at a concert at the Sydney Opera House in 1980, and the pair formed the Divinyls shortly after. After several years of live gigs in Sydney, they recorded several songs to be used on the soundtrack of the film Monkey Grip.

Divinyls consisted of an ever-changing lineup around the core of Amphlett and McEntee, whose relationship was volatile throughout their career. Nonetheless, the band released six albums between 1982 and 1996, peaking in 1991 with the success of the single "I Touch Myself" which reached Number 1 in Australia, 10 in the UK and 4 in the US. Divinyls did not release another album for nearly six years, splitting up around the time of Underworld's release in Australia. Amphlett lived in New York City with her husband, concentrating on a solo career and writing her autobiography Pleasure and Pain: My Life.

Amphlett and McEntee barely spoke after the band split up, but resumed contact when they were inducted in the 2006 ARIA Hall of Fame, eventually announcing a new tour and album.[3]

Other work

Amphlett has also worked as an actress. She made her film debut in the 1982 film Monkey Grip, in which she had a supporting role as the temperamental lead singer of a rock band. (Jane Clifton - later of "Neighbours" fame writes in her autobiography that Monkey Grip author Helen Garner wrote of Clifton in the book. The film's director preferred Amphlett in the Clifton role because "Clifton was neither good looking enough or a good enough singer to play herself".

In 1988, Amphlett starred alongside Russell Crowe in the first Australian production of Will Russell's stage musical Blood Brothers.[4][5]

Amphlett was originally cast to play Judy Garland opposite Todd McKenney in the original touring production of The Boy from Oz, about the life of Peter Allen. However, Amphlett was replaced in the role by Isabel Keating when the show made its Broadway debut in 2003, but she resumed the role in the Australian tour.[6]

Personal life

Amphlett grew up in Geelong and was a student at Belmont High School.[citation needed]

She is a cousin of Australian singer Little Pattie (Patricia Amphlett).[7]

Since 1999 Amphlett has been married to US drummer Charley Drayton who played drums on the Divinyls eponymous album and was the drummer in the reformed group. Prior to her marriage to Drayton, Amphlett had an affair with Mark McEntee.[6]

In an interview on the Nine Network program A Current Affair on 7 December 2007 Amphlett revealed she was battling multiple sclerosis.[8][9] She also announced that Divinyls are no longer together and that she has a new band in New York.

Amphlett performed Divinyls songs and others with a thirty piece orchestra for the "Australian Rock Symphony" through January 2010.[citation needed]

Amphlett revealed on 20 October 2010 that she has breast cancer. She was treated in New York where she lives with her husband. She said her sister is a breast cancer survivor.[10] On 24 January 2011 she claimed to be free of cancer.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ Pleasure and Pain: My Life by Chrissy Amphlett with Larry Writer. ISBN 0-7336-1959-2. Published by Hachette Livre Australia (formerly Hodder Headline Australia), November 2005
  2. ^ Kruger, Debbie (2 May 2001). "The songs that resonate through the years" (PDF). Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 19 March 2010.
  3. ^ a b Divinyls, Countdown (ABC TV).
  4. ^ "Audition - Blood Brothers | theatre australia". Theatre.asn.au. Retrieved 2011-12-29.
  5. ^ "BLOOD BROTHERS | theatre australia". Theatre.asn.au. Retrieved 2011-12-29.
  6. ^ a b Blackman, Guy: A lady on the stage, The Age, 6 August 2006.
  7. ^ Adams, Cameron (27 August 2009). "ARIA Award may heal Mental as Anything rift". The Herald Sun (News Corporation). Retrieved 14 May 2010.
  8. ^ Amphlett reveals she has MS. The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 December 2007.
  9. ^ Rock star Chrissy's disease fight, The Daily Telegraph, 7 December 2007.
  10. ^ [Chrissy Amphlett - cancer diagnosis, Australian Times, http://www.australiantimes.co.uk/entertainment/chrissy-amphlett-cancer-diagnosis.htm]

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25986945-5012974,00.html

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So?

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Ah, ok, so you want to talk about the looks of stars?

If so, the topic is really objectification? I suppose then it's also about commercialisation. Something that detracts from the human in the artist.

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Ah, ok, so you want to talk about the looks of stars?

If so, the topic is really objectification? I suppose then it's also about commercialisation. Something that detracts from the human in the artist.

No I just thought the page interesting so started a thread with the link. But Rockers aging is an ineresting topic because more than any other genre of art Rock was part of youth culture, so it's a bit incongruous to see them still going after all these years. Forget their looks can you think of any who made records 20 or more after their 1st notable recordings that were anywhere as good as their early stuff? Examples are few and far between and normally made up principally if not entirely of covers and/or re-recordings

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I guess their conciousness changes to varying degree and direction. Many continue their work in other fields which probably as they age is a good indicator where they are at. It often seems to me that blues and country naturally ages well. I think Johnny Cash's Hurt is while his last also his best. Probably as a kid I would have thought something completely different, perhaps not. For a time my favourite was Louis Armstrong then this mate of mine led me astray with Zappa...

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I agree “Hurt” was one of Cash’s best recordings, hard to say if it was THE best after all there’s “I Walk The Line”, “Ring of Fire”, “San Quentin”, “Folsom Prison Blues”, “Sunday Morning Comming Down”, “Cocaine Blues” etc. etc. “Hurt” was one of the “few and far between” examples I had in mind. It was part of Cash’s ‘American Recordings’ series but it was like the other songs on those albums was “made up principally if not entirely of covers and/or re-recordings”. Fitting in with that Nancy Sinatra, Link Wray, Wanda Jackson, Andre Williams and Mary Weiss (Shangilas) among others have put out very good albums recently but except for the latter two they also are “made up principally if not entirely of covers and/or re-recordings “

I agree also that Country and Blues artists age better than Rock ones, most of the artists mentioned above had their roots in one or the other.

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Yes, it's a matter of opinion as to what's best.

Jazz is a bit like that too I think. Have you ever come across a saying something like ''jazz is the new classical''?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I think , simply put , if their music has some quality to it in the first place, and was not just riffs in the case of guitar playing, that it would last. Mark Knopfler and the band that was all his, Dire Straits, is a good example.

There are numerous bands honoring him, not the least of which is The Straits, which includes Allen Clark, Knoplers keyboard player for most of the duration of the group.

Europe got it as far as Mark Knopfler. The US did not.

Funny thing. That is the US did not recognize Knopflers talent the extent that Europe, X England ironically, realized this mans talent.

That is not to say he was not appreciated in England or the US, it is just that they were bigger markets in his language, that should have faired even better.

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Wow you're really obsessed with Knopfler. Do you think any of the stuff he put out 20 - 30 years later held a candle to his early work?

Wow you're really obsessed with Knopfler. Do you think any of the stuff he put out 20 - 30 years later held a candle to his early work?

Yes I am ( obsessed with Mark Knopfler )

He recorded Dire Straits ( thats the name of the first album ) in 1977, in 1995 he went solo, although he was Dire Straits all along.

Marks finger picking style is pretty hard to replicate. Look at him play - he does not use a pick and most cannot play like him.

He plays guitar so much better than most of his guitar playing friends - Clapton et al, that although you can see Knopfler play with them, there should be more. Clapton , played with Knopfler back in the day, but looked like a fool, in my opinion , just strumming away the flunky rhythm part that Knopfler had fired numerous guitarists, including his own brother.

Yes, Knopfler has played guitar with Chet Atkins, Clapton, Dylan, and others and played the hard parts, including on Layla.

In this day and age I don't need to tell you specifics - just Google Knopfler / Clapton Layla to start.

Best

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