Divinyls
 Led by provocative singer Christina
Amphlett, whose song writing
with guitarist Mark McEntee is the basis of the band, Divinyls
have recorded a wealth of excellent material, from commercial hard
pop and driving arena-rock to alluring ballads.
As the bands focal point, Amphlett - who is the cousin of 60s
Australian "Queen of the surf", Little
Pattie (real name Patricia Amphlett) - has strutted her stuff
the world over, astounding and bewildering audiences with her
displays of school uniform-clad bump'n'grind burlesque,
unrestrained sexuality and animal grace.
By the time Divinyls formed in 1980, Amphlett had been singing
in bands since the early 1970s. Her early bands included Daisy
Clover (which she joined at age 14), One Ton Gypsy and Steamhammer.
She had also spent three years travelling throughout Europe,
during which time she spent a period in a Spanish jail. Jeremy
Paul and Mark McEntee had both served sentences in the softest of
all soft-rock bands, Air Supply.
Divinyls emerged out of inner-city Sydney and quickly built a
national following. In September 1981, WEA issued the band's debut
single Boys In Town which reached Number 6 during October.
It was lifted from the mini-album Music from Monkey Grip
which was the soundtrack of the Australian low-budget movie Monkey
Grip. Amphlett took the small speaking part of Angela in the
film.
The band supported UK band Simple
Minds on an Australian tour and Divinyls signed to Chrysalis
and recorded the punchy Desperate album in New York with
producers Mark Opitz and Bob Clearmountain. The album spawned the
singles Science Fiction (Nov 1982), Siren (Never Let You
Go) (April 1983) and Casual Encounter (August 1983).
The band continued to tour extensively, both locally and
overseas, and the singles Good Die Young (August 1984) and In
My Life (November 1984) followed.
 The 1985 album What A Life! reached Number 2 in
Australia within a week of release. The first single, Pleasure
And Pain (co-written by British 70's pop guru Mike Chapman)
peaked at Number 5 and also cracked the American Top 40. Two other
singles were lifted from the album - Sleeping Beauty and Heart
Telegraph.
Following months of touring in the US, Divinyls returned to
Australia with a line-up containing three Americans (including
Frank Infante from Blondie).
Such was
their stadium rock experience at that time that the band
consistently blew audiences away on the enormous 'Australian Made'
tour in 1987.
By the time their second Mike Chapman produced album, Temperamental,
was released, the band were basically back to a duo of Amphlett
and McEntee. The singles from the album were Back To The Wall
(March 1988), Hey Little Boy (July) and Punxsie
(October). All were minor domestic hits.
In 1990 Divinyls signed with Virgin and issued the biggest
album of their career, diVINYLS, spawning the Number 1
Australian single I Touch Myself in January 1991. This
provocative paean to masturbation also took the band into the US
Top Ten (Number 4) and UK Top Ten (Number 10).
Divinyls tracks subsequently started to appear in the
soundtracks to US movies and TV shows (including Buffy The
Vampire Slayer) and the band signed with BMG/RCA in 1996.
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