Divinyls debut studio album Desperate is the sound of a young band charging headlong out of the gates with grit and gusto.
The energy is palpable in the visceral guitar playing and songwriting of Mark McEntee, Bjarne Ohlin on keyboards and guitar, and the rock solid backbone provided by the drumming of Richard Harvey and bassist Rick Grossman, and of course, extremely evident in their indomitable frontwoman, Chrissy Amphlett.
It didn’t take long for Divinyls to attract attention around the Sydney clubs and pubs leading to the band being invited to contribute songs to Ken Cameron’s 1982 film Monkey Grip, tracks such as ‘Boys in Town’, ‘Only Lonely’ and ‘Elsie’ which also featured on the international version of their debut studio album.
Amphlett relayed a huge breadth and depth of emotion in song and performance, ranging from bulletproof strength to crushing despair and loneliness, and teamed that up with an astonishing array of vocal sounds that could mimic hiccups (‘Siren’), feral animalistic growls (‘Elsie’), or a tantalising alarm (as heard in ‘Science Fiction’s’ awh-ooh, awh-ooh, awh-ooh).
The hard knocks of the local pub scene may have shaped their ‘go for broke’ attitude, the forcefulness of their sound and the often times brutal physicality of their shows, but in Chrissy Amphlett, Divinyls were able to wield a truly potent weapon.
