Divinyls’ comeback national tour includes Lorne gig
DIVINYLS co-founder Mark McEntee is bravely reigniting the legendary Australian band for an epic national tour, which will include Lorne, after a serendipitous studio session with a rising LA rock singer.
McEntee hasn’t entertained the idea of getting the band back together since his musical partner and revered Geelong rock icon Chrissy Amphlett died in 2013.
But after playing on a cover of the band’s global smash I Touch Myself, recorded by Lauren Ruth Ward in Los Angeles earlier this year, the guitarist and songwriter decided he wanted to perform the band’s songs again.
The band is set to play 18 gigs around Australia from late February, including Lorne on March 10, and will feature Ward singing alongside McEntee, Blondie and former Divinyls guitarist Frank Infante and Sleepy Jackson’s drum- mer Malcolm Clarke and bassist J Cortez.
McEntee was on holidays in Los Angeles visiting his mate Infante when American hit maker Billy Steinberg, whose credits include Madonna’s Like A Virgin, Cyndi Lauper’s True Colours and The Bangles’ Eternal Flame, urged him to come to the studio.
Steinberg, who also helped the Divinyls write I Touch Myself, had asked Ward to sing on the track as part of a series of recordings he was doing of hit songs he had written over the 1980s and ‘90s.
“I went down to the studio to have a look and do a bit of playing and it turned out she was doing one of our old songs,” McEntee said.
“I heard her sing and f--me, she’s got a great voice, a soulful voice. Her growl, her huskiness reminds me a bit of Chrissy and Janis Joplin.”
A couple of months later after returning home to Perth, McEntee started feeling the desire to get back on the road.
“I just thought it would be great to play the songs Chrissy and me wrote together to an audience again; it’s been so long,” he said. “Chrissy’s lyrics will go out there again and be sung by a woman that can get the right sound.
“I reckon Chrissy would love to know her lyrics are getting out to people.”
Tickets are on sale from Thursday and tour dates include the Lorne Hotel on March 10 and the Forum in Melbourne on March 7.