Divinyls - Monkey Grip (1982) Mini Album

 (Australian 1980 - 97)

The Divinyls formed in 1980, founded by Mark McEntee and fronted by lead singer Christina Amphlett. After scoring several gigs, they were discovered by Australian director Ken Cameron. This led to Divinyls providing the entire soundtrack for his 1982 film Monkey Grip. Amphlett was also given a supporting role in the film, playing a temperamental rock singer loosely based on herself, fronting a band played by other Divinyls members. In the film, the band performed their debut single "Boys in Town", as well as other songs "Only Lonely", "Elsie", "Only You", "Girlfriends" and "Gonna Get You", the latter being the first appearance of them in the film. The soundtrack Music from Monkey Grip was acknowledged as a Divinyls album, and when released in 1982, it made the top twenty-five of the Australian Albums Chart.

Monkey Grip

Nora (Noni Hazlehurst) lives with her 11-year-old daughter Gracie (Alice Garner) in a crowded share house in inner-city Melbourne, in the late 1970s. Nora works for an alternative magazine, as she tries to write fiction. Javo (Colin Friels) is an actor, a friend of her boyfriend Martin (Tim Burns). Nora feels a powerful attraction to Javo’s reckless charm. Her friend Eve (Cathy Downes) warns her that he’s a heroin user, but Nora is already in love. Gracie accepts her mother’s choice, as does Martin. Javo becomes a regular around the house and in Nora’s bed. They are mad about each other, except that Javo keeps disappearing to chase heroin and acting jobs.

Nora calls it off and tries to move on, drifting towards an affair with Willie (Harold Hopkins), a drummer in a rising rock‘n’roll band. Javo gets thrown in jail in Bangkok for a few months. When he returns, he and Nora reunite, but he is seeing another woman, the beautiful actress Lillian (Candy Raymond). Nora, Javo and Gracie go to Sydney for a holiday. He promises to kick heroin, but that never happens. Nora returns to Melbourne with Gracie and restarts her life. She begins writing again, moves to a new share house with Eve, and starts seeing Gerald (Don Miller-Robinson), the guitarist from the rock band. Javo reappears, with another declaration of love, but he is still using heroin. Nora tries to summon the courage to end it, for the last time.

Noni Hazlehurst won Best Actress at the 1982 AFI Awards. She had originally auditioned for the role of the singer Angela, who’s played in the film by Christina Amphlett, lead singer of The Divinyls (a group formed in Sydney in 1980). Nora’s daughter in the film is played by Alice Garner, the daughter of Helen Garner. Neither Hazlehurst nor Colin Friels was well-known at the time of their casting.

Chrissy Amphlett

Monkey Grip was released in Australian cinemas in June 1982. In addition to Noni Hazlehurst’s Best Actress AFI Award in 1982, the film was also nominated for Best Picture, Supporting Actress (Alice Garner), Cinematography (David Gribble) and Editing (David Huggett) awards. [Extract from Australian Screen Online]

This post consists of FLACS ripped from my vinyl, which I bought back in 1982, more than likely from Reading Records in Carlton.  Mini albums were big at the time, and this one was great value with seven tracks for $7.99   (Most mini LPs only had 5-6 tracks) 

Interestingly enough, the CD release is now worth considerably more than vinyl, with eBay prices reaching above $200.  Insane !

Of course, full album artwork for both vinyl and CD is included, along with label scans

Track Listing

01 - Boys In Town

02 - Only Lonely

03 - Elsie

04 - Elsie (Reprise)

05 - Only You

06 - Gonna Get You

07 - Girl Friends

Divinyls were:

Christina (Chrissy) Amphlett - Lead Vocals

Mark McEntee - Lead Guitar, Vocals

Bjarne Ohlin - Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals

Rick Grossman - Bass

Richard Harvey - Drums

The Divinyls Mini LP (153Mb) New Link 19/12/2023

Divinyls - Live (1983 & 1986) Ex SB

(Australian 1980-97, Present)

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Led by provocative singer Christina Amphlett, whose songwriting 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.
Divinyls formed in Sydney, Australia, in 1980. Legend has it that guitarist Mark McEntee first saw vocalist Christina Amphlett performing with a church choir at the Sydney Opera House, and took notice of her when the cord of the microphone she was using became tangled on her stool, which she proceeded to knock over and drag across the stage, singing all the while. Mark: "From that moment, I knew something had to be done, that we should form a group."
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. [Extract from nostalgiacentral.com]

The live recordings included here are taken from the pinnacle period in the bands career, when they released their 'Desperate' and 'What Is Life' LP's, with both concerts sourced from U.S tours. My favourite track is "Elsie" - purely for the raw energy that Christie Amphlett exhibits in this classic track.

The rip was taken from tape at 192kps and includes full album artwork.

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Track Listing

(Spit - 4th May 1983, Boston, MA)
01 - Introduction

02 - Make You Happy

03 - Only You

04 - Only Lonely

05 - Science Fiction

06 - Boys In Town

07 - Elsie
(Tower Theater - 22nd Jan 1986 Philadelphia, PA)
08 - Sleeping Beauty

09 - In My Life

10 - Pleasure And Pain

11 - Don't You Go Walking

12 - Science Fiction

13 - Boys In Town

14 - Guillotine

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Band Members

Christie Amphlett (Vocals)

Mark McEntee (Guitars)

Bjarne Ohlin (Keyboards)

Richard Harvey, J J Harris (Drums)

Rick Grossman (Bass)

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Divinyls Link (71Mb) New Link 24/08/2024

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