Divinyls co-founder Mark McEntee reveals the band is doing another national tour in 2019
Divinyls co-founder Mark McEntee has revealed why he is reigniting the legendary Australian band for a national tour after a serendipitous studio session with a rising LA rock singer.
Exclusive: Divinyls co-founder Mark McEntee is bravely reigniting the legendary Australian band for an epic national tour 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 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 to play 18 gigs around Australia from late February will feature Ward singing alongside McEntee, Blondie and former Divinyls guitarist Frank Infante and Sleepy Jackson’s drummer 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 and perform the Divinyls legacy of 80s and 90s hits including Science Fiction, Pleasure and Pain, Boys In Town, Sleeping Beauty and Back To The Wall to audiences again.
Simply, he missed playing these songs.
He rang Ward to canvas her interest in taking on such a monumental role and after “my people talked to her people”, the tour plans were set in motion.
McEntee said he had already been playing jam sessions with the rhythm section of Clarke and Cortez just for the hell of it.
“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.
“I didn’t dream of getting the band back together but I thought ‘Oh bugger it, there’s no time like the present’.
“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.”
No doubt many will welcome the band’s revival but it is inevitable many fans or critics will have a differing opinion.
McEntee said he won’t be swayed by cynicism.
“I don’t care what anybody else thinks. The fans who want to come see it, will come see it,” he said.
“Lauren isn’t trying to step into Chrissy’s shoes; no one could ever step into Chrissy’s shoes. She will do it her own way.”
Ward, who released her debut album Well, Hell last year, quit her thriving hairdressing salon in her native Baltimore in 2015 to move to Los Angeles and follow her passion for music.
She has made her name in LA rock circles and is also the fiance of popular singer and songwriter LP, who has also helped write chart hits for Rihanna and Cher as well as enjoying solo success.
While daunted by the responsibility of fronting the band, Ward said as an artist and a workaholic, the offer to join the Divinyls is “one of the things I am saying yes to.”
“There are so many people who love Chrissy and the Divinyls and the songs so I am a little nervous for people to not like the idea. I can’t control that,” she said.
“I’m not trying to play her in a movie, I’m just singing her amazing lyrics and trying to continue the life that they live.”
Ward has been frantically rehearsing a setlist worth of songs since agreeing to the gig.
She couldn’t resist falling down the rabbithole of online videos of Amphlett performing the Divinyls hits over the years.
“I’ve been brushing up on all of these songs and it’s been fun to look at the way she performed.
We sing differently, we move differently and watching her live performances, which I’ve done many times, I’ve been falling in love with her. She’s so inspiring,” she said.
McEntee was adamant the reunion tour would mirror the hard scrabble early years of the band when they would play far and wide into regional and suburban Australia.
“I didn’t want some soft five capital city tour,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to going out to play the smaller stages, direct to people, because I want to reconnect with people like Chrissy and I used to when we toured, toured, toured.
“It’ll be a rock celebration with no freaking ballads or soft songs.”
Tickets on sale from December 6.
Divinyls Australia tour dates for 2019:
WINTERSUN HOTEL, GERALDTON, February 27.
GATE ONE THEATRE, PERTH, March 1 and 3
DUNSBOROUGH TAVERN, March 2
THE GOV, ADELAIDE, March 6
FORUM, MELBOURNE, March 7
UNI BAR, HOBART, March 8
SALOON BAR, LAUNCESTON, March 9
LORNE HOTEL, March 10
ANU, CANBERRA, March 13
WAVES, WOLLONGONG, March 14
ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY, March 15
LIVE AT THE FORESHORE, NEWCASTLE, March 16
COOLANGATTA HOTEL, March 20
EATONS HILL HOTEL, BRISBANE, March 21
WHARF TAVERN, MOOLOOLABA, March 22
RACEHORSE HOTEL, IPSWICH, March 23
DISCOVERY, DARWIN, March 25
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