PLEASURE AND PAIN
i wrote last month of discovering that my sweetie chrissy amphlett (of divinyls) 
had published a book. zowie! just picked it up from the post office today, and it’s been an enjoyable afternoon eating pizza and this luscious book.
it’s a much better looking paperback than i figured from the publicity pic. assumed it was a low budget, local release. it may be sold primarily in australia, but they didn’t fuck around on the quality. it’s nicely bound, with multiple photo sections that are quite enjoyable. the photos are printed well, black and white on glossy paper, and most come with personal descriptions from the prime lass. learned that her given name is christine, not christina. she says that ‘christina’ came out “when Mum and Dad were cross with me.”
such a personal book. i’m only up to page 34, but it’s obvious from the start that she’s writing from the heart. love hearing about how she grew up. the descriptions of her parents, sister, and forming events are straight and true. what a soul this woman has. it’s funny to think that famous people still recall by name the average numbnutz types who terrorized them in childhood. her take on it had me laughing during dinner:
The surfer boys of Torquay could be as cruel as they were beautiful. Some said and did terrible things to me. Calling me ‘Jail-bait’ made me feel like shit. I happily put up with their heartlessness when I was young, but I would have my revenge. Years later, the Divinyls played Geelong and during the gig I looked down into the audience and there was a group of blokes I recognised from the beach, the very ones who had given me a hard time. Their names were Fledge, Boong and Brew and they couldn’t believe that the crazy little person from the beach had transformed into this rock star in a school uniform going berserk up on stage. I could see I scared them. After a blistering set, I stood there sweating, triumphant, as the crowd went wild, and I looked down at them and yelled, ‘Now go and get fucked!‘
as i’ve written before, that was no shit about her scaring people (men) in concert. much as i loved her, i was a little on edge seeing her live the first time (only, unfortunately), because of her sexual power — intimidating, but pure joy at the heart. it’s written in the book, and it was written on her body live: she came to play music. she is, above all, musical.
my name’s charley, spelled with an e-y on the end, so it was a little weird to stumble onto this bit early on:
Only one other person has ever offered me such unconditional love. My husband, Charley.
oh, christina… if you only knew.
spent almost US$40 for this paperback, with shipping. a bargain. though they don’t keep it in stock, i recommend buying from booktopia if you can’t find it locally (remember those prices are AU$, so it’s not as bad as it looks) — good, solid service, for a book that will bring hours of smiles to the face of any divinyls lover. i’m grinning ear-to-ear, and i’ve barely started. of course i went through the pictures first. nothing like seeing my darling growing up, then turning into that. who would have believed?