Rock Symphony: Chrissie Amphlett (Divinyls), Diesel & Baby Animals (review)

venue: The Palais  

Two worlds collided at the Palais on this night of orchestral and rock music with some very interesting results. For our headline three acts, the pub circuit was basically their baptism into live music - a fact that becomes very prevalent during this slightly bizarre union. The idea to combine three leading Australian rock acts with a 30 piece orchestra was dreamed up by musical director Tim Count who asked all three artists to compile a set list of their best loved songs, which would then be arranged for an orchestra. The concept was in many ways was exciting but there were quite mixed results in practice. Of the many highlights, we are privy tonight at a rare public appearance by the first lady of Australian rock - Chrissie Amplett along with a newly assembled Divinyls line up.
 

The vibe amongst the mostly over 30s crowd at the start of tonight's show is subdued for opening act Diesel. His regular touring means many fans tonight are unlikely to have missed him, but seeing him pull out hits from his days with The Injectors (Cry In Shame) is a rare treat. The obvious problem with Diesel's part on this bill however, is his music – based in traditional blues rock - and the string accompaniments simply don't mix. Despite the up tempo song choices, it's clear the two bands are not gelling at all and for a while it's easy to ignore the fact also that Diesel's band is much louder than the orchestra, and poorly amplified as the drums dominate the set, but before long I'm hanging out for the finish. He does although get some points the for song choices; Masterplan and Tip Of My Tongue which work particularly well with strings.

The recently returned Baby Animals were right into the idea of the symphony shows from the start but during their set, similarly to Diesel, sound problems plague the show. Putting this tour together involved working by correspondence on occasion – Amphlett and Suze DeMarchi (Baby Animals) both live in the US now – and only two days of rehearsals were organised meaning the chances of everything going to plan were pretty slim, considering the amount of performers on stage. Unlike Diesel who soldiered through the obvious problems, Baby Animals - who of all three acts are the most straight up rock band here – struggle to get their performance just right. Stopping between each song to adjust mics, levels and volume, the Perth based group play a heavy, punchy set in the mode of 'get loud to compensate for the missives'. Opening with hit Rush You, they keep the noise and tempo up until midway through when ballads Painless and Make It End allow the orchestra to shine through. Typically, Suze DeMarchi is in top form showing incredible vocal strength and unconstrained energy, while her band plays at the intensity usual for a festival crowd.

With respect to the other acts, it's Chrissie Amphlett who's the real draw card tonight. Her set is preceded by a stunning original overture, building along with the noticeable excitement in the Palais. The muttering in the stalls stops immediately for the music as we know it's only moments before the one-woman tsunami of rock steals our senses away. For the first time tonight, the orchestra gets to show their stuff and take the focus from the rock bands, but just as the comfortable feeling of swirling strings and horn blasts sets in, a spot light catches the sight of four men quickly entering the stage and parking themselves in front of the orchestra. Nobody could contain themselves anymore. As nice as it was to hear the symphony's overture, and as awful as it was to have sit down for the whole show - nothing else matters now that silhouetted figure in a long flowing overcoat and fedora appears sheepishly in the wings, motionless, but already teasing us with the very slight tilt of her head skyward to let the light catch her pouted lips - the Amphlett trademark expression. The Divinyls singer slowly begins to make her way to centre stage assisted by a walking stick. This spectacle is both funny and alarming as the full impact of her Multiple Sclerosis becomes all too clear. In the moment, I am certain she is hobbling for effect in her layered tramp-like overcoat and face obscuring hat, as though she's about to burst out of her imprisoning outfit and become the pogo-ing Chrissie Amphlett of old. In truth the singer had to retire from music several years ago because of her illness which tonight has visibly taking it's toll.

This is Chrissie's evening though and every person in the room is with her all the way. Meanwhile, the band have been laying down some slow grooves with only faint orchestra backing as Chrissie positions herself at the mic and without warning starts to croon; "Lover, lover why do you push/Why do you push, why do you push...". Her voice is incredibly commanding, and we all end our applause as if scolded for mis-behaving. The re-arrangement of Pleasure & Pain both a triumph and a shock; here we have the rock and symphony bands working together perfectly for the first time tonight. The song's new seductive edge works so well and allows Chrissie to ease into the performance, saving her energy for the more demanding power rock tracks yet to come. It's only after this song, Chrissie ditches her walking stick and starts to remove the oppressive looking grey overcoat, under which she is beautifully attired in a black tailored jacket and ballooning skirt cut just above the knees and black body-hugging trousers buttoned at the cuffs. (I'm wondering how many fans here were surprised to see the trademark school uniform hasn't been let out to play tonight.) After Amphlett struggles out of the coat to wild applause and finally lifts her hat to reveal long boldly dyed red hair cut just at eye level - the way she's always worn it dating back to the Divinyls debut in 1980. The band's two earliest hits Science Fiction and Boys In Town follow Pleasure & Pain, played closer to their original sound than the opener. The strings thankfully remain subtle on Boys In Town - it is after all meant to be tense and cold. Science Fiction however is helped along by an intruding timperley, giving the song an energetic lift.

The last Divinyls hit single, I'm Jealous (number 14 in 1996), receives a glorious remodeling with the cellos soaring above the gentle guitar melody. In moments like these, it becomes apparent that Divinyls embraced the orchestra idea and used it greatly to their advantage instead of just playing loud with apparently unrelated chamber music going on in the background. Baby Animals and Diesel didn't really take the chance to augment their music with the orchestras help for the most part. Chrissie Amphlett has one advantage though, she's worked with both rock bands and orchestras and it does show. Pre-Divinyls days she was a choral singer with an orchestra in Sydney making tonight's show something of a circle being completed.
 

Towards the end of the relatively short set, some brave people including myself rush to the front of the stage - against the wishes of the frankly ridiculous security - to give Chrissie some love. Close-up, I can see her left arm is trembling as she forces her body to move about the stage and do what has come naturally to the singer for so many years now. We know the end is close when I Touch Myself begins, and Chrissie takes another chance to seat herself, almost child-like - knees together and feet wide apart – in front of the raised drum platform. The performance has been tough on her physically, but her voice and incredible presence have not wavered one bit. A final, seemingly impromptu song - a cover of Easybeats' I'll Make You Happy ends the night just as fans start to bottleneck in the narrow lanes between the seating for a final dance. To a last ovation the band line up and bow, before turning to applaud the orchestra. Director Tim Count's vision has to be applauded also, as someone who took a massive risk with a project that fell a little short of its full potential, but had real moments of greatness.

lEIGh5

PALAIS SET LISTS:  

DIESEL -

Man Alive

My Baby Likes To Boogaloo

Walkin' The Blues

Since I Fell For You

Masterplan

Tip Of My Tongue

Never Miss Your Water  

BABY ANIMALS -

Rush You

One Word

Nervous

Don't Tell Me What To Do

Painless

Make It End

Hot Air Balloon

Enemy

Early Warning

Ain't Gonna Get My Love  

CHRISSIE AMPHLETT (DIVINYLS) -

Pleasure & Pain

Science Fiction

Only Lonely

I'm Jealous

Punxsie

Elsie

Boys In Town

I Touch Myself

I'll Make You Happy

L-R: Suze DeMarchi, Diesel, Chrissie Amphlett

   













HERE ARE SOME YOUTUBE LINKS TO HIGHLIGHTS FROM CHRISSIE'S SET:  

Pleasure & Pain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBvsx_0CAsk

Science Fiction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rx58oERkMM  

Boys In Town: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6Nn1kwNQ94

I Touch Myself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ0Gxz-5M_w  

photos by me.

Suze DeMarchi (Baby Animals) interview. 2009

THE FABULOUS BEAST

In the lead up to talking to Suze DeMarchi, I hurriedly scoured the net searching for archive interviews with the Baby Animals singer looking for an indicator of what I was expecting to be a ‘difficult’ discussion. While preparing for the worst, it occurred to me I had absolutely no founding for this preconception. Did the direct and confident delivery in her singing voice somehow translate to me as aggression? Its true Baby Animals had that fuck ‘em if they don’t like it attitude with Suze as our very own Joan Jett who didn’t need to remind us how much she loved rock n’ roll. The feisty singer of such hits as Rush You, Ain’t Gonna Get My Love and Lights Out at Eleven immediately dissolves my irrational fear over the phone from Perth where she’s visiting family, “You’re my first interview today, so I’m not completely jaded yet!” She begins with a big laugh.

“I’m so excited about these symphony shows, this is definitely going to be one of those ‘I’m so glad I said yes’ moments.” Suze jumps right in before I even bring up the four planned shows where Baby Animals along with Diesel and Divinyls will be multi-headlining a rock and symphony extravaganza much like Kiss and Metallica before them. “I’m even gonna wear a tux n’ tie for the occasion!” DeMarchi enthuses. The project, set to take place in January, is in the capable hands of musical director Tim Count. His work includes TV and film scores as well as tickling the ivories for The Angels and Angry Anderson. It was noted events organiser John Zaccaria, however who called Suze out of the blue asking for her band’s involvement. “He called like, five or six times before I was sure I wanted to do it.” She tells me, sounding a little amused, “What convinced me was for one is Chrissy Amphlett (Divinyls) is on board and she’s just… wow! Plus Diesel and I go way back; I’ve known him since I was 17.” She continues, “Secondly, in the beginning this whole thing was going to be a one-day-only concert on Rottnest Island. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to ‘Rotti’ but it’s just one big party.” Rottnest presented a few strategy problems, so instead a short tour was announced. “Well because of how the place is laid out it basically would’ve been impossible to sell tickets.” Suze explains, “There was just nowhere to set up a stage area that could be fenced off and made into an arena separate from where everyone goes to drink and party.” Taking the show on the road has resulted in one or two small problems. Despite the extra performances, there’s still only two days are scheduled for rehearsal. “That does make me a little nervous,” Suze laughs, “We have to get in there and nail it and make totally sure that everyone is on the same page. That should be interesting!”

When choosing songs to be accompanied by the orchestra, Suze made a list with a ‘no changes option’ which will be handed to Tim Count, but was it a simply a task of deciding what would and wouldn’t work? “Well basically, there’s no reason why any of the songs wouldn’t work.” She states “A song like Painless backed with strings I think is going to be exciting, and even Early Warning which is a fairly standard rock song, I can hear a lot of potential for that too. The list I made came more from the songs I wanted to hear in a completely new way.” Suze confesses she’s in total awe of orchestra people; “When I lived in England I worked at a theatre making sandwiches for the London Symphony and I would see people coming in all day to record various things with them, I remember Billy Connelly even did a session one day, and the band would just walk in and sit down with the sheet music – no warming up – and off they’d go. After it was all over, they would just sit around laughing and chatting until the next person came in the use their services.” This story makes me think of a pair of shoes left by the door waiting for a foot to go in them and take them on an adventure. “It’s just that these musicians were so disciplined.” Suze continues, “If they were bored it didn’t show, but it did make me realise how much patience I was lacking.”

With all the discussion of the orchestral arrangements, I’m reminded of the contrast between Baby Animals debut self-titled album (1991) - which followed a fairly tried and true rock formula - and the second album, Shaved & Dangerous (1993) which took a huge leap forward in terms of consciously avoiding any traditional rock song structure. Suze admits now that perhaps things got a little over ambitious during the writing of their sophomore album. “I don’t know if I would call the second album a leap forward, probably more a trying-to-hard-to-be-clever experiment.” She reflects, “It wasn’t fun for me to make as a writer, because the guys were competing to make all these deconstructed arrangements and ignoring time signatures, all that sort of thing and it was really hard for me to write lyrics that fitted.” These less traditional arrangements must be an exciting prospect for a symphony orchestra; “I hope so, I mean they don’t really get to perform with rock bands very often just like we don’t get to play with orchestras, so hopefully we’ll all get something interesting out of the experience.”

Being back in Australia for family and business matters has reinforced Suze’s seemingly long held desire to get away from the wacky world of Los Angeles; “I’ve served my time in LA, man so that’s why I’m planning on dragging my husband back to Australia.” Suze moved to the US over ten years ago to be with her husband Nuno Bettencourt of the recently re-formed, Extreme. “My plan is to get him to move to Sydney first, let him get used to that!” She laughs, “Then eventually over to Perth so we can be near my family. He doesn’t know yet though!” DeMarchi admits the bond to her birthplace has only strengthened during her time in the US. “I think about my daughter, whose 13, growing up in LA and how she’s really bought into the whole instant fame thing and it’s really despairing. She wants to be an actor but she doesn’t seem aware of what work is even involved with doing that.” It’s clear that Suze is concerned for her daughter and looks to her former home as a salvation from her vapid adopted town. “There are a lot of good things about LA, but there’s also the endless stream of Paris Hilton clones and yeah, I just don’t want my daughter to end up like that. I want her to appreciate things and work for what she wants.”

With the cut throat world of instant fame in mind, Suze reveals how close she came to being the next singer of INXS before they decided instead to pick a reality show winner - the recently dismissed JD Fortune. “I was pretty disgusted by that whole thing,” Suze confides, “I was like, well I don't want to compete because if I lose, I'm just gonna look ridiculous." She claims, "Anyway, the producers of that show actually told me they would rig it for me to win if I agreed to all these terms and conditions, so that was it for me, I refused and so I was out." Suze continues, “I feel so bad for Andrew though, he and Michael (Hutchence) were so close from the very start and always wrote together, so when Michael died Andrew lost his bro. We’re talking a great musical partnership that was equal parts Andrew and Michael, and sadly Andrew just hasn’t been able to find anyone who he has that spark with since.”

After the INXS fiasco, Suze, far from defeated by the experience, finally began writing the next Baby Animals record. Il Grande Silenzio was released in 2008, 15 years after their previous effort (equaling the wait for Chinese Democracy) but most importantly, time had been good to the relationships between the four original band members: “We didn’t really grow apart or anything.” Suze explains, “We used to meet up every couple of years or whenever we were all in the same place and there would always be talk about doing something again but because we all had kids, we knew it would have to just wait. It was really only a matter of time, though.” Despite the years off - with the exception of a solo release in 1999 – DeMarchi assures me she never lost her urge to rock. “Oh, I always kept that dream in the back of my mind. I’ve always said since I was a teenager playing in pub bands around Perth, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life and that has never changed.”


lEIGh5

Link to Baby Animals performing "Painless" at the Rock Symphony show in Melbourne: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78G6WFZ1tps