Story and photo Luis Feliu
The late much-loved songstress Chrissy Amphlett of The Divinyls continues to sway Australian music and life, a year after her death.
Chrissy’s best-known song I Touch Myself has been reworked for a video clip featuring some of Australia’s finest female artists to promote the early detection of breast cancer, which she tragically succumbed to in April last year.
At Bluesfest on Friday, Chrissy’s husband Charley Drayton, a US drummer/bassist currently playing with Cold Chisel, helped launch the Chrissy Amphlett Project with Cancer Council NSW spokesperson Rhian Paton.
Charley, who performed at Bluesfest two years ago, said the new song carried Chrissy’s message forward about connecting and reaching out to each other.
He was understandably a little overcome with emotion when he said ‘Chrissy never had an opportunity to perform here at Bluesfest, but she’s here today’.
Echonetdaily reminded him that Chrissy and the Divinyls played to a packed and enthusiastic crowd in Byron Bay over 20 years ago, that she was much loved by locals who were some of her biggest fans, and her presence was still felt through her music.
The clip features the voices of Olivia Newton-John, Little Pattie (Chrissy’s cousin), Kate Ceberano, Suse de Marchi, Megan Washington, Sarah Blasko, Deborah Conway, Connie Mitchell, Sarah McLeod and Katie Noonan, women who know full well the value of early detection.
Rhian told the launch audience at Bluesfest’s new Sunset Lounge that the Cancer Council chose the song for the awareness campaign because of its power to convey the vital message of early detection for women.
She said one in eight women in Australia will be diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 85.
To know more about the campaign, visit itouchmyself.org
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