Lost Songs of Australian Rock Star Chrissy Amphlett Found After Years in a Garage

More than a decade after Australian rock star Chrissy Amphlett died, her voice is being heard again through three songs that were recorded nearly 30 years ago and unexpectedly rediscovered in a garage.

Amphlett, the legendary frontwoman of the Australian band Divinyls, recorded the songs with New Zealand singer and songwriter Tim Finn in 1998. The recordings were believed to have been lost for years.

A Recording Nearly Forgotten

Amphlett and Finn first met in the late 1990s and quickly developed a creative connection. Over several days, they wrote three songs together before going into a recording studio with drummer Charley Drayton.

Finn took the original two-inch master tape home after the sessions, intending to work on the recordings later. But the project was never completed, and the tape disappeared among his belongings.

For years, nobody knew where the recordings were.

The Tape Was Finally Found

In 2023, Finn decided to search through his garage. Hidden inside a cupboard, he discovered a tape labelled with the names of Chrissy Amphlett and Tim Finn and the date of their recording session.

The tape was still in good condition.

Finn later described the discovery as finding a musical treasure and began working with others to restore and prepare the recordings for release.

Chrissy Amphlett’s Voice Returns

Amphlett became one of Australia’s most recognizable rock performers as the lead singer of Divinyls. The band produced major hits including Boys in Town, Pleasure and Pain and I Touch Myself.

She died in New York in 2013 at the age of 53.

The newly recovered recordings offer listeners a chance to hear Amphlett in a different musical setting, away from some of the best-known Divinyls recordings.

A New Chapter for Three Old Songs

The three recordings have been mixed and remastered and are being released as an EP titled Some Times.

For the people who knew Amphlett, the release is more than the discovery of old music. It is an opportunity to hear her voice again and share a previously unknown part of her creative work with a new generation.

What spent years hidden inside a garage has now become a new piece of music history — nearly three decades after the songs were first recorded.

Sources

• ABC News — “The lost songs of Divinyls legend Chrissy Amphlett”
• ABC Radio — “Chrissy Amphlett’s lost songs found buried in garage”
• AOL — “Lost songs from iconic Australian rockstar found in garage”