Subscribe Sign in

Culture

Lost songs of Australian rock legend found buried in a garage

ABC News
1 min read Rewritten in plain language

Bands and ArtistsRockPopular CultureFriendshipSubstance Abuse

Show what we removed
  • Chrissy Amphlett is Australia's female rock star — a prowling, pouty lead singer in a school pinny and suspenders with a fierce on-stage presence and a voice both husky and strong.
  • Wild male singers were as common as soggy beer coasters in the 1980s pub rock scene; picture the vodka-chugging Jimmy Barnes out front of Cold Chisel or The Angels' Doc Neeson hanging from stage rigging.
  • In an interview in 2006, Chrissy said that, for a while, "alcohol was my everything".
  • The whirr of a film projector fills the darkened room, and suddenly there they are: the fresh-faced Divinyls band members on the rooftop of a building in Sydney, circa 1982.
  • By 1983, the band was touring the US, playing songs such as Science Fiction and Only Lonely from their debut album, Desperate.

5 sentences from our version of the report, chosen to cover it. Nothing here is written; every line is in the article below. How

Headline check

The one thing this headline claims is in the report.

Figures, names and quoted words in the headline, looked for in the report itself — not in the summary above. One claim in this headline could be checked, so this is a narrow pass and not a thorough one. How this is checked

Chrissy Amphlett is Australia's female rock star — a prowling, pouty lead singer in a school pinny and suspenders with a fierce on-stage presence and a voice both husky and strong.

Before Chrissy, no Australian female singer had brought her brand of edginess to the stage — picking fights with band members, heckling the audience and channelling a serious "don't mess with me" vibe.

Wild male singers were as common as soggy beer coasters in the 1980s pub rock scene; picture the vodka-chugging Jimmy Barnes out front of Cold Chisel or The Angels' Doc Neeson hanging from stage rigging.

The voice, the drive was all Chrissy, but without what Opitz calls her on-stage "charisma coat", the girl from Victoria's Geelong was shy and vulnerable.

In an interview in 2006, Chrissy said that, for a while, "alcohol was my everything".

Then, in 2010, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Says Finn: "People are going to hear Chrissy Amphlett's voice again."

The whirr of a film projector fills the darkened room, and suddenly there they are: the fresh-faced Divinyls band members on the rooftop of a building in Sydney, circa 1982.

Chrissy walks past the camera and pokes her tongue out, goofing off between takes for the video clip for Only Lonely, Divinyls' second single after their debut hit, Boys in Town.

"It's fabulous," he says of the Super 8 footage he filmed and only recently discovered in storage.

By 1983, the band was touring the US, playing songs such as Science Fiction and Only Lonely from their debut album, Desperate.

Shortened to 1 minute of reading, this version reads 9.6 on the Niral Score.

You are reading our version, not theirs. This is ABC News's report shortened to its most important sentences, in plainer words, with verdicts and loaded words taken out. Plain description stays, and so do adjectives that carry a fact, such as "former" or "federal". The reporting, the facts and the quotations are theirs — quotations are never edited — and the indicators beside it measure this version. Hover or tap Adjectives to see every one left in the text.

How this outlet filed it, and how we rewrote it

No other newsroom we read has filed on this event, so there is nothing to compare it with yet.

Outlet Niral ScoreAdjectivesSourcingHappiness
ABC Newsas they published this story 16.4 30 67 34.8
Mundane Readneutralized from ABC News 10.1 27 67 47.6

Sign in to react.

This story is about a death. Comments are closed on those, because the people closest to it are among the people who read them. If something here is wrong, tell us — that we do read.