AS TRIBUTES continue to pour in for Australian female rock icon Chrissy Amphlett, who died at her New York home on Sunday night, locals recalled the last time she played in Lismore and was almost refused entry to her own gig.

Booked to play the Lismore Workers Club in the mid-90s, Amphlett rocked up to the front door dressed in her trademark stage outfit - a schoolgirl's uniform and fishnet stockings - and was infamously turned away by the doorman for not complying with the club's dress code.

A bemused marketing manager, Ted Hoddinott, who was working at the club as a doorman in the 1990s, said he remembered the case of mistaken identity well.

Lismore local Darren Speers was at the gig that night and said it wasn't the only controversial incident - a punter threw a beer can which hit Amphlett in the head.

"From memory the band stopped and the guitarist (former boyfriend, Mark McEntee) demanded to know who threw it," he said.

"The whole crowd pointed immediately at this one bloke and with that the bouncers jumped on him and threw him out - but it didn't spoil the show, she kept playing after that and it was a fantastic gig."

Lismore school teacher, Holly Lovegrove, daughter of rock promoter Vinnie Lovegrove who managed the Divinyls in their heyday, said Amphlett also remembered the gig well, recounting it on her last Lismore trip to visit the Lovegroves 18 months ago.

>>Some things you might not have known about Chrissy Amphlett

"We took her out to 20,000 Cows restaurant in Lismore and she was really happy to see Dad after everything he'd been through, living in a beautiful place and loving his simple life with his kids and grandkids and vegie gardens because they'd had a big falling out after those crazy days."

As a young girl, Ms Lovegrove was in the thick of it, touring with her dad and the Divinyls throughout the US in the 1980s.

"I remember her back in the day totally consumed with the art of performance, writing and recording and there was no room for anything else - a total work ethic," she recalled.

"You see footage of her trailblazing that fierce female rock chic image, but she was telling us last visit 'No, that's not who I am'. It was the persona she'd adopted to cope, I guess.

"I'd always thought of her as this strong, ballsey woman but she really was quite soft and feminine - I guess that gets put on you as a woman in rock."

Things you might not have known about Chrissy Amphlett

• Chrissy was the cousin of 1960s Australian pop icon Patricia "Little Pattie" Amphlett (pictured), who appeared regularly on TV variety programs and also entertained troops during the Vietnam War.
• The Divinyls' biggest-selling single, I Touch Myself (1991), was No. 1 in Australia, No. 10 in the UK and No. 4 in the US, where it caused such a controversy it had trouble getting airplay - so much so that while performing the song live at a Texas festival the plug was pulled on the band mid-set by organisers.