Saddington's early life is a mystery even to her friends. She was a single child born to Henry Saddington and Connie Evans in Melbourne in 1949. They were''very loving parents'',said long-term friend and visual artist Claire Humphrys,wife of the Loved Ones singer,Gerry Humphrys. Despite this,the singer seemed to carry a subterranean sadness that made her a perfect vessel for the blues.''I don't know how that happened,but she had a real chip on her shoulder,and it was huge,''said Humphrys. Saddington,briefly a typist,sang in Melbourne coffee lounges before bursting onto the scene in 1967 in Melbourne psychedelic soul band the Revolution. At 17 she joined one of Australia's most impressive bands,James Taylor Move,in June 1968,but they'd disbanded by year's end. Not,however,before Saddington was named''The Face of'68''by pop-music magazineGo-Set.
''I'll never forget the first time I saw her,''said Humphrys,''this tiny little person with this huge voice and hair in constant motion,like shivering grass,like smoke. All the musos wanted to get her in bed - she had to fight them off and fight for her place on stage. It was a constant battle.''
Wendy Saddington's trademark kohled eyes,pale,sombre lips and enormous Afro suited her wildcat purr and other-worldly rhythm-and-blues improvisations.. On her small but powerful frame,singlets,vests,Levis and lashings of gypsy jewellery defied the''girly''look then expected of the tiny percentage of females who managed to fight their way into the spotlight.
Identifying as lesbian,Saddington soon became a beacon of the emerging gay liberation movement,appearing with drag troupe Sylvia and the Synthetics and at women-only dances. Off stage,friends found her witty,sensitive and caring,and she delighted them with little abstracted drawings of dots and stars.
In 1968,Perth blues band the Beaten Tracks relocated to Melbourne. Saddington renamed them the Chain (later shortened to Chain),after her idol Aretha Franklin'sChain of Fools,touring with them until May 1969.
Her advice column,''Wendy Saddington takes care of business'',forGo-Set from 1969-71''got dozens of genuine cris de coeur each week'',according to then editor Phillip Frazer,and she approached it''with earnest concern''. AtGo-Set she also interviewed dynamic soul shouter Jeff St John about a''fiasco''on a certain TV pop show. St John,born with spina bifida,had requested his prerequisite stool but had been''forced to perform,propped precariously,on a slippery studio floor on my crutches'',he notes on his website. Throughout the interview,''being the champion of causes that she was'',Saddington''took[the program] thoroughly to task''.
The singer joined St John's extraordinary Copperwine in 1970:''She was just suddenly there and I was happily sharing the stage with one of the most electrifying voices and personalities I have ever been graced to know,''wrote St John. When he wasn't able to appear at the Wallacia rock festival,Saddington fronted the band alone,a performance captured in her only commercially available album,Wendy Saddington&The Copperwine Live,in January 1971.