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Icehouse
Also known as	Flowers
Origin	Sydney, Australia
Genre(s)	Rock New Wave Post Punk Synthpop
Years active	1977 - Present
Label(s)	Regular Festival dIVA Warner Chrysalis Records Massive EMI WEA
Members
Iva Davies
Former members
Keith Welsh Michael Hoste Anthony Smith John Lloyd Bob Kretschmer Guy Pratt Andy Qunta Glen Krawczyk Simon Lloyd Steve Morgan Paul Wheeler Roger Mason Paul Gildea Tony Llewellyn

Icehouse is an Australian rock band, formed as Flowers in 1977 in Sydney, initially known in Australia for their pub rock style they later achieved mainstream success utilising synthpop and attained Top Ten singles chart success in both Europe and the US.^[1] The mainstay of both Flowers and Icehouse has been Iva Davies (singer-songwriter, record producer, guitar, bass, keyboards, oboe)^[2] supplying additional musicians as required. The band extended the use of synthesizers particularly the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 and Fairlight CMI in Australian popular music.^[1] Their best known singles on the Australian charts were "Great Southern Land", "Hey Little Girl", "Crazy", "Electric Blue" and "My Obsession"; with Top Five albums being Icehouse (1980, as Flowers), Primitive Man (1982) and Man of Colours (1987).^[1][3]

Icehouse's iconic status was acknowledged when they were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame on 16 August 2006.^[4][5][6] ARIA described Icehouse as "one of the most successful Australian bands of the eighties and nineties... With an uncompromising approach to music production they created songs that ranged from pure pop escapism to edgy, lavish synthesised pieces..."^[6] Icehouse has produced eight Top Ten albums and twenty Top Forty singles in Australia, multiple top ten hits in Europe and North America and album sales of over 28 times Platinum in Australasia alone.^[6] As of 2006, Man of Colours was still the highest selling album in Australia by an Australian band.^[6]

Contents 1 1977-1981: Flowers 2 1981-1989: Icehouse 3 1990-current: Iva Davies and Icehouse 4 Discography 4.1 Studio Albums 4.2 Compilations & Remixes 4.3 EPs 4.4 Other Works 5 Soundbite 6 References 7 External links

[edit] 1977-1981: Flowers

Main article: Iva Davies

Flowers were formed in Sydney in 1977 by Iva Davies (vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, oboe), a classically trained musician, and their main creative force; with bass player Keith Welsh.^[1][6] Additional musicians were Anthony Smith (aka Adam Hall) on keyboards and Don Brown on drums.^[2] The band built up a strong following as a live act around the pub circuit, providing distinctive cover versions of songs by Roxy Music, David Bowie, Lou Reed, T-Rex, Ultravox and Brian Eno.^[1] By mid-1979 John Lloyd (ex-Paul Kelly and the Dots) replaced Don Brown on drums and Michael Hoste replaced Anthony Simth on keyboards.^[2] After signing to the independent Regular Records label, distributed by Festival, Flowers released their debut single, "Can't Help Myself", which hit the Australian Top 10 in June 1980.^[3] This was followed by their debut album Icehouse, which reached #4 on the National albums chart^[3] and became one of year's biggest selling albums in Australia.^[1] The album, co-produced by Cameron Allan (Mental As Anything's producer)^[7] and Davies,^[2] made use of synthesisers, especially the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, Smith returned during recording sessions to replace Hoste.^[1] Further singles "We Can Get Together" and "Walls" both hit the Top 20.^[3]

[edit] 1981-1989: Icehouse

In early 1981, Flowers signed to Chrysalis Records for European, Japanese, UK and US releases;^[2] they had to change their name due to legal restrictions and to prevent confusion with a Scottish group The Flowers.^[1][8] As Icehouse, they spent most of 1981 touring the UK, Canada and US, the single "Icehouse" (released in Europe and US) created some interest in the UK, partly because of a memorable video; while in the US it peaked at #28 on Billboard Mainstream Rock chart in 1981.^[9] The follow-up US single "We Can Get Together" peaked at #51.^[9] A single-only release, "Love In Motion" became the first new recording credited to Icehouse;^[1] it hit the Australian Top 10 in November 1981.^[3] Icehouse split up with Keith Welsh later becoming manager of Do-Ré-Mi and Boom Crash Opera.^[1][2]

In January 1982 Davies recorded Primitive Man essentially as a solo project,^[1] it was co-produced with Keith Forsey^[2] (later worked with Simple Minds). Released in August 1982 as the second Icehouse album, Primitive Man reached #1 on the National album charts^[3] and provided their international breakthrough single, "Hey Little Girl" which peaked at #6 in Australia,^[3] #1 in Switzerland, #5 in Germany, Top 20 in UK, Sweden and Netherlands,^[1] and #31 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.^[9] Another single "Great Southern Land" made the Australian Top 5^[3], it was later featured in the 1988 Yahoo Serious film Young Einstein,^[10] and remains their most popular song according to listeners of Triple M in 2007.^[11] To promote Primitive Man on tour, Davies re-assembled Icehouse with Hoste and Lloyd, and new members: Bob Kretschmer (guitar, backing vocals), Guy Pratt (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Andy Qunta (keyboards, backing vocals).^[2] Fresco was a five-track EP released in 1983 by this line-up,^[2] they supported David Bowie on the European section of his Serious Moonlight tour.^[1] Love in Motion was released in 1983 by Chrysalis for the UK market, it was the Primitive Man album with "Love in Motion" replacing album track "Break These Chains".^[2]

Icehouse's next album Sidewalk was released in 1984 and reached #4 on the National albums chart with singles "Taking the Town" (#22 in May), "Don't Believe Anymore" (#22 August) and "Dusty Pages" (November).^[3] Davies used the Fairlight Music Computer exclusively on this more sombre and reflective album.^[1] Davies was commissioned to compose and record the score for the Sydney Dance Company production of Graeme Murphy's work Boxes, from Icehouse Davies only used Kretschmer, percussion was supplied by Masaki Tanazawa and Boxes was first performed live at the Sydney Opera House on 7 November 1985.^[1] After the Boxes project, Icehouse was Davies, Kretschmer, Pratt and Qunta with Simon Lloyd (sax, trumpet, keyboards) and Steve Jensen (drums, percussion).^[2] Their 1986 release Measure for Measure featured Brian Eno as an additional performer, it provided the Australian singles of "No Promises" #19, "Baby, You're So Strange" #12, "Mr. Big" #14 and "Cross the Border". Further inroads into the US market occurred with "No Promises" peaking at #9 on Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and "Cross the Border" reaching #19.^[9] On tour for Measure for Measure, Icehouse were Davies, Kretschmer, Lloyd and Qunta with Vito Portolesi on bass and Paul Wheeler on drums, by late 1986 Glen Krawczyk replaced Portolesi, Stephen Morgan replaced Krawczyk during 1987.^[1][2]

[[Image:Man Colours.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Man of Colours]]

Their best-selling 1987 album, Man of Colours, contained the Australian hit singles "Crazy" (3# in July), "Electric Blue" (co-written by Davies and John Oates of US band Hall and Oates) (#1, October), "My Obsession" (#5, December) and Top 40 places for "Man of Colours" (February 1988) and "Nothing Too Serious".^[3] With US chart success for "Crazy", which reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #10 on its Mainstream Rock chart, and "Electric Blue" (#7 Hot 100, #10 Mainstream) the band had reached their zenith of popularity, the album Man of Colours reached #43 on the Billboard 200.^[9][12] Man of Colours was lauded in Australia during 1988, it won two ARIA Awards, 'Album of the Year' and 'Highest Selling Album';^[13] the associated song "Electric Blue" won 'Most Performed Australasian Popular Work' at the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) Music Awards for its writers Davies and Oates.^[14] The only Icehouse releases for 1989 was a single "Touch the Fire" which reached #13 in Australia in November and a compilation double album / video collection Great Southern Land.^[2][3][15]

[edit] 1990-current: Iva Davies and Icehouse

February 1990 saw the release of "Jimmy Dean" as a single which reached #47 on the ARIA singles charts.^[3][15] Qunta left at about this time with Icehouse recording their next album, Code Blue released in October, it was a more ambitious but flawed work.^[1] Singles released from the album were "Big Fun" (#47 ARIA singles charts in August), "Miss Divine" (#16, October) and "Anything is Possible" (#49, January 1991).^[15] For Code Blue recording, Icehouse were Davies, Lloyd, Morgan and Wheeler, for touring they added guitarist Paul Gildea and keyboardist Roger Mason (ex-Models).^[1][2] In 1992, EMI released a compilation, Masterfile containing a new version of "Love in Motion" also released as a single featuring Davies dueting with Christina Amphlett of Divinyls.^[2] Big Wheel was released in November 1993 and contained the singles "Spin One" (July), "Satellite" (October) and "Big Wheel" (March 1994); neither album nor singles had any Top 40 chart success.^[1][15] In 1993 a remix album, Full Circle was released by Massive Records.

By 1995, Davies was again involved with the Sydney Dance Company, this time with their production of Berlin. The musical score was a collection of cover versions of songs by David Bowie, Brian Eno, Simple Minds, The Psychedelic Furs, Frank Sinatra, Lou Reed, Roxy Music, XTC, Talking Heads, The Velvet Underground, PiL, The Cure and Killing Joke,^[1] which saw Davies collaborating with pianist Max Lambert in the development of the music. Sessions were released as The Berlin Tapes under the name Iva Davies and Icehouse in 1995 on dIVA (Iva Davies own label) / Massive Records for Australian release and Warner Records for international release in 2002.^[2] As well as recording the ballet score, Davies and Icehouse performed live at each performance, Berlin ran for two seasons. On New Years Eve in 1999, Icehouse sang at an outdoor concert near Sydney Harbour which was televised around the world on CNN and other news networks as part of the worldwide millennial celebrations.

In 2002, The Whitlams covered "Don't Believe Anymore" from Sidewalk for their album Torch The Moon which enjoyed moderate radio success. 2003 was a busy year for Iva Davies as he contributed "Ghost of Time" to the film score of the Russell Crowe epic Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.^[16] 2004 saw the release of Heroes, which was The Berlin Tapes repackaged from the Australian and Japanese versions.^[2][17] On 16 August 2006, Icehouse were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame alongside Midnight Oil, Divinyls and Rose Tattoo.^[6] Icehouse / Flowers featured on Triple M's 2007 Essential Countdown with 14 songs including: "Great Southern Land" at #13, "Don't Believe Any More" #78, "Street Cafe" #187, "Love in Motion" #327, "We Can Get Together" #428, and "Electric Blue" #454.^[11]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio Albums

[edit] Compilations & Remixes

[edit] EPs

[edit] Other Works

[edit] Soundbite

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Iva Davies–Icehouse site
• Spellbound — a detailed fanzine
• Icehouse @ Myspace.com

v • d • e Icehouse Iva Davies · Keith Welsh · Paul Gildea Studio albums Icehouse · Primitive Man · Love In Motion · Sidewalk · Boxes · Measure for Measure · Man of Colours · Code Blue · Big Wheel · The Berlin Tapes · Bi-polar Poems Compilations Great Southern Land · Masterfile · The Singles · Love In Motion · No Promises · Heroes EPs Fresco EP Singles Can't Help Myself/Send Somebody · We Can Get Together/Paradise Lost · Walls/All The Way · Love In Motion/Goodnight Mr Matthews · Great Southern Land/Uniform · Hey Little Girl/Glam · Street Cafe/Over The Line · Taking The Town · Don't Believe Anymore · Dusty Pages · No Promises · Baby, You're So Strange · Mr. Big · Cross The Border · Crazy · Electric Blue · My Obsession · Big Fun · Miss Divine · Anything Is Possible · Remix albums Full Circle · Hey Little Girl · Meltdown