Big Wheel (Icehouse album)

Big Wheel is a studio album by Australian rock synthpop band, Icehouse, which was released by dIVA Records - founder Iva Davies' own label - and Massive Records. It was recorded at Davies' home in Whale Beach during 1993 with Davies on vocals, guitar, bass guitar and keyboards, David Chapman on guitar, keyboards and backing vocals, and Paul Wheeler on drums, percussion and backing vocals.^[2][3] Big Wheel peaked at #46 and was their first studio album not to reach the Top Ten on the Australian album charts.^[4][5] The album was digitally remastered by Davies and Ryan Scott with five bonus tracks added for the 2002 re-release by Warner Music Australia.^[3]

Singles

"Satellite" and "Big Wheel" were released as singles in 1993, "Invisible People" followed in 1994. Of those three only "Satellite" reached the Australian charts, peaking at 83. The "Big Wheel" single featured remixes by Bill Laswell (featuring fellow guitarist Buckethead) and General Dynamics (guitars by Jon Ingoldsby) as well as a demo version of the song and "Turn it Round".^[6]

Track listing

Songwriters according to Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).^[7]

1. "Big Wheel" (Iva Davies, David Chapman) - 4:28
2. "Satellite" (Davies, Chapman, Paul Wheeler) - 4:19
3. "Goodbye, Valentine" (Davies, Simon Lloyd, Wheeler) - 4:07
4. "Judas" (Davies, Chapman, Wheeler) - 5:20
5. "Invisible People" (Davies, Chapman, Wheeler) - 6:10
6. "Feed the Machine" (Davies, Chapman, Wheeler) - 5:33
7. "Cadillac" (Davies, Chapman, Wheeler) - 4:05
8. "Sam the Man" (Davies, Chapman, Wheeler) - 3:55
9. "Stolen Guitar" (Davies, Chapman, Wheeler) - 4:24
10. "The System" (Davies, Chapman, Wheeler) - 6:56
11. "Orbital Line" (Davies, Chapman, Wheeler) - 4:39 **
12. "Turn it Round" (Davies) - 2:55 **
13. "Driving Me Backwards" (live) (Brian Eno) - 5:54 **
14. "Blank Frank" (live) (Eno, Robert Fripp) - 3:37 **
15. "Satellite (The Ex-static Mix) (Davies, Chapman, Wheeler) - 5:27 **

(**) Only available on the Australian 2002 remastered version.

Personnel

Credited to:^[3]

Icehouse members

• Iva Davies — vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards
• David Chapman — guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
• Paul Wheeler — drums, percussion, backing vocals

Additional musicians

• Ben Nightingale — guitar on "Sam the Man"

Recording details

• Producer — Iva Davies
• Studio/s — dIVA Studios @ Whale Beach, Australia. Additional recordings by Simon Leadley @ Trackdown Studios assisted by James Cadsky, Richard Mould, Michelle Barry.
• Mix/Editing/Mastering — David Lord with Iva Davies, David Chapman, Paul Wheeler at Trackdown
• Mix/Editing/Mastering Engineered by — Simon Leadley at Trackdown

Art work

• Cover Concept — Iva Davies
• Artwork & Computer Graphics — Patti Gaines for Genki.
• Photography — Tony Mott

References

1. ^ Allmusic review
2. ^ "The Flowers / Icehouse". Australian Rock Database. Magnus Holmgren. http://hem.passagen.se/honga/database/i/icehouse.html?k. Retrieved 2008-07-07. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Big Wheel (bonus tracks) credits". allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r621881/credits. Retrieved 2008-07-07. 
4. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970-1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.  NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1970 until ARIA created their own charts in mid-1988.
5. ^ "Search results for:Icehouse". australian-charts.com. http://www.australian-charts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Icehouse. Retrieved 2008-07-05. 
6. ^ Big Wheel CD single
7. ^ "Australasian Performing Right Association". APRA. http://www.apra.com.au/site/public/searchworks.stm. Retrieved 2008-07-05.  Note: requires user to input song title e.g. BIG WHEEL