I still remember seeing Flowers at the Stardust Hotel in Cabramatta around 1979. They were brilliant yet their best was still to come. Flowers became Icehouse in 1981 to avoid problems with a Scottish band by the name of The Flowers. The project that became Icehouse was driven essentially by Iva Davies who remains the sole original member. He was a classically trained Oboe player who turned out to be a brilliant pop song writer and performer.

About

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 U.S. The mainstay of both Flowers and Icehouse has been Iva Davies (singer-songwriter, record producer, guitar, bass, keyboards, oboe) supplying additional musicians as required. The name Icehouse, which was adopted in 1981, comes from an old, cold flat Davies lived in and the strange building across the road populated by itinerant people.

Davies and Icehouse extended the use of synthesizers particularly the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 (“Love in Motion”, 1981), Linn drum machine (“Hey Little Girl”, 1982) and Fairlight CMI (Razorback trailer, 1983) in Australian popular music. 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).

Icehouse’s iconic status was acknowledged when they were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame on 16 August 2006. 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…” 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. As of 2006, Man of Colours was still the highest selling album in Australia by an Australian band.
From Wikipedia

Members

• Iva Davies (1977–current) : lead vocals, lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, oboe
• Keith Welsh (1977–1981) : bass guitar, backing vocals
• Don Brown (1977–1979) : drums
• Michael Hoste (1977, 1982–1983) : keyboards
• Anthony Smith (aka Adam Hall) (1977–1982) : keyboards
• John Lloyd (1979–1984) : drums, percussion, backing vocals
• Bob Kretschmer (1982–1989) : guitars, backing vocals
• Guy Pratt (1982–1986) : bass guitar, backing vocals
• Andy Qunta (1982–1988) : keyboards, backing vocals
• Glenn Krawczyk (1986) : bass guitar
• Simon Lloyd (1986–1991) : saxophone, trumpet, keyboards
• Steve Morgan (1986–2004) : bass guitar
• Paul Wheeler (1986–2004) : drums, percussion
• Roger Mason (1989–1990) : keyboard
• Paul Gildea (1990–2004, 2007) : guitars
• Tony Llewellyn (1991–2004) : keyboards
• David Chapman (1993–1995) : guitars
• Max Lambert (1995) : piano
• Adrian Wallis (1995–2004) : cello
• Steve Bull (2007) : bass guitar
• Peter Maslen (2007) : drums
• Glen Reither (2007) : keyboards, saxophone

Video

Check out this awesome clip of a modern day version of Icehouse playing outside Parliament House, Canberra on Australia Day 2005. The guitarist is a guy called Paul Gildea who I had the pleasure of touring with in about 1992 with Rick Price. He’s a brilliant player and a damn nice bloke.

Albums

• Icehouse 1980
• Primitive Man 1982
  (aka Love In Motion UK 1983)
• Sidewalk 1984
• Measure for Measure 1986
• Man of Colours 1987
• Code Blue 1990
• Big Wheel 1993
• The Berlin Tapes 1995

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About

Formed in 1989, The Fargone Beauties were the originators of thrashgrass, which is the performance of classic rock songs the way they were truly intended to be – loud, electric and bluegrass style. The band released three albums, performed on countless TV shows, played all the pubs and clubs, and scared the life out of audiences at every major country music festival in Australia.

History

In July 1989 the great Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel was about to perform some solo shows and dates with his brother Phil in Sydney. He called a musician friend, John Spence, with a dilemma. “Spencey, I’ve just found out we’re onstage at 11.00 pm tomorrow night and we need a support act. We need someone to play between 8.30 and 10.30 & warm up the punters before we go on. Can you help?”

No problem Tommy. John called his mate James Gillard, who had recently moved to Sydney from Melbourne where he’d been playing bass and singing with Mondo Rock and Broderick Smith’s Big Combo. John & James put a song list together and, without rehearsing, played the show the next night as a duo.

“Hey, that was great, but I reckon we can crank it up a bit,” said Tommy backstage after the first night. “In fact let’s make it a band tomorrow night, and I’ll play drums.” It’s a little known fact that besides being one of the greatest guitarists in the world (Tommy was inducted as a CGP – Certified Guitar Player, by the legendary Chet Atkins, one of only 3 worldwide), Tommy is also a fantastic drummer, and loves playing when he gets the chance.

So John hauled in another muso mate, virtuoso guitarist & Cockney looney, Terry Murray, to join them the next night. Again with no rehearsal, the “band” played a great set and at the conclusion a band agent and venue booker, Tim Kirkland from Peak Promotions, walked out of the audience & said “Who are you guys, what is this band & do you want some work ? I can book you next weekend if you like.”

Problem was, it wasn’t really a band, we didn’t have a name, and there were certainly no plans to do any more shows. But on hearing this Tommy chimed in, “I’m up for it. I’m in Sydney for the next three weeks doing sessions, and I’m in, as long as I get to play drums.” James very quickly added the band name, “we’re called The Fargone Beauties”.

After we all did a double take on the double meaning of the name, we laughed and thought why not, just go out and play a few gigs, have some fun & it’s all over.
From www.fargonebeauties.com.au

Members

• James Gillard – Bass and Vocals
• Mark Marriott – Drums
• Terry Murray – Guitar and Vocals
• John Spence – Guitar and Vocals
• Mark Collins – Banjo
• Tommy Emmanuel – Drums
• Dave Druery – Drums

Recordings

Singles

• Wild Thing – 1991
• Highway To hell – 1992
• Play That Country Music – 1993

Albums

• The Fargone Beauties – 1991
• It’s Hard When You’re Ugly – 1992
• Dark Side Of The Moo – 1994
• A Load Of Old Bullocks – 2006

Other Resources

• The Fargone Beauties Website

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