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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