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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 playing New Wave and synthpop style music 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 Three 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.
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. Davies was working as a part-time cleaner at a squash court managed by Welsh's mother, they lived nearby and were both interested in forming a band. Additional musicians used by Flowers in 1978 were Michael Hoste on keyboards and Don Brown on drums. 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. By the middle of 1979 John Lloyd (ex-Paul Kelly and the Dots) replaced Don Brown on drums, with Anthony Smith (who was sometimes called Adam Hall), on keyboards, replacing Michael Hoste who remained associated with the band and later rejoined. After signing to the independent Regular Records label, distributed by Festival, Flowers released their debut single in May 1980, "Can't Help Myself" (written by Davies), which hit the Australian Top 10 in June 1980. This was followed by their debut album Icehouse, which reached No. 4 on the National albums chart and became one of the year's biggest selling albums in Australia. The album, co-produced by Cameron Allan (Mental As Anything's producer) and Davies, made use of synthesisers, including the Minimoog, Solina Strings and Oberheim OB 1. Hoste co-wrote four tracks with Davies and played additional keyboards, with Smith continuing to provide the main keyboards. Further singles "We Can Get Together" and "Walls" from Icehouse also hit the Top 20.
Flowers' popularity was recognised when they were awarded the 1980 TV Week / Countdown Rock Awards 'Johnny O'Keefe New Talent Award' ahead of The Dugites, INXS and Karen Knowles. They were also nominated for 'Best Album' and 'Best Album Cover' for Icehouse but lost on both to Cold Chisel's East, Iva Davies was nominated as 'Best Songwriter' but lost to Cold Chisel's Don Walker. At the award ceremony, Flowers performed "Icehouse" with Davies framed within a cube of white neon tubing. In early 1981, Flowers signed to Chrysalis Records for European, Japanese, UK and U.S. releases; they had to change their name due to legal restrictions and to prevent confusion with a Scottish group The Flowers. Their last performance under the name Flowers was on 27 June 1981 at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney, they chose the name of their album to become known as Icehouse.
As Icehouse, the band spent the second half of 1981 touring the UK, Canada and U.S.; whilst Chrysalis released most of their Flowers material under the name Icehouse. The single "Icehouse" was released in Europe and created some interest in the UK, partly because of a video directed by Russell Mulcahy; while in the U.S. the song peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard Top Tracks chart in 1981. "Icehouse" had been written by Davies when he lived at 18 Tryon Road, Lindfield in an old, cold flat of a two-storey mansion - across the street was a dishevelled house which had its lights on all night peopled by short-term residents. Davies later learned it was a half-way house for psychiatric and drug rehab patients. The first U.S. single "We Can Get Together" peaked at No. 62 on the Billboard Hot 100. A single-only release, "Love in Motion", was recorded by Davies using the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, and became the first new recording credited to Icehouse; it hit the Australian Top 10 in November 1981. Icehouse split up late in 1981, Keith Welsh later becoming manager of Australian bands Do-Ré-Mi and Boom Crash Opera.
Members of Flowers, Icehouse and Iva Davies & Icehouse, listed chronologically:
Iva Davies (1977-–) : lead vocals, lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, oboe
Keith Welsh (1977–1981) : bass guitar, backing vocals
Don Brown (1977–1979) : drums
Michael Hoste (1978, 1982–1983) : keyboards
Anthony Smith (aka Adam Hall) (1979–1982) : 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, 2009-) : bass guitar
Paul Wheeler (1986–2004, 2009-) : 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
Glenn Reither (2007-) : keyboards, saxophone
Michael Paynter (2011-) : keyboards, guitar
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