1992–1998: Travelling... Made Easy and Memory Lane Traffic Jam Charles Jenkins had been a solo artist in
Adelaide where, as Chuck Skatt, he formed
The Mad Turks from Istanbul as their vocalist in 1984 with Dominic Larizza (as Dom Benedictine III) on drums and later on guitar, Martyn Christopher on bass guitar and Matthias Eckhardt on guitar. The band relocated to Melbourne by 1989, renamed as The Mad Turks after Eckhardt left, Jenkins took up rhythm guitar, and they disbanded there in 1991. Jenkins and Larizza recruited his brother Arturo "Arch" Larizza (ex-
The Saints) on bass guitar and Derek Smiley on drums to form Chuck Skatt and His Icecream Hands in 1992. In 1997 they released their second full-length album,
Memory Lane Traffic Jam. By then Rubber Records was being distributed by
BMG and the album was released in the United States on
Not Lame Recordings. Three bonus tracks were added to the US release, which was acclaimed by
AllMusic reviewer,
Stephen Thomas Erlewine as "immediately catchy, but [the songs] grow stronger upon each listen -- a hallmark of a truly fine pop album".
1999–2003: Sweeter Than the Radio and Broken UFO Sweeter Than the Radio,
co-produced by Icecream Hands and
Wayne Connolly, was released in 1999. Just prior to the recording of the album, Marcus Goodwin (ex-Yolk) had replaced Dom Larizza on lead guitar. One of the singles, "Nipple" was written by Jenkins about an early girlfriend who attracted his attention at a bus stop. With a lack of commercial success they nevertheless achieved critical acclaim when the album was nominated for the
ARIA Award for Best Adult Contemporary Album in
2000. Their next album,
Broken UFO, produced by
Shane O'Mara and East Van Parks, contained the track, "Rain, Hail, Shine" which was nominated for the
ARIA Award for Best Independent Release at the
ARIA Music Awards of 2002.
2004–2006: Hiatus In 2004, Rubber Records released a 2×CD
greatest hits collection,
You Can Ride My Bike: The Best of the Icecream Hands. While on hiatus, Jenkins pursued his solo career to release two albums,
Bungalow (2004) and
The City Gates (2005) on Parole Records.
2007–present: Occasional reformations and solo careers Icecream Hands briefly reunited for
The Good China, released in 2007 on the independent label Dust Devil Music. Jenkins returned to his solo work and released
Blue Atlas on Dust Devil Music in 2008. Robertson (as "Doug Root") joined Melbourne-based
alternative rock group
Root! in 2008, he had guested on their debut album,
Root! (2007). They released a second album,
Get Up Yourself in 2009. Smiley also briefly joined ROOT as Smiley Root and recorded Surface Paradise with them before moving to his next project Buff Uncle. As from January 2010, Goodwin and Smiley performed briefly as a duo, Buff Uncle. In early 2019, the band reformed for a tour commemorating the 20th anniversary of the release of "Sweeter Than The Radio". On August 21, 2020, they released No Weapon But Love, their first album in 13 years. Due to COVID-19 lockdowns, the band were unable to perform an album launch until January 2021, when they played at the Northcote Social in Melbourne. ==Members==