Icehouse (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. Additional musicians used by Flowers in 1978 were Michael Hoste on keyboards and Don Brown on drums. 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. which reached the Australian Top 10 in June 1980. and Davies, 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. 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. ==1981–1989: Icehouse==

As Icehouse, the band spent the second half of 1981 touring the UK, Canada and the U.S., whilst Chrysalis released most of their Flowers material under the name Icehouse. 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 Released on September 20, 1982, as an Icehouse album, Primitive Man reached No. 3 on the National album charts No. 5 in Germany and top 20 in UK, Sweden and Netherlands. To promote Primitive Man on tour, Davies re-assembled Icehouse with Hoste and Lloyd, and new members: Robert Kretschmer (guitar, backing vocals), Guy Pratt (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Andy Qunta (keyboards, backing vocals). The trailer for the movie was released in 1983, On tour for Measure for Measure, Icehouse were Davies, Kretschmer, Lloyd and Qunta with Glenn Krawczyk on bass (replacing new member Vito Portolesi after nine shows) and Paul Wheeler on drums. it was released on VHS and NTSC formats. Jopson was subsequently used to direct four music videos for Icehouse. peaked at No. 1 in October, "My Obsession" No. 12 in December, "Man of Colours" No. 28 in February 1988 and "Nothing Too Serious" No. 29 in May 1988. "Electric Blue" reached No. 10, and "My Obsession" reached No. 84. With U.S. chart success for "Crazy", which reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 10 on its Mainstream Rock chart, and "Electric Blue" peaked at No. 7 Hot 100 and No. 10 Mainstream, the band had reached their zenith of popularity, the album Man of Colours reached No. 43 on the Billboard 200. Man of Colours was lauded in Australia during 1988, it won two ARIA Awards, 'Album of the Year' and 'Highest-Selling Album'. The associated song "Electric Blue" won 'Most Performed Australasian Popular Work' at the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) Music Awards in 1989 for its writers, Davies and Oates. The cover artwork, designed by Davies and Kretschmer, depicts a human figure holding three different coloured flowers. In 1988, Davies and Kretschmer also wrote and recorded the track "Dance Of Life" for Yukihiro Takahashi's 1988 album Ego. The only Icehouse releases for 1989 were a single "Touch the Fire" which reached No. 13 in Australia in November and a compilation double album and video collection Great Southern Land. December 1989 saw the release of "Jimmy Dean" as a single, which reached No. 47 on the ARIA singles charts. ==1990–present: Iva Davies and Icehouse==

1990–1992: Code Blue, Masterfile Qunta left at about this time with Icehouse recording their next album, Code Blue released in October. Sessions were released as The Berlin Tapes under the name Iva Davies and Icehouse in 1995 on DIVA (Iva Davies' own label) / Massive Records for Australian release and Warner Records for international release in 2002. On New Year's Eve in 1999, Davies (vocals, guitar), Tognetti (violin), Guy Pratt (bass), Krawczyk (drums) ROM=Pari (Taiko – Japanese drums) and Sydney Symphony Orchestra performed The Ghost of Time on the northern forecourt of Sydney Opera House alongside Sydney Harbour and was televised around the world on CNN and other news networks. with certain tracks available between 2004 and 2008 from the Official Iva Davies – Icehouse website including "Your God Not Mine". As of 2024, the album is still unreleased, and no updates on the album's progress—if any—have been issued in over a decade. In 2002, The Whitlams covered "Don't Believe Anymore" from Sidewalk for their album Torch the Moon, which enjoyed moderate radio success. During 2002, Davies digitally remastered all of Flowers' and Icehouse's studio albums, adding bonus tracks to each—they were released by Warner Music Australia. In 2003, Davies contributed "Ghost of Time" and other music to the film score of the Russell Crowe epic Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. In 2004, Heroes, which was The Berlin Tapes repackaged from the Australian and Japanese versions, was released. On 16 August 2006, Icehouse were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame alongside Midnight Oil, Divinyls and Rose Tattoo. Icehouse / Flowers featured on Triple M's 2007 Essential Countdown with 14 songs including: "Great Southern Land" at No. 13, "Don't Believe Any More" No. 78, "Street Cafe" No. 187, "Love in Motion" No. 327, "We Can Get Together" No. 428, and "Electric Blue" No. 454. From 15 June 2008, Davies was a judge on Seven Network TV series Battle of the Choirs. Davies commented on the status of Icehouse: The grand final show of Battle of the Choirs, broadcast on 3 August 2008, had Icehouse provide a rare live performance of "Great Southern Land". For the performance, Icehouse were Iva Davies (vocals, guitar), Paul Wheeler (drums, percussion), Paul Gildea (guitar), David Chapman (guitar), Steve Bull (bass guitar); they were supported by the three grand-finalist choirs. Sound Relief is a benefit concert for victims of the Victorian Bushfire Crisis and the Queensland Floods. Appearing with Icehouse at the Sydney concert were, Coldplay, Eskimo Joe, Hoodoo Gurus, Jet, Josh Pyke, Little Birdy, The Presets, Wolfmother, You Am I and additional artists. On 4 June 2009, Icehouse performed at the Sacred Heart Mission's "Heart of St Kilda Concert". The concert featured many Australian performers such as Kate Ceberano, Joe Camilleri, Dave Hughes, Mark Seymour, Mick Molloy, Tex Perkins, Tim Rogers, Corinne Grant, Ash Grunwald and Greg Fleet. On stage with Iva Davies were Paul Gildea (guitar), Paul Wheeler (drums), Steve Morgan (bass) and Glen Reither (sax/keys). 2011–present: Icehouse 30th anniversary, White Heat: 30 Hits and DubHouse Live On 6 April 2011, Icehouse and Universal Music Australia publicly announced a new partnership for sales and distribution of the band's material. Accompanying this were details of the planned issue of a 30th-anniversary edition of the band's debut album Icehouse. This release marked the first time any of the band's catalogue had been available for commercial download. The album was released on 20 May 2011 digitally and as a multi-disc set. On 7 July 2011, the band issued a press release about the forthcoming release of a new greatest hits compilation, titled White Heat: 30 Hits. The album was released on 26 August 2011. Since 2011 Icehouse has started to play regular live concerts again in Australia. One of the concerts was at the December Homebake 2011 concert, performing under the moniker of "Icehouse Plays Flowers", where they played songs from their first two albums (both released singles and unreleased songs) — "Icehouse", "We Can Get Together", "Skin", "Boulevard", "Great Southern Land" and "Sister." Keith Welsh joined them on stage, playing bass-guitar. On 12 July 2012, the entire Icehouse studio catalogue was reissued. Primitive Man and Man of Colours also received a bonus DVD to celebrate their 30th and 25th anniversaries, respectively. The band planned to promote the two anniversary albums with the "Primitive Colours" tour. On 4 and 7 December, Icehouse performed two shows at the Esplanade Hotel in Melbourne and the Oxford Art Factory in Sydney, respectively, under the moniker of "DubHouse performing reggae-styled versions of classic Icehouse songs and old reggae favourites". These concerts spawned the release of a live album released in January 2014. They also performed a 40th-anniversary concert at the Roche Estate, in the New South Wales Hunter Valley in March 2017. On 9 February 2020, Icehouse played at the St. Kilda Festival in Melbourne; Flowers had played the first festival in 1980, so for the 40th anniversary Icehouse played the majority of the Flowers album plus a few covers that they would have played back then, a recording of the concert was released in October 2020 as Icehouse Plays Flowers. In 2021, a remix of "Hey Little Girl" was released by Australian duo Mark Vick and Danny Muller, with the record credited to The Antipodeans Vs Icehouse. In 2022, Icehouse performed "Great Southern Land" and "We Can Get Together" at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup final at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia. In 2025, Icehouse, amongst other special guests, was scheduled to perform with Jimmy Barnes to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his iconic song "Working Class Man". == Musical style ==

Icehouse's music has been classed as both new wave and rock music. Hence, AllMusic described them as "new wave rockers". ==Members==

Current members • Hugo Lee – saxophone, keyboards (2021–present) Former members • Keith Welsh – bass guitar, backing vocals (1977–1981) • Ashley Sharpe – guitar (1977-1978) • Don Brown – drums (1977–1979) • Michael Hoste – keyboards, backing vocals (1978, 1982–1983) • Anthony Smith (aka Adam Hall) – keyboards, backing vocals (1979–1982) • John Lloyd – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1979–1984) • Bob Kretschmer – guitar, backing vocals (1982–1989) • Guy Pratt – bass guitar, backing vocals (1982–1986) • Andy Qunta – keyboards, keytar, backing vocals, occasional guitar (1982–1988) • Masaki Tanazawa - drums & percussion (1985-1986) • Gary Hughes – keyboards (1983–1984) • Simon Lloyd – saxophone, trumpet, keyboards, backing vocals (1984–1991) • Steve Jansen – drums, percussion (1985) • Glenn Krawczyk – bass guitar (1986) • Steve Morgan – bass guitar, backing vocals (1987–1989) • Roger Mason – keyboards (1989–1990) • Tony Llewellyn – keyboards (1991–2004) • David Chapman – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1993–1995) • Max Lambert – piano (1995) • Adrian Wallis – cello (1995–2004) • Glenn Reither – saxophone, keyboards (2007–2021) Timeline ==Discography==

• Icehouse (1980) (as Flowers) • Primitive Man (1982) • Sidewalk (1984) • Measure for Measure (1986) • Man of Colours (1987) • Code Blue (1990) • Big Wheel (1993) • The Berlin Tapes (1995) (as Iva Davies and Icehouse) ==Awards and nominations==

ARIA Music Awards The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Icehouse were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2006. APRA Awards The APRA Awards are held in Australia and New Zealand by the Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually. Countdown Awards Countdown was an Australian pop music TV series on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987; it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards. Mo Awards The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards (commonly known informally as the Mo Awards), were annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognise achievements in live entertainment in Australia from 1975 to 2016. Icehouse won one award in that time. (wins only) Rolling Stone Australia Awards The Rolling Stone Australia Awards are awarded annually in January or February by the Australian edition of Rolling Stone magazine for outstanding contributions to popular culture in the previous year. ==References==