Icehouse

Every period of music has an act which captures the essence of its time, like the Easybeats did in Australia in the 60s, and Little River Band did in the 70s. In the 80s the group which best drank in the musical character of the day and made its own contribution was Icehouse, with music output largely generated by the group's leader and singer Iva Davies.

Actually born "Ivor" Davies, he started his career studying the oboe at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music and playing in the ABC National Training Orchestra. The popular music his peers were listening to didn't impact on Davies until his late teens, as if suddenly his eyes were opened to another music world which had been kept from him.

In 1975 he signed a solo recording deal and released a glam-pop single, 'Leading Lady'. On the label his name had incorrectly been misspelt as "Iva" Davies, and he decided to go with it as his professional name. When a second single didn't turn him into an instant star, Iva made his living writing manuscripts for music publishing companies while undergoing a personal education, following David Bowie and Roxy Music back to their roots, T.Rex, the Kinks, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, etc.

Iva taught himself to play guitar, dressed himself in black leather and with another music student Keith Welsh formed Flowers, dedicated to the great groups and songwriters of the 60s and 70s. They were immediately recognized for their note-for-note versions of classic rock songs, everything from the Easybeats to the Sex Pistols, and after a period of gigging (while keeping days jobs around changing line-ups) Iva and Keith threw their jobs in to tour nationally. Eventually Flowers was commanding the highest performance fee for a band not signed to a record company.

Flowers finally signed a record contract in 1980 with independent Regular Records. By then Flowers had begun introducing original material to their repertoire, mainly written by Iva. The first single, 'Can't Help Myself', clearly influenced by the material Flowers had cut their teeth on, became an instant national hit. The second single 'We Can Get Together' did even better. Their debut album, with not one cover song in sight, was called 'Icehouse'. The name came from the first track, a song by Iva Davies, inspired by two large old mansions in the suburb of Lindfield on Sydney's North Shore. In one, Iva himself occupied a rather cold gloomy flat. The other, a few doors away, was used at the time as a half way house for convalescing psychiatric and drug affected patients. The album name had little to do with the bright, accessible pop on the record. 'Icehouse' became one of Australia's biggest selling albums of 1980. There was even interest internationally.

To avoid confusion with similarly named artists the group was released internationally as Icehouse. After dropping in on New Zealand where the album had gone double platinum, Icehouse headed for Europe and Canada.

On the way to a second album Icehouse released 'Love In Motion' It was later discovered that Iva had recorded the single all by himself between gigs in London. Icehouse was already a group in name only. The second Icehouse album was virtually a solo Iva Davies release, recorded in both Sydney and Los Angeles and co-produced by Keith Forsey, disco producer Giorgio Moroder's assistant. While there wasn't a group as such on the record, the sound remained the same, and 'Primitive Man' became a No.1 album and generated more hits, 'Great Southern Land' and 'Hey Little Girl'.

While he was a perfectionist who wanted his way in the studio and on stage, Iva was still eager to represent himself as a group, and formed a new line-up to tour the album both in Australia and internationally. In keeping with the band's place in world music, two of the new group were English musicians. The new band made its first performance almost a year to the day since the previous line-up gave their last. 'Primitive Man' was followed by 'Sidewalk', an even more 'solo' album, Iva also producing without outside help, and only bringing in the band members at the very last minute. Completely on his own, Iva Davies wrote and recorded the soundtrack to 'Razorback' entirely on the Fairlight synthesizer

The next group album, 'Measure To Measure' however was the product of at least two minds, Iva's and that of Icehouse guitarist Robert Kretschmer. Iva and Robert had collaborated on writing and performing the music for the ballet 'Boxes' and kept going for 'Measure To Measure'. Production of the tracks was divided between two eminent and carefully chosen British producers - Rhett Davies (who had produced Brian Ferry and Roxy Music and also worked with Brian Eno) and David Lord, who had worked with Peter Gabriel, XTC, and Echo and the Bunnymen). The album was recorded mainly in England, much of it at a studio owned by Brian Ferry and Brian Eno. After emulating these artists with Flowers, Icehouse was now one of them. Iva Davies' music had come full circle. The album title referred to Iva's desire to keep everything in balance, 'Measure For Measure'.

In Icehouse terms the next album followed a mere sixteen months later, the shortest gap between Icehouse albums, with David Lord again at the controls. The songs were written within the space of just three months. Those facts might explain why 'Man Of Colours' was the most focussed Icehouse record yet. With half a million sales in Australia it became the second biggest selling Australian album, an achievement overshadowed by the previous year's 'Whispering Jack' from John Farnham, Australia's biggest selling album of all time. 'Man Of Colours' was the first Australian album to generate five Top 40 hits, including a No.1 with 'Electric Blue'. 'Man Of Colours' was also Icehouse's best performing album internationally.

Icehouse rewarded itself for the success of 'Man Of Colours' with a compilation album 'Great Southern Land', including a couple of new tracks from the sessions towards the next album. Everything that could go wrong with the progress of that album did go wrong. Just before entering the studio, David Lord, the producer who had been so successfully involved with the previous two studio albums was unavailable. After some delay the services of another English producer, Nick Launay, were obtained. Then, for a variety of reasons - tours, promoting the compilation album - the recording itself extended over a longer period than usual. Then there was the problem of the album itself. The first single, 'Big Fun' seemed to be making fun of Australians themselves. If it was satirical the joke was lost of radio programmers. Called 'Code Blue' the album's songs were each ambitiously inspired by some element of Australian heritage places, characters, attitudes, events.

The album itself was eventually released within days of the tenth anniversary of the first album's release. Together all the facts surrounding its release conspired to make 'Code Blue' the poorest felling Icehouse album. Since then Iva Davies has preferred to keep a low profile and his records have failed to attract chart attention as a consequence.