Thursday, 27 March 2014

That's Entertainment : Icehouse


At the moment, I have ideas for Book 5 floating around my head.  It mixes the A*Team with daring do, swaggering LA glamster types of hair metal, linked to a pyromaniac.  It's an exciting development phase where anything is possible.  And because I like to use music to get my creative juices flowing, Icehouse's Touch The Fire fuels thoughts and fantasies of how the story will go.   What I do know, is that one day it will be the song used on the opening and closing credits of the film and I will bow down to Iva Davis and thank him for the music!

My love for Icehouse began in 1989 when I purchased my first compact disc single.  I was 13, in year 7 and the song was Icehouse's Touch The Fire and it was a huge investment, having to pay $9.99 for it.  At this time, barely any singles were released on CD (and most were on the short-lived 3 inch CD single that could only be played on spindle CD players, not trays) and most singles came on 45 or cassette.  Anyway, it was a song I immediately fell in love with and my introduction to Icehouse.

After that, I was hooked on Icehouse and thankfully, CD singles became more prevalent by 1991 and became cheaper too, although they drifted between $5 and $8 (when full CD albums were still $25 to $30).  I long ago lost the CD single but have always kept the cassingle, with the lyrics clipped from Smash Hits tucked in the cover with the tape.

Today, Icehouse is an essential and pioneering Australian act.  They began life as Flowers and released their debut album Icehouse in 1980.  They pioneered synthesisers and sound production techniques and were a leader in the Australian synth-pop and pub-rock scenes of the 1980's.  By 1987, they had released their seminal LP Man of Colours which is still the highest selling Australian album by an Australian band.  It also spawned the monster hits (beloved by many still today) Crazy, Electric Blue, My Obsession and Man of Colours whilst also containing my firm favourites Heartbreak Kid and Girl In The Moon which I once spoofed in a Weird Al fashion for a Year 8 drama project.

Early on, they meshed the glam and dance aesthetics of T-Rex, Bowie and Roxy Music and created early 80's synth-heaven.  I remember watching a Countdown repeat on RAGE one night, and Molly Meldrum just gushed saying if their new single (at the time [off Icehouse/Flowers]) Sister wasn't a hit, he didn't know what was wrong with the Aussie music buying public).  Sister is an amazing track too, nestled in with early greats such as Can't Help Myself and We Can Get Together.  In fact, Sister is one of those songs that inspires things and maybe one day, this song too will be a soundtrack song too!  I like to think it might be the only song I could actually play on guitar as well!  :-) 

In 1982, they released Primitive Man with the defacto Australian national anthem Great Southern Land and Hey Little Girl as well as Street Cafe.  Their third LP, Sidewalk was a more subdued effort but contains the beautiful Don't Believe Anymore and shouty, jerky Taking The Town.  1986's Measure For Measure is a bottler too, with particular attention needing to be paid to Cross The Border and No Promises, as well as Too Late Now.  For mine, Measure For Measure sounds like it could have been the soundtrack to a John Hughes movie, and has that pop sheen that I identify with so well.

Then of course came the stratospheric Man of Colours.  It is an amazing album and deserves its place as one of Australia's icons.  Electric Blue (co-written with John Oates from Hall & Oates) was to be Icehouse's only Australian #1 single (such a crime!).  Quite literally, I can air guitar this album in my sleep; I can hit every beat and every vocal.  It's one of those albums seared in to my soul and is just the quintessential pop album deserving a place in your collection.

By 1990, there was a changing of the guard in the Australian music scene and Icehouse squeezed in one more hit album with Code Blue.  When they originally released the CD, the pilot's facade on the album cover was printed on the jewel case cover, which made it a bugger if you cracked the case!  Possessing the cassingles from this album, Big Fun hit first, followed by the oddly queer Miss Divine.  Anything Is Possible was released with a couple of live songs from 1980, celebrating the band's 10th anniversary.  Covering T-Rex's Think Zinc, I remember singing this song in commerce class and my teacher asking where I'd heard the song and telling him it was Icehouse.  I leant him the tape, and excitedly he told me he was a Flowers fan and heard them actually play the song live somewhere back in the day.

Then in 1993, after grunge had hit and the Australian musical landscape had changed completely, Icehouse still had one gem up their sleeve.  Re-discovering their glammy roots, the single Satellite was released.  This is another Icehouse song I adore and the resulting album Big Wheel is chock full of delights.  

Icehouse was always pretty much Iva Davies and by the mid 90's and 2000's, he had moved away from pop and in to remixes, re-releases, best-of's and soundtrack work for theatre and film.  For the band's 30th Anniversary in 2011, all remastered albums with live cuts and b-sides (not all of them, sigh) would be released, and White Heat, a comprehensive audio and visual best of was released.  Tours ensued and respect received from mainstream media types, confirming the contribution Iva and Icehouse have made to Australian music.  Always one to be innovative and experiment (some of their instrumental b-sides are divine slices of creation), Icehouse performed DUBHouse (reggae) versions of their hits and recently released this as an album.

When all is said in done, the band Molly Meldrum pleaded for Australians to take and cherish have come a long way.  It's always with particular fondness that I can comb through the hits and the albums and enjoy a diverse and exciting body of work.  Iva Davies is a wonderful interview too and deserves all the accolades that come his way.

So do yourself a favour, go buy White Heat, buy a new copy of Man of Colours and go exploring the Icehouse back catalogue.  Trust me, you won't be disappointed.  And with all that inspiration, anything is possible.

















Fark!  Look at the price of the CD single!!!


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