WHAT started out as little more than a punk band with synthesizers has become one of Australia’s most true-blue bands.
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Icehouse lead singer Iva Davies has stuck with the band since its humble beginnings, through a 16 year hiatus and now on the road to Tamworth.
“We have no fear of getting off the beaten track,” he said.
His meteoric rise to Australia’s exclusive group of rock stars in the 80s is in many ways deceptive.
Iva is a rock star, but he never had much interest in the rock star lifestyle. To him, music is a career he takes incredible seriously.
“Don’t get me wrong we all had fun, but we had a strong work ethic right from the start,” he said.
“We had strict rules and we still do, we don’t have a drink before we go on stage it’s just something we don’t do.
“We’ve never travelled with wives and girlfriends because when we travel we go to work, it might seem kind of brutal from the outside but it’s a job and we’ve never lost sight of that fact.”
Out of the same management stable as Cold Chisel and The Angels, Davies credits the bands success with opportunities to learn by osmosis from the pair.
Formerly the Flowers, the band found its new moniker in the song Icehouse.
Written by Davies about an old mansion he once lived in, across the road always had their lights on.
He later discovered it was a halfway house for drug addicts and alcoholics.
“My house had a very strange vibe about it, when our drummer first came to visit us he got five paces inside the door and said, ‘I don’t like it’,” he said.
“It didn’t bother me but it was incredibly cold.
“Across the road it wasn’t until later that I wrote Icehouse, some fans turned up to my door one night and they were nurses from across the road and then I realised what it was.”
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His love affair with pub rock continues, and his latest tour is proof Icehouse has no fear of getting off the beaten track.
It’ll be his first time seeing Tamworth Country Music Festival in action, and he’s most interested in the buskers.
“We’re from Sydney and Melbourne where there’s a particular music scene and it’s actually refreshing to get out of that,” he said.
Icehouse is coming to Tamworth’s Regional Entertainment Centre on January 17 at 7pm.
Madeline Link
Madeline Link is a journalist at the Newcastle Herald, with a focus on Lake Macquarie City Council. To keep up with my stories, follow my Twitter @madeline_link, for tips email madeline.link@newcastleherald.com.au.
Madeline Link is a journalist at the Newcastle Herald, with a focus on Lake Macquarie City Council. To keep up with my stories, follow my Twitter @madeline_link, for tips email madeline.link@newcastleherald.com.au.
