Fact #159507
When:
Short story:
Icehouse enter the UK singles chart with Hey Little Girl.
Full article:
ICEHOUSE - WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (June 00)
The tale of Icehouse is curious indeed. They had found success in Australia under the name Flowers but, when UK success beckoned, a Scottish band had the same name. So they adopted the title of their Australian top ten album, Icehouse, for their UK tour, and it stuck. Stranger yet, by 1983 when they scored their biggest UK hit, Hey Little Girl, they’d already split up.
Iva Davies (vocals, keyboards) : “By the time people saw Icehouse on Top Of The Pops, it was effectively a trading name for me. I would write the music and record it, mostly using a Prophet 5, and only bring in other musicians as and when I needed them, to play parts I couldn’t do, or for live work.
We did a tour around then, supporting David Bowie, which we nicknamed the Serious Nosebleed tour. I vividly remember the thrill of seeing Bowie dancing in the wings to our music as we opened for him in Hamburg. But the momentum of Icehouse was lost in the UK because we concentrated on America, and our fifth album gave us two American Top 20 hits, Electric Blue and Crazy. So although no-one in England knew about it, Icehouse was much more successful at the end of the eighties.
The one guy from that Hey Little Girl era who I’m still in touch with is the bassist, Guy Pratt. I’ve been writing songs with him, and he came out to Sydney on Millennium night. We did a live performance of my 24 minute composition, Great Southern Land, to accompany the midnight celebrations. It was seen, I’m told, by 2.5 billion people.
Right now, I’m working on another album, The Berlin Tapes, which might come out as Icehouse, or maybe as an Iva Davies solo album.”
Guy Pratt (bass) : There were dozens of people through that band but Iva was the core of it. I got pinched by the producer Rhett Davies, who wanted me to work on a Bryan Ferry’s Bete Noir album in 1985. I joined the Smiths for two weeks, while Andy Rourke sorted out some legal problems. I joined Pink Floyd for a 13 month tour in 1987, then moved to LA played for Madonna and Michael Jackson. He’s still never paid me for playing on Earth Song. In 1991 I started a band called Toy Matinee, which evolved into the band Sheryl Crow used for Tuesday Night Music Club. I co-wrote Vindaloo, and Jimmy Nail’s No1 Ain’t No Doubt. I never stop. Played bass in the Schwartzenegger movie Last Action Hero. Did the music for the tv shows Spaced and Young Person’s Guide To Being A Rock Star, and I’m currently working on a musical with Gary Kemp. Oh, and I was a Christian Fundamentalist Terrorist who got blown up in a recent episode of Randall And Hopkirk Deceased, because my dad was Mike Pratt, the original Randall in the sixties.”
Michael Hoste (keyboards) : According to Davies, “He was the first of that line-up to disappear. Halfway through the Hey Little Girl Tour, Michael went a bit berserk. He started smashing glasses during a party with the record company in Germany and, the next day, he got an a plane and we never saw him again. I’ve been told he’s now back in Sydney, and feeling better.”
John Lloyd (drums) : Guy Pratt recalls that Lloyd, “Um, disappeared. Joined a huge and mysterious hippy commune in Nimbin, New South Wales. Used to send cult members to visit me at my flat in London.”
Bob Kretshmer (guitar) : As Davies remembers it, “He, er, disappeared. Just walked out. He was also a qualified make-up artist, and the only word we’ve ever had of him was a rumour that he was living on a yacht in Marina Del Mar, doing make-up for movie stars.
Andy Qunta (keyboards) : Pratt says, “I last heard of him in LA, just before his phone was cut off and his house got boarded up. He’d got drawn into some strange business dealings and was allegedly on the run from the FBI and Interpol. And, of course, disappeared.”
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The tale of Icehouse is curious indeed. They had found success in Australia under the name Flowers but, when UK success beckoned, a Scottish band had the same name. So they adopted the title of their Australian top ten album, Icehouse, for their UK tour, and it stuck. Stranger yet, by 1983 when they scored their biggest UK hit, Hey Little Girl, they’d already split up.
Iva Davies (vocals, keyboards) : “By the time people saw Icehouse on Top Of The Pops, it was effectively a trading name for me. I would write the music and record it, mostly using a Prophet 5, and only bring in other musicians as and when I needed them, to play parts I couldn’t do, or for live work.
We did a tour around then, supporting David Bowie, which we nicknamed the Serious Nosebleed tour. I vividly remember the thrill of seeing Bowie dancing in the wings to our music as we opened for him in Hamburg. But the momentum of Icehouse was lost in the UK because we concentrated on America, and our fifth album gave us two American Top 20 hits, Electric Blue and Crazy. So although no-one in England knew about it, Icehouse was much more successful at the end of the eighties.
The one guy from that Hey Little Girl era who I’m still in touch with is the bassist, Guy Pratt. I’ve been writing songs with him, and he came out to Sydney on Millennium night. We did a live performance of my 24 minute composition, Great Southern Land, to accompany the midnight celebrations. It was seen, I’m told, by 2.5 billion people.
Right now, I’m working on another album, The Berlin Tapes, which might come out as Icehouse, or maybe as an Iva Davies solo album.”
Guy Pratt (bass) : There were dozens of people through that band but Iva was the core of it. I got pinched by the producer Rhett Davies, who wanted me to work on a Bryan Ferry’s Bete Noir album in 1985. I joined the Smiths for two weeks, while Andy Rourke sorted out some legal problems. I joined Pink Floyd for a 13 month tour in 1987, then moved to LA played for Madonna and Michael Jackson. He’s still never paid me for playing on Earth Song. In 1991 I started a band called Toy Matinee, which evolved into the band Sheryl Crow used for Tuesday Night Music Club. I co-wrote Vindaloo, and Jimmy Nail’s No1 Ain’t No Doubt. I never stop. Played bass in the Schwartzenegger movie Last Action Hero. Did the music for the tv shows Spaced and Young Person’s Guide To Being A Rock Star, and I’m currently working on a musical with Gary Kemp. Oh, and I was a Christian Fundamentalist Terrorist who got blown up in a recent episode of Randall And Hopkirk Deceased, because my dad was Mike Pratt, the original Randall in the sixties.”
Michael Hoste (keyboards) : According to Davies, “He was the first of that line-up to disappear. Halfway through the Hey Little Girl Tour, Michael went a bit berserk. He started smashing glasses during a party with the record company in Germany and, the next day, he got an a plane and we never saw him again. I’ve been told he’s now back in Sydney, and feeling better.”
John Lloyd (drums) : Guy Pratt recalls that Lloyd, “Um, disappeared. Joined a huge and mysterious hippy commune in Nimbin, New South Wales. Used to send cult members to visit me at my flat in London.”
Bob Kretshmer (guitar) : As Davies remembers it, “He, er, disappeared. Just walked out. He was also a qualified make-up artist, and the only word we’ve ever had of him was a rumour that he was living on a yacht in Marina Del Mar, doing make-up for movie stars.
Andy Qunta (keyboards) : Pratt says, “I last heard of him in LA, just before his phone was cut off and his house got boarded up. He’d got drawn into some strange business dealings and was allegedly on the run from the FBI and Interpol. And, of course, disappeared.”