A SHORTER ICEHOUSE HISTORY
A Calendar of Events in the Life of Icehouse

1980
January 16th: Sydney band Flowers prepares to abandon its reputation of "a punk juke-box" and "the best unrecorded band in Australia" by entering a recording contract with independent label Regular Records.
May 13th: The first Flowers recording, a single "Can't Help Myself" released. It became a top 10 hit and one of the best known and loved, and most performed Icehouse songs.
September 7th: Flowers supports English band XTC at the Capitol Theatre, Sydney as part of the early touring to promote their first recordings.
October 20th: Debut Flowers album, Icehouse, released. It is destined to receive high critical acclaim and to reach multi platinum status in Australia and New Zealand.

1981
March 22nd: Flowers performs the song "Icehouse" at the Countdown Awards and is presented with the Johnny O'Keefe Award for Best New Talent of 1980.
June 27th: Final performance of Flowers at the close of the Odd People Tour through several states of Australia. At the end of the concert the change of the band name to Icehouse is announced.
July 4th: Icehouse flies out of Sydney on the first tour overseas which will take them to New Zealand, England, USA, Canada, back to England and then back to USA before returning to Australia.
July 15th: Two songs "Love in Motion" and "Goodnight Mr Matthews" recorded in London to become the next Icehouse hit single.
July 22nd: First European performance of Icehouse at the Venue, London. The crowd loved them. So did some press reviews, others viciously slated them.
August 3rd: Icehouse performs in New York at the opening of the first North American tour.
November 13th: Concert in Capitol Theatre, Sydney featured Icehouse with support from the Divinyls and Simple Minds.

1982
August 3rd: Single "Great Southern Land" released, soon to break into the National top 10 and become another hit.
September 6th: Primitive Man, the long-awaited follow up album from Icehouse released in Australia to receive even greater acclaim than the debut album.
October 26th: Single "Hey Little Girl" released and starts on the path to becoming a top 10 hit throughout Australasia and Europe.
November 6th: New Icehouse line up commences touring in Australia and New Zealand before heading for Europe.
December 9th: Icehouse performance in Dunedin, New Zealand breaks previous attendance record set by The Beatles.

1983
February 17th: Appearance of Icehouse on British T.V. programme "Top of the Pops," performing "Hey Little Girl" which is in the U.K. top 20.
March 20th: Iva Davies arrives back in Australia after touring England and Europe with Icehouse and completing the filming in Tunisia of a film clip for the next Icehouse single "Street Café."
April 17th: Icehouse appears at the Countdown Rock Awards having nominations for six categories. Iva Davies is voted Most Popular Male Performer of 1982.
July 3rd: Icehouse performs to a crowd of fifty thousand at Milton Keyes, England at conclusion of six weeks as support band for the European leg of David Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour.

1984
April 18th: Premiere of "Razorback," first full length feature film directed by Russell Mulcahy, leading director of music video clips, at State Theatre, Sydney. Music for the soundtrack composed by Iva Davies.
April 22nd: First single "Taking the Town," from the third Icehouse album, released.
June 12th: Sidewalk album released to become the least successful of the three Icehouse albums to date.
July 31st: Second single from Sidewalk album, "Don't Believe Anymore" released. Band performs first of two nights at the Chevron at Kings Cross, Sydney.
September 3rd: Iva Davies arrives in Tokyo and writes a song, "Walking to the Beat" for Yellow Magic Orchestra star, Yukihiro Takahashi, for inclusion in his Wild and Moody album.
September 6th: Icehouse in Europe. Commences tour of Scandinavia.
October 10th: Icehouse performs behind the Iron Curtain on a show telecast throughout Europe to a viewing audience of eighty million.
October 21st: Iva Davies starts tour of Japan as a member of superband drawn from all over the world by Takahashi.
November 2nd: Third single from Sidewalk Album, "Dusty Pages," released.
November 18th: Icehouse performs to a packed house at Selinas, Coogee Bay Hotel, Sydney.
December 23rd: Icehouse commences a short tour of Japan.

1985
November 1st: Hit single "No Promises" released.
November 7th: Premiere performance of the ballet "Boxes" at the Sydney Opera House. Boxes was written by Iva Davies, Bob Kretschmer and Graeme Murphy and performed by the Sydney Dance Company and Icehouse.

1986
January 26th: Australia Day. A.B.C. television makes first telecast of the ballet "Boxes."
March 10th: Single "Baby You're So Strange" released. It is to become the first top 10 hit for Icehouse since the Primitive Man album.
April 1st: Release of fourth Icehouse album, Measure for Measure. Band commences touring to promote the album.
April 28th: Music from the film "Razorback" receives APRA (Australian Performing Rights Association) Award for Most Performed Music for Film.
May 24th: Icehouse performs at Castle Hill RSL Club as last gig of the Measure for Measure Tour before leaving for America.
June 15th: Third single from Measure for Measure released. Another hit "Mr Big."
August 14th: Icehouse performs at the Ritz in New York. The show was filmed and subsequently released on video.
October 20th: Single "Cross the Border" released. Icehouse commences the six weeks Cross the Border Tour in Australia.

1987
June 8th: Single "Crazy" released. Destined to reach number 3 on Australian National charts and number 17 in the USA.
July 4th: Icehouse performs at the Sydney Cove Tavern in the first gig of the Crazy Tour.
September 26th: Album, Man of Colours, released to become the greatest Icehouse album success to date, selling more than half a million copies in Australia and reaching gold status in Canada and nearly so in USA.
October 30th: Icehouse performs at Madison Square Garden, New York as part of tour supporting The Cars. Joined on stage by John Oates of Hall and Oates for performance of "Electric Blue."
November 8th: Single "Electric Blue" becomes first Icehouse hit to reach number one on Australian national charts.
December 13th: Man of Colours number one on national album charts for the eleventh successive week.

1988
January 25th: Icehouse performs "Electric Blue" at the Royal Bicentennial Concert in the Sydney Entertainment Centre.
February 13th: Iva Davies participates in official opening of the Melbourne Music Show. Icehouse headlines the first day performances at the Melbourne Showground.
February 17th: Man of Colours Tour through Australasia, Europe and North America commences.
February 29th: Icehouse receives the ARIA awards for Best Australian Album and Highest Selling Australian Album.
March 4th: Icehouse Performance at Adelaide Festival of the Arts.
March 14th: Variety Club Heart Awards. Icehouse voted Variety Club Band of the Year.
July 29th: Concluding performance of Man of Colours Tour at World Expo '88 at Brisbane.
August 6th: Iva Davies and Bob Kretschmer visit Tokyo to write another song for Yukihiro Takahashi.

1989
February 17th: Opening gig of the Life in a Paintbox Tour at the Shellharbour Workers Club.
March 10th: Highest ticket sales ever for the Sydney Entertainment Centre for the Concert for '89 featuring The Sparklers, 1927, Big Pig and Icehouse.
May 1st: APRA Awards. "Electric Blue" wins award for Most Performed Australian Work.
September 30th: Icehouse Single "Touch the Fire" released to become another top 20 hit for Icehouse.
October 23rd: Compilation of Icehouse hits released as a double album, Great Southern Land, to become another multi platinum success in Australasia.

1990
July 23rd: Single "Big Fun" released to receive startled and unfavourable reactions from radio and record buying public.
August 28th: Single "Miss Divine" released to become the first Icehouse hit of the nineties.
September 4th: The first Icehouse live performance for over a year staged at the Charles Sturt University campus at Wagga Wagga, NSW as the opening of the Code Blue Tour.
September 10th: An enthusiastic crowd at Selinas welcomes Icehouse's first Sydney live performance after a break of eighteen months.
September 22nd: After a performance at Whyalla, South Australia, band and crew boards the Indian Pacific rail for Kalgoorlie and the Western Australian leg of the Code Blue Tour.
October 6th: With a performance at the Roebuck Hotel, Broome, Icehouse live performance in Australia penetrates further than ever before.
October 22nd: Ten years to the week after the release of the Icehouse debut album, the sixth studio album, Code Blue, is released. It is destined to reach platinum status in Australia, fall far short of the commercial success of the Man Of Colours Album and be claimed by Iva Davies as the work for which Icehouse most wishes to be remembered.
November 9th: Icehouse performs live in the Sydney Channel 9 studios for a direct national telecast on MTV. Most of the songs from the Code Blue Album are featured in the set.
November 24th: An Icehouse performance concludes the Sydney segment at the Entertainment Centre in the Ausmusic 90 series of concerts. A nationwide telecast is made of the event.

1991
January 21st: First date in the Flowers a.k.a. Tour, in which Icehouse re-enacts some of the covers performances of the early Flowers days, at the Central Coast Leagues Club. Gosford. NSW.
February 17th: Presentation Ceremony for the 16th Annual 'Mo' Awards at the State Theatre, Sydney. Icehouse is nominated in the Rock Group and Rock Performance of the Year categories and Iva Davies for Male Rock Performer, but no statuettes fall to the group.
February 19th: In cool weather conditions, a large warm crowd revels in the Icehouse show at the Caroline Bay Soundshell, Timaru, one of the performances in the New Zealand leg of the Flowers a.k.a. Tour.
April 1st: Easter Monday performance at Waves, Wollongong, NSW, concludes ten weeks of live touring in Australia and New Zealand. Icehouse looks forward to a well-earned rest.