12-15-10
Icehouse
The venerable Iva Davies!
12″ BABY, YOU’RE SO STRANGE REGULAR AUS X 14279
1986 4 TRKS with pic sleeve
7″ BABY, YOU’RE SO STRANGE (7″ x 2) (PS) REGULAR AUS K 9924
1986 4 TRK EP; with pic sleeve, 7″x2
CD BOXES (w/ Sydney Dance Co.) CHRYSALIS US VK 41659
1985 21 TRKS Iva Davies
10″ CAN’T HELP MYSELF (as FLOWERS) REGULAR AUS X 12501
1980 3 TRKS with pic sleeve
7″ CAN’T HELP MYSELF / SONS CHRYSALIS US CHS 2568
1981 2 TRKS no pic sleeve
12″ CRAZY REGULAR AUS X 13285
1987 3 TRKS with pic sleeve
7″ CRAZY / NO PROMISES (Live) (PS) CHRYSALIS US VS4-43156
1987 2 TRKS with pic sleeve
12″ CROSS THE BORDER CHRYSALIS US 4V9 43062
1986 3 TRKS no pic sleeve
12″ CROSS THE BORDER (Interview) promo CHRYSALIS US VAS 2389
1986 11 TRKS promo-only 12″, no pic sleeve
7″ CROSS THE BORDER / FLAME, THE (PS) REGULAR AUS K 97
1986 2 TRKS with pic sleeve
CD FLOWERS MASSIVE 780941.2
1980 14 TRKS (3 x bonus tracks)
CD GREAT SOUTHERN LAND (Collection) CHRYSALIS US F2 21680
1989 11 TRK Collection (1 x bonus track)
LP GREAT SOUTHERN LAND (Collection) CHRYSALIS CAN CHS 41680
1989 10 TRK Collection
12″ HEY LITTLE GIRL CHRYSALIS UK CHS 12-2670
1982 3 TRKS with pic sleeve
12″ HEY LITTLE GIRL CHRYSALIS US 4V9 42731
1983 2 TRKS no pic sleeve
LP ICEHOUSE (1981) CHRYSALIS US CHR 1350
1981 10 TRKS U.S. version
LP ICEHOUSE (as FLOWERS) (1980) REGULAR AUS L 37436
1980 11 TRKS original 1st Aust. release
7″ LOVE IN MOTION / GOODNIGHT, MR. MATTHEWS (PS) REGULAR AUS K 8486
1981 2 TRKS with pic sleeve
LP MAN OF COLOURS CHRYSALIS US OV 41592
1987 10 TRKS
CD MAN OF COLOURS re WSM AUS 748985.2
1987 17 TRKS (7 x bonus tracks) (’02 issue)
LP MEASURE FOR MEASURE CHRYSALIS US BFV 41527
1986 10 TRKS
CD MEASURE FOR MEASURE re WSM AUS 748984.2
1986 17 TRKS (5 x bonus tracks) (’02 issue)
12″ NO PROMISES CHRYSALIS US 4V9 43009
1986 3 TRKS no pic sleeve
7″ NO PROMISES / INTO THE WILD (PS) CHRYSALIS US VS4-42978
1986 2 TRKS with pic sleeve
7″ NO PROMISES / PERFECT CRIME, THE REGULAR AUS K 9850
1985 2 TRKS no pic sleeve
12″ NO PROMISES promo CHRYSALIS US VAS 2362
1986 3 TRKS no pic sleeve, promo-only
7″ PARADISE / BABY, YOU’RE SO STRANGE (PS) CHRYSALIS US VS4-43041
1986 2 TRKS with pic sleeve
CD PRIMITIVE MAN CHRYSALIS US VK 41390
1982 10 TRKS
LP PRIMITIVE MAN REGULAR NZ RRLP 1204
1982 10 TRKS
LP SIDEWALK REGULAR AUS RRLP 1206
1984 10 TRKS
LP SIDEWALK REGULAR NZ RRLP 1206
1984 10 TRKS
CD5 TOUCH THE FIRE CHRYSALIS UK CHSCD 3472
1989 3 TRK CD Single CD5
10″ WE CAN GET TOGETHER CHRYSALIS UK CXP 2527
1981 3 TRKS with pic sleeve
7″ WE CAN GET TOGETHER (as FLOWERS) REGULAR NZ K 7999
1980 2 TRKS no pic sleeve
7″ WE CAN GET TOGETHER / PARADISE LOST (PS) CHRYSALIS UK CHS 2527
1981 2 TRKS with pic sleeve
I was never an Icehouse completist; as you can see, my Icehouse collection is neither massive or ”complete”. I did re-buy “Measure For Measure” to get all the B-Sides of “Baby You’re So Strange” on CD, however.
I saw Icehouse live at “The County Club” in Reseda, CA about 1981 or so. I remember that they dressed like squares, had their dad’s shoes etc. – at a time when the whole scene was wearing a torn shirt with krazy-kolor in it’s hair.
Always nice to try and find original Australian pressings of Icehouse LP’s – they always seemed to take a bit more care with the paper, printing etc.
And Icehouse was one of the Australian bands who got taken very seriously in Europe, making for some nice European additions to their catalogue.
I stopped following Icehouse after their first “Best Of” – “Great Southern Land”. There were a few bands that I perhaps unjustly relegated to “The 80’s”, and I believe Icehouse were in that batch. But – dang – this stuff almost never turns up “used”!
So, Brian – is there a DVD of all the clips? Has “Boxes” made it to DVD now?
Ronkanefiles's Blog 
Well, the “Code Blue” album was certainly worth missing. “Full Circle” was “interesting.” “Big Wheel” was great! “The Berlin Tapes” is simply the best cover album I’ve ever heard! It’s one of my favorite Icehouse albums even so. I never got “Meltdown” since I had “Full Circle.” I thought that would be enough since the first remix album was decent. The new material helped. Can Brian shed light on “Meltdown?”
Well, first off the questions. No, I’m not aware of any proper DVD gathering all the Icehouse promo clips or anything for Boxes. And no, I never got “Meltdown”. Like Jim, I thought “Full Circle” was “interesting”, but not really my cup of tea. I don’t have much patience for contemporary techno or house style remixes. Reviews did note that “Meltdown” was somewhat better than most remixed 80s collections, but I bought the “Hey Little Girl” 1997 remixes CD single and found it really tedious. I also downloaded the one new song on “Meltdown” which was a track called “Lay Your Hands On Me”. A horrible dance track with Iva’s autotuned vocals making him sound like CHER! I’ve added very little to my Icehouse collection in the last ten years.
But there’s recent activity in Iva-world. Next year is bringing a 30th anniversary edition of the Flowers debut with extensive bonus material including live tracks from what would have to be Iva’s bulging vaults. A couple of songs are available for free download right now on the “Spellbound” fan site and they sound great. One could only hope that at least the first five albums might receive similar attention for reissue down the line.
We saw them three times on the Man Of Colours tour in 1988. Good shows. Got some autographs in Atlanta and they were all very nice to us.
Amazing that not one bit of Icehouse music is currently available on U.S. iTunes or that they’ve never bothered to do a basic hits collection now that everything has been out of print for decades. Icehouse had two U.S. top 40 hits (one top ten) and they deserve better…
I felt that “Full Circle” has succeeded against the odds, so I didn’t feel like pushing my luck with “Meltdown.” Too bad about the new song! The new stuff on “Full Circle” was at least halfway decent. For what its worth, “Meltdown” was available on iTunes when it came out, years ago. There’s nothing there now from Icehouse. This, more than anything, is what cheeses me off about downloads. With no physical manufacturing, shouldn’t we at least be in the nirvana of NOTHING OUT OF PRINT???!!! But NOOOOOOOOO! They still keep moving the damned cheese!!! If they’re going to take away the disc, can’t they at least have the damned download available everywhere at all times? They promised the world and now we’re stuck with “OOP” downloads!
I saw finally Icehouse twice on the MOC tour. The first was at the dreaded USF Scumdome. They were opening for The Cars on their “March of Death” tour. As usual, it was an AWFUL music experience at the Sundome. The house was practically empty and we had driven 90 miles to finally see Icehouse. There were huge girders blocking our view of the stage. No one was there, but there was absolutely no moving up front thanks to the fascist security forces! It was so not worth the effort!!!
Thankfully, the MOC album had decent commercial legs in the US with two top tens, so they continued on the road. I didn’t go to Atlanta, but I saw them headlining at a water park in Orlando. That was a much better experience, inasmuch as seeing a band at a water park is less than ideal, it wasn’t bad.
The dlx RM of “Icehouse” will be in my sights when it appears next year. I wonder if the worldwide mix will be a part of the package? It’s now seriously OOP. It seems as if Icehouse only exists in Australia now. Even though there was considerable German success, if not in the UK. I was happy to see that Iva is making the bits that didn’t make the cut available on Spellbound.
To stick up for iTunes a little bit, their perspective is the same as yours: nothing should ever go out of print. Sadly, the evil record companies (and, lets be fair, some artists — I’m looking at you, Van Morrison) repeal the digital rights, often for very capricious reasons.