Added: 5 years ago
From: downunderupover
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  • I too favor the 2002 live performance. The melody seems hurried in the studio verson, originally released in 1980, when the band called themselves "Flowers." The song got radio airplay in the USA in 1981, and Europe in 1982. Then -- POOF -- it vanished. Many people have issued remixes because of its multi-leveled musical nuances. Thanks for posting it.

  • Awesome group and song. You can't beat the 70's and 80's all thoses great aussie bands - Ichouse, Midnight Oil, Australian Crawl, Cold Chisel, The Angles, Mi-Sex(NZ) and many others. Today there is nothing even comes close to these

  • This is the first video I ever saw on MTV. I was mezmerized.

  • @DubtronicTurtle Me too, that was a great film clip and excellent song.

  • forgot about icehouse,great memories

  • Absolutely beautiful! From a time when each band had their own sound and music videos had a surrealistic quality that mirrored the music.

  • amazing song

  • The first airplay of this on British radio was when David `kid` Jensen played it on his evening show. I remember the introduction ``The new single called Icehouse, from an album called Icehouse, by a band called Icehouse``.

    This masterpiece then blew me away. There are certain things in life you just don`t forget......

  • @Cambridgeblew Snap. that's exactly  where I first heard it. My single of 1982 and still an all time favourite.

  • Wow, I"ve not heard this in ages; one of my favorites. AND I still have it on 8-track in storage... now to find a player...

  • Have always loved this song...Beautiful today as it was in the 80's when it came out..Give me the chills still...

  • me gusta esta banda se nota la gran influencia de Bowie y de Gary Numan el video me parece inquietante pero bueno....

  • Ah the 80's when music was music. IVA was born before his time.

    David Bowie's superior in every way.By the way, I love the White Duke as well.

  • man they got it right in australia/new zealand great music & beautiful countries.....much respect !!!!!

  • Never bettered

  • Incredible song. It's got a very haunting feel to it.

  • Had the pleasure of seeing them once in concert (the Man of Colours tour).Easily one of the best concerts of my life.

  • First heard this on a compilation cassette called Club For Heroes. Was always my favourite track, even though it was surrounded by more famous tracks. Beautiful.

  • Reading these comments it makes me feel sooooooooo fuckin cool to have the original album Icehouse by Flowers .Plus a 12 inch version of Can't help Myself and Fatman, I bought the album in Oz in 1981 and then saw them support Simple Minds at Hammersmith Odeon in 1982 I think it was. I was only playing it the other day. Brilliant

  • outstanding

  • so amazing...

  • 248,450viewes! wow keep it up(:

  • audio sucks...Very bassy and tinny although the original recording wasnt much better......LOVE the song tho

  • WHEN WE HAD MUSIC 

  • always my number one song to listen to by icehouse.....30 years later as powerful as ever!!!!!

  • I've never heard of this band. I love the music, though.

  • I love the first album of Icehouse.

    Let me share this with you. I lived in europe, and only now I learned that they used to be named Flowers. Where I lived, was the group Icehouse, with the album Icehouse, and this marvelous (among others) song Icehouse

  • Will always love it...

  • This video reminds me of when music was fresh and exciting,

    Digital music acts just don't measure up.

  • It's Icehouse by The Flowers.

  • Organ driven, it makes me happy

  • Would be nice to see on Itunes!!

  • @Pdrklein Its on there just bought the 30th Anniversary remastered version of Flowers....

  • @karanaman68 Ouch, that makes me feel very old.

  • its cold in here

  • Sill sends shivers down my spine, after all these years. x

  • One of the first bands i ever saw at the crystal ballroom in stkilda around 79,80,

    love them

  • Holy shite, I haven't heard this in 20 years. First saw this on MTV when they still were a music channel

  • l love lcehouses biggest hit in the UK 'Hey little girl' but l cant find them on spotify does anyone know what to type into the search field on spotify to find them please

    cheers

    Kim

  • I'd forgotten how cool this video was. As stated by play2k2000, it was one of the most interesting things MTV played in its early years. For other great videos from the period, check out Ultravox "The Thin Wall", David Bowie "Ashes to Ashes", Psychedelic Furs "Pretty in Pink", and don't forget "We Can Get Together" which is a perfect visual piece from the era. Great stuff.

  • Totally agree fluffy, when New Wave was New. Funny thing is it still craps all over todays mostly garbage!!!!!

  • point in time were music (new) was kool.....not anymore!!!!

  • Lets begin!

  • Hah, Olivia Newton-John was bigger than any of them.

  • This is dead set the best song you will ever hear!

  • i love this song but i wasnt born wen it came out but dad told me to listen to it haha xxxx

  • This was really the first really theatrical video to hit MTV... At the time everything else was left in the dust to it, so much so that they basically just quit playing it because everything else was lame in comparison.  The sound quality needs a little help here to appreciate it..

  • He really resembles Gary Numan in this video

  • This is a creepy video, indeed. Very reminiscent of Kim Carnes's "Draw of The Cards" video. I understand that it also involved the same director.

  • What a song to introduce themselves and the first album!

  • powerful......still as amazing as ever!!!!!

  • I remember how spooked and off put I felt from this back in 1981. Flash forward to 1987 and I'm like la la la to Electric Blue. Hard to believe it's the same band.

  • I bought this album back in Nov. 1981 because I liked the album cover. I never heard any of their music but when I listened to it I found a real gem of a band. I kept collecting their albums and the music just kept getting better and better with songs like"No Promises" and "Crazy". WooHoo.....

  • I'm a big lover of Icehouse and grew up with their tunes (born 1975) but isn't this when they started out as "Flowers" and due to the popularity of this track they changed their name to "Icehouse"?

  • @greg313662 When they went international there was a name conflict with a US band called Flowers; so they changed it to Icehouse.

  • @tech9803

    Cool, thanks for the reply mate.

  • always so kool to hear.....!!!!

  • LOVE the original, HATE the remix.

  • here is a band, my friends,that was so far ahead of their time it was ridiculous

    Ira is a genius

  • I had the privilege of seeing Icehouse live as a support act to David Bowie's 1983 'Mysterious Moonlight Tour'. Icehouse sometimes sound a lot like Bowie with a heavy sprinkling of Roxy Music and Japan keyboards, but I became a fan from that first ocassion onwards, as I'm a big fan of all three 'sounds'. I would encourage anyone with an interest, or passion, for definitive 80's sounds to check out their extensive porfolio.

  • got this on a seven inch single such a great song my friends never got it the band rock

  • Between the WEIRD chord changes and the ICY synth sounds... this song always creeped me out a bit. It's kind of scary!!! (Which I'm sure was the point.) Great song though.

  • wow this song is so unreal, so great!! icehouse forever!!

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  • @Tralman1965 Whoa, are you serious? Howard Shore was in Icehouse? Such an awesome composer... The Lord of the Rings soundtracks are amazing... That's crazy, man.

  • @Kueck10893 No he's not serious. Good try though. Wiki Shore for the proper credentials

  • @cbmdg8551976 Huh. He was in a band called Lighthouse, not Icehouse... I guess I can understand where there might be an error. Thanks for letting me know, I would have been going around thinking that the mastermind behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy's music was also in a band from Australia...

  • @Tralman1965 nice try dude. Shore is a canadian composer not an aussy keyboard player with icehouse. Shore would have been around 35 at that time. anyways, if you want to know the real players in icehouse check former players, you can find 'em on wiki for example. Actually, Shore was in a band from 69-72 called 'Lighthouse' Of course you could just be jackin' everyone around.

  • @cbmdg8551976 Oh...Sorry. I misread the info on Shore. Anyway, I like Shore and Icehouse. My bad.

  • Thanks heaps for put this one up, it would have to be one of their rare clips if not the rarest?! As some below have said about the state of music in what it is today, its true to a fair degree & as I grew up in the 70's & 80's I always looked forward to CountDown, living in the bush it was my only true escape but God we had some great music to listen to...alas in the last few years we have lost some great talent but their legacy was their music, which gave us our best memories; thank you all!

  • This is so hauntingly beautiful, and sounds as gorgeous now as it always did. Iva rules! Chrissie xxx

  • I worked with these guys, absolute professionals, Iva is one quiet and unassuming guy, in 100 years, people will still listen to this and enjoy it

  • This is the first song I have heard from them, unforgettable ! I could play it again and again and again! Amazing gothic!

  • Bigger even than the Bee Gee's? Doubt it.

  • @coopm12 Probably not bigger than the Bee Gee's strictly, but they are quite comparable, that's for sure. Both outfits were huge contributors to the music scene in the last 50 years. Both much better than the Strolling bones, in my opinion anyway. Cheers!

  • Ive always been a huge Flowers and Icehouse fan, and I didnt know that they were Aust biggest band, thanks for that, I remember one of the icehouse albums Iva played all the instruments himself, was pretty cool

  • I love Ice House, their sound was unique even in the 80s. clean and balanced.

  • This track is okay, I think their strongest stuff was later in the 80s like Electric Blue and Crazy.

  • people continue to say this song is sung bye icehouse its not its the flowers

  • @tabbygump1 they are one in the same. Both the brain child of Ivor (Iva) Davies

  • saw these support ultravox,,,both were awsum

  • @westbromrshit Icehouse and Ultravox in one gig? Fantastic! =)

  • just can't get enough of this klassik early 80's masterpiece!!!!

  • I'll never forget when Icehouse played at Metrozoo in Miami.

    They just never got their props.

    Anyone know what Iva is up to these days?

  • The 80s rule!

    The great Renaissance of pop music...

    Thanks for posting this classic, and redhed is right.

  • Icehouse was only shown on the Original MTV a very few times but set the stage for the concept videos to come. Pre dating Billie Jean by almost a year. Glad someone found and preserved it. Icehouse rules.

  • so haunting yet it pulls you in.....awesome klassik early 80's song.icehouse

  • I have'nt heard this in decades! So glad that I found it. Thank you downunderupover.

  • damn, I wish I were back during these days... Debbie Phillips...I hope you have what you need

  • beautiful,like Gary Numan:-)

  • This is the song that got me started on this band... then I bought the cassette and each song was awesome...!

  • Strange

  • Very nice Song!

  • classic

  • classic lyrics

  • awesome video and song....first time I saw, it was quite shocking/disturbing but somehow engaging....they don't make great music like this any more....oh wait, that's why today's talent does remixes/covers from 80's music!

  • great tune great band .....i can thank early mtv for knowing this ......icehouse!!!!

  • my dad and i r friends with andy the piano player i dont think hes with the band any more?

  • Bloody brilliant - takes me back.

  • A song from my bitrh, and song with huge synthesizers, huge videoscameras, an decade with love and passion, a childhood, with both my pearents and grand parents,

    safety place ! Grove synth-pop, new age and new wave !

  • Very derivative of Gary Neuman

  • @orion3au ...hmm ...not really. Gary Numan had a much colder feel IMO. I love Gary Numan, his newer stuff is amazing. but he has always felt a little colder to me than ICEHOUSE. Ironic! haha...icehouse has a sound that sound more nature-based while Gary's sound is more industrial. both very very cool tho.

  • I was in high school when this came out ... I used to roll one up and go get baked out in the backyard all the time and listen to this and just float up to the clouds... I wanna go back

  • fuck yeah

  • I went on some road trips with ice house. goodtimes!

  • Iva Davies is a beautiful genius. Just perfection.

  • The sounds pretty average on here sadly

  • Ahh, the 80's...the decade that destroyed the image of the keyboard player (with apologies to Keith, Eddie, Rick and Tony)...

  • back again......be back soon .....icehouse rocks!!!!

  • Wow, from the days when MTV was wonderfull!

  • Great to see Iva again in this classic song, See inner Sydney did produce some good things! ;)

  • Minimalist, heartbeat percussion. Shrill, crying synths offset with near subsonic accompaniment. One of those 'perfect' songs. Reminiscent of Gary Newman but more like Salvador Dali put to music with the lights down.

  • klassik 80's tune never enough play of it!!!!! icehouse forever!!!!!

  • wow a cracker of a track - I heard this about 4 months ago and forgot the track name now I have it thanks

  • This video scared the shit out of us when MTV first came out in the U.S. I remember talking to friends at school and saying they were having nightmares from this vid. Great Memories!!!

  • awesome song

  • This band got me through uni. When I was feeling down Icehouse was there to cheer me up. I remember when they were called Flowers. In fact I have a cassette where they are called Flowers on it. Priceless!

  • I sat in my beroom and learnt the first "flowers" album virbatum- It changed my life !!!!

    I had 5 syhnths and a small beroom - and the music was a door to the future

    Thanks you Boys - you did it

  • I first heard this on a compilation called "Club for Heroes", and amongst the Ultravox, Visage et al, this was the best track by a long way. These guys should have made it much bigger on this evidence.

  • They did. Icehouse is the biggest band to ever come out of Australia. They have sold more than INXS, Midnight Oil and Kylie combined. We just don't get it all in the US. But after 9 top 10 albums, an Academy Award for the Master & Commander Soundtrack (with Russell Crow) and the music for the Olympics, it's hard to see how Iva Davies could be any more successful.

  • thanks i was unaware so much talent great songs .

  • I love Icehouse, but INXS and Crowded House are still the best of the bands of Australia.

  • Midnight Oil is a great band and so is The Church. IMO.

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  • @djmattconsola ....need to play it far more in the usa .....klassik magic !!!!1

  • @djmattconsola

    He didn't win an academy award for the soundtrack to Master & Commander. It wasn't even nominated.

  • @djmattconsola Isn't AC/DC Australian? Wouldn't they have sold more records than Icehouse?

  • @jimmyperdition moron

  • @djmattconsola I think its safe to say that AC/DC were Australia's biggest .

  • @djmattconsola Totally agree, but the thing is he still remains underrated outside his homeland. His latest works for 'Bi-Polar Poems' remain unreleased and heard by few despite their brilliance. Such an inspirational band and a talented frontman.

  • @djmattconsola AC/DC is the biggest Aussie band of all time. 200 million records and counting.

  • @djmattconsola OK, they're NOT more successful than INXS worldwide...but I think they should have been as big as them!

  • I bought Club for heroes all those years ago.. it was a bloody good album, and this had to be one of my favourite tracks on it.

    This is the first time I've seen the video.. Iva looks sort of like Ian Curtis and Gary Numan (if that makes any sence!)

  • should've been icehouse to become big instead of u2!

  • good call

  • thats because bono and u2 are Free Masons Icehouse probaly said we love making great music but we are not selling our souls for it.

  • They came out the same time as U2's Boy. I bet one of the two would become BIG!

  • I was only a teen when I first heard this song and it just grabbed me......still excellant

  • trent reznor did this fuckin song with option 30 years before nin. if anyone can find it post it. i had a copy years ago but computers crash so it's gone now. please if anyone has this or finds it post it

  • Very Numansque ....or John Foxxish !..........but a great song !

  • icehouse new wave greats

  • first album I ever bought way back when - still love these guys so under rated -jax

  • ok i sort of get it now....please guide me then..please

  • 1981,radio geyserland 1350, rotorua new zealand,

    this gets played..probably for the first time ever..then only wen i played it subsequenly..ever..

    thank you ivor

  • does anyone have the remastered version of this song?

  • the original version is the best. the digital remastery kinda sucks cuz it takes all the warmth out of the song. i actually am not aware of a rematered version but im sure one exists somewhere

  • I hope you don't mean the Flowers version. I think the Flowers version is way too thin and Iva's voice is tucked into the background somewhat. The remix they did (this particular mix) for the American release of Icehouse is pure perfection.

    I rember hearing this song for the first time when I was a kid and it still has the same effect on me today. A classic song that has stood the test of time.

  • @GladiatorsFan1 Actually i dont think i have ever heard any other version other than the Chrysalis version from the ICEHOUSE self titled album. it is full and warm toned and sounds so haunted. it changed my life in high shcool. it would instantly send me into a funky trance and no one could reach me until the song was done. magnificent song from a truly beautiful album.

  • it has been remastered

  • I remember seeing this debut on MTV in '81(?) and running right out and getting the LP. I still have it somewhere (played just once on a rip to cassette.) The video looks like a VHS rip. It would be nice to see this remastered. Other great videos from the same period include Lene Lovich's "Lucky Numbers", Gary Numan's "Cars", The Police's "Walking on the Moon" and Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes".

  • Wow gingrich........a Lene Lovich fan eh? Did you ever remember the song she did called "The Bird Song"? It had an awesome clip too!

  • Wow I've never seen this clip before... (I didn't warm to Icehouse until I was a bit older)....

    OH... "warm to Icehouse"... :P

  • lol!

  • Iva Davies was a classical taught musician who ventured into pop music. Similarly The Angels " Brewster Brothers " went from classical to rock.

  • So far the only song by them l've liked is "Electric Blue," but l love it so much that's the only good song they need in my opinion

  • i still have the original casette somewhere when the band was called "Flowers" and the album was "IceHouse"

  • Separated at birth - Iva Davies and Gary Numan.

  • As an American who has never seen this particular video, I was blown away by the differences in the song as I've previously heard it. Now I wish I had heard (and seen) this version in the 80's.

  • such a great song .. i'll be never tired of listen to it ..

  • I'll tell you this; I was six or seven when they first aired this on MTV in the States, and it scared the shit out of me! Looking at it now, I can see why it did (the hand reaching out to grab her in the beginning...*shivers*). Great song though, I always got a kick out of how on MTV it listed the track as:

    Icehouse

    Icehouse

    Icehouse

    Thanks, brought back memories!

  • This top top track is on a compilation album called CLUB FOR HERO'S on TELSTAR records (TCD5266) well worth a look if it is stiil available

  • thanks downunder, man i loved this band when they came out, i still have their first 2 albums somewhere, very cool vid and song

  • I saw Icehouse in 1982/3/4 or thereabouts at the MK Bowl. They were part of the support for David Bowie on his "Serious Moonlight" tour. Other support was The Beat (good) and The Bellestars (fooking awful). Icehouse were good - a bit modest on the day, but widely liked. I had this on a 12" bootleg and also got th more poppy and less easy "Hey Little Girl". Bit of a flash in the pan really, but this track still stacks up - very good bassline.

  • There was a cd compilation of icehouse's best including this - I had a copy but it has gone missing and none of the new compilations match it even remotely

  • I said that too before!

  • Great post. Thanks!

  • Very Gary Numan!

  • When i first saw this i thought of Gary Numan

  • This is ironically my favorite Icehouse song. Never knew there was a video to it. Any chance of syncing better audio with the video?

  • how old is this band and what for tpye they do???

  • Have all these old Icehouse/Flowers vinyl and CD's but have never seen the old videos. Iva Davies looks so young (but weren't we all.) Thanks.

  • Takes me back to summer 1980 ...so long ago now...thanks for sharing

  • gr8 song.

  • i love this

  • life...seems like yesterday :)

  • i am so glad some of these songs have not been forgotten, i find this song astonishingly good

  • fuuuk, ,,everyone's x wife,, too many memories to count.