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04 January 2007

Icehouse, qu'est que c'est?

i have Moved House. and i finally have civilised things like internet. and a phone. and a glass splashback.

and a Fabulous Magic Machine with elves inside. it is the Best Thing Ever. you put dirty dishes inside, give the elves some Elvish Crack and then they MAKE THE DISHES CLEAN FOR YOU!!

it's amazing. seriously. revolutionary.

Speaking of cool houses, who remembers the 80s band Icehouse? (how's that for a segue? huh? huh?)

Fronted by Iva Davies, with such hits as Electric Blue, We Can Get Together and Great Southern Land.

Well, my dad's best friend was the lead guitarist in Icehouse. If we were the sort of family that had godparents, he would be my godfather.

After the band broke up, he moved to LA, where he lived on a boat and made wigs for Hollywood films. He left us most of his crap in boxes, including a framed platinum album for Man of Colours. We did what any close, loving friends would do, and hung it in the toilet.

And there it stayed, for several years, until I asked my mum one day if it would play on a turntable. We pried open the frame, and stuck it on our record player. it was green pool felt on one side, shiny silver record on the other.

It did play.

But not an Icehouse song.

It played Psycho Killer by Talking Heads.

Go figure.

8 comments:

mindlessmunkey said...

The first music I ever owned was Icehouse's Man Of Colours on cassette.

And for a couple of years, their album Code Blue was my favourite record in the world. I knew every word. *sigh* Those were the days.

The thought of Psycho Killer masquerading as Icehouse is very upsetting.

Anonymous said...

Nice mullett, Iva. Could we have a pic of the youthful David Byrne instead?

Anonymous said...

I am a man,
a simple man,
a man of colours...

Penni Russon said...

I was actually a bit in love with Iva Davies when I was about 11 which is just bizarre considering he looks like someone's dad.
Why did you move? Are you still in the same suburb? (Which is my favourite suburb, I used to live i a very pretty but dilapidated house in Abbott Grove and then I moved out and my doctor moved in and somehow I could never let her do a pap smear on me again...it was too odd. She brought some of my old mail to an appointment and then she was just people and not in the higher medical realms).

lili said...

penni: where on abbott grove????

the reason i moved is that i was staying with my parents between getting back from OS and moving in here. my parents who live in...

abbott grove.

i was BORN in abbott grove.

literally. front room. number four. 1981.

(small world)

Penni Russon said...

We were number 28. We were there probably from 99-late in 2000. So we WERE neighbours. How funny! Actually I even knew about your mum, I think. Someone (probably Maryann Ballantyne who was my editing teacher then) told me that a writer lived on my street. I am sure I peered at everyone very carefully in the hope that some of their writerliness might show as a kind of aura and then rub off on me. Must have worked ;)

lilismum said...

Can I just mention that although when you lived at home with your parents (ie three weeks ago) you did not have access to a dishwasher or a glass splashback, but we do have a phone and the internet. (I don't want anyone thinking you are an Underpriviliged Child.

Anonymous said...

LOL good one "lilismum"!


Hmmmm I think a bit too much info re your doc