Initially known in their homeland for their pub rock style, the band later achieved mainstream success playing new wave and synth-pop music and attained Top 10 singles chart success locally and in both Europe and the U.S.[1] The mainstay of both Flowers and Icehouse has been Iva Davies (singer-songwriter, record producer, guitar, bass, keyboards, oboe)[2] supplying additional musicians as required.

The name "Icehouse", adopted in 1981, comes from an old, cold flat Davies lived in and the strange building across the road populated by itinerant people.

[3] Davies and Icehouse extended the use of synthesisers particularly the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 ("Love in Motion", 1981), Linn drum machine ("Hey Little Girl", 1982) and Fairlight CMI (Razorback trailer, 1983) in Australian popular music.

[8][9][10] ARIA described Icehouse as "one of the most successful Australian bands of the eighties and nineties... With an uncompromising approach to music production they created songs that ranged from pure pop escapism to edgy, lavish synthesised pieces..."[10] Icehouse has produced eight top-ten albums and twenty top-forty singles in Australia, multiple top-ten hits in Europe and North America and album sales of over 28-times platinum in Australasia alone.

[1][10] Davies was working as a part-time cleaner at a Lindfield squash court managed by Welsh's mother, they lived nearby and were both interested in forming a band.

[2] The band built up a strong following as a live act around the pub circuit, providing distinctive cover versions of songs by David Bowie, Lou Reed, T-Rex, Ultravox and Brian Eno.

[2] After signing to the independent Regular Records label, distributed by Festival, Flowers released their debut single in May 1980, "Can't Help Myself" (written by Davies),[13] which reached the Australian Top 10 in June 1980.

[1] The album, co-produced by Cameron Allan (Mental As Anything's producer)[14] and Davies,[2] made use of synthesisers, including the Minimoog, Solina Strings and Oberheim OB-1.

[1] The single "Icehouse" was released in Europe and created some interest in the UK, partly because of a video directed by Russell Mulcahy,[3][4][18] while in the U.S. the song peaked at No.

[19] "Icehouse" had been written by Davies[13] when he lived at 18 Tryon Road, Lindfield in an old, cold flat of a two-storey mansion – across the street was a dishevelled house which had its lights on all night peopled by short-term residents.

[7] Icehouse split up late in 1981, Keith Welsh later becoming manager of Australian bands Do-Ré-Mi and Boom Crash Opera.

[19] Another single "Great Southern Land" made the Australian Top 5,[7] and was later featured in the 1988 Yahoo Serious film Young Einstein.

[2] Fresco was a five-track EP released in 1983 by this line-up,[2] they supported David Bowie on the European section of his Serious Moonlight tour.

[2] Back in 1982, Russell Mulcahy had directed two of their video clips: "Hey Little Girl" and "Street Cafe" (released February 1983),[18] after these Mulcahy asked Davies to record the score for his film Razorback; it was entirely instrumental, and featured Davies' first recorded use of the Australian designed Fairlight Music Computer.

[1] Davies was commissioned to compose and record the score for the Sydney Dance Company production of Graeme Murphy's work Boxes.

[38] The cover artwork, designed by Davies and Kretschmer, depicts a human figure holding three different coloured flowers.

[41] For Code Blue recording, Icehouse were Davies, Lloyd, Morgan and Wheeler, for touring they added guitarist Paul Gildea and keyboardist Roger Mason (ex-Models).

[42] During 1999 Davies, together with Richard Tognetti and Christopher Gordon, composed The Ghost of Time as an expansion of "Great Southern Land" into a forty-minute performance for Sydney's part of the worldwide millennial celebrations.

In 2002, The Whitlams covered "Don't Believe Anymore" from Sidewalk for their album Torch the Moon, which enjoyed moderate radio success.

During 2002, Davies digitally remastered all of Flowers' and Icehouse's studio albums adding bonus tracks to each—they were released by Warner Music Australia.

In 2003 Iva Davies contributed "Ghost of Time" and other music to the film score of the Russell Crowe epic Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

[2][47] On 16 August 2006, Icehouse were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame alongside Midnight Oil, Divinyls and Rose Tattoo.

[10] Icehouse performed on 21 September 2007 with the line-up: Davies, Paul Gildea (guitars), Steve Morgan (bass), Peter Maslen (drums) and Glen Reither (keyboards, saxophone).

[48] Icehouse / Flowers featured on Triple M's 2007 Essential Countdown with 14 songs including: "Great Southern Land" at No.

The album [Bi-polar Poems] is in various states of unfinished, but I keep getting projects which interrupt me working on it..."[51]The grand final show of Battle of the Choirs, broadcast on 3 August 2008, had Icehouse provide a rare live performance of "Great Southern Land".

[57] Appearing with Icehouse at the Sydney concert were, Coldplay, Eskimo Joe, Hoodoo Gurus, Jet, Josh Pyke, Little Birdy, The Presets, Wolfmother, You Am I and additional artists.

The concert featured many Australian performers such as Kate Ceberano, Joe Camilleri, Dave Hughes, Mark Seymour, Mick Molloy, Tex Perkins, Tim Rogers, Corinne Grant, Ash Grunwald and Greg Fleet.

[citation needed] On 6 April 2011, Icehouse and Universal Music Australia publicly announced a new partnership for sales and distribution of the band's material.

[66] In 2021, a remix of "Hey Little Girl" was released by Australian duo Mark Vick and Danny Muller, with the record credited to The Antipodeans Vs Icehouse.

[67] In 2022, Icehouse performed "Great Southern Land" and "We Can Get Together" at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup final at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia.