Aussie 'lcehouse'
heats up in the U.S.
By MARY CAMPBELL
AP Newsfeatures Writer
In 1981, the Australian group
Icehouse opened for the British
group Simple Minds in Britain and
Simple Minds opened for Icehouse
in Australia. Icehouse singer
songwriter Iva Davies recalls that
the 1981 arrangement worked well
for both bands.
"It was right after our second
album, Primitive Man. Simple
Minds still was not huge, even in
Britain. In Australia, we were
very successful. They'd tell you
themselves it was the first time
they really achieved recognition.
The dates we opened for Simple
Minds, we were received really
well.
"Eventually Primitive Man be
came a success in Europe and we
had a top 20 hit from it in Britain,
`Hey Little Girl.' "
Icehouse now has a new Chrysa
lis album, Man of Colours, and is
touring in America, opening for
the Cars. The title song from Ice
house's fifth LP, "Man of Co
lours," has been said to be
inspired by Andrew Wyeth and his
Helga paintings.
Davies, who wrote "Man of Co
lours," says he thought he was
writing about himself. "I wrote
-4y.‘,4V.,, 4.
main ingredient
Open Doily 9:30-6; Thurs. & Fri. till 9; Saturday 9:30-6; Sunday 11-4
118 W. College Ave. 'l* Block West of the Corner Room
the lyrics very quickly," he said.
"I wasn't aware of the Andrew
Wyeth story, but I must have been,
subliminally.
"It's about an old man who lives
in an attic and paints paintings of
some girl he was in love with 40 or
50 years ago. He never shows them
to anybody, just looks at them
himself. That's all he needs."
"Man of Colours" entered the
Australian charts at No. 1. It has
one song, "Electric Blue," written
by Davies and John Oates of Hall
and Oates.
"I met him a long time ago in an
airport in Australia," Davies re
calls. "Last year he contacted me
and said it might be good to write
together. He came out to Austra
lia, which I thought was amazing,
for 10 days. We toyed around with
a few songs, finished a couple and
both of us knew 'Electric Blue'
was the better song. It is No. 2 at
the moment in Austalia."
Davies says it was great fun
working with Oates, whom he calls
"a proper songwriter."
"I'm not used to working with
people. He led in the initial stages,
until I felt comfortable. Then I
think I led him. He has very high
standards. A couple of times he
definitely pushed me to go for
something more direct :'
4 s) j) LCollegian ARTS
(2' SECTION
Giants
Continued from page 12.
him," Flansburgh explained, "I tried
to wonder what his life would be like.
Everything he does is defined by his
appearance. The song came out of
that wondering, though it's not exact
ly about him. It's the closest thing to a
sincere, sad song on the album."
When asked if they worry about
being categorized as a comedy band,
Flansburgh said, "Well, it's obvious
that there's humor in what we do. It's
better than being categorized as
heavy metal."
Their travels have included open
ing for Robyn Hitchcock at Haverford
College and a recent tour of Europe
and Japan. "I'll tell you a secret,"
said Flansburgh, "The entire first
row at the Robyn Hitchcock concert
was tripping."
Their trip to England took even
stranger turns. "Our record company
in England, Rough Trade, booked us
into a Mexican restaurant for a show
for record company people. Then we
played a place called Sir George
Roeby's in London. The audience was
reserved, very cool. They stood five
feet back from the stage. They
wouldn't come any closer," said Lin
nell.
At the Village Gate, the crowd
yelled enthusiastically for many dif
ferent songs, some of which haven't
even been recorded yet. TMBG at
tracts a witty crowd, as evidenced by
the woman who yelled, "Which one's
John?" between songs. When the
shouts for an encore persisted.
Flansburgh deadpanned, "C'mon,
you know we can't." TMBG couldn't
Men's & Women's
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do any songs that weren't already on
their prerecorded backing tapes.
When asked about using tapes in
their live show, Flansburgh said.
"There will always be some people
who. will say that we're not a real
band unless we get a rhythm section.
We've tried to find drummers, but the
ones who can play all the different
rhythms in our songs are playing in
Broadway pit bands. We don't have
the money to compete. -
"We once tried a gig with a jazz
trio," Flansburgh continued, "And it
was interesting, but the drummer
started every song way too fast. After
the show, a friend of mine said, 'John,
I could tell that you were really
communicating with the drummer
that one time when you looked at
him,' when in fact I was trying to get
the guy to slow down!'
TMBG is currentl
y being courted 1 11 .001. COOLER ill 12
by some major labels, but
Flansburgh said, "We really can't TACOS 500 5-7
talk about it." Meanwhile, they're SNOW CRAb LEc t s 8-12
working on their second, yet-untitled
album. Some of the songs will come VERY HAPPYS 8-10 : Bud SpECiAL
from their cassette, and some will be
r.
all-new. None will come from Dial-A- FROZEN LPRINK JpECIAL
Song. "All those songs are exclusive
ly for the service," Flansburgh said. Old BAy FRIES 500 8-12
"We want to go as far as we can,"
Linnell said, "But we like this situa
tion we're in now. The crowd's loose,
and they seem to enjoy what we're
doing. We like to play for people who
like us.•'
For the They Might Be Giants Dial-
A-Song service and tour information, Gjaa
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