I was having an odd Saturday night at home hanging out on Twitter. Earlier that day I spent the afternoon cleaning house with my new roommate.

Here’s how that went down…

Earlier in the week, she asked me “What do you think about a day of cleaning on Saturday?”

The voice inside my head immediately answered “I don’t.” But somehow, I managed to reply with “Sounds great!”

After we got done cleaning, we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging pictures, including several of my Derek Hess pieces. She added another Hess piece to my collection with the donation of a framed Hess poster for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opening concert.

I swear to God, it’s almost starting to look like I live here!

It was a good day, but by the end of it, I was glad that I didn’t have plans for the evening.

The evening started innocently enough when I updated my Facebook status update with Nik Kershaw lyrics:

I got it bad, you don’t know how bad I got it….

Opening up my Google Reader, I found an update from The Mixing Desk – featuring a broadcast from Nik Kershaw.

Spooky.

I decided to spend a bit of time punching around the site, because it had been a while. I came across some live The The, a favorite live tape from The Eagles’ tour for The Long Run, and then I saw it….live Icehouse, from the Man of Colours touring era!

Instantly I Twitter..

Ooh.how did I miss this live Icehouse show? I realize 80% of my followers might not know who Icehouse is. sigh.

As it turns out, I underestimated my dear ATV readers – it seems that quite a few of you know who Icehouse is, which warmed my heart!

For me, Icehouse was that curious Australian band that came onto my radar in the late 80s that wasn’t INXS or Midnight Oil. Living in the Chicago area in 1988, I saw the video for “Crazy” on MTV for the first time.

The “Crazy” video further fueled my childhood desire to be in radio…I mean c’mon, who wouldn’t want to be in a business where you get request phone calls from girls that look like that? Icehouse frontman Iva Davies (playing the part of the radio DJ,) drives home from the radio station in a pretty nice ride, and from that video, the “radio” life looked pretty alright to me! I loved (and still do) the late night vibe that is set by the beginning scenes of the video.

BTW, actress Cassandra Delaney plays the part of the woman caller in the video, and was also in the Icehouse video for “Electric Blue” from the same album. Delaney is probably known best for being married to the late John Denver.

“Crazy” missed going Top 10 in the States by a few slots, landing at a peak position of #14. “Electric Blue,” the follow-up single finally gave Icehouse their first and only Top 10 hit, charting at #7. That track was co-written with John Oates by the way. For those of you that are extreme musical nerds like I am, you might remember the title track which got some airplay, but wasn’t released as a single. “My Obsession” was the last single from the album released in the States, and it charted miserably at #88 on the Top 100.

So about that “Crazy” video…it turns out there is also a second version of the video, the original Australian version of the video:

Icehouse have been around for 30+ years, initially forming in 1977 as Flowers, before switching to the Icehouse name in 1981. Davies has been working on a new Icehouse album for nearly 10 years now, tentatively titled Bi-Polar Poems, and the album currently remains unfortunately unfinished. On the live front, Icehouse performed this past weekend as part of the Sound Relief benefit in Melbourne and Davies delivered a performance of “Crazy” that 20-plus years later, was still spot on.

Thanks to Mixing Desk and the original taper, I’d like to share this tasty Icehouse show with you all now. I’m guessing you’ll enjoy it….if you’re an Icehouse fan like I am, that is!

Icehouse
Melbourne Showground
Melbourne, Australia
February 13th, 1988

soundboard

complete zipped download

Disc 1 42min

We Can Get Together
Walls
Hey Little Girl
My Obsession
Mr Big
Electric Blue
Heartbreak Kid
Great Southern Land

Disc 2 43min

No Promises
Cross The Border
Can’t Help Myself
Crazy
Man of Colours
Baby You’re So Strange
Nothing Too Serious

Relevant Links:

Iva Davies/Icehouse website

Purchase Man of Colours – Amazon