Iva Davies: "The band and I were all looking forward to playing on Saturday to the thousands of fans who have tickets. We have very strict protocols around our travel and performance schedule but somewhere I contracted COVID-19 despite all my vaccinations.
"I am devastated to have to postpone the concert, but the impact of the infection means that I am having difficulty breathing and certainly couldn't manage to sing a full show.
"Rather than try to battle through and not give the concertgoers the best ICEHOUSE experience possible, we have made the extremely difficult decision to postpone until next February by which time we will be able to deliver the full ICEHOUSE concert in good health to our Melbourne friends and fans."
The show has been rescheduled to Saturday 11 February, 2023, with the full line-up to be announced soon. The ICEHOUSE dates for Brisbane (26 November) and Sydney (12 December) will go ahead as scheduled.
Never at any point in his cavalier youth did Iva Davies think that, in 2022, he'd be celebrating the 40th anniversary of a song he wrote.
When Icehouse released 'Great Southern Land' in 1982, never in their wildest dreams did they conceive that one of their now best-known singles would become an unofficial Australian anthem – and yet, here they are.Forty years on, Icehouse are preparing to begin a concert series across the east coast to celebrate the release and impact of 'Great Southern Land'.
Despite the landmark occasion, Iva says thoughts of legacy are too big a concept, even after all these years, for him to get his head around.
"It's a little like pondering 'was there any thought at all in my head when I wrote that song that we'd be talking about it' 40 years ago, and of course to that I would say 'absolutely not!'.
"I don't think in terms of legacy. I was always trying to meet the standards of a collection of songwriters who'd gone before me that had set the benchmark.
"I don't think I ever managed to achieve to write a song that was as good as some of those songs that I really admire, but in the process of trying, I wrote a lot of okay songs. I don't think in big pictures."
In the spirit of not thinking in big pictures, when Iva originally wrote 'Great Southern Land', it meant one thing to him – written as a homage to Australia when the musician was feeling particularly homesick on tour; before being released to the masses and left open to interpretation.
Over time, 'Great Southern Land' has continued to be interpreted through various remixes and covers – that song stands up as a legacy, regardless of Iva's stance on the concept – and Iva's take on those re-workings is deep to say the least.
"There are any number of possible versions of that song, as there are any number of songs, and my philosophy on it has always been that there is one original, kind of untouchable as the original version.
"From there on, really, other versions become interesting, but they still don't ever challenge what you give in the first place.
"The thing that was very clear in my mind – and I remember very clearly – I remember deliberately choosing phrases.
"The way that I wrote it was not my usual process; in fact, I don't think I've done it ever since.
"I wrote down a lot of three-word phrases, cut them up and put them all over the floor. I went through them and picked the ones I thought had the most possible meanings that could be interpreted in more than one way.
"Really, it's a collection of three-word phrases that aren't complete in themselves, but that possibly trigger any number of ideas, not just any single idea. I don't think I've ever written another song like that."
Icehouse: Great Southern Land 2022 Tour Dates
Sat 26 Nov - The Riverstage (Brisbane)Mon 12 Dec - Sydney Opera House Forecourt
Sat 12 Feb - Sidney Myer Music Bowl (Melbourne)* rescheduled show
Melbourne line-up
IcehouseThe Psychedelic Furs
Mark Seymour & The Undertow
Motor Ace
Emma Donovan & The Putbacks
Brisbane line-up
IcehouseThe Psychedelic Furs
Alice Skye
Sydney line-up
IcehouseMark Seymour & The Undertow
William Barton
Karen Lee Andrews
In 2023 Icehouse headline Birdsville Big Red Bash 4-6 July, and Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash 17-19 August.
