Iva Davies: an oboe, Flowers and Great Southern Land | Ultimate Aussie Pub Rock Reunion

Why fans still care

IVA DAVIES wrote Great Southern Land, a song the National Film and Sound Archive added to its Sounds of Australia in 2014. Man of Colours spent 11 weeks at number 1, and Electric Blue reached number 7 in the US. And he did it as a classically trained oboist who taught himself guitar.

Early life

He was born Ivor Davies in Wauchope in 1955, the youngest of three, in a house where both parents sang in the local choir. He fell for the bagpipes at six and started lessons at seven, then moved to oboe at Epping High. At about 14 he won a scholarship to the Conservatorium of Music. Every Thursday he took the train to Circular Quay and watched the Opera House going up. He became a professional orchestral player and had just been made principal oboe when a repairer ruined his handmade French oboe. On his 21st birthday he bought a solid-body electric guitar and a 100-watt Marshall. The “Iva” came later, from a misspelt label on an early single.

Career chapters

1. 1975first single, Leading Lady
2. 1977forms Flowers in Sydney
3. 1980Flowers sign to Regular Records; Icehouse goes Top 5
4. 1981the band becomes Icehouse
5. 1982Primitive Man; Great Southern Land
6. 1983support act on David Bowie’s Serious Moonlight tour
7. 1985Boxes, for Sydney Dance Company
8. 1987Man of Colours
9. 1988ARIA Album of the Year
10. 1995Berlin, for Sydney Dance Company
11. 1999The Ghost of Time on the Opera House forecourt, Millennium Eve
12. 2003Master and Commander score
13. 2006ARIA Hall of Fame
14. 2011Icehouse reformed
15. 2013AM
16. 2027Man of Colours 40th Anniversary Tour

Flowers 1977 to 1981

He met Keith Welsh while working as a cleaner. The manageress at the squash courts next door introduced him to her son, a bass player. Welsh co-founded the band and still manages him. Flowers worked the pub circuit, at times nine shows a week. They signed to Regular Records in 1980, and the debut album Icehouse went Top 5. In 1981 the band took that name, because a Scottish band already had Flowers.

Icehouse 1982 to 1988

He played every note on Primitive Man, which gave the world Great Southern Land, Hey Little Girl and Street Cafe. Then both David Bowie, Who’s Who number 16 in The Ultimate Reunion, and Peter Gabriel offered support slots, and he picked Bowie’s 1983 Serious Moonlight tour. Man of Colours came out on 21 September 1987 and spent 11 weeks at number 1. Electric Blue, written with John Oates, was the band’s only Australian number 1 and got to number 7 in the US. The album won ARIA Album of the Year and Highest Selling Album.

The composer 1985 to 2003

He scored the Sydney Dance Company ballet Boxes in 1985, mainly on Fairlight, and wrote Berlin for the company in 1995. On Millennium Eve, The Ghost of Time, a 25-minute orchestral work built around Great Southern Land, was performed on the Opera House forecourt. In 2003 he co-scored Master and Commander with Christopher Gordon and Richard Tognetti.

Icehouse again 2011 onwards

He reformed Icehouse in 2011 and reissued the catalogue. In December 2024 he joined The Killers on stage at Rod Laver Arena to sing Electric Blue. The Man of Colours 40th Anniversary Tour runs from June to August 2027, with Suze DeMarchi, Who’s Who number 17, as featured guest on every date. The first Melbourne date sold out.

Craft, sound and style

The synths

He used a Fairlight CMI, a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, a Minimoog and a Linn drum machine. The NFSA notes the Prophet-5 and Linn on Great Southern Land. He’s had his Fairlight fully restored.

One-man records

Great Southern Land was built at home on a drum machine, a synthesiser and an eight-track. He lived under the flight path in Leichhardt, so he sang it in pieces, between buses and planes.

Classical discipline

A photographer who covered the band said his orchestral background gave him a discipline rare in pub rock. He still plays oboe on stage. He even drew the Man of Colours cover himself, with five crayons and a black felt pen.

Stories people still tell

1. Bowie or Gabriel.

   After Hey Little Girl, both offered Icehouse a tour. He chose Bowie. “I knew it was going to be as big as it gets,” he said.

2. The cheapest house in Sydney.

   He put his first royalty cheque down as a house deposit, because he expected the career to be short. “I didn’t think it would last very long at all.”

3. Lou Reed’s book.

   By his account, a Lou Reed lyric book he’d given to a charity shop came back to him, with Reed’s 1995 inscription giving permission to use a Velvet Underground song in a ballet.

4. The booking book.

   He found a handwritten three-year record of gigs that ran Flowers alongside Cold Chisel, The Angels, Divinyls, Mondo Rock and INXS. Same agents, same circuit. That puts him in the same diary as Doc Neeson, Who’s Who number 4, Chrissy Amphlett, Who’s Who number 16, Ross Wilson, Who’s Who number 19, and Michael Hutchence, Who’s Who number 15.

Legacy

Great Southern Land is in the NFSA’s Sounds of Australia, and it came in at number 35 in triple j’s 2025 Hottest 100 of Australian Songs. In 2017 Qantas named its first 787-9 Dreamliner Great Southern Land after a public vote. Icehouse went into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2006, alongside Midnight Oil, Divinyls, Rose Tattoo and Daddy Cool. He was made an AM in 2013. “I am a proud Australian,” he said.