Adelaide Festival reveals Icehouse will rock Adelaide Oval to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Great Southern Land

Aussie music legends Icehouse will perform with Indigenous artists at Adelaide Oval as part of the Adelaide Festival – to celebrate a very special 40th anniversary.

Hit 1980s band Icehouse will perform with guest First Nations artists at next year’s Adelaide Festival to mark the 40th anniversary of the band’s anthem Great Southern Land.

Didgeridoo master William Barton and blues and roots support act Emily Wurramara will join Icehouse frontman Iva Davies and the band at Adelaide Oval’s Village Green in March.

Artistic directors Rachel Healy and Neil Armfield will release the full Adelaide Festival 2022 program at Bonython Hall today.

There will be 10,000 tickets priced at $99 for the Icehouse concert, but buyers must first register on a waitlist at the Festival’s website.

Great Southern Land was written after Davies became homesick during Icehouse’s first overseas tour and was the lead single from its second album Primitive Man in 1982.

“I recall the lightbulb moment when I was flying from east coast Australia to the west, falling asleep over inland desert and waking several hours later still over desert,” Davies said.

“For the first time, the continent’s vastness really hit home.”

Iva Davies, the singer and songwriter for legendary Australian band Icehouse. Picture: Cybele Malinowski

The song has been reworked multiple times, including the Byrralku Dhangudha remix from 1994 which featured Indigenous musicians playing and singing the chorus in their own language.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Icehouse had a succession of hits including Hey Little Girl, Love in Motion, No Promises, Crazy, Electric Blue, We Can Get Together and Don’t Believe Anymore.

“The band aren’t just hits and memories – they have been rediscovered by a new generation,” Ms Healy said.

“Their work is sampled and spliced by contemporary musicians.

“This particular tour is the band celebrating this extraordinary piece of music and the album that it came from, but also engaging with First Nations artists.

“It’s a contemporary retelling of the Great Southern Land music.”

Icehouse started producing hits in the early 1980s and has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years.

Other shows already announced for next year’s Adelaide Festival include Barrie Kosky’s international opera production The Golden Cockerel, Girls & Boys by State Theatre Company, and Musica Viva’s concert by guitarist Karin Schaupp and the Flinders Quartet.

World music festival Womadelaide will also return to Botanic Park, and the Art Gallery’s 2022 Adelaide Biennial exhibition will be titled Free/State.

At the time of the Festival program’s printing the Icehouse concert was scheduled for March 6, but may be subject to change.

To receive notifications about the Icehouse concert date and tickets, sign up at: adelaidefestival.com.au

PICK UP SA WEEKEND ON SATURDAY FOR A SPECIAL ADELAIDE FESTIVAL ISSUE