Icehouse frontman Iva Davies shares shock detail about Aussie hit Great Southern Land

As Great Southern Land celebrates its 40th anniversary, Icehouse frontman Iva Davies shares some shocking details you never knew about the hit song.

Iva Davies knew it was a ridiculous edict and he couldn’t possibly get away with it.

But 40 years ago, as Icehouse was poised to release his enduring musical portrait of our country, Davies was ordered by his minders not to confirm Great Southern Land was, in fact, about Australia.

Back then, the cultural cringe was real, before Men At Work’s Down Under, Neighbours and Crocodile Dundee got Australia trending with the rest of the world.

The local music industry gatekeepers were desperate for Australian artists to be regarded as “international” rather than celebrating our unique sound and character.

Icehouse frontman Iva Davies at home in Whale Beach. Picture: Tim Hunter.

As Great Southern Land celebrates its 40th anniversary, Davies chuckles as he recalls his manager taking him aside as he was about to launch into a “barrage of interviews” for the new single, and insisted the singer not mention the A word.

“The Australian cultural cringe was a thing then. My manager wanted Icehouse to be perceived as an international band, not just an Australian band and the last thing he wanted me to do was talk about it being a song about Australia,” he says.

“It was so obvious it was about Australia. He said to suggest maybe it was about Antarctica or South Africa or some imaginary place.

“One journalist was like a dog with a bone and kept asking ‘But it’s about Australia, right?’ I gave up and told my manager it was ridiculous and I just couldn’t keep it up.”

Icehouse frontman Iva Davies at Uluru. Australia’s red dirt inspired hit Great Southern Land. Picture: Supplied.

The inspiration for Great Southern Land came as Davies watched the vast expanse of Australia’s red dirt and sparse scrub interior stretch for hours below him on the flight from Sydney to London for the band’s first ever international tour.

He was lulled to sleep by the view and when he woke up two hours later, it was the same panorama.

“I’d been flying for two hours over the red centre of Australia and it was only in that moment that the sheer vast scale of the continent dawned on me,” he said.

Davies suffered acute homesickness during the six-month tour, and its relentless schedule of day after day driving to the next club gig through the UK and then across to Canada and America triggered a nervous breakdown.

The tour broke him and he broke up the band.

Icehouse in 1986.

Australian band Icehouse

“I had this incredible homesickness and there were already tears in the fabric of the band; being in a band is a real pressure cooker situation,” Davies said.

“A lot of bands break up within the first three or four years and management worked us so hard for three years that it killed the golden goose. I had a proper breakdown.”

But his international record deal demanded another record and there was a massive debt to recoup thanks to the costs of touring, recording, videos and marketing their 1980 debut record titled Icehouse, despite it being one of the biggest Australian albums of the time.

So he was under the hammer to deliver a second album and only had a few months to write and record the songs compared to the years the meticulous songwriter spent on the debut collection which included the hits Can’t Help Myself, We Can Get Together and Walls.

Icehouse Primitive Man cover art.

Great Southern Land was the first new song he wrote for the second record, called Primitive Man.

It was a five minute and 15 seconds epic, opening with a sustained synth note which Davies had created to symbolise the distinctive Australian horizon.

It was unlike anything else on the charts in 1982 when Soft Cell’s Tainted Love, Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger and Moving Pictures’ What About Me were the biggest songs on the airwaves.

The song’s length became his first battle with the powers-that-be. His record label suggested they edit the long note at the beginning in fear radio stations wouldn’t play it because the three-minute pop song ruled the airwaves, as it does today.

Iva Davies performs with Icehouse at the Village Green, Adelaide Oval, this year. Picture: Supplied/Andrew Beveridge

Davies stood his ground. And radio played the song. But its premiere on the then 2JJ station provoked acute anxiety in the singer that Great Southern Land would sound the death knell of his career.

“I still can’t answer the question of why that song connected with people because of the immediate reaction of the DJ George Wayne. After the premiere, there was all this silence, then he groaned and said ‘I don’t know what I think about that,’” he said.

“That was what I thought the world was going to think of that song. I thought it was a complete failure.”

Icehouse frontman Iva Davies.

Icehouse frontman Iva Davies reflects on 40-year anniversary of Great Southern Land. Picture: Tim Hunter.

As history has shown, it wasn’t, as Davies and Icehouse continue to tour Australia 40 years later. The song peaked at No. 5 but has since become entrenched in the Australian soundtrack, always greeted with a roar from the crowd as that distinctive synth note is struck from the stage.

The rock god laughs about an uncanny experience at shops which confirmed why he was right about sticking to his guns about Great Southern Land.

“When I go to the supermarket, it’s like a precision operation; I have a shopping list written up according to the sequential aisles,” he said.

“I walked in one day and that opening note of Great Southern Land was playing through the muzak, I did my shop, and as I was putting my credit card down, it finished. And so I know now it takes me five minutes and 15 seconds to shop.”

For all dates and ticketing for the 2022 Great Southern Land tour, go to https://icehouse-ivadavies.com/tour-dates/

Originally published as Icehouse frontman Iva Davies shares shock detail about Aussie hit Great Southern Land