Rocks In The Attic #118: Flowers - ‘Icehouse’ (1980)

Australian synth-pop band Icehouse were originally called Flowers, for this, their debut release. They changed their name to the title of this album not long after, and they’re still called that today.

With a sound not too dissimilar to fellow New Wave bands like Martha & The Muffins, Devo and Flock of Seagulls, they sound pretty cutting-edge for 1980, especially for a backwater country like Australia. Like most New Wave bands, you can hear the Bowie and Lou Reed influences dripping out of the stereo. They actually remind of the sort of bands that feature on the New Wave radio station in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Their two later singles - Hey Little Girl and Great Southern Land - would make them world famous a few years later. Well, world famous in the South Pacific, if you can call that fame.

Hit: We Can Get Together

Hidden Gem: Icehouse

Rocks In The Attic #25: Lionel Richie - ‘Can’t Slow Down’ (1983)

I’m not sure why I have this - I think it may have something I pilfered from my parent’s collection when I was starting to listen to vinyl in a big way. For years it remained on my shelf, unlistened to, and then I noticed it had a song - Running With The Night - that featured on the soundtrack to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I’m glad I finally listened to it, as the rest of the album isn’t half-bad.

Bookended by his big US #1 solo hits - All Night Long (All Night) and Hello - the album is his second solo output after leaving The Commodores, and is full of hits. Each of the five singles taken from the album charted in the US Top 10 - not a bad start for somebody described by one critic as ‘the black Barry Manilow’.

My good friend Roger used to use a ticket stub from a Lionel Richie concert as a bookmark, mainly as a conversation starter to meet girls on the train during his commute to work. Apparently it worked most of the time.

Hit: Hello

Hidden Gem: Running With The Night