Legendary Australian rock band Icehouse have had fans guessing for the past week or so. They announced they would be playing some special shows at the end of the year in Sydney and Melbourne that would see them performing in more intimate venues than fans are used to seeing them in, and promised there were some surprises to come.

Well the band's key member Iva Davies has today revealed all, announcing that the band will perform the shows as DubHOUSE and will be performing reggae renditions of their vast catalogue of 80s pop gold.

“When we play as Icehouse we make sure we play the songs as faithfully as we can, the way people have loved them over the years,” Davies writes. “DubHOUSE is a bit of fun for me and the band to play around with the arrangements and a few cover tunes.”

Davies says there will be additional singers and a horn section added to the band's line up in order to add an extra point of difference to the songs.

In the note, which you can read here, Davies speaks of being turned on to reggae as a young musician and being hooked on artists like Desmond Dekker, Black Uhuru, Toots & The Maytals, Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley.

“Reggae is the music that makes everything feel like a party,” he writes. “For me it isn't just about the rhythm – it is as much a use of space and pace in the music which first hooked me.”

The dates for the DubHOUSE shows are below and tickets are on sale now.