Stylus
Stylus Bio
Stylus were an Australian funk, soul group which formed in 1975. They were the first Australian act to be released by Motown Records in the USA. Stylus toured supporting George Benson, Average White Band, Ike & Tina Turner, and Little River Band. According to rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, Stylus ‘scored a number of hit singles and became very popular on the Australian pub and concert circuit’. The group disbanded in 1979 and subsequently had various reunions. In 1998-99 Japan’s Toshiba-EMI re-issued three Stylus albums on CDs (For the Love of Music, Best Kept Secret and Part of It All). Their reunions have resulted in a live album, Still Alive (2003); and a new studio album, Across Time (2010).
Stylus developed from Mason’s Cure, which were a Melbourne-based group, led by Ian Mason on keyboards, and included at various stages Peter Cupples (ex-Wheatfield, Canyon), Ashley Henderson, Peter Lee, Ronnie Peers & Ian Tomney. In early 1975 that group issued a single, ‘Let Me Love You Right’, but Mason left to join The Bootleg Band. The remaining members became Stylus with Cupples on lead vocals, guitar (electric and acoustic), congas, percussion and electric piano; Henderson on bass guitar, lead and backing vocals; Lee on drums and percussion; Peers on lead guitar (electric and acoustic); and new member, Sam McNally (ex-Silver Sun, Baiyana) on keyboards: fender electric piano, acoustic piano, moog synthesiser and clavinet;. The group supported tours by Focus, Ike and Tina Turner, and Sherbet.