REPOST: Stylus - Where In The World (1975) plus Bonus Tracks

(Australian 1975-1979, 1992, 2002-2010)
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Stylus was a popular Melbourne funk/soul band of distinguished membership that released four albums and a number of singles 1975-1979. The band was fronted by Peter Cupples who went on to form the Peter Cupples Band (see earlier post).

Stylus grew out of the ashes of Melbourne band Mason's Cure, formed by keyboardist Ian Mason (ex-Kush). Mason's Cure issued one single on Astor in early 1975, "Let Me Love You Right"/"Back to Reality", before Mason left the group. He joined The Bootleg Band, and went on to issue a solo single, "Gotta Lotta Love"/"Keep It Up" (August 1978), and album, 'Nobody Takes Me Seriously' (Oz/EMI, 1978). Singer Peter Cupples had been the focal point of Mason's Cure, so with Mason's departure, the band recruited Sam McNally on keyboards and became Stylus. The band toured as support to Focus, Ike and Tina Turner and Sherbet, scored a deal with WEA (Atlantic) and issued the single Seals and Crofts' "Summer Breeze"/"Feelin' Blue" (July 1975). The single reached #31 in Melbourne during August. The band's second single, "World of Make Believe"/"Just Began" (October) reached #27.
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In November 1975, WEA issued the Stylus debut album 'Where in the World' (#19 in Melbourne during December). The album produced a third single, "I'm Going Home"/"Where in the World" (April 1976), but by that stage Stylus had left WEA. The band issued one single, "So Much Love"/"We All Need One Another" (#30 in August 1976), on Crystal Clear, before signing a new deal with Ross Wilson and Glenn Wheatley's Oz label (through EMI). The album For the Love of Music produced the singles "I Just Don't Wanna Fall in Love Right Now"/"Funky Fig" (October 1976) and "Kissin"/"For the Love of Music" (June 1977). By that stage, Peter Lee had been replaced by Trevor Courtney (ex-Vibrants, Skylight) initially, and then by Joe Tattersalls (ex-Ayers Rock) by the end of the year.

Courtney played on the band's third album, 'The Best Kept Secret ' (April 1978), which produced the singles "Work Out Fine"/"Natural Feeling" (March), "Look at Me"/"You Can't Get It Out of Your Head" (July) and "Got to Say Goodbye"/"Discover Your Life" (November). The prestigious American label Motown distributed the album in the USA (under the title Stylus) via the Prodigal imprint. In late 1978, Peter Roberts (ex-Ride Band) joined Stylus as co-lead vocalist. Not long after that, Mark Meyer (ex-Sailor) replaced Tattersalls on drums, and the band supported visiting American jazz guitarist George Benson on his Australian tour. The band's fourth album, 'Part of It All' (August 1979), and its single, "If You Believe in Me"/"Byron Bay" (August), were not successful and the members of Stylus parted.
A Stylus reunion tour in 2002 yielded the album 'Still Alive'.
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Interview with Stylus (RAM # 44, November 5th, 1976)
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'We Flunked Business College' admit Stylus
It's been a while. Sam McNally was telling me since Stylus last appeared in these hallowed pages. McNally is Stylus' keyboard player and he has a point: RAM No. 21 was, I think, the last time that the group scored themselves an article. In fact I think both he and vocalist Peter Cupples are slightly peeved by the fact. We three are gathered around the small kitchen table of Cupples' Elsternwick (Vic.) home getting down to a bit of interviewing, you see, and the question of Stylus long silence has popped up.
Maybe you'd noticed. Stylus have maintained a fairly low-key existence over the last six-or-so months Which is pretty unusual, because their brand of funky good-time music got them off onto a highly promising start. The singles Summer Breeze and Make Believe both did a fair share of chart climbing and the album 'Where In The World' didn't exactly sink without trace (it is now almost gold). The only real sign of activity lately, however, has been the single So Much Love, which inexplicably did very link-chart-wise. Why the silence?
Well, after about ten minutes of talking it becomes clear Stylus think they have the answer. Bv that time the conversation had shifted to a discussion of the group s old record company - W.E.A, whom they split from in January. Although Where In The World came out as well as,if not better than they had expected they have few compliments for W.E.A records.
"There was no communication with W.E.A at all," explains McNally. "They just weren't interested in us.
Well, how did you first get signed up?
"We weren't signed up with them technically".
Uh?
"It was all done through our manager", continues Cupples, ruefully munching an apple. "We didn't know much about it. We didn't know much about anything at this stage. We were sort of rookies in the business". He grins.

"lt was terribly, terribly confusing", says McNally. "because there was us, then our management, then the record company, and it was mainly between management and record company. We felt we were left in the dark".
All in all. Stylus stress, they were Not Happy.
A question about management was met with silence, then a burst of laughter, then a request from McNally to keep quiet about it. Management, they assured me, was "going to be cool, but they preferred not to talk about it.
Neither McNally nor Cupples are very specific, but they stress the musical side of the band had been disrupted over the past six months and that a lot of their time had been spent sorting out managerial and related matters.

"The most important thing we're aiming for", says McNally. "is ownership of our own music, instead of being signed up to a company that has the right to do whatever they like with what they call our Product. We want the right to say where and when we want Product X released, which is very important".
"We want to keep it together, keep it nice and honest" continues Cupples "In this business you don t need a certificate to become a manager. Any whack can become a manager, it (the business) has got to become more professional and the bands — the music — has got to be respected more. The music is the seed, everything branches out from that.
"Now we're taking a very careful look at what we are doing on a business level as well as a musical level. You've got to, otherwise (pause) you could end up really badly in the shit".

Sure enough, a week after the interview the band split their ties with the past and signed to Glenn Wheatley's Oz label
Whatever happens next, let's hope both band ,and new record company keep smiling warmly at each other. Certainly Stylus haven't done very well in the world of Big Business so far.
But less of these downers and more of the happy, musical expansiveness that Stylus are renowned for Musically, things have never been better, as Peter Cupples will tell you "Musically'.' Yeah, it feels great."
For audiences it feels great too. Stylus are a rare example of the sort of band who don't use sticks of dynamite and guitar-in-the-crotch poses as springboards for their musical prowess. They are, if you like funky, but they are definitely not the usual, banal, disco rhythm-ace hook-up that word is often applied to.
They're funky in the sweetly melodic, wordly-aware sense the best examples of Philadelphian soul music always demonstrate. A melody line is never a repetition, it's always a winding path with undulating movements that suggest the gradual unfolding of A Direction. Their choruses are a celestial blending of voices that sometimes suggest the Beach Boys singing church hymns. The music, more often than not is adventurously arranged with a subtlety and feeling fulness that demonstrates a compatibility which allows each musician to respond to his fellow members.
If there's one criticism of the group that's endured, it's that their internal harmony and unity is often mistaken for blandness. And their propensity for delving into gentle themes of Brotherly Togetherness and the Quest For Inner Peace And An Organic Gardening Plot (all members are vegetarians)" sometimes attracts the unwelcome tag of the Macrobiotic Wimps.
Still, only those who really listen can hope to know what is really going down.

The band is incredibly together as a unit," says McNally. "We feel that in the next week or so we're going to be on the verge of our-biggest breakthrough ever
This statement has more than a little to do with the fact that, by the time you are reading this, their new album For The Love Of Music will probably have been released. It's been over a year since the first album and both members become animated when talking about the newie.
"With the first album." says Cupples, "we had a lot of early stuff I'd written and it was in a Philadelphian funky vein I feel. The first one was sort of "let's have a go and see what happens" type of thing. We had no really set ideas and it came together a lot in the studio.
"Whereas the new one ... it's a lot further advanced. We're more carefully chosen the material and put the album together a hell of a lot better. This time I've gone in with a concept on about 70 % of the production things and it s been put together as more of a concept of what we're about. The playing has also improved incredibly ..
This album, as with the first, has been produced by Cupples and Trevor Courtenay and all the tracks were written by Cupples, except two which were co-written with Courtenay. The tracks are For The Love Of Music. We All Need One Another, Gettin' In The Groove, Nature Is Giving So Much Love, Sweetness, What's Right For You, Love Is All We Have, Musical Man and Moving on Home. The latter two Cupples describes as External Road songs, ones that he wrote while the group were on an interstate Sherbet tour last year. So Much Love was also written on that tour, as he explains.

"That was one of the things that inspired me to write the song for Ashley, because I sat down, took a look at the band in concert format and started thinking how we could utilise what we had within the band to make the show look better. And I thought "well it would be nice if Ashley were to come out the front". because he's got a really beautiful voice but he hadn't really sat down and sung anything. Anyway, he dug the idea and it really blew a hell of a lot of people out when he began to do it.
Indeed. I'm yet to find a person with an unkind thing to say about So Much Love and yet . . and yet . it's somehow failed to do really big business. Cupples says that he, too, thought it would do more than it did and maybe business problems are again mainly to blame: the song was recorded in December but not released until June because of the many hassles the band were experiencing.
Still, the milk is spilt and the band are now looking towards a new song. At the time of interviewing the songs were still in need of mixing. Once that's completed, a single will he selected. There is also a mystery song not yet recorded. (The following sentence, from Cupples, constitutes my only scoop of the afternoon ! (Ah- gee Rich —only one measly scoop in a whole afternoon !! — ed.)
'Yes, we have a big surprise. We have this single in the can at the moment which I'll tell you about. It's a song written by Ashley and it's really incredible.

"It's a very simple, fairly slow ballad" continues McNally and they proceed to give me an exclusive (exclusive mind you) listen to a rough mix. The song not only sounded as sweet 'n' funky as anything they've done before, it was also given a visual aspect by Cupples young son, who performed a series of guitar hero poses roughly to the beat, on a four string ukelele. The song could succeed where 'So Much Love' failed. It is also the first time another member of the band has had one of their songs recorded. The writing of McNally and guitarist Ron Peers is also developing. Cuppies informs me and hopefully this will further broaden the band's scope.

Ultimately, however, they are looking to America and possibly Europe and Japan, as their next step forward. Even though they are based in Melbourne, McNally says they rarely play here at the moment. Other states, particularly Adelaide, seem to give them a better reception but overall "it's very hard to sell this type of music in this country. Whether we have a better chance over there is hard to say — we'll just have to go over and find out"
"There s nothing definite yet" says Cupples. "Just some good things up in the air that need bringing down to the ground and sorting out. We have a few contacts in L A. and on the East Coast, so we wanna get over there and get a few things tied up. Most definitely it will be hard. But if you're in the environment where you're playing to an audience that really get off on the music, well, you really want to work for them - go home, get new things down, better things. But here you get no reaction at all from the crowds, y'know. You just wanna go home and sleep for six months. [reported by Richard Guilliair in RAM #55 Nov 5th 1976. p19].

A-World Of Make Believe / B-Just Begun

This post consists of FLACs ripped from CD (thanks to Smackster) and includes full album artwork, along with scans of an insert sheet containing B&W photos and lyrics. The CD release also contains 3 bonus tracks (all B-Side singles released between 1975-1978). I am also including a live rendition of "Summer Breeze", recorded on the Steve Vizard Show in 1992 and a scan of the RAM magazine article from which the above interview was transcribed.
Although funky R&B is not my favourite genre of music, I still enjoy Stylus's early material - in particular this, their debut album.

' New Improved Rip With Additional Bonus Tracks '
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Track Listing

01 - World Of Make Believe
02 - All In The Game
03 - Will This Continue
04 - Just Begun
05 - Summer Breeze
06 - Paradise
07 - I'm So In Love With You
08 - Where In The World
09 - I'm Going Home
10 - Can't Get It Out Of Your Head (Bonus B-Side Single, 1978)
11 - Funky Fig (Bonus B-Side Single, 1976)
12 - Feeling Blue (Bonus B-Side Single, 1975)
13 - Summer Breeze (Bonus Live 1992)

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Band Members:
Peter Cupples (Guitar, Vocals, Congas & Percussion)
Ashley Henderson (Bass, Vocals)
Ron Peer's (Lead Guitar, Vocals)
Sam McNally (Keyboards)
Peter Lee (Drums & Percussion)
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Stylus Link (377Mb)

Peter Cupples - Half The Effort Twice The Effect (1984)

(Australian 1981 - 1984, 1995 - Present)
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Peter Cupples has been delighting Australian audiences for three decades. Originally with ‘Stylus’ in the late 70’s, then through the 80’s with the Peter Cupples Band featuring the likes of ‘David Hirshfelder’, ‘Virgil Donati’, ‘Ross Ingles’ and ‘Rob Little’.
Cupples is known by most singers as ‘the singers singer’ and is widely respected by his peers.
Some of his biggest fans come from far and wide ‘Bill Schnee’ producer of ‘Boz Scaggs’ Amy Grant’and ‘Huey Lewis and the News’, ‘legendary horn arranger ‘Gerry Hay ’ and ‘Harvey Mason’ to name a few.
He was the first white singer to sing on the Motown label with ‘Stylus’ and has always maintained a deep respect for soul music.

Peter recalls on his own website:
The band played the Melbourne pub band circuit in the early 80's when pub rock was big business around town. We loved what we were doing, and we felt that we were forging ahead and defining new trends in music. We had a decent publicity machine behind us, and generated a good amount of interest in Australia and overseas. We supported some top overseas artists and received critical acclaim. The album and singles sold well, particularly in Melbourne, but we never received the commercial success that we needed to take the band to the next level.

We never managed to put together the sound that was needed for a big Aussie hit. Maybe we were a bit too different, maybe the timing wasn't right.. - it's hard to say - but we were playing the music we loved playing, and our loyal fans followed us around the circuit as we continued in our pursuit of success.
We started working towards the second album "Half The Effort Twice The Effect". The songs had already become part of our set, and the fans had received them well. We had enough material to put down a follow up to 'Fear Of Thunder'. It was just a matter of working out with the record company which direction the album would take.

Louie Shelton, who is a legendary guitar player from America, came to Australia to produce ‘Half the Effort, Twice the Effect’ back in 1983.  That’s when I first met Louie.  Louie was inducted into America’s Musician’s Hall of Fame in 2009. He played on all The Monkees’ stuff. He has also played with The Jackson Five, Marvin Gaye, Boz Scaggs, Lionel Ritchie, Barbra Streisand.

'Half The Effort' was recorded for the American market and as good a recording as it is it is a bit of an orphan. It was never really given its chance to find a place in the local market and suffered from a lack of marketing. It was never even released in the U.S… Locally it was labelled as an American recording and in America it sounded like too many other American bands.  That being said, it was a beautiful album and I loved the music on it. Louis managed to get the legendary Gerry Hey to provide the horns section when he mixed it in the U.S.

"Love Of Another World" was the first single and features that horn section.

"Party Lights" was a poppy song that got some airplay.. Probably the peoples favourite song on the album was a little ballad called "Sitting Here".. Whilst being slightly departed from our rock 'n' roll roots it never failed to bring the house down when played live. We finished it with a little three part harmony that still sounds wonderful today. People still come up to me today and mention that little number,20 years on.

However, for the second time in my career I had reached a stage where the constant drain and grind of touring had worn me down. Similar to the end of the Stylus years, this period in the Peter Cupples Band signaled to me that it was time for a new direction in life.


In an interview with Peter Cupples, conducted by Sharyn Hamey at RockClub40, Cupples talks about his musical inspirations:

Peter has drawn his musical inspiration from a variety of artists. 
“James Taylor, for one.  I met James Taylor in Melbourne many years ago. We got to have a beer together and a bit of a chit chat for half an hour. I’d been to see his concert actually and, after his concert, his manager brought him to the night club owned by my manager and I was there and we just sat down and had a few beers. The two managers went off and James and I were sitting at the bar, having a beer and talking about growing up in the country. He was very affable, very quiet in a way and very humble. It was one of the great thrills for me.  I was a massive Taylor fan.  I also admire Stevie Wonder as a complete package… as a musician, as a writer and as a singer - just awesome! I’ve always loved soul singers. The real soul singers like Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Levi Stubbs from the original ‘Four Tops’, ‘Earth, Wind and Fire’ – I’m a big fan of ‘Earth, Wind and Fire.’ That’s from a singer’s point of view. From a musician’s point of view, I love guitar players like Larry Cahill. Love Sting as a poet, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan… as writers.  And I really admire Neil Finn.”I point out that there are probably a lot of people who draw inspiration from Peter Cupples as well. “Actually,” he admits, rather reluctantly, “I had an email the other day from a bass player who is playing with Billy Joel and has played with Madonna and he grew up in Melbourne, following my band, and he drew inspiration from there and he said ‘If it wasn’t for you, I probably wouldn’t have pursued music.’ So he’s making a fortune out of it,”  Peter laughs  “and I’m making nothing! Seriously, though, it certainly is wonderful when someone takes the time out to let you know about it. It gives you a certain amount of satisfaction, I suppose. We all like to think that we’re doing something good.”

Peter is still gigging these days doing mostly solo stuff but has recently tied up with the legendary Jon English to form "Uncorked". They have embarked on producing a lifestyle type program based around our music, wine, food and travel, all rolled in together. We have played together at a number of vineyards, and have filmed a pilot special in Tasmania earlier this year. They are hoping to expand the show, to cover the other parts of Australia, when they secure a network deal.

Jon English & Peter Cupples

This post consists of FLACs ripped from my recently acquired vinyl - a nice little find at the Essendon Secondhand Record Store. Although the front cover was slightly damaged, the vinyl itself is flawless. I have managed to photoshop repair the cover artwork for you, which is also included along with label scans. This album really rocks with the help of some accomplished Australian musicians, including Virgil Donati (Taste, Southern Sons, Jon Stevens) on drums and David Hirschfelder (LRB, John Farnham, Dragon) on keyboards.  If you liked his 'Fear of Thunder' album, then you won't be disappointed with this later release.
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Track Listing

01 - Don't You Leave Me Now
02 - Let Me Crawl
03 - Love Of Another World
04 - Just Can't Live
05 - Never Mind
06 - Party Lights
07 - In The Pitts
08 - Sitting Here
09 - Do You Still Remember Me
10 - On The Run

The Band:
Peter Cupples - Vocals
Ross Inglis - Lead & Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
Louie Shelton - Guitar
Virgil Donati - Drums & Percussion
Brian Hamilton - Bass, Fretless Bass
David Hirschfelder - Keyboards
Dario D'Angelo Bidino - Backing Vocals
Recorded by Ross Cockle at AAV Australia; additional recording at Richmond Recorders, Melbourne, Australia and Blue Harbour Studios, Los Angeles

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Peter Cupples FLAC Link (232Mb)  New Link 08/07/2019
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Peter Cupples - Fear Of Thunder (1982) + Bonus Tracks

(Australian 1981 - 1984, 1995 - Present)

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Peter Cupples has been delighting Australian audiences for three decades. Originally with ‘Stylus’ in the late 70’s, then through the 80’s with the Peter Cupples Band featuring the likes of ‘David Hirshfelder’, ‘Virgil Donati’, ‘Ross Ingles’ and ‘Rob Little’.
Cupples is known by most singers as ‘the singers singer’ and is widely respected by his peers.
Some of his biggest fans come from far and wide ‘Bill Schnee’ producer of ‘Boz Scaggs’ Amy Grant’and ‘Huey Lewis and the News’, ‘legendary horn arranger ‘Gerry Hay ’ and ‘Harvey Mason’ to name a few.
He was the first white singer to sing on the Motown label with ‘Stylus’ and has always
maintained a deep respect for soul music. Over the last few years Cupples has released two albums, a standards album entitled ‘About Time’ and another home grown album called ‘The Golden Miles’ where Cupples does his own arrangements of Aussie classics. My favourite is Goanna's Solid Rock - have a look at this video below.


So how did the Peter Cupples Band form? Peter tells it like this on his website:
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As Stylus slowly broke up I started working on some new musical projects. A small band evolved and we took up a residency at The Hatters Castle in Melbourne. There was myself, Sam McNally, Mark Myer and Joe Creighton. I was happy to be off the road back at home and playing regular local shows. The touring had really worn me out, and this was where I wanted to be at this time in my life. Mark and Sam moved to Sydney and were replaced by two superb musicians, David Jones and David Hirschfelder. They had been playing in the critically acclaimed jazz outfit Pyramid with Bob Vinier on horns.
We hooked up with Mike Clarke on Bass, Linda Cable and Bill Harrower and started playing at the Grainstore Tavern. This band was musically superb. We played a number of my songs and often just belted out an extended blow session of sounds. We were creative and instinctive and this was a great time for me musically. The two Davids and Bob, along with Mike's work, formed an amazing outfit. This band pushed me to write some different music. I moved away from the soul genre and I wanted to explore new frontiers with my writing. This was the time that "Fear Of Thunder" was born. The song itself was really out there. It was exciting and different. It was me expressing the new direction that I had discovered around this time. It didn't fit into any specific musical category and, hence it was when recorded, a difficult record to pitch commercially. It was rock, pop, soul, reggae…. A publishers dream and a record companies nightmare!!
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I was, and still am, very proud of the 'Fear of Thunder' album. or as I like to call it FOT. It was a vehicle for all of the musical influences of my career to date, and it was a new direction for me going forward. I had written these songs over a period of about 2 years, and was waiting for the opportunity to put them down in the studio.
The players on the album, read like a Who's Who of Australian music at the time. Besides David Hirschfelder, Ross Inglis, Rob Little and Virgil Donati, the album featured Tommy Emmanuel, David Jones and many other world class players.
The styles were abundant. There was rock, pop, ballads, reggae, soul and funk. Yet it flowed from song to song, and despite its diversity of sounds and moods,it was all very much a cohesive set of contemporary tunes.
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From the rock of the title track and "Our Evolution" to the ballad "I Remember". The sweet soul Stylus sound of "Sweet Summer Nights", with Ashley and Sam providing a familiar feel, and the boppy "Blame It On the Weather", a song also released by John Farnham around this time. "Here We Are" was a magic studio track that sounded just right from the start in much the same way that "Make Believe" had some 7 years earlier.
It was a kaleidoscope of sounds and images that had flowed out of me during this musically exciting period of my life. People still come up to me, 20 years later, and tell me that 'Fear Of Thunder' is their favourite Cupples album of all time.
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The band played the Melbourne pub band circuit in the early 80's when pub rock was big business around town. We loved what we were doing, and we felt that we were forging ahead and defining new trends in music. We had a decent publicity machine behind us, and generated a good amount of interest in Australia and overseas. We supported some top overseas artists and received critical acclaim. The album and singles sold well, particularly in Melbourne, but we never received the commercial success that we needed to take the band to the next level.
We never managed to put together the sound that was needed for a big Aussie hit. Maybe we were a bit too different, maybe the timing wasn't right.. - it's hard to say - but we were playing the music we loved playing, and our loyal fans followed us around the circuit as we continued in our pursuit of success.
We started working towards the second album "Half The Effort Twice The Effect". The songs had already become part of our set, and the fans had received them well. We had enough material to put down a follow up to F.O.T. It was just a matter of working out with the record company which direction the album would take.
However, for the second time in my career I had reached a stage where the constant drain and grind of touring had worn me down. Similar to the end of the Stylus years, this period in the Peter Cupples Band signaled to me that it was time for a new direction in life.
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Peter is still gigging these days doing mostly solo stuff but has recently tied up with the legendary Jon English to form "Uncorked". They have embarked on producing a lifestyle type program based around our music, wine, food and travel, all rolled in together. We have played together at a number of vineyards, and have filmed a pilot special in Tasmania earlier this year. They are hoping to expand the show, to cover the other parts of Australia, when they secure a network deal.
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The post is a vinyl rip (320kps) taken from my pristine copy of the album. I have included full album artwork for vinyl only, along with a selection of photos. Also included are a couple of singles, his big hit "Believe In Love" (thanks to Peter Power Pop) and a non-album B-Side track "Dryin' Time (thanks to Sunshine at Midoztouch).
Although the album was released on CD back in 2005, it is no longer available from Cupples website and appears to be out of print.
Nevertheless, there are more recent titles available, so have a look at his website
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Track Listing
01. Fear Of Thunder
02. Here We Are
03. You Never Know
04. Later Tonight
05. Our Evolution
06. Blame It On The Weather
07. I'm On Fire
08. I Remember
09. Sweet Summer Nights
10. I'm Into You
Bonus Tracks
11. Believe In Love (A-Side Single)
12. Dryin' Time (B-Side Single)
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Band Members:
Vocals – Peter Cupples
Keyboards – David Hirschfelder
Bass – Mike (Kelly) Clarke, Robert Little, Roger McLaughlin
Drums – Trevor Courtney, Virgil Donati
Guitar – Peter Cupples, Ross Inglis, Tommy Emmanuel
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Peter Cupples Link (110MB) New Link 07/01/2015
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