“At one point in the early 70s, Philadelphia music was as popular as Motown. People were coming from all over the States to record here because they wanted to capture that Philly sound“. So says Airrion Love whose home city gave birth to one of the 70s’ most successful Philly pop groups…
In 1966, The Stylistics was formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by combining local high school rival singing groups. Fast forward several decades, albums, cd releases, and group member changes, Herbert Murrell and second lead Airrion Love, the remaining original members of The Stylistics have remained friends since junior high school. They continue to travel the country and worldwide sharing their group’s music legacy.
Having seen them in Hastings a few years back, I put it to Airrion Love whose been there right from the very beginning that their current lineup of Herbert Murrell, Bo Henderson, Jason Sharp and himself are vocally as close to the original lineup as they could be.
“Why thank you – that’s a real compliment. We really try to get as close to the original as possible. When you go to a show you want to hear a song that sounds like the original not something completely different so that’s what we try to do. When we are performing, we can’t afford to have a full orchestra but we try to have the best musicians that can do the orchestrated sound like the violins and horn section.”
Stylistics on stage (credit Quiz Britain)
I asked him what’s it like living in Philadelphia.
“It’s a big city and like any city, it has its problems but it’s home to me. At one point in the early 70s, Philadelphia music was as popular as Motown. People were coming from all over the States to record here because they wanted to capture that Philly sound.
I think the key to the Philadelphia sound was they used the same musicians. That helped to create the same sound. The O’Jays, TSOP, us and all the groups who recorded here at that time.”
Stylistics tour 2023
Much loved in Britain, you guys always get a warm welcome here when you come over don’t you? Do you get much chance to see the sights on tour?
“We’ve been travelling to the UK every year since 1972 and during those first years, I tried to do as much sightseeing as I could because England was new to me. In those early days, we’d spend maybe two weeks in London just working around the area.”
“It’s got to the point now that last year we did a six-week tour with a different town and a different hotel so we didn’t see much.”
What about Liverpool?
“Liverpool is one of our biggest selling shows. In fact, Liverpool usually sells out before we even leave the country to come to England. We always say there’s no audience like the Liverpool audience.”
Finally, what was Airrion’s favourite Stylistics song to perform?
“Right now, ‘You Make Me Feel Brand New’. That song has been the biggest-selling song around the world so there’s no way we could ever not do that song anywhere because everybody knows it.”
Read the full interview with Airrion in our September issue of the Beat where we delve into the history of the group, those smart suits and how they stopped the audience from falling asleep! Order your copy today.
The Stylistics UK ‘Greatest Hits Tour’ runs from October to December 2023
Visit: www.thestylistics.org