Roger Mason (musician)
| Roger Mason | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Roger Ashley Mason |
| Genres | New wave, funk rock, country |
| Occupation(s) | keyboardist, songwriter, screen music composer, vocals |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Associated acts | Colt James Freud & the Radio Stars James Freud and Berlin Orient-R Gary Numan Illustrated Man Models The Clampetts Jenny Morris band Wall of Voodoo Divinyls Absent Friends Icehouse Peter Blakeley band Tommy Emmanuel band Shane Howard band Diesel band |
| Website | roger-mason |
Roger Ashley Mason is an Australian keyboardist who has been a member of new wave groups Models, Absent Friends and Icehouse. He was a session and backing musician for United Kingdom's Gary Numan and for various Australian artists. From the early 1990s he has composed music for television and feature films.
He appeared on Models best performed album, Out of Mind, Out of Sight (1985) which reached No. 3 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart and spawned a No. 2 hit "Barbados" and a No. 1 hit "Out of Mind, Out of Sight". On 27 October 2010, Models were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame by former member, Wendy Matthews.
As a composer, he has won Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) Awards for his work on The Extra (2005), Peking to Paris (2006), The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce (2009).
Roger Ashley Mason was a keyboardist in Colt early in 1979. He joined vocalist and guitarist James Freud (ex-Spread, Teenage Radio Stars) in James Freud & the Radio Stars with fellow Colt members Murray Doherty on bass guitar, Glenn McGrath on drums and Bryan Thomas on guitar, and later Tony Harvey on guitar and Mick Prague on bass. This line up plus various guest artists recorded the album " Breaking Silence" between July and November 1979 with further contributions made by Tony Lugton and Peter Cook before its completion and release in 1980. Further changes by year's end resulted in Freud and Mason joined by Peter Cook on guitar and backing vocals and Tommy Hosie on drums. They signed with Mushroom Records and their debut single, "Modern Girl," was released in May 1980, which peaked at No. 12 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. They supported the English singer-keyboardist, Gary Numan, on his Australian tour. James Freud & the Radio Stars' debut album Breaking Silence was released in June, it was produced by Tony Cohen. Numan liked the album and offered to produce the next one in London, as there was already a UK band called The Radio Stars, a name change to James Freud & Berlin occurred. While in London, Mason joined Numan's backing band and was recorded on the live album, Living Ornaments '80. Neither Freud nor Numan were happy with the London-recorded album for James Freud & Berlin and it was not released and one month later, in March 1981, Freud disbanded the group. Freud and Mason returned to the UK with the intention of forming a new band, Orient-R, which only played a single performance before disbanding. Mason then went on to join Numan's touring band, and appeared on Numan's 1981 album, Dance and subsequent 1982 album, I, Assassin. While in London, Mason worked for glam rock guitarist, Rob Dean (ex-Japan, Numan's touring band) on a potential solo album. By 1984, Mason and Dean had combined with Hugo Burnham (Gang of Four) and Australian singer and bass guitarist Philip Foxman (Supernaut) to form funk rock outfit, Illustrated Man. They released a six-track mini-LP, Illustrated Man, then toured to New York but soon disbanded.
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