The stellar luminosity function, Φ(M) — the number of stars per unit absolute magnitude per unit volume is one of the fundamental quantities required for understanding star formation and investigating the structure of our Galaxy. In recent years, most emphasis has been placed on determining the shape of Φ(M) at faint magnitude — and hence the mass spectrum, with the ultimate goal of assessing the likely dark-matter contribution of VLM stars and brown dwarfs. However, it was Galactic structure analyses, rather than an interest in the relative number of luminous and faint stars per se, which prompted the first derivation of the luminosity function.