LEVEL 42

Name: LEVEL 42
Start: 2014-11-06T19:00
End: 2014-11-06T22:00

Thursday 6 November 2014

At the beginning of their career, Level 42 was squarely a jazz-funk fusion band, contemporaries of fellow Brit funk groups like Atmosfear and Light of the World. By the end of the ’80s, however, the band — whose music was instantly recognizable from Mark King’s thumb-slap bass technique and associate member Wally Badarou’s synthesizer flourishes — had crossed over to the point where they were often classified as sophisti-pop and dance-rock, equally likely to be placed in the context of Sade and the Style Council as any group that made polished, upbeat, danceable pop/rock.

Pop/Rock

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Doors open18:30
Start19:00

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The success story
Featuring Mark King (bass, vocals), Phil Gould (drums), Boon Gould (guitar), and Mike Lindup (keyboards), the band formed in 1979. Released in 1981, their self-titled debut album was a slick soul-R&B collection that charted in the U.K. Top 20, resulting in the release of The Early Tapes. Level 42 had several minor hit singles before 1984′s “The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up)” hit the British Top Ten. Released in late 1985, World Machine broke the band worldwide; “Lessons in Love” hit number one in Britain and “Something About You” hit number seven in America. Their next two records, Running in the Family (1987) and Staring at the Sun (1988), were a big success in the U.K.

30 years
The band’s commercial peak came with 1985′s World Machine, but they continued to record and tour sporadically throughout the ’90s and 2000s. Throughout the remainder of the ‘90s and the 2000s, the band’s lineup fluctuated, with King the lone constant and his brother, guitarist Nathan King, on-board since 2001. Level 42 released a studio album, Retroglide, in 2006. In 2013, the band released the ‘Siren’ EP. Expect their greatest hits and new material!