Level 42, one of the great groups of the 80's?

Cobra Kai

Does anybody remember Level 42, that jazz-funk-pop group that were around in the 80's?

I don't know why I like them so much, it could be due to my father constantly playing their songs in the car when I was a child, so much that it becomes ingrained, but their music is catchy in a way that could only mean 80's.
I was watching the video for lessons in love on YouTube and its the work of pure genius. Listen to these songs on YouTube;

Running in the family
The sun goes down
Something about you
Heaven in my hands
Its over
To be with you again


Wizardry. I love their trademark combination of a strong bass line, accompanying keyboard and falsetto vocals.

I hear they re-united after disbanding in 1996 :cool:

Cobra Kai

How could I forget The chinese way, I could imagine Li Xiannian doing the dragon dance on the great wall.

mike65

You can edit posts

And no, is the answer. Level 42 made some pleasantly catchy pop tunes for about 3 years but nothing more than that. The Chinese Way was probably the best of them.

palethinboy

No

PMI

Great musicians, I used to deal with gavin harrison and jakko in UK when I worked in a music shop back in 1990ish...

Mark actually got fed up of the music industry and sold off all his basses but 1.... think he gradually came back though

Great fun pop stuff....

Cobra Kai

Unreal, PMI.

Howard the Duck

Oh yeah totally!.......if you're Princess Diana

JacoStanley

Vocals weren't really their strong point but the songs were excellent. Saw them in Dublin last time round and they put on an electric performance!

Nolanger

They were an UB40 version of Brit funk

Dudess

I am indeed quite partial to Something About You, Running In The Family and very much The Sun Goes Down (Livin' It Up). I quite like a lot of that 80s British white funk, while acknowledging its tendency towards cheesiness.

Bass guitars held up to the neck ftw!

Cobra Kai

The cheese is there for sure, Dudess. I'm getting obsessed with their music, it's bordering on Whitesnake.

Rud

i think they were alright,but Mark King kind of overshadowed the whole band with his incredible bass skills

stovelid

Some nice tunes.

I've always really liked the one song that they divided in two, altered slightly and put out as Lessons in Love and Something About you.

Plus the obligatory 80s stories of him sponsoring his thumb (source of much difficult thumbs-aloft bass-slappery) for millions of quid.

minister poxbottle

Cobra Kai wrote: »

Does anybody remember Level 42, that jazz-funk-pop group that were around in the 80's?

I don't know why I like them so much, it could be due to my father constantly playing their songs in the car when I was a child, so much that it becomes ingrained, but their music is catchy in a way that could only mean 80's.
I was watching the video for lessons in love on YouTube and its the work of pure genius. Listen to these songs on YouTube;

Running in the family
The sun goes down
Something about you
Heaven in my hands
Its over
To be with you again


Wizardry. I love their trademark combination of a strong bass line, accompanying keyboard and falsetto vocals.

I hear they re-united after disbanding in 1996 :cool:

they make me flesh crawl and not in a good way :eek: w.......kers

Dan Dare

One of the best 1980's bands- certainly not!

gerrymann

Yep. Fair play to you. Great band. The early stuff. 'Starchild', 'Hot Water', 'Livin it up (sun goes down) are all great. Not so gone on the 'Runnin in family' gear mind you. They toured a few years back and played here too. Vicar St I think.

And what was that yarn about Mark King having his hands insured for a million quid!:rolleyes:

Ostrom

Big fan of Mark King, being a player of the bass banjo. They're still going I think, in a 'Mark King and...some other guys' format