In Defense of Level 42

elson trinidad (elson@westworld.com)
Tue, 13 May 1997 11:02:51 -0700

At 10.55 AM 5/13/1997 +0100, Balfourth, Winston wrote:
>Level 42,
>
>Now there was a great British band of the early 80's and I do stress the
>early 80's as I do believe that they llost thier way once they had
>achieved pop success.
>Why does it so often happen that when bands achieve a modicum of success
>that they decide to abandon their principles and then produce drab
>music? It must be good listening to some of their early stuff. I will
>have to raid my vinyl cellar to appreciate some of that stuff again.

Sorry, but I feel I must come to the defense of Level 42 here. I'm a HUGE
Level 42 fan, not just of Mark King's bass playing, but Mike Lindup's
keyboard work and Phil Gould's groove on the kit.

I must say that I was first introduced to this band during what you
consider their "low quality years"; I was one of the millions who were
hooked on "Something About You" and their "World Machine" album, and I must
say that "Running In The Family" was their best produced and best-written
album (speaking as a songwriter here).

Any change in musical style was strictly that of the band's, and I think
it's ignorance to accuse them of having pound signs gleaming in their eyes.
As with many musicians, you can't do the same thing over again for years.
Take Stevie Wonder, for instance - the consensus on this list is that this
70s stuff ruled and anything after 1981 wasn't worth listening to. But
would Stevie personally want to go back to his 'old sound?' He's been
there, he's done that - that's his opinion.

you must also understand that Level 42 has gotten in some major squabbles
with its record companies. Polydor, their label for muchg of their
existence, was disappointed in their low sales of their 1988 album,
"Staring At The Sun" so much that they dropped them in 1989. They were
picked up by BMG and released "Guaranteed" in 1990, an album which they
intended to release under Polydor, but Polydor thought it wasn't
"commercial enough." Lo and behold, they release one more album under BMG,
1994's "Forever Now" (which I encourage AJ heads to check out; it has some
real funky & smoove grooves not heard since their early years). They did
have minor chart success in the UK with it, but BMG wasn't happy, so much
that they never officially released the album in North America, simply
because it wasn't "marketable." Mark, Mike and Phil thought the whole label
thing was bullshit, they broke up in 1994 simply because of that reason --
they hated to have to please their label everytime they made a record.

BTW -- Any Level 42 fans on the AJ list; they have their own mailing list -
to join, email:

level42-request@worldmachine.com

Elson
-30-
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Elson Trinidad
Los Angeles, CA, USA
elson@westworld.com * http://www.westworld.com/~elson
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