Level 42 are back and nobody told me !!!

Well, to be honest, they never really went away. After I saw the Farewell tour which comprised of Mark King, Mike Lindup & Gary Husband, supported by various others, Mark, Mike & Gary went off to do their own things, with Mark keeping fans happy by doing the rounds in all the Jazz clubs and festivals he could. Then, after some fairly well mannered legal wrangles over the use of the band name, Mark started touring again under the moniker and the popularity of 80's "Greatest Hits" tours saw them reinforce their already loyal fan base. Then in 2006, word started coming out that Mark and original band guitarist Robert "Boon" Gould had started writing material for a new Level 42 album. Then Mike Lindup agrees to rejoin. Gary Husband had been playing with Mark for some time and so with a few other musicians, the new album and tour went full steam ahead !!

The new site is up [Link in title], the new album, Retroglide, came out in September, and on my first listen is unmistakably Level 42, but fresh and easy to get into.

I was a huge Level 42 fan back in the day, still am really, but kind of never kept up an ferverish following. To hear a new body of work and that unmistakable bass playing is really great and it's extremely welcome.



Whilst checking out their site, I noticed a very large page dedicated to Mark's basses, cataloguing every one he used and also his own range of custom basses called Kingbass, made in conjunction with Status. I always wanted to learn the bass because of Mark, but never really succeeded, and I sold my rare Aria ProII IGB50 Active earlier this year. Check the stuff out here.

They even created a special Kingbass model for the new album, and this is a thing of beauty....



Oh, and a nice pic of Mark in his studio...