Linda Jobling finds that Level 42’s Mark King still has plenty to offer about the meaning of life and pop music

THEY may not have gone in for the big hair and the oversized clothes back in the day, but 1980’s band Level 42 will be better remembered for their distinctive music style and thought-provoking lyrics such as Lessons In Love and Keep It In The Family, a talent which has clearly earned them longevity in the fickle world of music, as the band are about to embark on a UK tour with an exciting new line-up.

“It’s something that we like to do every couple of years” explains bass player and vocalist Mark King, “We were in Gateshead a couple of years ago and a couple of years before that.”

He has an impressive memory of the venue, given that the band have been performing for 37 years and have just returned from a mammoth tour of South America, including Chile and Argentina.

“The band’s in good shape,”, he says. As well as having original member Mike Lindup on keyboards, later additions Sean Freeman on saxophone and Mark’s brother, Nathan on guitar and vocals, they have acquired a “wonderful new drummer” Pete Ray Biggin on drums as well as a full brass section. “We’ll put the evergreens in there” Mark replies to a question on whether this will be a nostalgia tour, “and then we’ve got a couple of surprises, but we’ve got such a huge back catalogue, some 288 songs or so to choose from, so there will be no shortage of material to keep it fresh for us. Having the brass section in the band gives us another edge, so I’m excited to be coming to Gateshead and seeing you all.”

Mark says his childhood gave him an unconventional introduction to the music business. “My father was a prison officer on the Isle of Wight, so growing up on the prison estate meant that I met a lot of Geordies, Scousers, Scots and Irish because their fathers would come and work in the prisons too. It gives you a broad outlook on life at an early age. And also because you are on an island you also want to get off the island at 18, 19, so I packed everything into a van and set off for London to try and make something happen with the band.”

Mark recalls how the band got together as friends. “There were four of us. Phil Gould and Boon Gould and I had all grown up on the Isle of Wight and moved to London where we met Mike Lindup, who was studying at the Guildhall School of Music and he was a wonderful piano player. We used to get together on a Monday night and just jam really, with the idea that this was good fun, but we’ll wait until we get the call to join a band. It’s ironic that we didn’t realise that, actually, we were already in the band. This was the one that was gonna do it for us,” he laughs about the ugly duckling turning into a swan scenario.

Some may not be aware that the band’s name comes from the Douglas Adams book The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. “The number 42 crops up as the answer to the meaning of life and why we’re here” explains Mark, who is nothing if not original with his sources of creativity, as he also confesses that the band’s early music was inspired “pretty loosely” by the unlikely We’ll Meet Again by Vera Lynn.

Mark’s overall take on the 1980s era is one of fondness. “It was a very wide choice of music, you had rock, jazz, funk, new romantics, nothing like as polarised as it is now. I think that’s why the band is still out and still working. As long as I can do more of the same I will be happy”.

Looking back at Level 42’s amazing four-decade career, he adds: “The first time you hear your song played on radio, that was an amazing feeling. The first appearance on Top Of The Pops in 1981, the first time we went abroad and opened for The Police, the first time we played Wembley Arena… and the first time we played The Sage in Gateshead was memorable.” Ah bless him.

  • Level 42 – The Sage, Gateshead, Saturday, October 8. Tickets: ticketmaster.co.uk/level-42-sirens-ii-tour-gateshead-08-10-2016