I have loved Level 42 since Love Games. I remember Love Games distinctly as Radio 1
did a competition using the beginning of the track to rap over. (I am ashamed to say I can still remember it).
This was in the days when you had to send postcards in and couldn’t Google the
answer to the competition. I never won,
but Love Games and Level 42 became a big part of my teenage years. (checking Wikipedia I was shocked to find it
only got to number 38 in the charts.)
I loved the “Level 42” album including star child, why are
you leaving and turn it on. I loved “The pursuit of accidents” with Weave your
spell and The Chinese way. OK, I have
grown up enjoying Level 42 but until tonight I had never seen them live.
Well that was about to change at the Royal and Derngate in
Northampton on a cold October night. I drove there which was rather stressful
with the one way system, but got there with plenty of time. I had not been to
this venue for over 10 years so went to the back stage door to find out how to
get in. They were lovely people who were
very interested in my review of tonight’s gig as they don’t often do standing
gigs. Well I am not sure if it is the
age of the Level 42 fans but it was a very civilised affair. No pushing, no checking bags or treating us
like criminals, (Blur’s gig at Hyde Park threw my hand cleaning gel away for
goodness sake!). It was just the kind of
way a gig for my generation should be! (And
anyone who reads my reviews will know my luck with drunks, glad to say I didn’t
encounter any on this occasion).
I enjoyed the support who was Dan Clews. He did an acoustic set of mainly original
material with a cover of China in my hands. He interacted with the audience and could sing
and play well. I met up with him afterwards
and he was a lovely guy to boot!
But Level 42 was what I was here to see and Level 42 is what
we were all cheering for when they came on.
Turn it on they sure did! They
started by playing the Running in the Family album in its entirety. Tracks such as Lessons in love and Running in
the family had the crowd dancing and set the tone for the night. It’s over was sung with such sincerity, it was
moving.
Level 42 sound exactly like the recordings on their albums. I was very impressed. They moved on to do a bit of an acoustic set
with Mike on an accordion and Mark on an acoustic guitar (Not bass!).
Then they said we came to hear some funk. We sure did! They rocked Northampton town with some of my
favourite tracks such as Starchild (Mike had a bit of a boogie!); The sun goes down
(living it up) and finished on The Chinese way.
This was a fantastic set and I could watch Mark play his
bass forever! Their music took me right
back and I felt just like a teenager again. It was wonderful. Thank you, Level 42, for a wonderful gig.
My only disappointment was I really never got to hear them
play Love Games as they cut it from the show (although they had played it two
nights ago at Guildford).
So this is an open invitation to Level 42, if they nip round
my house and play it for me, I will provide all the tea/coffee necessary!
Love you guys. Thanks for a wonderful night. xx
No comments:
Post a Comment