Are Level 42 a jazz-funk band with a pop sensibility or a pop group with a funk-infused inner core? A good question, perhaps, but it’s a hard one to answer and though they’ve never been easy to pigeonhole, one thing’s for sure; back in the day, the quartet from the Isle of Wight knew how to make records that would appeal to the wider public without sacrificing their musical integrity. Though they were part of the nascent Brit Funk movement in the early ’80s, they quickly demonstrated that their musical vocabulary extended beyond the somewhat constricting parameters of jazz-funk. Between 1980 and 1994, Level 42 were virtually omnipresent in the UK singles chart. They notched up a very impressive 29 chart entries in a fertile fourteen-year spell that yielded the Top 10 hits ‘The Sun Goes Down (Livin’ It Up),’ ‘Something About You,’ ‘Lessons In Love’ (which was the nearest they got to a UK chart-topper, peaking at No. 3 in 1986), ‘Running In The Family,’ ‘To Be With You Again,’ and ‘It’s Over.’ All those key tracks can be found on an excellent new 4-CD box set retrospective on Universal called ‘Living It Up.’ Not only does it include … Continue reading ON THE LEVEL – LEVEL 42’S MARK KING SPEAKS!