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Friday, October 31, 2008

It's Mark King of Level 42!

King of the hill or over the hill? You decide.
He's a lot fatter in the face than he used to be. Frankly the man looks about twenty years older than he did in 1986. I couldn't believe it.

Mike stand.Anyhoo, as luck would have it, the babysitters did arrive on time last night. I can't reveal who they were, but suffice it to say they'd driven here via St Leonards and had paint on their hands. So having sung Amelie to sleep with a chorus of 'Leaving Me Now', Lisa and I made a quick getaway to the Brighton Dome. We arrived just in time to see everyone filing out of the auditorium at the end of a performance by The Mercurymen. So that's another support band we've managed to miss. I expect they'll be huge in 2009.

As for Level 42, they're already huge, albeit more in a middle-aged-spread kind of a way. But the good thing about getting old is that you have access to a lot of personal aids to make your life easier. As the first photo above demonstrates, Mark King had a water bottle attached to a cymbal stand, complete with bendy straw, so that he could have a drink whilst playing the bass. I could do with one of those for when I'm holding Amelie.

Big Brother's Little BrotherNot all of them are about to hit the half century though. Pictured right is the band's new guitarist, Nathan King - Mr Bass Man's little brother. He's thirteen years younger than Mark (the word 'accident' springs to mind), so he couldn't join Level 42 for their first album on the grounds that he was ten at the time. It was worth the wait for him though, because he was actually very good. I wish I had a brother like that.

Mind you, I might not need one. My Mum can play the oboe, and that's virtually a rock 'n' roll instrument these days. No, seriously. Here's Level 42's saxophonist Sean Freeman playing the electric clarinet...

Personally I wouldn't plug something into the mains and then put it in my mouth, but each to their own.

1 comments:

Phil said...

Phil's Mum If you think I'm going to do that with my oboe, you can think again!

02 November 2008, 21:45:55