Mark King from Level 42 performs on the Cambridge Club Festival on June 10, 2022 (Image: GETTY)
When a field hit Mark King on the finish of a Level 42 live performance in Germany, he knew it contained a present from a fan, however what?
“We had a track on the album called I Want Eyes,” Mark, 64, tells me. “And the box was in a bag which had a note inside saying, ‘Mark, for you I will give my eyes’.
“I opened the box and they were two real eyeballs in there. I didn’t know whether they were human, sheep’s or goat's eyes, but they freaked me out.”
Opening for The Police at a German sports activities corridor two years earlier in 1981, the gang’s ‘gifts’ appeared deadlier. Bassist-and-singer Mark heard a bang and felt one thing hit his arm.
“I thought I’d been shot but it was a banger,” he remembers. “Then Boone” – guitarist Rowland Gould – “reeled back and said ‘I’m bleeding’.
“He wasn’t. Someone had thrown a melting choc ice at him and under the stage lights it looked like blood. After that, we started to move around on stage a lot more because a moving target is a lot harder to hit.”
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Level 42 had six Top Tens within the 80s (Image: GETTY)
Actual hits got here straightforward for Level 42. They had six Top Tens within the 80s, together with Lessons In Love and Something About You – their first US smash.
King’s quick, fluid slap-bass approach – performed together with his ‘thunder thumb’– was as a lot a element of their distinctive jazz-funk infused pop as his velveteen vocals.
In 1987 Polydor Records insured Mark’s proper thumb for £3million, inspiring the headline, ‘The man with the golden thumb’.
“I did a lot of DIY,” he grins. “One slip of the saw…”
Father-of-four Mark nonetheless does DIY on the Isle Of Wight residence he shares with second spouse Ria and daughter Marlee.
At the peak of his success, he spent like a Lotto winner – Aston Martins, a Ferrari Testarossa, 18-carat Cartier watches – however, he says, “Material things never seemed important. Yes, I had the Aston Martin but I got no pleasure from the car. I get more buzz from the Tesla I drive now trying not to destroy the planet.
“All that ever mattered to me was being a better player.
“I found 80s stockbrokers walking around with great wedges of cash repugnant. I was much happier relating to my mum and dad and the struggles they had, and my grandfather and grandmother selling vegetables to get by. Grandad was a binman, that’s where I come from.”
Level 42 in 1986 (Image: GETTY)
Cowes-born Mark, 65 in October, has vivid reminiscences of his robust adolescence. “My dad trained as a boat builder and a carpenter but when he finished his apprenticeship the shipyard shut down.
“He had three young kids so he joined the prison service, doing a job he absolutely hated, slopping out the cells…the ‘King nose’ didn’t help – we’ve all got it.
“We lived on a prison officers’ estate, a converted army barracks. We had one brass tap, an outside toilet, and a zinc bath in the kitchen which I had to share with two slightly older sisters.
“If the neighbour came knocking for a cup of sugar, mum put the lid on it and started chatting.”
Growing up, Mark was “nuts about music” and had a pure inclination to play the drums. Hearing there was a package on the market in Newport, he walked 5 miles to see it – aged 9.
“It didn’t occur to me that mum and dad didn’t know where I’d gone. I walked home and mum was freaking out, but Dad drove me back and spent ten quid on this beaten-up kit.
“He was on £17 a week then, so it was a big outlay.
“My mum was the one we were terrified of. She coined the phrase ‘Wait till your dad’s gone out! No ‘Wait till your father comes home for us’,” he laughs.
King joined his first band Pseudo Foot at 11 after leaping on stage and drumming with them at a vacation camp in Forness Bay.
“Two weeks later they contacted my parents to recruit me, which meant mum had to do all the roadie-ing.
“I got £5 a gig, which meant I was on £15 a week at 11, nearly as much as Dad. The band were adults, in their mid-20s, husband Martin on guitar, wife Anne singing.”
The trio performed on the Ryde Queen – an outdated paddle steamer become nightclub – and the native pub, frequented by his academics.
They coated pop hits of the day, “and kids’ songs like Rocking Robin and Long-haired Lover From Liverpool which I had to sing. Anne held the mic to my mouth.
“I used to put £5 in the pot every week, my sisters had part-time jobs too, and the rest I’d spend on vinyl and fritter away.”
His first buy was Cream’s Wheels On Fire double album. “I couldn’t get enough of it! I used to crank it up and drum along at the top of the stairs. It must have been a nightmare for the neighbours.
“Cream were a huge influence. I used to make cardboard cut outs of them on lolly sticks – there was no YouTube back then and only two or three TV channels.
“We had Top Of The Pops and In Concert where I saw Jimi Hendrix and had a massive love affair with his music. I was much more attracted to players than pop stars.”
Mark King presents Gold Award at Jazz FM Awards, October 20, 2022 (Image: GETTY)
Largely jazz and fusion musicians just like the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Billy Cobham and Lenny White of Return To Forever whose bassist Stanley Clarke would have an enormous affect on Mark’s enjoying type.
Kicked out of faculty for sporting jeans, King labored on the Ronson’s cigarette lighter factory-line earlier than turning into a milkman.
In 1975, aged 16, he wrote a letter to Lenny White. “A year later I got a letter back, which I’ve still got it hanging on the wall. I took it as some kind of message and got the money together to get a Freddie Laker flight to New York. I had drive in spades back then.”
Lenny was in LA when Mark confirmed up at his home in Queens. But his spouse took Mark’s quantity and White invited him again to his residence.
He performed the 5ft 8 blonde whippersnapper his new album after which requested why he’d come. Mark hadn’t actually thought his pilgrimage by way of, he simply needed knowledge.
Lenny stated merely, ‘New York, London, London, New York…wherever you are, you’ve obtained to make it occur’.”
And that’s what King did.
He moved to London at 19 and, after a short spell in new wave band Re-Flex, he shaped Level 22.
They performed their first gig on the Guildford School of Music, the place keyboardist Mike Lindup was learning.
Mark had recognized drummer Phil Gould since he was 14. Phil’s youthful brother Boon accomplished the traditional line-up. They took their title from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Universe’s that means of life – 42.
King labored at Macari’s guitar store in London, the place he tried to emulate Stanley Clarke’s bass-playing and watched intently when US musicians dropped in and performed.
“I soaked it up and took that knowledge and a borrowed bass to rehearsals” – paid for by beneficiant pal Robin Scott (of M and Pop Music fame).
Andy Sojka, of Elite Records, caught them and supplied to launch one among their instrumentals in the event that they added lyrics.
Cue their first single, 1980’s Sandstorm.
“I was crashing in Walthamstow in a rundown flat living close to the bone at the time. Andy stuck it out as a white label just as the British funk movement was emerging. Radio Caroline made us a powerplay. To hear our music played on radio was so exhilarating.”
Polydor signed them in 1981 and so they made Top Of The Pops with Love Games. Seven minor hits later they went Top Ten in ’83 with The Sun Goes Down.
“The music we played was 180 degrees away from punk but I admired the energy and the fire of punk, that was inspiring, not the music.
“For us it was slow and steady, always gigging –
work, work, work. You’ve got to graft.
“We were never trendy but that’s a good thing because after the pendulum swings one way, it swings away again.”
In 1985 they cracked the US Top Ten with Something About You, adopted all strong hits all over the world till 1994.
In 1987 they toured the US for 4 months supporting Madonna.
When did you're feeling wealthy? “When I was able to get the first mortgage, my girlfriend” – his Dutch first spouse Pia – “was pregnant and our landlord was selling.”
A £5,000 advance for a solo album did the trick.
They divorced after ten years and three kids. In the 90s, King purchased a pub in Ryde, now bought, and named it Joe Daflo’s – a contraction of their names, Jolie, D’Arcy and Florrie.
“Financial success is a blessing but that’s not the whole thing for me. I’ve got lovely kids, we’re one big love fest. I’m very happy my children are proud of what I’ve done. I know that because they tell me.”
Level 42 cut up in 94 however reformed in 2001. The present line-up has Mark’s youthful brother Nathan on guitar plus Mike Lindup (keys), former fan Pete Ray Biggin (drums), and a three-piece brass part.
Pete, whose been within the band since 2010, was eleven when he first noticed them tour.
“We got off the bus and Pete was standing there with an armful of vinyl and told us he played drums. At the soundcheck our drummer Gary Husband let him play on his kit.
“We asked what songs of ours he knew, and he said ‘All of them!’. 30 years later he’s playing drums for us.”
The Kings get pleasure from easy pleasures. "My wife Ria is a wonderful gardener, she grows veg and tomatoes, I adore cooking and the creativeness of cooking. During lockdown I bought a pizza oven for the back garden that goes to 400° – never turn your back on it because it’s fast!”
He adds, “In lockdown I had depression. I’ve always had a purpose suddenly all the certainties were turned off. We had two years with no gigs, so I’ve stopped taking anything for granted because anything can change like that. Enjoy every moment.
“What I like best is getting on stage and making people happy; that’s 100% joy.”
The band’s UK tour starts in October. Why is their music so resilient?
“It takes us back to happier times,” he says. “The world seems a much harder place these days.”
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