Subject: Level 42 Digest, #397 ===================== * LEVEL 42 DIGEST * ===================== Digest 397 Sunday, 05/21/95 156 subscribers Today's messages: Posting for Lolita to LOL at Dem-o-graphics Long time, no read/type.... De Mo Gra Fix More on Forever Now... Re: level 42: the split? DEMOGRAPHICS ------------------------------ From: PLFlanagan @ aol.com Date: Sat, 20 May 1995 11:54:43 -0400 Subject: Posting for Lolita to LOL at Did you hear about the woman who walked into the taxidermist with two dead rabbits slumped in her hands? She says to the guy behind the counter, tears streaming down, "you have to help me -- these were my two best friends in the world and they absolutely loved each other." The guy says "would you like them mounted?" She says, "oh no, holding hands would be much better." :D ------------------------------ From: PLFlanagan @ aol.com Date: Sat, 20 May 1995 11:55:08 -0400 Subject: Dem-o-graphics I am a 27 year old white male, two years of college at tiny Wabash College in wonderful Crawfordsville, IN (psychology major, art minor). Self-employed doing many things: I write an internationally syndicated business column called "The Computerized Business," which helps small business owners use their computers effectively; I run a software mail order business; and I've written and self-published a book. I am slowly moving my business into multimedia graphic design, which I intend to be doing 100% within the next two years. For quite awhile, I played bass and keyboards (actually, I wasn't a musician, I only played one on TV, if you know what I mean). In other words, I was passable but not great (WAAAAAY better on the bass than keyboards -- Mike Lindup I'm not, though I wasn't Mark King, either). I haven't done too much of that for awhile, since I've been spending all my time with my business. However, I'll eventually get back into it. I like almost all type of music, with the notable exceptions of opera and country. Metal's ok, as long as there's some MUSIC and ORIGINALITY in there somewhere (that's basically my philosophy on what I like to listen to -- it needs to be MUSIC -- I'm not a big grunge fan, you could say). Thus, you could guess that I don't like much of what's on the radio these days, and you'd be right on, brother. The 80's (and late 70's) were a fantastic time for music -- a lot of innovation, a lot of polyrhythmic countermelody stuff, a lot of originality. Also, a lot of one hit wonders, but that's another story. Yes, I'm stuck in the 80's and damn proud of it. That's enough about me. You'll have to guess the rest. Pat Flanagan ------------------------------ From: jtheal @ julian.uwo.ca (Jeremy Theal) Date: Sat, 20 May 1995 13:39:47 -0400 Subject: Long time, no read/type.... Greetings fellow Levelheads, It's been 3 weeks since my last read of the Digest, as I've been on vacation in the United Arab Emirates, with one-day stopovers in Amsterdam, Netherlands and Liverpool, England. I had a great time, but I'm happy to back... I've certainly missed the list! On reading the last 3 weeks of messages, reflecting on this list in general, I'm really amazed at the little global community of Levelheads we've built here. Truly, the Internet brings together in ways never before thought possible. Sometimes I take the 'net for granted, but when I stop to think, our group would never have been possible in any other way (of course, Eric deserves a lot of credit here)! The goodwill and comraderie on this list has made my life more fun in all sorts of little ways lately... this really hit home when I arrived home from the airport last night. Let me explain... The trip that I just arrived back from had a stopover in England, where I visited a friend that I haven't seen (nor have been able to even FIND) in the past four years. This little side journey (and great visit!) never would have happened without the kind help I received from one of the British members of this list, who helped me sleuth out my friend's location (I won't mention your name in case you're humble, but thanx again for your help)! Waiting for me in my pile of mail when I got home was a copy of Forever Now from Zaron Frumin (thanx, and congrats on the radio show!) Forever Now is totally WICKEDWICKEDWICKED and without this list I never would have found out about it! (Did I mention this album is great? Let me say it again in the words of Kim -- TOTALLY SLAMMIN')! Also in the mail pile was a blank tape from Lolita, on which I'm recording the Early Tapes for her. In the past hour, I also managed to track down (by phone) a copy of _The While Funky_ in Boston, thanks to a recent 'list message from Eric (THANX -- I've been looking for this for a long time, and couldn't find it in Liverpool)! So (and maybe it's the effect of "Love in a Peaceful World", which is pumping right now), I guess I have to say I'm really glad I met all you guys. I really hope the list doesn't go down (sorry I can't help out there but I've only got a PPP account), since it's certainly bad enough the group's broken up after their last brilliant album... ======= Here's a couple of responses to some other things I've noticed the last few weeks... Demographics: My name's Jeremy Theal. I'm 22 years old, just finished my Biology degree at the University of Western Ontario, Canada and soon to enter Med school. I'm a white Christian (though certainly not devout), and I run my own computer consulting business in my spare time. ----------- Paul Hardcastle was mentioned in some 80's contexts recently. Just in case anyone's wondering what happened to him, he's now producing and playing on his own albums, which are pseudo jazz-dance genre (some with vocals, some not... with guest musicians for jazz sax and so on). I don't any of these albums myself, since I heard them in the store and I thought they were a little too sequencer/synth heavy for my taste, and the rhythms are a little too un-creative IMHO. ---------- A week or so back, a discussion on videos was going on. I've only seen Children Say, many years ago on Muchmusic (our Canadian video channel comparable to, but IMHO better than, MTV). Does anyone know where I could get a good video collection on VHS? For example, is the Level Best video compliation any good? --------- Intermission: I'm just listening to the funky "Turn it On" bridge section to "Sunbed Song...." cool! --------- I missed Adrian before he left. Did anyone get a recording of the live concert he was talking about? I'd be very interested in getting a copy. Ciao for now, (I think I'm caught up on things, finally)! Jeremy =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | Jeremy J. Theal --> at UWO: London, Ontario, Canada |-------------------------------------------------------- |"Getting closer everyday, | now the world is just a step away" - Level 42 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ------------------------------ From: Jazz Monkey Date: Sat, 20 May 1995 11:09:12 -0700 (PDT) Subject: De Mo Gra Fix Okay, My turn. I'm a 23-year old Filipino American, born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. I recently graduated from USC with a BA in Print Journalism and currently work part time doin Public Relations work for a service center for elderly Filipino World War II veterans near Downtown L.A. Next month, I will work full-time at the Los Angeles Times as an intern for their TimesLink (online news/information service) division. As for level, yes, I am of the 75% of you who were blown away by "Something About You," and in fact on my first date (at a local mall) I purchased the cassette of "World Machine." I kept track of L42 via this old syndicated radio show called "Rock Over London" which played the newest hits in Britain for various US radio stations. One of the songs they played was this mysterious, pulsating European-sounding song called "Lessons In Love," which I taped off the radio and played over and over and over again. Sure enough, "Running In The Family" came out (as well as a list of all their other albums) and my L42 obsession began. My favorite albums are: 1) Running In The Family, 2) World Machine, 3) Forever Now and 4) Standing In The Light. Oh yeah, I'm also a musician, who writes, sings and plays keyboards, sax, and a little guitar, drums and bass. I'm even thinking of buying a bass pretty soon since for some reason I get delusions of utter coolness whenever I strap on a bass guitar. Is it any wonder that L42/Mark King/Mike Lindup are major influences of mine? As for today's music, I'm largely an Acid Jazz fan. If any of you out there are also in the Acid-Jazz listserv, you can find me there, and I even designed the front of our official listserv t-shirt. Groups I can't get enough of are The Brand New Heavies, Jamiroquai, The Solsonics, James Taylor Quartet, Incognito, Slide 5 and a whole smattering of other groove-heavy groups. I'm also developing an affinity for 70s music, thanks to an oldies R&B station here in L.A. (KACE 103.9). James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Sly, Isley Brothers, Ohio Players, Kool & The Gang, AWB, need I say more? I'm also heavily into Blue Note organ funk jazz, like Lou Donaldson and Grant Green and others. Iam also disenchanted with today's music. I used to listen to top 40 radio exclusively, but really stopped when our local top 40 station (KIIS-FM) stopped becoming a Top 40 station and became more of a "Top 4" station. I swear, the next time I hear 2Unlimited or The Real McCoy I'm going to stab someone... Today's artists that I do like include The Roots, Dionne Farris, Seal, Des'ree, Me'shell NdegeOcello and Mary J. Blige. I also admit to not mind listening to Boyz II Men, although the song, "I'll Make Love To You" also inspires me into violent behavior. The cheesy BoyzIIMen copycat groups I could do without, of course. On Monday, I'm embarking on a trip to Europe, which includes L42's native England...if anyone can direct me to some L42-related points of interest, I'd appreciate it. Also, can one still purchase a L42 T-shirt somehwere? I'd love to get one... Elson ------------------------------ From: Kim Ivey Date: Sat, 20 May 1995 12:44:51 -0600 (MDT) Subject: More on Forever Now... In yesterdays digest I placed a rather lukewarm opinion on the Forever Now album (Mike Lindup's Changes blew me away so much I really couldn't give Forever Now an unbiased opinion). However, after listening to Forever Now for at least the 20th time in a 24 hour period, I have to put in another opinion. I said it was the BOMB ... but it's more than that. It's spectacular ... amass with a million, zillion layers ... as close to a masterpeice as the group could have acheived. I second all of Lolita Jackson's comments in yesterdays digest. I can even say now that I like the song "Don't Bother Me". After finally listening to ALL of it, I realized it was not just a "country ditty" ... I mean, well it starts off that way ... and then it goes into this "hey, hey we're the Monkee's" kind of rift, and then it ends again with more of a country feel to it . i.e. Mark whistling as if he were Johnny Cash or something ( in fact, I have a feeling ... I'm probably wrong ... but I have a feeling Mark was all over the writing and arrangement for this particular song. He has a way of writing stuff that goes in a zillion different directions). But alas, I digress. The album is amazing! And yes ... I can say that I now have TWO albums in my possession where I LOVE EVERY SINGLE CUT: Changes AND Forever Now. For awhile there Standing in the Light was the only Level Album where I could listen to the majority of it without fastforwarding to the next song ... or skipping around. But even that album had a flaw. The last song on the first side I simply can't stand (I hate it so much I can't even remember the name of it). Anyway, Forever Now is near perfect, and like many others have said before, I don't see how they could have broke up when they had finally brought all the right elements in their music together. Well, at least they went out with a bang. A tremendous, exhilirating BANG! QUESTION: Yesterday while enjoying a solitary lunch at Red Lobster, I heard a song played over their Muzac System (actually a pretty funky system, I must say). I'm pretty sure it was the lead singer of Go West with some female singing a duet of "I Only Have Eyes For You". It was a really nice, groovin' remake of this old standard. If anyone can tell me whether I'm right or wrong about this please inform me. If I'm right, how can I get this cut? What album is it off of? Kim P.S.: Yeah Pat, I'm with Lolita. We're have you been homeboy? I'm in need of a good laugh too! ------------------------------ From: synth @ yuri.abq.nm.us (Synth Oberheim) Organization: YuriNet Amiga Cyberspace Access - "Know Future" Date: Sat, 20 May 95 14:37:59 MST Subject: Re: level 42: the split? Daniel writes: > Despite having checked the web site and the FTP site for enlightenment I > can't seem to find anywhere that states why Level 42 actually split-up Good point. I'm thinking of opening a new section on the Web site, basically an on-line Frequently Asked Questions & Late Breaking News type of thing, to cater to us hardcore fans who need serious questions answered. (The "About Level 42" section is intended mainly to introduce new people to the band.) Hey Eric: what's the status of the mailing list?? Vince ============================================================================= s.f. oberheim Email synth @ kitsune.swcp.com Www http://www.swcp.com/synth/ ============================================================================= I'm Batman. ------------------------------ From: akb02 @ rs1.rrz.uni-koeln.de (Dirk Pilat) Date: Sun, 21 May 1995 05:25:28 -0500 Subject: DEMOGRAPHICS Yo! Here, for the statistics: I'm a german single white male, awful 27 years old and just trying to pass my exam in medicine at the university of Cologne, frg. I heard them the first time back in 82 when the "Staring at the Sun" album came out and "Microkid" was being played by my favourite dj all the time. For me the forever now album was a little disappointment, because (as before) they could never quite live up the standards of world machine. Dirk