Subject: Level 42 Digest, #419 ===================== * LEVEL 42 DIGEST * ===================== Digest 419 Monday, 06/12/95 164 subscribers Today's messages: Search fot the Holy Record Label Satellite L42... what to do? Last article OM-October 1987 Shuford's right A Physical Presence -- enquiry: Gimme the shirt off your back &etc... My birthdate and other ramblings ------------------------------ From: Peter Hadley Date: Sun, 11 Jun 1995 09:22:38 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Search fot the Holy Record Label > L42's problem is that they are too > talented and too able in too many genres to fit the pop scene I know this will cause some heat here; but I have always kind of blamed Level 42 themselves for a *very small* part of their problem, after the first few albums they always seemed to try to be something else, numerous interviews mention the phrases "work on image", "more singles"...bottom line:make music. Yes they needed $$$ from a label, so therefore they thought they had to make the label happy...bottom line: what makes the label happy is sales. Believe it or not Warner didn't make Madonna who she is, she went out on the line and did what she wanted to, she made them money, she has a steady gig. Robert Fripp (of King Crimson) never decided to stand up while playing because he thought it would better suit his image. Crim is the band I always associate with the band I think Level could have/ should have been. Crim never gave a shit what any "suits" said, yet they have maintained a healthy career (with a few member changes and layoffs) for 26 years, now with a new EP, a new CD, and a live CD on the way, not to mention a WORLD (yes, that means the States too) tour they are jammin' away. And now to bore you some more, this is taken from the King Crimson _Thrak_ tour program, written by Robert Fripp: "Where a group favours business logic over musical decisions, the music has just died. Where a group attaches greater significance to its appearance than to its music, the group has died. Where a group listens to the musical advice of its record company it has a one-in-seven chance of being hugely succesful, and a six-in-seven chance of failing miserably. Either way, it loses its core audience. Hence the aphorism that the only thing worse than a record company which takes no interest in a group is a record company that takes an interest in a group." And for all of you who still think that "we the people" can still make an impact (even after John's fantastic attempts), do you really think 161 is a big number ? Let's see, 161 X 14.99 = 2413.39...they would lose money on the pressing alone. Unless a CD ships platnium to the stores they don't ride a hard-on about it. --jay ------------------------------ From: "Stace \"Chelios\" Ross" Date: Sun, 11 Jun 1995 10:59:34 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Satellite L42... On Sun, 11 Jun 1995, Zaron wrote: > From: "Zaron Michael Frumin" > Subject: PERSISTANCE PAYS! ... > ...I was very > encouraged by Everett Donor's suggestion--that one possible plan of action > would be to contact the companies that provide music via satellite to retail > stores, restaurants, shopping malls and the like. I have definitely heard "Guaranteed" on a Muzak-like satellite feed at a local Taco Bell. I've also heard a lot of other delightfully obscure songs, most of which don't fit easily into a musical genre. Alpha ->Leadership | Stacey Ross - Grad, Electrical Engineering Phi ->Friendship | University of Louisville, Louisville, KY. Omega -> Service | saross01 @ starbase.spd.louisville.edu Give Blood, Play Hockey! |NEW*****http://www.spd.louisville.edu/~saross01 ------------------------------ From: "Zaron Michael Frumin" Date: Sun, 11 Jun 1995 13:08:54 -0400 (EDT) Subject: what to do? Last time, John Shuford wrote: > And yet, people like Zaron and Lolita are right. I have actually gone to > the effort to shop the album around to stations in my neck of the woods > (Portland, Seattle, Tacoma), and received airplay for my efforts. A new > album preview, placement of Tired of Waiting & Romance into rotations. > There was some success. But not what you could call enough to concern > RCA. Basically what you would have to do is get about 50 major market > stations all playing THE SAME SONG, then make a convincing case to RCA to > release and promote an album from a band that split up a year ago and > hasn't had a name in the US in seven years. Simply put, THIS WILL NOT WORK. > > We've done all that we can (or at > least I can say that of the people who stayed in contact with Crock and RCA > for the last three years and blew lots of their own time and money, we > gave it all that we could), and that this is just one of those things. > If there is a reunion, then we should all get all over their new label > (it won't be RCA) to promote them, but until then none of this does a My Level-headed Friends, I still don't want us to get discouraged, yet. I am not suggesting spending money; nor am I advocating spending excessive amounts of time and energy on this. What I am suggesting is that, when you put 163 brilliant minds together, you never know what amazing ideas you can end up with. So let's continue to brainstorm. The radio-station idea is a good one. Perhaps we can all get tapes to the program/music directors of our local stations (make sure to include snippetts of "Something About You"--I have never yet met anyone in radio that doesn't like that song!). I am currently in the process of contacting some radio stations as well, so I will do the same. These ideas are a great start. I also think it's pretty tough to ignore 163 firmly--yet politely--written letters persuading the release of the album (complete with our bios--so they can see the broad appeal). Let's continue to tap our precious resource, namely, our unique and creative intellect. Regards, Zaron ------------------------------ From: Peter Hadley Date: Sun, 11 Jun 1995 17:56:43 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Last article Well, here's the last magazine article I have, for you newer people there are now about 10 articles/interviews available ftp. If anyone has any that aren't there, send me a copy and I'll type it up. Also, a used record store here in Boston has the _World Machine_ with 10 tunes for $7.99, first one to mail me gets it... --jay [which store is that?! heh heh... -Eric] ------------------------------ From: Peter Hadley Date: Sun, 11 Jun 1995 17:57:44 -0400 (EDT) Subject: OM-October 1987 [I've just put this in the 'pub/level42/article' directory for the anonymous ftp site... get them while they last, since I won't be supporting anon. ftp at the new site (worldmachine.com) - although I'll get them up via an email file server (sooner or later).... -Eric] ----------------- from the magazine OM-Only Music October 1987 #10 ----------------- All in the Family by Sharon Liveten ----------------- "Our name? Yes," laughs Boon Gould, guitarist for the rock-fusion band Level 42, without prompting. "It came out of a trip that Mike and I took when we were younger. We arrived in New York with knapsacks on our backs---the idea was to get to California. We arrived at the Greyhound station at ten in the morning and found that the bus didn't leave until nine that night. So we started wandering around 42nd Street since that's where the station was. There were all these people coming up, offering us ladies, dope addicts asking for money, and people trying to sell us heroin and stuff," he starts to chuckle. "Here we are, two fresh-faced boys with knapsacks on our backs. We didn't know where we were, but we thought that it was our level. Level 42." If it's hard to picture the polite, self-assured Boon surrounded by the best of New York's low-life, and feeling at home...well, people change. Certainly, the current status of Level 42 is quite a bit headier than their namesake. With their latest album _Running in the Family_ nestled comfortably in the high end of the charts, and the single "Lessons in Love" a certifiable hit, 42nd Street is a distant, if not fond, memory. Still, the trip through America---which Boon asserts was organized to help define his and Mike's musical direction---served it's purpose. When the pair returned home (the UK's Isle of Wight) they attended a jam session with Boon's brother Phil and his buddy Mark King. That they worked well together took everyone bu surprise. Thus, Level 42 was formed. "Phil and I had played together over various points during the years, but we'd never really thought about forming a band," shrugs Boon. "Mike and I had gone to America looing for something, searching for some sort of musical thing we could get into. When we got back, Mark and Phil were playing at this little music club, and they asked us to come down and have a jam. So we did--- and we realized that after all this running about, it was there all the time. We'd just never seen it before. We realized we should do it outselves." That, of course, is easier said than done. While the band was struggling with writing songs and learning how to play them, Phil was doing some session work to make ends meet. While he was recording with the group M (remember "Pop Muzik"?) he ran into Wally Badarou and convinced him to have a go at Level 42. "When we did our first single in 1980," laughs Phil, "we really didn't know anything about keyboards, but Wally was really into Synthesizers and the sounds you could create on these new-fangled gadgets, as we call them. So Wally came on board, and he's been with us ever since." Well, almost ever since. Though Badarou co-writes much of the band's material, when Level 42 finally got an American deal (after three successful records in Europe), their new label decided the band should be produced by Larry Dunn and Verdaine White of Earth, Wind and Fire. While it's obvious that Level 42 has been overtly influenced by E,W & F, they had no desire to be clones of the group. Since it was a new label and a new market, they gave in. The resulting album, _Standing in the Light_, sounds like pallid Level 42. Or hopeless E,W & F. Oh well. "It was an eye-opening experience," recalls Boon politely. "We're kind of belligerent with producers in terms of the way we want things to sound. That's why we work so well with Wally. Since he helps write the material, he knows what we want. At the same time, Larry and Verdaine did give us a big insight into the way the American market works, which was very alien to us. They opened our eyes to things we really didn't know about. The album was a big compromise between two things, though---the way we thought we should sound, and the way we thought we had to sound for America. We didn't actually achieve one thing or another on that album. But it taught us a lot." The experience also brought a great deal of tension to the band. The result of that was Mark King taking some time off to do a solo record. When most bands' members release solo discs, you can count the band's future lifespan in seconds, but Boon feels the experience eventually strenghtened Level 42. He admits it did take a bit of time. "At the time we understood that he had these very strong musical ideas that we couldn't fit in Level 42; he was still finding his way, especially on the bass. In some ways," Boon states, "it was actually very good that he got that stuff out of his system. Although, we did the _True Colours_ album directly after, it was a little weird because he had just finished his solo LP. So _True Colours_ didn't quite gel the way it should have. By the time he started doing _World Machine_, he was much more into the ideas of songs and singing; he'd gotten all of that sort of thunderous bass stuff out of his system." Last year's _World Machine_ was the turning point for the entire band. Not only had they wangled a record deal in America again, but they fine-tuned their music to a point where it became a lush blend of rock, jazz, and blues. It sounded tailor-made for American radio, which was exactly where the first single that album, "Something About You", was heard. Though the band had been selling records and getting decent air play in Europe right along, America was a new market. Nobody---neither Level 42 nor the record company---really expected the record to do as well as it did. But they learned to live with it. "When 'Something About You' was released, we weren't sure what was going to happen. The record company wasn't sure about the whole thing; MTV wasn't sure," chortles Boon. "Then it went really fast! It was an amazing feeling, because everyone told us it was going to take us a really long time. By the time we did our little club tour here, it was already in the Top Ten." Boon scowls, "The club tour was very hard. Places like New York and Los Angeles were great, but there were a lot of places that were like dinner- dancing places, like cabarets. We were playing clubs that weren't really designed for this sort of thing. The people just happened to be there. Even in England, when we played clubs back in 1980, they were all proper clubs that were into that sort of thing. But we've gotten used to playing bigger places in Europe, and for that tour, we'd try to fit tons of gear onto these tiny little stages. You reach a point," he sighs, "where you can't physically do clubs anymore, and give the same great show." The real irony of the whole American tour debacle was that upon Level 42's return to Europe they didn't sit home and lick their wounds. Instead, they played eight sold-out concerts at Wembley Arena. From there, Level 42 returned to the studio to follow up _World Machine_ while they were on a roll. It seemed to have worked. _Running In the Family_ is not only their most successful record comercially, but musically as well. The album is cohesive and the band seems to be comfortable with the sound. Apparently they were. It didn't hurt that they recorded the whole shebang in a little under six weeks. That way, they reasoned, the songs couldn't possibly be overworked to the point of boredom. It kept them busy. "We fit the recording between the festivals that are held in Europe in June and July. We did the record in August and part of September, and then came to America in the begining of October. We had to have it finished. We're not really workaholics," Boon laughs. "We'd all rather sit around and get our heads back together. But we had to take advantage of the situation. We didn't care so much about the pressure, we just did it. It didn't hurt," he says, "that we released 'Lessons In Love' while we were still working on the album, and it was a hit in Europe. That made everything a lot easier. From there we just set out to do the album, and it became THE album. We don't really think too much about it all---we work that way with all the albums. "If it sounds right, we do it." ------------------------------ From: PLFlanagan @ aol.com Date: Sun, 11 Jun 1995 19:24:30 -0400 Subject: Shuford's right Sorry I was so pessimistic with my "warning" message, but Shuford hit the nail on the head. Record companies are BUSINESSES, and as such, unfortunately, they make some decisions that many would consider stupid. For them to reconsider and reverse their decisions would be admitting a mistake and few businesses (save Coca-Cola and New Coke) are willing to admit that mistake, unless doing so will produce a more than positive monetary result (again, see Coca-Cola). Record companies are notorious for talking out da side of their necks (to paraphrase an old Cameo song). Any vocalizing we do will most likely be met with an extremely pleasant response, a show of concern, and then no action after the letters are pitched into the wastebasket and the phone calls are hung up. A better outlet for people's work and creativity would be (if'n the money's there) to start an independent record label. Then, shop that label directly to the members of the band, in case of a reunion. BTW, I, again, uncharacteristically pessimistically, hold out little hopes for a "true" reunion. I see Mark 'n Mike working together on a project, or Mark 'n Phil, or something like that, but no real Level 42 reunion, with a new group album, etc. What's done is, unfortunately, probably done. They put out enough so that we can still enjoy their music without getting tired from lack of variety. (hey, how did you like that double abverb in the first sentence of that paragraph? Lolly lolly lolly get your adverbs here...) Finally, yeah, I know that fan clubs are usually handled through the management, not through the record labels. However, after contacting Crockford about the same subject and never getting a response, I thought, what the H, I'll try RCA. Whoo, did that ever get me far. Looking back on it, though, I think I was contacting Crockford at the old address (the old OLD address), and the mail might not have gotten passed on. Oh well. I'd say the best thing we can do anymore is shop the music around wherever we can, and get new fans for the guys. It's not hard to do -- I usually introduce around three or four new people every month. That's maybe 48 a year. If the 160 people on this list did the same, that's 7,680 new fans. Not bad. And, it was said earlier that getting FN released here would be bad in that it would make RCA a bunch of money they don't deserve. Yeah, but the flip side is that it would make the boys money too, through the performance, writing, and production royalties. Anyhoo, too bad the boys didn't start their own label. THAT'S what they should have done. Then find a company with some vision to distribute it. That would be cookin' with gas. Bye y'all, Pat ------------------------------ From: Roach674 @ aol.com Date: Sun, 11 Jun 1995 22:42:11 -0400 Subject: A Physical Presence -- enquiry: Does anyone know if there's a CD copy of the live album "A Physical Presence" in existence that has the same tracks the tape version had? I have a copy of it but its missing some songs (Mr. Pink, Turn it On, etc) and I've since lost the tape version I had of it. Thanks! ROACH!!! (Level 42 fans UNITE!!!) ------------------------------ From: eric (Eric J. Hansen) Date: Sun, 11 Jun 95 23:25:18 EDT Subject: Gimme the shirt off your back &etc... Hip hop hooray... :One: A while back, someone had some L42 shirt(s) for sale... any more? For reasons ?unknown? to me, I'm now engaged in this _mad search_ for L42 apparel. Please email if you have anything (Mike?! Maybe I should have sent more lbs - I means Pds!) :Two: Anyways. I just picked up the "This is Acid Jazz - The Gold Session" disk and was [somewhat] surprised to find our Henpecked boyz playing on tracks by Jhelisa and High Steppers (for those of you that don't know, the Henpecked Horns are John Thirkell [trumpet] and Gary Barnacle [sax/flute], who of course have played on a fistful of L42 stuff). Boy, those guys really get around! :Three: Since I've been pretty quiet about the whole "L42 in the States" issue, I'll put in my ONE CENT. I would basically agree that our boy's lack of "pidgeon-hole-ability" is their fatal flaw in the U.S. - a place where you can go into a record store and find separate bins for "Hip Hop", "Club Music", "Techno", "Ambient", "Acid Jazz" and "Jungle" (see: Tower Records, Boston). This is either an example of hyper-organization by the Tower management or the fact that record companies specifically label their records to be cast into a specific "genre" section... WHATEVER (also see: Sugar's latest, "File Under Easy Listening" - Bob Mould knows what time it is...) So anyways, my logical thought on the matter is "who's going to start releasing albums for a band that's now _disbanded_?" My feeling is that this whole issue is cut-and-dry for record companies... e.g., a non-issue. While I applaud all good intentions of Zarin et. al, I think John & Pat (and whomever else I'm forgetting) have pretty much gone through the motions with this issue already and have wound up pretty unsuccessful. At least some of the larger chains (Tower, HMV) are now carrying imports - you CAN find L42... The fact that L42 has _not_ reached MC Hammer/Michael Jackson/Madonna/Pearl Jam/crud status in the United States does NOT bother me. In fact, I am somewhat relieved - at least you *know* that the guy driving down the street with Dune Tune __cranked__ really DIGS the band, and is not just trying to be COOL by touting his awareness of top40 FILTH. How many bands/groups are there that are popular in the U.S. and actually have a quality following that will not forget about them when they slip off the top 40 charts? On a nearby soapbox: a guy I work with called me the other day... I wasn't around, so he left a message on my machine. Other than the "content" of his message, he made sure to point out that my machine's message was "the most annoying that he had ever heard." Well, the music is "Monsieur Taylor's New Brand - Monsieur Kamayatsu", which is empirically _totally_ PHAT. The double-meaning here is that this co-worker of mind was given a taste (30 seconds) of the new musical enlightenment and refused it. He is the [stereo]typical consumer of commercial music in the U.S. and record companies know it. Ok -- I'm being escorted from the soap box before I offend someone. -Eric ------------------------------ From: "Deanna L. Ham" Date: Sun, 11 Jun 1995 23:54:50 -0400 (EDT) Subject: My birthdate and other ramblings Hey fellow L42 fans, I have enjoyed reading your bios, and in all fairness, thought I should post mine. Here goes: My name is Deanna, and I'm a 22 year-old student living in Maryland (about 10 minutes away from Washington, DC, where I was born). I first heard L42 when I heard "Something About You" on a local Top 40 station. I remember the song being blared all the time, but strangely enough, I think most people never knew the name of the band. If I mention the band to people, they look at me like I'm speaking another language. However, if I start to sing a few lines, they nod and say, "Oh, yeah, I LOVE that song! Whatever happened to that group?". I must admit that I don't have too many of their albums (unlike most of the posters here who have ALL of them!). My favorite songs are "World Machine", "To Be With You Again", "It's Over" and "I Sleep on My Heart". I like The Replacements, The Psychedelic Furs, The Pretenders and Go West. In fact, I remember reading some L42 fans rave about Go West on this list. I just heard one of their albums last week and have played it constantly. Out of curiosity, are Go West British? Any information about them would be appreciated. Enjoy the summer, folks. The DC heat is already beginning to kill me. Deanna L. Ham deannah @ wam.umd.edu dham @ discovery.com