From: Level42-request @ worldmachine.com (Level42 Digest) Subject: Level42 Digest V97 #127 _ ____ _ ____ _ _ ___ // //__ // / //__ // /__// __// //__ //__ \\_/ //__ //__ // /__ D I G E S T Level42 Digest Volume 97 : Issue 127 497 subscribers Today's topics: RE The Definitive Biography Bill Miller Re: Level42 Digest V97 #126 the copse Abb.and HoJo DonZipf L42 and Thatcher Arjan Meijer My Brain Hurts! Jonathan Doody Ideas Andre Huijts The Vegas LevelFest Hat Winman42 The Copse - Level 42 Music Essay matthew rice Country 94... HASSEN6545 Basil Fawlty of Torquay Glen Hambly AWRNMAS? JennCyn HI? Andrew Garner About me... Mark Garrett ------------------------------ Subject: RE The Definitive Biography From: bmiller @ abbeywood.com (Bill Miller) Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 11:45:25 +0100 (BST) Levelheads Can anybody possibly tell me where I can pick up a copy of the Level 42 - The Definitive Biography (In the UK). God after loving Level 42 for 13 years, how come I never heard they have a book out!!! Bill Miller "And the rain that fell in West Berlin was nothing like the rain that fell within" BILLY'S GONE ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Level42 Digest V97 #126 From: the copse Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 12:08:50 BST Thanks to everyone who's written to me so far, and yes, The Bassman has kindly offered me use of his Biography! Cheers, The Copse ------------------------------ Subject: Abb.and HoJo From: DonZipf @ aol.com Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 14:07:00 -0400 (EDT) Last Digest, Steve Robson wrote... > A (Aaargh!) > > TPBDZWTLS (That posting by Don Z. was the last straw) > WIFJTDISTM (When I first joined the digest it sometimes took me) > ATWOWTHPWOA (ages to work out what the heck people were on about) > WTWATSA'HIMH' (when they wrote about things such as 'Heaven In My Hands') > OW. PRTAP (or whatever. Please reduce the abbreviations people!) > ATAO, STP, BD (Album titles are ok, singles too probably, but definately) > NAT (not album tracks!) > > Rant_mode=OFF As good citizens of the www, Steve, we must do what we can to reduce bandwidth consumption. Waste not, want not! ;-) Seriously, I know what you mean - sometimes I have to stop and think "What the heck are they talkin' about?" It just gets to be a pain spelling them out when listing a lot of songs. And besides, Steve, what kind of Levelhead wouldn't know the initials of every freakin' song? Now, hey you HoJo collectors! I remember, when I was a deejay at an FM station in Wilmington NC back in the mid-eighties, we played two versions of "Things Can Only Get Better" (TCOGB for you, Steve): the regular album/single version, and an 'extended dance remix' which we had on both 12" and 7". I used to have both and don't know what became of them (too many moves), but I really loved that mix for its cool keyboard breakdown in the middle. Does anybody know if that remix (or any) are available anywhere on CD? BTW, ASAP, SNAFU, FYI, PMJI, COMSUBLANT - DJZ ------------------------------ Subject: L42 and Thatcher From: Arjan Meijer Organization: IP/Informatica Projectgroep B.V. Date: Wed, 07 May 1997 20:12:01 +0200 This message contains a little politics, and a little more Level 42 :-) Yesterday Shuf wrote: > Mark King has attempted to distance L42 from that era in print several > times. Phil Gould (and presumably Boon too) was down on it. Mike Lindup > wrote Judgment Day about Thatcher. I believe it's even worse: I know that when Take Care Of Yourself came out, MK openly declared it was an anti-Thatcher song. The fact that he said so made it a political song to me. And I'm sorry to say: political songs are not my cup of tea. I mean, look at Sting: when he became too involved with politics, he started making kinda depressing music (IMHO). I believe he's back on the right track now. Personally, I like the entertainment value music has. I don't want to bring the subject up again, but I know a certain girl-group that has entertainment-value for sure. And _please_ let them stay away from politics. I like to think of L42 as a non-political band, with extremely good lyrics by the Gould-brothers. Their lyrics prove that an high entertainment value doesn't necesseraly mean stupid lyrics. Well, just some thoughts of mine... Arjan. PS. As I'm a L42-fan, and not as objective as I probably should be, I admit: TCOY has grown on me! The bass really rocks! ------------------------------ Subject: My Brain Hurts! From: Jonathan Doody Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 08:57:00 -0700 I have another claim to fame. I am singularly responsible for introducing Level 42 to North Africa!!! ....possibly. I was on holiday in Tunisia with my brother in 1984/5, can't remember the year. We took over the 12'' version of Hot Water so I/we could play it on the walkman. Well, beside the pool there was this HUGE cone speaker, playing various crap to the sunbathers. I asked Mohammed (or was it Shirley?) to play my tape. He played it, tapped his feet and looked at the sky................when it had finished he said "PLENTY GOOD....PLENTY GOOD!!!!" Every morning at 8.00am he would blast the pants off this speaker with Hot Water. Great way to wake up......our hotel room was about 1/4 mile away from this speaker and we could still here it fine. Any way, this guy who played the music ended up as one of the National Radio DJ's. I know this because he asked me to send him some tapes of some more 42, so he could use it on his show. I sent him a copy of everything I had. He told me that he used Hot Water as his show intro, because the "This tune has alot of Eastern Influence, and would appeal to the youth of Tunisia!!!" I guess he was talking about the instrumental bit on the 12" version. SO THERE IT IS!! I DID MY BIT FOR LEVEL 42 WORLD DOMINATION. "Up went the Lobsters........Boing....Straight up her A#@%hole" Learn a trade to please your Dad. Jon ------------------------------ Subject: Ideas From: "Andre Huijts" Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 21:24:38 +0200 Hello ! Just an idea that popped up: Since lots of people are mentioning other artists on this digest, would it be a good idea to make a site with "artists recommended by Level 42 fans" ? We all should be able to send in our recommendations, the name of the band, a brief description of the style of music etc., small discographies, web links, etc etc. This would be a great reference for all of us. Personally I often forget other people's recommendations so I am missing some great music. Groetjes, Andre "water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink....." huijts @ worldonline.nl Take a look at the official LowLandsLevelFeest Page: http://home.worldonline.nl/~huijts/index.html ------------------------------ Subject: The Vegas LevelFest Hat From: Winman42 @ aol.com Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 15:44:51 -0400 (EDT) Gather 'round folks, because the Vegas LevelFest Hat has finally arrived. Direct your browser to http://members.aol.com/winman42/sunhat.htm to sneak a peek at the hat. (if you don't have browser access, let me know and I'll send you a pic attached to an e-mail message) The hat will cost you O N L Y US $11.00, which is a pretty good price I think. This price is based on a minimum order of 24 hats, which should'nt be a problem. I think we can get 24 folks to order a hat, right? Right? It even includes shipping to your neck of the woods. Yes, folks, even for digest members in countries other than the U.S.A. Can't beat that, right? Just drop me a line at winman42 @ aol.com with your order. Just once little catch, we need to make an order ASAP, so we get the hats before the June 20th Vegas Levelfest. That means I need all orders and payments no later than May16th. I know, I know, that's the end of next week. Sorry, but it can't be helped, if we want the hats by that date. Payment can be Check, Money Order or good old cash. Whatever is quicker, and easier for you. If you need to send currency other than U.S. dollars, don't worry. I work right next to a foreign exchange, so I'll run out at lunch time and do the swap. (just don't ask me to figure out the exchange) Dont' forget that you need not attend the Vegas Levelfest to own one of these great hats, and order as many as you like!! Any other questions, drop me a line. Oh, don't forget to inclose your address with your order, it always helps!! :-) Tcoy, Winston ------------------------------ Subject: The Copse - Level 42 Music Essay From: matthew rice Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 14:20:54 -0600 > I'm writing the final essay of my degree, and it's going to be about how > the combination of jazz-funk, pop, and New Age go to make the genius we > all know as Level 42, and how differing attitudes to these three things > changed their style over the years. There are a couple of things I don't > know though. To 'The Copse': I have a degree in music and am a huge Level42 fan. I have some chords written down to some of the tunes, but nothing significant. I can, of course, listen to any song in question and dictate the chords as I am listening if it would help you. Also, I have a couple of ideas about good areas for musical analysis involving Level 42 that you might look into. I will list them below. 1) The use of modulation (changes between keys) in Level 42 tunes. Since the use of modulation is usually limited to very standard common chord modulations (particularly tonic->supertonic->supertonic functioning as a dominant->new tonic that is a fifth higher), did Level 42 start with easy modulations and progress to more complex types of modulations in their music? The essay would involve comparing modulations from the early albums (when they were young & still learning) and then from more polished later albums and noting any significant characteristics about the modulations, especially who wrote the tune and the amount of formal musical theory education he had (I would hypothesize that Mike Lindup, having an extensive formal theory education, would have used modulations more, and especially would have used more complex modulations -- I would hypothesize that Mark would not have used many complex modulations, due to his lack of formal theory education). 2) I think that it would be interesting to write an essay on the use of extended triad chords (ninth, eleventh, thirteenth, etc. . .) in Level 42s music. Extended triad chords are typical of Jazz and are heard primarily in more sophisticated pop/jazz/fusion. My theory teacher played Steely Dan for us to introduce us to extended triad chords & their construction. Listen to Donald Fagan's Fender Rhodes at the beginning of 'Deacon Blue' and you will hear many of these type of chords. Level 42 (especially Mike) uses these type of chords a lot. 3) You could do an essay on the use of modal harmony in Level 42 songs and contrast it to standard methods of harmonization. For instance, much of 'Take a Look' is based on Lydian Harmonization (a major-sounding tonality with a raised 4th/subdominant). There are many other songs which use modal scales and harmony. You could then tie this in to Jazz theory, which is based somewhat on modal harmony - dorian and mixolydian modes being the most common. Tell me what you think, and perhaps some other digesters can add to this. -- ______________________________________________________________ | Matthew T. Rice | | | Graduate Research Assistant | || | | Mail Stop D462 | || | | Los Alamos National Laboratory | |||| | | Los Alamos, NM 87545 | ----/ \---- | | | -------| @ @ |------- | | phone: 505-665-3610 | -------| \__/ |------- | | fax: 505-665-3285 | ----\ /---- | | organization: EES-13 | |||| | | location: TA-3 Bldg 1516 Room 106 | || | | e-mail: mrice @ lanl.gov | || | |_____________________________________|________________________| ------------------------------ Subject: Country 94... From: HASSEN6545 @ aol.com Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 17:14:58 -0400 (EDT) U forgot TTD a shame that is! One of my favorites .......and dont add paula abdul she is contrived karoke crap ------------------------------ Subject: Basil Fawlty of Torquay From: HighwayHamster @ webtv.net (Glen Hambly) Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 18:25:52 -0500 You were standing on the quee (oops, I mean quay) and you blew a kiss to me, I was sad to go...... Sorry, Randall, couldn't let you get away with that misspelling of Torquay--the fine resort town on Engand's southwest coast. A place dear to my heart :-) P.S. Don't mention the war...... ------------------------------ Subject: AWRNMAS? From: JennCyn @ aol.com Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 21:09:10 -0400 (EDT) In a message dated 5/8/97 12:22:56 AM, Steve wrote: >A (Aaargh!) > >TPBDZWTLS (That posting by Don Z. was the last straw) >WIFJTDISTM (When I first joined the digest it sometimes took me) >ATWOWTHPWOA (ages to work out what the heck people were on about) >WTWATSA'HIMH' (when they wrote about things such as 'Heaven In My Hands') >OW. PRTAP (or whatever. Please reduce the abbreviations people!) >ATAO, STP, BD (Album titles are ok, singles too probably, but definately) >NAT (not album tracks!) What? Did I just hear HIMH SAY that we've broken the LAW of acceptable acronym use? oh, drat! :) Sorry 'bout that, though! (BTW, the title = "Are we really not making any sense?" :) ______ Incidentally, I said a couple days ago that I hadn't seen World Machine on the shelf in ages. I did see it at Silver Platters the next day (why am I not surprised?) -- US version, no stripe. And I also found Thomas Dolby's Aliens Ate My Buick (hmm, AAMB?) as an import for $25......... You know, if that store ever DOESN'T carry something I'm looking for, I'll be surprised. -- Jenn ------------------------------ Subject: HI? From: Andrew Garner Date: Thu, 08 May 1997 06:42:02 +0100 If any of you have received a weird 'test' message from me I apologise. My Netscape e-mail has developed some serious problems leading to it crashing most times. I have tried writing to you all in the past few days but this mail thing just seems to screw them all up. So sorry again for all the inconvenience caused, especially to those who have not heard from me before. I will be using another e-mail package from now on which I gather is more reliable. Andrew Garner ------------------------------ Subject: About me... From: "Mark Garrett" Organization: Biol. Sciences Univ. of Warwick Date: Thu, 8 May 1997 10:45:30 +0100 (BST) Hi everyone. I’m Mark, 25, and live in Leamington Spa, England. I’m just writing to show of my interest in our great group L42. I have been reading the digest now for some time but will shortly be giving it up (sob, sob, you guys and gals make my day at work!) as I’m changing jobs and can’t afford it at home. The digest for me has helped keep my spirit up for the lads where perhaps my new music tastes had made me feel guilty for pulling away from them. I’m tempted to say “they were” but will say “they are” my all time main group and anyone who knows me will tell you that music is my greatest passion in life. Following them since 1984 I was first introduced to them by friend asking me to put ‘The Pursuit of Accidents’ onto tape from his LP. WOW! did I like this and so my following grew from there. I’ve now seen them live 6 times and have met both Mark and Mike. I haven’t been to the Isle of Wight but my mum & dad went and brought me back some pictures of the Cafe!! I’ve tried for some time to try to pick out some of my favourite tracks but have found it so hard as most of them are brilliant in there own different way. I can narrow it down to albums if that’s OK. The best for me is A Physical Presence. This has had so many hours of play, and was always in my walkman doing my paper-round and the age of 13/14. I was so glad to hear from other younger members of the digest. I remember when I was 13, I always found it so frustrating to have to keep all my excitement for L42 to mysel,f as I felt that people thought I couldn’t possibly know what GOOD music was at such a young age.... but believe me.... I did! I’ve lost count of how people I have sat at my house in front of the “Live at Wembley” video - does this rings bells with any one!?! I don’t like The Guaranteed album very much, nor Tracie, TCOY or even RITF. Sorry.. but do agree with a few others out there that the Forever Now album was a great way to go out. I have all the albums and most 12” records, posters, press cuttings etc.. (sometimes think I’m worse that a Take-That fan!) My other musical tastes from the 80’s are Nik Kershaw, Go West, Marillion, Deacon Blue and Genesis and from the 90’s, well I moved into move stuff like (and I know some of you won’t like this!) Keith Sweat, Jonathan Butler, George Benson, R Kelly, Kenny G and Richard Marx. Other tastes include Koinonia - thanks for some replies about them - Pink Floyd, and Michael W Smith. My closing statement: It’s been great being part of a gang who understands one of the greatest things that has affected my life.... and .... if any of the lads read this .....PLEASE DO A GIG FOR US DEDICATED FANS!!! I remember reading in a very early copy of the official fan club magazine that L42 did do fan club members only gigs - so how about another!? I’m at this email address until Tuesday the 13th. Please feel free to drop us a line or two. I still hope to make it to the Isle of Wight on the 7th of June. How will I recognise you others going? - I’ll wear one of my L42 t-shirts so look out of me... Regards, Mark Garrett 29 Berenska Drive Leamington Spa England email: mark @ dna.bio.warwick.ac.uk