From: Level42-request @ worldmachine.com (Level42 Digest) Subject: Level42 Digest V98 #259 _ ____ _ ____ _ _ ___ // //__ // / //__ // /__// __// //__ //__ \\_/ //__ //__ // /__ D I G E S T Level42 Digest Volume 98 : Issue 259 724 subscribers Today's topics: Level 42 Green, Laurence F It's not all bad news!! Richard Smith Eaglerock and beyond... DShaw57425 Re: Level42 Digest V98 #258 David Goodall Eaglerock Records...presents. DShaw57425 Bitter Moon not in shops john.osborne Eagle Rock Poap42 Midis and Radio plugs Sean D. Green Dear dear me, Green, Laurence F Bitter Moon/a US marketing strategy? Rob Kadel Unavailable !! PRic229432 Mark LOZ Green the review in Blues And Soul.. Nick Brazier MESSAGE TO LOZ J Shuford Virgin Airplay Adrian Bond Read the VH1 interview sgundahl The no. 42 again! byron wong 80's then and now Allwyn & Laura Kelly ------------------------------ Subject: Level 42 From: "Green, Laurence F" Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 11:36:00 +0100 Dear all, >Loz, Do you know if the Mark King ablum will be distributed in the U.S? I wish I could say for certain that it would be distributed in Sheffield! I think Eagle Rock are organising a mail order service for overseas purchasers, I'd keep checking the digest for info. Yours.................LOZ ------------------------------ Subject: It's not all bad news!! From: "Richard Smith" Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 12:52:28 +0100 Loz and the Gang cheer up!! The midlands is doing it's best for MK! I have seen BM in five local shops around my area including Our Price. Both CD's and cassettes. He has been on several radio stations including Heart FM just this morning. So it's not all bad news ------------------------------ Subject: Eaglerock and beyond... From: DShaw57425 @ aol.com Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 08:36:54 EDT Hello once again fellow digestives.......Let the debate begin. I too had problems obtaining mark's new single.I actually bought it from a small independent record shop,but it wasn't on display,some herbert handed me a copy from under the counter,ooh dodgy.Now personally speaking I think promotions for the new single and album have been poor,but is it really Eagle rock's fault ? they are only a small and relatively new company this may have been something to do with it? Or is Crockford responsible ? One can only speculate. Mark uses level 42 on his new album,and he will be playing level 42 songs on any up and coming tour whats the point without Mike ??? Who we all miss....I personally don't want too hear Lessons in Love without Mike Lindup vocals and him strutting his stuff halfway through the song which had me in hysterics. Those days are gone,but live only in our memory or on the cd player. Why not make a fresh start altogether ?maybe the management and record company though it would be a selling point ? That they use the name Level 42, When the recorded material should be strong enough to sell copies anyway.If the material is heard of course. When Mark decided to sell his home and most of his Basses why didn't he also move away and make a fresh start, from some of his musical past?Like dropping the name of Level 42 and there songs and concentrating on his own material.The shows will be the Mark King shows not Level 42 re-hashed, and dug up out of the cupboard,"Do you all remember this one" ?Yes of course we do will be the answer but where's Mike? Like the line in the song "Its not the same for us" I would sooner see a shorter set by Mark of his own new material.... Maybe the reason Mark signed to a smaller label was that he has greater artistic control,than would have been possible with a larger label like Polydor,although RCA were sympathetic to the Level cause allowing them to basically put down and release songs that they wanted too.At Eaglerock Mark, will I presume be able to have a similar sort of set up,They will leave Mark too basically do his thing.I personally don't believe that Mark wiill capture the imagination as him and the other founder members of level 42 once did,don't get me wrong I've heard the new album there's some great stuff on there,it's a new style more mature and will do well if it gets the airplay and coverage,probably not what a shame. Maybe Mark's enjoying life a bit more today,thinking I've made my money, Iam enjoying myself making music,spending time with his family and friends,the materials out there go and buy it if it sells great if not i'll make another.Marks a realistic person at the end of the day it's only music....there to be enjoyed.it's not life and death.Hah! what a contradiction....... Oh well I've rambled enough Bye........until Forever Now until the re - union? and the chicken in a basket tour? See Ya!! D. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Level42 Digest V98 #258 From: David Goodall Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 13:54:44 +0100 >Did anyone notice the appartment number of Fox Mulder is .......42 What >does it mean ???????? Could he be a fan ????????? Is the FBI watching >us all ??????? Have the Aliens Intercepted all the "Bitter moon" singles that were on their way to the retail stores? Because that is the excuse that Eagle Rock may come up with, or at least the distributing company. Yes, Yes I see where you're coming from. THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE !!! -- David Goodall ------------------------------ Subject: Eaglerock Records...presents. From: DShaw57425 @ aol.com Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 09:11:48 EDT Here's something I had a giggle about....... Eaglerock Records presents........ Police's......Sting,without the monotonous drummer rambling on about the benefits of cocaine and lyric writing at the same time. Wham's.....George Micheal,without the quiet one with dodgy hair,and didn't write any lyrics.Prior to the days of any confusion of which toilet one should visit. A-ha's......Morten Harket and no jokes about castration please,and yoghurt. Adam and the ants's ......adam ant,without the chubby one,AND MINUS THE WARPAINT.. Level 42's.......Mark King all on his jacksy without the excellent keyboard skills of Mr Lindup,but we'll still be covering the same songs,,,,starting with Hot water and concluding with The Chinese Way !!!!! All are available now in Ltd Supply only 100 copies of each,at your countries largest record merchandiser,what you see is what we have,sorry......Love HMV.But we can order it from the supplier and it may take 7-10 days!!!!!!!!!!! D. ------------------------------ Subject: Bitter Moon not in shops From: john.osborne @ bbc.co.uk Organization: bbc Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 14:40:00 +0000 Hello all Just a quick note to say that Bitter Moon is not available anywhere along Oxford Street in London, although HMV Oxford Circus have ordered 9 copies which should be arriving "in the next few days". What's going on? Has the release date been changed again? Surely the chances of the single making even the top 75 in the UK chart must be limited now. Has anyone out there got any news? That's all John O. ------------------------------ Subject: Eagle Rock From: Poap42 @ aol.com Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 09:58:28 EDT I'm joining Greg in this letter writing campaign to Eagle Rock. The US fans always get the short end of the stick :-( and hopefully by writing a brief letter(hint to all) they will act on it. My letter is being mailed today. Peace. Antonio Perez ------------------------------ Subject: Midis and Radio plugs From: "Sean D. Green" Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 09:54:22 -0500 Hey all, Nope...not dead yet, but pretty close. Working full time and taking a full-time class load of 18 hours has pretty much shut down all my fun time so to speak. That, unfortunately, includes further progress on the MIDI files that I have been working on. They are relatively close to being completed, but still need a little refinement. Silence is going to be killer, as well as the other. Come to my MIDI site, and check out the "Personal" section. That will give you the d'tails. I do, however, hope to recreate a MIDI file of Bitter Moon - an any others that may be suitable. I was driving to Dallas yesterday (you know, to see J.R. and the gang) and was listening to "The Mix 102.9" (because they play level tunes) and SAY came on. Following that, because I wanted to hear the whole damn thing, I called the DJ and told her "thanks for playing some Level 42 stuff." She said she really liked them, I wished she could play some more but couldn't because of the restrictive format. Anyhow, I did plug the Digest -- told her all about that, and told her about MK's new and upcoming release. I suggested that she make sure the station would at least look into and she said she would. Hopefully that will be true, but they may not play it because he isn't well known in these "hick" parts. Bummer, but at least I tried. Best regards to all. If I make it through this semester, I promise many cool Level 42 midis by the end of the year!! ~Sean -- *********** "The MIDI Extreme" *********** * http://www.flash.net/~questps/midi.htm * *** For the best MIDI files on the net!*** ****************************************** ------------------------------ Subject: Dear dear me, From: "Green, Laurence F" Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 15:45:00 +0100 Hullo, >I can't really say what my favourite L42 track is, it's easier to say >which one I definitely don't like:- "Love meeting Love". Yes I can feel >the backlash now, how can you dis' the debut single, but I think that >the vocals (and the lyrics for that matter) stink. Strictly it was not the debut single, that was 'Sandstorm' released on 1100 white label, the labelling was purely to create a legitimate underground feeling about the recording. Although you entitled to your opinion, I am entitled to say you have taken leave of your senses! I mean, one of the most groud breaking tracks of all time! Well, I like it. LOZ ------------------------------ Subject: Bitter Moon/a US marketing strategy? From: Rob Kadel Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 11:50:59 -0400 Well, Loz and ic seem to have answered my question of the day. I was going to ask if anyone knows of a marketing strategy to release Bitter Moon and the album in the US. In listening to the real-audio clip (thank you Carl!), the song is wonderful -- it would definitely go over well in the US adult contemporary market, and would probably make a dent in the top 40 market as well, if given the chance. But with today's comments, I see that there is little marketing even within the UK! What's up with that!? I also wanted to comment on ic's comment about the song sounding like the 1985 L42 w/out the funk. I definitely agree. Has anyone else noticed how Bitter Moon, particularly during the verses, harkens back to "Seven Days" from True Colours? Just a thought. -Rob ************************************************************* Rob Kadel Education Policy Studies 310F Rackley Building Penn State University University Park, PA 16803 (814) 865-2584 http://www.personal.psu.edu/rsk11 ************************************************************* ------------------------------ Subject: Unavailable !! From: PRic229432 @ aol.com Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 13:24:15 EDT Hi All Well today ( Tues ) had been well planned or so I thought . Pop to the shop , pick up Bitter Moon and play that all day . Simple Really ... or so I thought !! After paying visits to Our Price Records , Andys Records and several independant record stores and even as a last resort Woolworths ! I returned Home without Bitter Moon and completely AGOG with release dates and ' I'm sorry Sir that record is not out yet ' comments . What exactly has happened here ....? I live in Lincoln , England and the city has a population of 100 000 , a small place compared to Sheffield ' The home of Word Machine ' but I would expect that at least one outlet would have this record. What I find very hard to believe is that most of the shops are not at all up to date with the information at all ........' Level 42 finished a few years ago ' .........' Mark who ...? ' seemed to be common answers .! Until I asked deeper. The record shops are telling me that this record is not out yet and 2 shops quoted mid October release dates for the single Bitter Moon. Mark is not a LEVELSPICE or a LEVEL ZONE but he has a new release and as such would expect the retailers to have some information. The information the record retailers have is either poor or none existent and so the question needs to be asked ....Who is this down to.? My feelings will be copied to Eagle Rock and I am sure that if either Mark is a Subscriber himself to the digest or those of you who have direct contact with Mark or Eagle Rock will pass my and my fellow subscribers comments on . We like his Music , We want his Music , We will pay Large amounts for his Music BUT ........It has to be available to us . Chris Dickman: Could you please add me to your list of customers . If you could mail me direct for payment details etc Paul James ------------------------------ Subject: Mark From: "LOZ Green" Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 19:52:17 +0100 Hiya, Mark was in Cologne yesterday (Germany) doing promo work for One Man. My mate Michael interviewed him for 74 minutes, apparently he had quite a lot to say and a lot of it interesting. This interview will appear exclusively (in English) in Word Machine issue 3. Whoopee, what a coup! I also found out that as well as the CDR promo for Bitter Moon there is a normal pressed promo with the same BLue colouring as the single but only one track, Bitter Moon edit. SO thats one for the collectors. All this stuff will be listed in Word Machine. Catch you later...................LOZ (NB: I switched email to Micro.. Outlook so if my message seem weird I'm finding my feet) ------------------------------ Subject: the review in Blues And Soul.. From: Nick Brazier Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 15:13:16 -0400 Heres the review of the remix in Blues And Soul magasine Level 42 feat Omar polydor The Sun Goes Down How apt. The sun, having already gone down for Mark King and his band of merry Britfunksters, could conceivably be setting on the career of the man once tagged as the UK's answer to Stevie Wonder. In fact, in the wake of diminshing sales and popularity, Omar has sought to re-align his career via a number of occasions with those who carver thier own particular niche in the popular music world of the eighties. Initially, on his "This Is Not A Love Song" set, Omar covered covered the Strangler' enigmatic, Celtic paean to a substance that was "Golden Brown". I actually, though his off-note vocal style complemented the mood of that particular number. Now he has teamed up with Level 42 to supply his lick on the rehash of the cut that was one of the bands early hits. That he only provides backing and that the "remake" is nothing more than added beat merely confirms my suspicions that this project has not had the courage of its convictions and gone the whole hog with re-doing the classic original. I would have given Omar full lead vocals, been far far more experimental in the mix and... and... included the original on the twelve. Grrr! (Out: 12 October) (rating: 6) Take care Jonathan ------------------------------ Subject: MESSAGE TO LOZ From: J Shuford Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 12:44:06 -0700 (PDT) This is a message to Loz, or ostensibly to anybody else in the know: I've had a chance to read the scans of the articles in Guitarist and Bassist, but I'm a little unclear as to the progress of Mark's projects. He mentioned that he had Nik Kershaw, Carl Palmer, Midge Ure, Brian May, Boon, and Phil all work with him at some point or other for the forthcoming "One Man" album (and presumably for the unreleased album). What exactly were these ouside contributors contributing? Were all of these people involved in songwriting only, or were they contributing some playing too? Is "One Man" a sign that Mark has been doing everything musically since the end of L42, or has he had some help? One way or another, I'm really looking forward to hearing "One Man." For anybody who's interested in getting a good import price, you might check out Cheap or What? CDs out of London. They were formerly known as Pastelblue. Generally, I've found their prices to be very competitive if not excellent. Anyway, they're on the Web (address escapes me at present). They don't have a listing for "One Man" or "Bitter Moon" yet, but keep checking. Shuf John Shuford Department of Philosophy University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-1295 (541) 346-1054 shuf @ darkwing.uoregon.edu ------------------------------ Subject: Virgin Airplay From: "Adrian Bond" Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 20:55:50 +0100 Bilal wrote: > I think we should write to Virgin radio too, Chris Evans was a Level42 fan. One of the guys I work with has already heard Chris Evans play 'Bittermoon' on the Virgin Radio breakfast show and apparently he gave it a real good plug. The more airplay the better! Is anything further happening with the Jack Docherty show as I would do everything I could to make it up to London ? Cheers Ade ------------------------------ Subject: Read the VH1 interview From: Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 23:23:13 +0200 Hi Bilal You're right - the VH1 interview was great. We only got to hear a small part of 'Something about you' but it was in a new version with Mark's new sound and it sounded great! I think the interview is repeated this thursday evening in the show 'Talk Music' on VH1. I don't know what time though. I'f you miss it or can't wait, you can read the whole interview at my new and still very doubtfull homepage at: http://home6.inet.tele.dk/sgundahl Best regards Søren ------------------------------ Subject: The no. 42 again! From: byron wong Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 15:06:50 -0700 (PDT) Hello to everyone. In relation to no.42 on Mulder's door. Did you know that the Enterprise-D (Galaxy Class starship) has 42 decks? Hmmmm... Can't wait till the BM CD single arrives! >>Byron THE BATTLE FOR PARADISE BEGINS DEC.11 _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Subject: 80's then and now From: "Allwyn & Laura Kelly" Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 19:10:41 -0700 Just finished watching a show on VH1 called "80's then and now. One of the Duran Duran guys was host. He went through a load of old bands but not one mention of L42. I was very upset, shocked and couldnt even finish my meal ( yeah right). What gives?? later laura