From: Level42-request @ worldmachine.com (Level42 Digest) Subject: Level42 Digest V99 #120 _ ____ _ ____ _ _ ___ // //__ // / //__ // /__// __// //__ //__ \\_/ //__ //__ // /__ D I G E S T Level42 Digest Volume 99 : Issue 120 1078 subscribers Today's topics: Re: Level42 Digest V99 #119 Laurence F. GREEN Fait Accompli John Moffatt How can funky people be so uptight? Lou Hallwas MK Live Video J Shuford Lindup etc. Nigel Collier Voiceprint Jakko Jakszyk (via EJH) AG Allwyn & Laura Kelly willem van der veen Lyrics. willem van der veen ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Level42 Digest V99 #119 From: L.F.Green @ shu.ac.uk (Laurence F. GREEN) Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 11:13:31 +0100 Level42 @ worldmachine.com writes: > You CAN love Level 42 and >hate boon you know. no you can't now get lost ------------------------------ Subject: Fait Accompli From: "John Moffatt" Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 04:56:12 PDT For the first time in ages I re-watched the video "Fait Accompli". I had forgotten quite how good this video was - as L42 try and "break" into America once more. It really captures the mood of optimism following on from the new line-up. Hard to believe that it is now over ten years ago. I know SATS was probulary not one of the band's finest moments but this period was perhaps one of the more significant moments in the band's history. Think I'll watch it again..... John Leave Boon alone!! ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Subject: How can funky people be so uptight? From: Lou Hallwas Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 09:24:10 -0500 New to the list; third posting. As far as Boon goes in my book; tasteful!! "Foundation and Empire",...I mean listen to the solo. On the records, he did what the job, or better yet, what it's all really about -THE SONGS, required. No more, no less, no wanking. As I am a yank, Level related info is scarce. If this has been said before, sorry,...but how can I get Mark's new album, and lastly, does Mike have a new album out since "Changes"? For anyone who doesn't know, the "Talbot/WHite" album called "United States of Mind" has Phil Gould all over it; on keys no less. Lou "You Can't Blame Louis" ------------------------------ Subject: MK Live Video From: J Shuford Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 10:08:05 -0700 (PDT) MicroKids: I know that some of you had the opportunity to see Mark live recently. Me, I'm just lucky to have seen a video! It was very cool to see Mark playing in Wolverhampton, as I spent time there as a young teen (just when I was starting to get into the British music scene in the mid 1980's). I digress. Mark's performance was terrific. It is so nice to see Mark working over the old songs and to have an opportunity to hear him performa his own material. I thought his band was good enough, not L42 in any of its incarnations, but that's more a function of the cohesiveness of having two or more people together for a long time who have written, recorded, played and toured together. It would be a tough act to live up to playing alongside Mark King, and I thought everyone did an admirable job. They also did a good job of bringing something new to the songs. And I was especially impressed with the guitarist, who reminds me a bit of the late great Brother Al (Murphy). As for Mark himself, I noticed some difference in his playing style. Perhaps it is the basses he's using now (Fender Jazz, right?), or maybe he's just so comfortable with himself, but I was surprised at how efficient his style has become. It's not laid back, because he's not just finger-playing and providing more simple grooves. It just seems that he's able to (gasp) accomplish what he wants without having to work so hard at really pounding the bass. At the end of this tape, there is some footage of Mark performing with a symphony orchestra. Does anyone know what this performance is? I thought this version of Love Games was incredibly cool, but it made me long for a L42 James Bond tune all over again. Oh well. Shuf ------------------------------ Subject: Lindup etc. From: Nigel Collier Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 19:04:59 +0000 >>Hmm, I can see another rant coming... not unlike the "Is Mike Gay?" thread! >I wasn't here when this happened, what was the outcome ? is he or isn't >he ? The gist was that he isn't gay - but many a Digest rant ensued as to why anyone should inquire whether he is or not: apparently, asking if he was gay was tantamount to making a value judgement about homosexuals - go figure. Gay or straight, I can't wait to hear and see him do his keyboard-tastic thing NEXT WEEK. >the most entertaining (former) member of the digest is >(still) no longer a participant in our little circle of Level 42 fans. Sorry to disagree with you but, much as I enjoyed AG's postings, the title of "Most Entertaining and Missed Former Member of the Digest" has to go to Tucker A. Haas, Digest greybeards will attest to this I'm sure. Tucker and NightFly, where are you both? The Digest needs your quirky and verbose sideswipes and your earthy homespun colloquiolisms (what am I on about?) >I'm new to the digest and I want to know if anyone craves the funk? We all do mate. I crave it like it's going out of style. Regards Nigel ****************************************************** "my theory that the majority is ALWAYS wrong shines brightly", Joe Parrington ------------------------------ Subject: Voiceprint From: Jakko Jakszyk (by way of Eric Hansen) Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 17:10:00 +EST [here's a message that Jakko asked me to forward on to the Digest... -Eric] Dear Eric, I'm so sorry to bother you and ask for a favour, however I do feel very strongly about this. I have been asked by Rob Ayling, who owns Voiceprint, if you could post the email he recently received and his subsequent reply. Please bear in mind the Rob has received a fair amount of similar e-mails in recent months and this is the first he has chosen to reply. This may explain the nature of it's tone. I told him that I would ask you to do so as we have communicated before. Before I get on to that I'd like to give you a bit of background to the from my own perspective as an artist whose releases go through Rob's company. Firstly the price displayed for the offending item 'Tin man' was a clerical error. A staff member accidentally put up the dealer price on the 'Voiceprint' mail order site. This whole episode stems from that one mistake. Secondly I'd like to say something about Rob himself. He is that very rare thing in the music industry a fair-minded good bloke who cares about the music & releases stuff that the vast majority of major labels wouldn't touch. Not only that but he does so with deals that all major's and the majority of independent's wouldn't begin to entertain. Standards record deals give the artist between 10-15%. All the costs: Studio, expenses, promotion, remixes, etc. have to be paid out of that small percentage. For example say that an artist signs to a label. They record an album, remix singles, make a video and the whole thing comes to £100,000. The label makes an average of £5 per CD. So let's say, for the sake of argument, that they sell 50,000 copies. That's an income of £250,000. This means that the label have got their investment back and scored a profit of £150,00. What about the artist on a 10% deal? Well, he's earned £25, 000. In reality of course he's earned nothing because he still owe the label a further £75,000 before he'll earn anything for him self. That means he's got to sell a further 150,000 copies to break even. By this time the record company has reached a profit of nearly a Million. Even then when the artist has paid off the loan he still doesn't and never will own the recordings he's paid for. Imagine a mortgage from a bank. You pay it all back and the bank still owns the house. Rob does deals that are 50/50 & sometimes better. This means that one can earn about 30 k from 10,000 sales. Whereas our imaginary artist would have to sell a million to obtain the same amount. Also Rob does not own or claim to own the masters. They are the artists property. Do you get my drift? To see him portrayed in the way that he has been is ironic at best. He enables me and many others to earn a living doing what we do. He doesn't interfere creatively with what or how we do stuff. A lot of very good and interesting music would not be available were it not for him. Anyway the letter and his reply that I would like you to post on the digest follow on below. I would hope that anyone reading this will at least understand my motives in doing so. I certainly do not want to alienate the many poeple who have been so supportive to me over the years. Contrary to what I've heard about myself on these pages I am NOT anti censorship. Nor do I spend my time endlessly reading the digest instead of writing music. I only visit it when someone says 'Hey have you seen what someone's said about so & so' or whatever. All I am doing here is a favour for someone who has helped me, and other musicians, enormously. Hopefully this will give others who have expressed their own opinions on the subject an alternative perspective at the very least. Again sorry to bother you with all this. Many thanks Jakko -xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx- begin of forwarded message -xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx- Parton, Garry writes >Dear Mr. Rob Ayling, >I as one of the many objective and dispassionate observers of your company's >behavior in the dispute with Mr. David Loundy am appalled and will never do >business with your company. >Furthermore, I will provide facts of how your company acted to my very wide >circle of Internet colleagues. >Regards, > >Garry I. G. Parton Dear Garry, thanks for your comments you are welcome to have these views. But, if only you knew the half of it. I have never being given the chance to give my side of the story. Mr Loundy has had his say and continues to do so, (maybe he will get a life one day ?) If he and you are music fans, esp Boon. WE were the only company who was willing to make this recording available to the public. That's why EVERY cent counts, if we loose money by a simple mistake (let he who has never committed a typo cast the first stone at Mr Loundy) how can we fund the next album by Boon or Mike Lindop, Jakko or whoever ? ? ? It is very nice and easy to sit in your internet ivory towers. Mr Loundy has a nice job teaching, we at Voiceprint rely on every sale to maintain the companies very existence and helping the musician to have a voice, to press CD's so you THE MUSIC FAN (if in fact any of you people are interested in music ?) can enjoy a CD of great music. Is that such a crime ? So that is great you and your "very wide circle of Internet colleagues" will never buy from us again. Thanks, well just buy from the major record companies who are bought buy drinks manufactures (who would never issue Boons CD in a million years). So NOBODY gets to hear this great album. - HAPPY ? I hope so. Continue down this course of action and let the big companies win ! With YOUR help. I bet you people are the first to complain about Bill Gates ? Well why not let the Bill Gates's of the music industry win ! That is what YOU are doing by refusing to buy our CD's. What happens when you and "very wide circle of Internet colleagues" don't buy our Boon CD. Simple we can not afford to issue another CD. So all you can get is the "Best of Level 42" (again !) with a free bottle of Wild Turkey, and Voiceprint has gone BUST. You can all say to yourselves with pride "WE DID THAT TO VOICEPRINT - DOESN'T IT FEEL GOOD ! ! ! " May you all meet yourselves in the next life ! Rob -xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx- end of forwarded message -xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx- ------------------------------ Subject: AG From: "Allwyn & Laura Kelly" Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 21:49:17 -0600 Nevermind laura ------------------------------ Subject: From: "willem van der veen" Date: Sat, 1 May 1999 11:52:30 +0200 I qoute; "When people say that it doesn't matter and that we can all say what we want, that's ok, but consider that the digest will be losing some it's best readers and L42 fans if this childish behaviour continues or escalates - quit it guys and celebrate Level 42." Thanks to Martyn "There's no big suprise when we're down on our knees"! ------------------------------ Subject: Lyrics. From: "willem van der veen" Date: Sat, 1 May 1999 11:48:20 +0200 Y'all Funksters out there, Could someone mail me the lyrics of the following songs: "as years go by" and "changes" Much obliged .. "There's no big suprise when we're down on our knees"!