From: Level42-request @ worldmachine.com (Level42 Digest) Subject: Level42 Digest V2000 #112 _ ____ _ ____ _ _ ___ // //__ // / //__ // /__// __// //__ //__ \\_/ //__ //__ // /__ D I G E S T Level42 Digest Volume 2000 : Issue 112 1310 subscribers Today's topics: the slap sound J.W.C. Bronski Something about you John.O'Connell =?iso-8859-1?Q?=A32_Chinese_way?= ztavendl RE: Level42 Digest V2000 #111 Martin Brindley Honey? M. Payne Re: Level42 Digest V2000 #111 Dar4Bass Favorite Groove Tom Trudell RE: [ILF] Honey? Winston Walker Basses Brian Flint Bass sound Oliver Pavicevic Help & Advice Richard Maybury LEVELFEST- TEXAS INFO Fall 2000 M. Payne Dreadful Abominations (cont.) DonZipf 52nd Street Nigel Bird Re: Level42 Digest V2000 #109 Bill Burnett re: AG/Dan Eric J. Hansen Football Mark Summers Petronas' Towers steve york Barbican Bilal42 ------------------------------ Subject: the slap sound From: "J.W.C. Bronski" Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 13:05:17 +0200 I'd like to add something to the recent discussion about bass sound. Some people talked about which instrument is good for slapping or which one is good for the Mark King sound. I think there isn't such a thing as "the" slap sound. Marcus Miller's slap-sound is totally different to MK's slap-sound. Victor Vooten's is totally different to Larry Graham's. In the seventies some players even slapped on a Fender Precision Bass. That instrument is the opposite of the modern active hi-tech bass. Still it sounds great. About the Mark King sound: There isn't really one. His sound in the early 80's was very different from the one on the later albums. On the "Live at Wembley 86" video the bass sound is totally different from the sound on Rockpalast 1983 although it's the same instrument. What I want to say is that the whole sound thing is depending on many factors. If you talk about the instrument you also have to talk about the amp, the strings, the eq-setting, the recording technique and most important: the player. Your inspiration and what you play with your fingers will be the most important sound factor. So, to all of you wanting to buy a bass. Go to a shop and try as many different ones as possible. Don't think too much about if it's a Fender, Music-Man, Ibanez etc. Just thrust your feeling and your ears and you will find the right bass. JWC Bronski ------------------------------ Subject: Something about you From: John.O'Connell @ Equant.com Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 12:48:47 +0100 Heard about this on the radio over the weekend - Boyzones new single to be released in July is called "Something about you", a slow and moving ballad. No, it couldn't be - could it? It made me smile anyway!! John ------------------------------ Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?=A32_Chinese_way?= From: "ztavendl" Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 13:45:54 +0100 Hi Levelheads, just thought I'd say that some friends and I found two single LP's of Chinese way (with a 1982 "88" from Guildford Civic Hall) in a little record shop for £2. Are these worth anything, one of them is in mint condition. Tavs the tiny bass player ------------------------------ Subject: RE: Level42 Digest V2000 #111 From: Martin Brindley Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 13:47:13 +0100 >WORST LEVEL 42 SONG? "Talking in your sleep". should have called this one >"Songwriting in my sleep." >-T Squared * Tom, Isn't it amazing that your worst song is one of my favourites - I really like the lyrics (and would have to agree with the person who said that it was one of their favourite lyrics) and think that it has a really nice mood to it. It seems that liking Mr Pink is just about the only thing that is universal among us founds on the digest, and this makes it all the more interesting! See y'all Tino ------------------------------ Subject: Honey? From: "M. Payne" Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 08:35:20 CDT There is, or was, a band called A Taste of Honey, featuring two lead ladies, one playing guitar, one playing a bass, the bass player apparently has gone on to other things, mainly solo material, does anybody know her name? MIKEY 42 PS: Has anybody dare to read the inside notes of The Very Best of Level 42....? If you notice, it has Mike quoted as using "Sh##". I find that very hard to believe. Who ever wrote those inside notes, I hope isn't going to do the new inserts on the re-issues! ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Level42 Digest V2000 #111 From: Dar4Bass @ aol.com Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 10:16:11 EDT In a message dated 6/12/00 6:07:32 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Level42-request @ worldmachine.com writes: << I'm with you on this one, JWC, insofar as no bass conceived in the 1950's was "designed" for slapping. >> Don, That was my whole point in maiking that statement... And your comment on Fender being nothing more than a marketing machine couldn't be more correct! Bless the Bass... ------------------------------ Subject: Favorite Groove From: Tom Trudell Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 07:49:17 -0700 Favorite Groove: bass solo, Kansas City Milkman live. or the Microkid vocoder scat. or the Sunbed Song unexpected funky break. or anytime Phil does an explosive fill and comes in with the downbeat on 2. no, wait, it's definitely the instrumental outtro to "My Father's Shoes." forget it, I can't decide. - Sir Dennis Eaton Hogg ------------------------------ Subject: RE: [ILF] Honey? From: "Winston Walker" Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 11:09:39 -0400 Mikey, Janice Marie Johnson was the singer/bassist of 'A taste of honey'. http://www.angelfire.com/band/atasteofhoney/ Mikey, why do you think Mike Lindup is some sort of saint? Surely you dont think he has never used profanity, do you? If you read that quote in the context of what Mike is saying, it makes perfect sence. He is quoting Phil Gould. Also, I'm sure Lindup used a few choice words when he was mobbed by us fans at the Jazz Cafe last year. ha,ha,ha Winston -----Original Message----- From: M. Payne [mailto:mikeyp42 @ hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, June 12, 2000 9:35 AM To: ilf @ worldmachine.com; level42 @ worldmachine.com Subject: [ILF] Honey? There is, or was, a band called A Taste of Honey, featuring two lead ladies, one playing guitar, one playing a bass, the bass player apparently has gone on to other things, mainly solo material, does anybody know her name? MIKEY 42 PS: Has anybody dare to read the inside notes of The Very Best of Level 42....? If you notice, it has Mike quoted as using "Sh##". I find that very hard to believe. Who ever wrote those inside notes, I hope isn't going to do the new inserts on the re-issues! ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- The Level 42 "ILF" mailing list is an electronic bulletin system for news about International Levelfests. To unsubscribe from the ILF list, please send an email to with "unsubscribe" as the subject. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- ------------------------------ Subject: Basses From: "Brian Flint" Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 08:37:48 PDT Greg, I stand by what I said, and it is because of my bass experience that I say that. After Sixteen years and six basses, I've come to the conclusion that a 2500.00 bass may sound good, but if it plays like a pick up truck then it's useless. The Phil Kubicki factor was a mice bass, to be sure, but the action tended to worsen quicker and the balance was a bit off. My friend has a Sound Gear which is a model better than mine and it plays slower and has a very uncomfortable feel. I';m not saying ignore the tone. But if the bass is uncomfortable to play, it might as well have a crappy tone as well. The bass won't play itself. So therefore it's all a matter of opinion. I don't like the Fenders, some people do, that's fine. I really think this whole conversation is a matter of opinion anyway. I just don't want our aspiring bassists to go out and spend 500-1000 dollars just because they have the impression that that's the only way to get a good bass. Bri ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Subject: Bass sound From: Oliver Pavicevic Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 18:58:53 +0200 > The best > amplifiers, pickups, equalizers and preamps cannot make a bad bass > sound good. It's the tone of the instrument, which is the beginning > of a long signal chain of sound, that is most important. > Technical bass mumbo-jumbo (skip it if your not interested) Greg, I wouldn't agree with you. Acoustics of a bass body doesn't have significant influence on a tone. Signal chain of a sound starts from strings, then goes thru pickups and that's where we have major difference on a sound. Technically speaking, pickup picks only electromagnetic vibrations (elector induction), but not acoustic vibration of a body. Good body will give you more or less of sustain of a sound, but it can be measured only in milliseconds. More important thing is a position of a pickup. Notice that amplitude (loudness) of a string is not equally distributed on its length, for example, positions of a flat harmonics are actually dead points of a string. So, if your pickup is positioned on a dead point (7/8 ths of a string), and you play lowest E, it would have tone that is full with harmonics (much of a harmonic content, like fifths, then fifths of fifths.. etc..,), but also, it would lack of a base tone (low end). So, moving a pickup for only 1-2 mm will change a sound quality. Adding another pickup will make sound much richer.. Also, double pickups will give you even more of harmonicall and base content. Downside of another pickup is that it could give you also some out of phase content (pickup on 6/8ths of a string, another on 7/8ths, first will have polarity of a signal that is positive (for example +6), second will have negative (for example -4), so positive+negative will give you actual amplitude of +2.... and it makes great difference... Also, if you don't have good pickups, you should try adjusting their height (distance from string), more distant is the pickup-more slapy sound (don't exaggerate- you will lose loudness), more close is the pickup-more plopy sound you'll get and psichoacusticaly - less of dynamics...) This works well on Fender Jazz Bass. Oliver http://www.mp3.com/acidicca ------------------------------ Subject: Help & Advice From: "Richard Maybury" Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 18:38:11 +0100 Howdy Folks, Can anyone tell me if most ISPs support FrontPage 2000 files on standard account web sites as my ISP does not ? At a record fair over the weekend I picked up some bargains...."A Way You'll Never Be" by Leisure Process featuring MK & PG - the 12" for £1 - how much is it worth ? I bought "The Chinese Way" on 12" for 60p !!!! Finally I got "True Colours" on LP for £2 and the record and sleeve looks almost brand new ! Till the sun goes down... Kansas City Milkman email : maybury @ nildram.co.uk web: www.maybury.nildram.co.uk ------------------------------ Subject: LEVELFEST- TEXAS INFO Fall 2000 From: "M. Payne" Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 13:06:10 CDT

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Friday, October 27 through Sunday, October 29, 2000

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------------------------------ Subject: Dreadful Abominations (cont.) From: DonZipf @ aol.com Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 14:16:17 EDT > As JWC Bronski wrote, so many fine bass players choose the Fender > Jazz. Even more interesting is artists choose it late in their playing > careers, like Geddy Lee (Test for Echo) and Mark King (One Man). Mark switched to the Fender Jazz Deluxe for One Man because he was going for a trendy, lo-fi sound - and that's exactly what he got. And there was no shortage of posts to this forum expressing disappointment in the bass sound on that release. He tried to use the Dreadful Abominations live as well, but they just didn't work for slapping (as can plainly be heard on the NOTP disc). That's why he switched to the GB's for the rest of the tour. Peace - Z. ------------------------------ Subject: 52nd Street From: "Nigel Bird" Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 19:23:28 +0100 Hi MicroKiddies! I hope that I'm not too late picking up on this one! I agree with a previous posting on 52nd Street (support band for L42 on the WM tour) - a very good band very much from the same mould as Loose Ends. > In regards to 52nd Street, I remember (if memory serves correctly) that > they had two Top 40 urban hits back in the mid eighties. The first was > "Tell Me (How It Feels)", and the second was "Something's Going On". They also released, what must have been, a third single "You're My Last Chance" from the album "Children Of The Night". From the album there are one or two half decent bass lines to be heard - especially on "I'm Available" - but not in the same rank as our very own MK! So what album, if there was another album, did "Something's Going On" appear? Please reveal! Apologies for the non-L42 content. See ya! Nigel. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Level42 Digest V2000 #109 From: Bill Burnett Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 20:02:05 +0100 Greetings all, I've just listened to some Level 42... and in other news today. >Subject: Lyrics >From: "murgatroyd" >I never fail to be amazed at the genius of one particular track's lyrics - these >being Talking in your Sleep. >From the unfolding plot in a book to the seaside town where the lights have gone >down the lyric is a masterpiece. I must hand it to them on this one. I don't always have the same love for L42 lyrics as I do for their music (being on this digest has brought a few missed gems to my attention though), but that line about the seaside town chokes me every time. It isn't that it means anything very personal to me, but I can see places that I've been, and recall everything that I felt about being there all in that one moment. Masterful imagery. >Subject: Responses... >From: DonZipf @ aol.com >"Manly". All your men are manly, Richard. ;o) Not masterful imagery, cracking cheese though Gromit. >Subject: slap, percussion and right old cock-ups! >From: "james callaghan" >2) what ever happened to Leroy Williams (percussionist) I think I may have said this before, but the most recent appearance I am aware of is on Simple Minds - Street Fighting Years (1989). But I'm sure someone here must have the full biog, right up to what cereal he will eat tomorrow morning. >Subject: Mr. Nister, Bass talk, etc. >From: "Winston Walker" >John Woo stil knows his way >around an action scene Still waiting for him to blunder into such delicacies as plot, structure, character development, plausibility etc. >Subject: Responses... >From: DonZipf @ aol.com >they don't give a damn about the venerable >art >of bass-making, only about the profits in whoring out a classic American >trademark. It wouldn't be a classic American trademark if it hadn't been whored out for profits, it's the American way. Love - Bill. -- ======================================================================== Bill Burnett http://www.sphere3.co.uk/ ======================================================================== ------------------------------ Subject: re: AG/Dan From: "Eric J. Hansen" Organization: Worldmachine Technologies Corporation Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 15:45:25 -0400 From: Andrew_GOODWIN @ europe.bd.com > > Subject: fyi: Steely Dan Europe tourdates > > From: "Eric J. Hansen" > > It's exactly this kind of irrelevant, off-topic posting which ruins the Digest. > I've got half a mind to e-mail the list administrator and ask him to > unsubscribe you. hey, I'm not really a fan... just passing along the info since I know there are some 'admirers of the Dan' out there. In fact, I really don't get the schtick with them anyways... I mean, all of their song titles were just pants... and especially the album titles. Sheesh! Talk about poor attempts at being clever!! -- Eric J. Hansen Worldmachine Technologies Corporation http://www.worldmachine.com tel: (617) 357-4040 x210, fax: (617) 357-4949 ------------------------------ Subject: Football From: "Mark Summers" Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 21:37:02 -1000 Re Euro 2000: England v Portugal We woz robbed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (AS 'KIN USUAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) :o( Mark Summers www.msummers.force9.co.uk www.msummers.force9.co.uk/level42.htm ------------------------------ Subject: Petronas' Towers From: "steve york" Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 17:58:48 PDT Hey Level 42 Followers! (with emphasis going out particularly to the clan of "British- Career oriented Engineers (who graduated from Cambridge/Oxford,University of Isle of Wight (if such a place exists) I recently was enthralled to read peoples' mixed reviews of the recent release of MI2. EVERYONE ON THE DIGEST failed to see a similar "movie connection" between this ficticious skyscraper which was supposedly located in the heart of downtown Sydney, Australia and a REAL skyscraper located in Kuala Lumpour, Indonesia (The Petronas' Towers to be exact) Hint: Go and rent at your video store a copy of the movie "Entrapment" which starred Sean Connery. And let's see how many people pick up what the "connection" was between the two. Look foward to reading tomorrow's responses! ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Subject: Barbican From: Bilal42 @ aol.com Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 04:02:05 EDT I hope everyone is well I've not been reading the digest much lately, but I understand someone wanted to know where the Barbican is... well, I can help with that bit as I worked by there once! I used to get off at the Moorgate tube stop on the Northern line, but I think the Barbican has its own stop on the Circle line. In fact the Barbican is right by the Guildhall School of music where L42 had their first rehearsals and shows. Bilal