Level 42
King moved to London at the age of nineteen, subsequently forming Level 42 in 1979 with Mike Lindup and fellow Islanders, brothers Phil and Rowland Charles Gould. Although a drummer, King found himself having to learn bass after landing a job at Macari's. In an interview with the magazine Music U.K (Issue May 1984) he states:
I kept up playing drums until I moved to London. I'd always wanted to be a good drummer and it's just ironic that I've turned out to be a bass player. The way I started playing bass was that when I arrived in London I was looking for a job, and the only place I could find one was in Macaris in Charing Cross Rd. I wanted to get something involved in music, and that seemed like a good place to be. But Macaris didn't sell drums, and so I lied and said I could play bass. They said, "Fine, you sell the basses, and sweep up and get the coffees and whatever".
Nevertheless King's natural rhythmic intuition probably contributed to his distinctive bass playing style, along with the popularity of jazz funk in Britain at the time.
At one of their first gigs, at the La Babalu club in Ryde, Level 42 were spotted by Andy Sojka, the head of small independent record label Elite and signed. The next year they were signed to Polydor and King spent the next nine years recording and touring with the band. The first Top 40 single, "Love Games", was released in 1981, heralding the band's first appearance on Top of the Pops. The big breakthrough came with the release of "The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up)" in 1983.
While in Level 42, King found his bass-playing services in some demand. He was invited by Nik Kershaw to play on his second album The Riddle (1984) and by Midge Ure to play on his albums The Gift (1985) and Answers to Nothing (1988).
Level 42 supported The Police in 1981, followed by tours with Steve Winwood in 1986 and Madonna in 1987. In 1986, King and Lindup performed alongside Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Mark Knopfler and Elton John at a Prince's Trust charity concert.
They released the album Retroglide in 2006 and a European tour followed.
Level 42 (line up: M.King, M.Lindup, G.Husband, N.King, S.Freaman) toured in autumn of 2008.
Read more about this topic: Mark King (musician)
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