1979–1994, 2001–Mark KingBass, guitar, vocals
Mike LindupKeyboards, vocals1979-1994, 2006-
Phil GouldDrums, piano, organ1979-1987, 1993-1994, 2004
Rowland "Boon" GouldGuitar1979-1987
Nathan KingGuitar, percussion2001-
Sean "Skip" FreemanSaxophone2001-
Pete Ray BigginDrums2010-
Dan CarpenterTrumpet, percussion2013-
Nichol ThomsonTrombone, percussion2013-
Jazz-funk innovators Level 42 formed in 1979 on the Isle of Wight, in southern England. Their heyday was in the 1980s and early 1990s, but they have remained active since re-forming in 2001 after a seven-year hiatus. The band's biggest hit in their native UK was "
Lessons In Love" (1986); in America they're best known for "
Something About You" (1985).
Bassist Mark King founded the band with brothers Phil (drums) and Rowland "Boon" Gould (guitar). Phil soon recruited keyboardist Mike Lindup, who he met at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Level 42 envisioned themselves as an instrumental group in the tradition of Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis. Their manager, John Gould (band members Phil and Boon Gould's older brother), convinced them to add vocals.
"That was a necessity, that was pointed out to us right from the word go," Mark King told journalist Lynden Barber of Melody Maker in 1984. "The bloke who owned Elite Records came to where we were rehearsing and said he liked one instrumental we were doing - they were all instrumentals, no singing, it hadn't even occurred to us to do songs. He said 'I like one tune you're doing, if you can possibly put lyrics to it I'd record it as part of this new funk movement.' John, who is now our manager, said 'He has a point, if you do want to make this successful and be heard it's very much easier to do it in a lyrical format.'"
The band name comes from the Douglas Adams novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where the answer to the question "What is the meaning of life?" is "42."
King started as a drummer but wound up becoming one of the greatest bassists of his era, dubbed the "Man with the Golden Thumb." Because he played so vigorously that his thumbs were covered in calluses and lumps, in the late '80s Level 42's record label, Polydor, insured his hands for three million pounds. Fans often showed up to concerts with their hands taped up in solidarity.
A 1994 piece by Q was titled "The Most Famous Thumb in Rock." King didn't disagree and was brash about his place as the best bass player of his generation.
King is the lone founding member to stay with Level 42 throughout their history, and he's the man who kept them driving along through the decades. In 2018 he told David Burke of Classic Pop that he felt a responsibility to keep the band's legacy alive. "I'm the guy who has been pushing this ahead and making sure it kept going through thick and thin," he said. "Everybody needs to have a dose of reality and realize that these things don't just run on their own. Somebody has to push this through all the time. The reality of why the band is still here is because yours truly kept it going."
Throughout the '80s, Level 42 increasingly moved away from fringe-interest, intricately performed jazz-funk towards mainstream pop. Combined with their exhausting touring schedule, the shift alienated the Gould brothers. Brother Phil was more bothered by his creative differences with King, while brother Boon suffered serious distress from live performances. The two quit the band at the height of its commercial success. The brothers left in 1987 after touring for their album Running In The Family.
King remained good friends with Boon Gould after the latter's exit. In fact, Boon wrote lyrics for half the songs on 1988's Staring at the Sun, Level 42's eighth album, and dropped in to perform at Bristol in 2012.
Boon Gould's troubles on stage were hiding something more severe than anyone imagined. After leaving the band he spent the rest of his life battling severe alcoholism and depression, with his former bouts of "stage fright" apparently having a truly traumatic effect on his psyche. He took his own life in 2019 at the age of 64.
Just a year before the suicide, in an interview with Classic Pop, King explained Gould's psychological distress: "He found the pressures of the touring too much. He's a very shy guy. Some of us can put on a fake mask on stage. You hide behind some kind of persona that you figure they want from you. But some people actually can't do that and find it excruciating being on stage in front of people. They never get over the insecurities. Boon suffered from that."
The animosity between King and Phil Gould festered over the years after the Goulds left Level 42. The original lineup attempted a reunion in 2003, but the animosity between King and Gould reared its head to squash the possibility. King decided to plow forward with 2003 tour dates but used an entirely different roster of musicians.
Respected fusion guitarist Steve Topping was added in 1988 after the Gould brothers left, but he bailed after just a few weeks. He later declared that King was impossible to work with. Alan Murphy, known for session work with the likes of David Bowie and Kate Bush, stepped in to provide guitar and salvage the record.
Murphy played with Level 42 during the last two years of his life. Unbeknownst to the rest of the band, he had contracted HIV and, weakened by AIDS, died of pneumonia in England's Westminster Hospital on October 19, 1989.
On June 23, 1986 at the Prince's Trust Concert held in Wembley Arena, King
jammed with legends David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, and Mark Knopfler.
Shep Pettibone
remixed "Something About You" in 1985. He was one of the hottest and most innovative producers of his time. His version was tailored to the dance-club scene and features additional vocals with a liberal amount of overdubbed keyboards.
The band's second album, The Pursuit of Accidents, shot to #21 on the UK chart but then slowed to a crawl and stopped abruptly at #17. The band blamed the record label and logistics. Talking to Melody Maker as all of this was happening in October 1982, King bemoaned the situation. "We played Chatham last week," King told them, "and the kids were coming backstage saying they couldn't get hold of the album."
Phil Gould added, "You do all that work, you spend hours in the studio laboring over your music, trying to make it the best you can, then you slog your guts out on-stage and the record company can't even do their job properly."
In periods of the 1980s and 1990s, Level 42 were considered the height of hipness, but King always held on to his older influences and frequently clashed with popular trends. In 1983 he told The Face that he found punk "offensive."
"I was very angry about it," King told The Face. "Its lack of musical content infuriated me. Also, I thought the people involved in it were as lacking in wisdom as the generation before them, and they were making exactly the same mistakes. There are certain aspects about being young - positive drive, having self-confidence - which are essential to society in the future. But unless it's directed in the right way, it's meaningless."
One of Level 42's most important figures was never officially a part of their lineup. French musician Wally Badarou (best known for his synthesizer work) started collaborating with the band early in their career and was instrumental (pun intended) to their songwriting and production throughout their most successful years.
In 2018 King told David Burke of Classic Pop, "When they were laying all this stuff down, it just so happened we were in the studio laying down stuff for Elite Records in 1980. This is how Wally came on board. We got on like a house on fire straight away. It was obvious that musically it was a perfect fit for us. I would have loved it if Wally had said, 'Yeah, I'm coming in with the band,' but he had his upcoming solo career and he was very good mates with Chris Blackwell, who was financing him. He was playing with Sly and Robbie as part of the Compass Point All Stars [the house band at Compass Point Records in the Bahamas]. He had too much going on to chuck it in and take a roll of the dice with these English kids."
Level 42 has had two child prodigies as drummers. The first was Gary Husband, who started playing professionally at age 13 and doing session work at just 16. The second was Pete Ray Biggin, who the band found standing outside their tour bus following a show at Leeds University in 1990 or 1991. The 11-year-old Biggin had an armful of albums to be signed and wound up displaying his skill on drums, which left the band stunned. Biggin joined the lineup in 2010 after Husband left to play with John McLaughlin.
The band had an active 2026, the year marking the group's 25th anniversary since reforming. They toured through the UK, played various summer festivals in Europe, and did their first-ever Australian tour. That year, they issued an instrumental album on vinyl titled Forty Two.
