Dom Robinson reviews
Level 42 Live at Rockpalast
Distributed by
Wienerworld Ltd
- Cert:
- Cat.no: WNRD2315
- Running time: 182 minutes
- Year: 1983 and 1984
- Pressing: 2005
- Region(s): All, PAL
- Sound: Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Fullscreen: 4:3
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £17.99
- Extras:
Interview
Level 42 provided part of the soundtrack to my teenage life in the '80s.
I knew of their jazz roots, but apart from a track or two I never delved any deeper, nor saw any early live
footage, until now.
I first discovered Level 42, who took their name from one of the floors in a car park,
as they were starting to make a dent in charts in 1983 with hits like The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up)
and Micro Kid. Back then it was so cool as lead singer and bassist Mark King's voice reverberated
once in the former track as he said "atom bomb", and I, too, fancied a girl at school. At that time of life
it seemed so damn important, and, hence, annoying at the fact that I was never going to get anywhere with her.
If only I could go back and tell myself to stop worrying about girls until later in life as they probably
didn't know any better than me even if they pretended they did.
Skipping to the hits of the mid-'80s, I bought the LP of World Machine and loved it. The video for
Something About You went bizarre at certain times when King dressed up as strange things, depending
on whoever he looked at in that horrid British Rail train compartment, but it had such a fox in it too, who
also appeared in a number of other things on TV at the time. I've no idea who she was, but I probably wanted
to marry her.
There was something odd about Level 42 at the time, though. They'd do something odd like release a new single
that wasn't on an album, such as Lessons in Love in April 1986, and then not release the album from
whence it came until almost a year later when it was followed up by the second single, Running in the Family,
in February 1987. I listened to the RITF album on tape more times than I cared to mention whilst hammering
my ZX Spectrum with game after game, including zipping round the playing area in Quazatron, often going through
this album twice in succession then playing Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene as it was on the other side of
the tape (I had the LPS, but the record player was upstairs and I was in the dining room downstairs going
through my teen angst and getting my kicks from pressing rubber keys moving Jet Set Willy from one room to
another and trying to work out what the hell that 'Frankie Goes To Hollywood' game was all about.
As the '80s drew to a close, the line-up changed and chart success was starting to elude them. In October
1989, one of their funkiest tracks in a long while, the excellent Take Care Of Yourself, released to
advertise the 'Level Best' compilation, stalled at No.39. There was so much going on in that music video, but
it proved the manic spirit was still there in abundance.
I discovered the tape of Guaranteed in a bargain bin for £2.99 probably not too long after its
1991 release and played that to death as well. The title track was the only one to become a hit single, making
No.17, but there were far better tracks in the ballads Seven Years, Lasso the Moon and With a Little
Love, but two of the stand-out tracks for me were Overtime and My Father's Shoes. After this,
I tuned out, and most of the British public seemed to do so as well. A formulaic 1994 comeback single, Forever
Now, just scraped into the Top 20 at No.91, but the next two releases, All Over You and Love in
a Peaceful World, could only manage Nos. 26 and 31 respectively. I can't even remember how those two
went now, they left such little impression on me.
As the back cover states the band did two gigs, almost a year apart, for Rockpalast and this DVD contains
the full set for each, one at the Zeche Bochum on 29th October 1983, and the other at Grugahalle Essen on
13th October 1984.
Beginning the first gig, Heathrow is a driving piece of funk for a solid five minutes exactly. I hate
to go all 'Smash Hits' and say you can't wait to join in and 'spank than plank' in the same way as Mark King
does, but it's just bloody impossible not to! Dance on Heavy Weather and Turn It On keep up
the pace as the band give their all, and Mike Lindup sings in that high-pitched voice that always made me
question his sexuality at the time. The first hit to be played comes in the form of Love Games, their
first Top 40 hit (No.38, April 1981), starting with the classic build-up before a heavy bass note takes a
downturn and then it explodes into action. Marvellous!
As the concert progresses, it is the tracks that were hits which linger longest in the memory, but it
doesn't make the until-now-unheard songs any the less impressive or exciting. When they come to
The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up), it took a few minutes to work out exactly what happened to the
microphone to make King 'miss' a line. Looks like he just knocked it out of the way in error, but he gets
through it in style.
The second concert features a few of the same tracks, plus new tracks from their then-new album, True
Colours, including The Chant Has Begun. It closes with four well-known tracks and it's then
that part of you starts wanting more of the tracks from the mid-80s onwards, only stopping to realise
that that's logistically not possible :)
The picture for each concert is in 4:3 fullscreen as filmed, and looks damn good for its age. You can
clearly see as the sweat drips off the band, King in particular. The sound has been remixed for a
Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and thuds along brilliantly impressively.
There's one chapter per track, which is spot-on, with separate menus giving you the option of either the
straight-forward 'Track Selection' and a stylish 'Individual Playlists' menu that lets you choose the
tracks you want to hear and their order. Just select and press 'Play'.
The main menu features some animation from the concert, plus a truncated opening to Love Games. There's
no reason why they couldn't have played the whole track straight through.
The only downer on this DVD is that there's almost nothing in the way of extras - just a brief,
6-minute interview, although you'll mainly be buying this disc for the 3hrs+ of concert footage, in which
I think this DVD's definitely proved its' worth.
The full list of tracks included are :
