It’s a very soggy evening in Sheffield on 1st November 2021 but that didn’t stop people from attending a night of eighties pop/jazz funk nostalgia and they certainly was not disappointed!
The evening started with special guests Johnny Hates Jazz who are a late 80’s band who complimented Level 42 very well indeed.
Johnny Hates Jazz are fronted by Clark Datchler on vocals and Mike Nocito on bass, the rest of the band are session players, but the female keyboard artist really fetched the eighties vibe by playing a keytar! They opened the set at 7:50 pm with Heart of Gold which immediately got the audience in motion and that set the whole tone for the 45-minute set. Clark added a spot of audience participation with Wide Awake by laying the gauntlet of “see if your shouts can beat the previous audience” which the crowd did not disappoint and raised the roof.
The set-list was:
Heart of Gold
Magnetised
I Don’t Wanna Be A Hero
Don’t Say It’s Love
Spirit of Love (from their new album Wide Awake)
Turn Back The Clock
Wide Awake
Lighthouse
Shattered Dreams
Level 42 came on stage at bang on 9pm and opened the set with “To Be With You Again” and immediately the seated rules were disregarded by pretty much everyone.://
Level 42 are a powerhouse of all things Jazz-funk and a touch of pop since the early 80’s creating hit song after hit song such as Lessons in Love, Hot Water and The Sun Goes Down.
The Band members are: Mark King (Lead Vocals/Bass), Mike Lindup (Lead Vocals/Keys) , Nathan King (Guitars) Pete Ray Biggin (Drums and Percussion) and the trio on Horns are: Sean Freeman (Sax) Nichol Thomson (Trombone) and Dan Carpenter (Trumpet).
This was an evening of an excellent selection of the bands catalogue of tracks and the years have been incredibly kind to all the band members. Mark King has certainly not lost the “Thunder Thumb” nick name and can still slap that bass like it’s going out of fashion! Both Mark and Mike’s vocals have certainly stood the tests of time as well and as I listened to the songs, neither members didn’t falter a bit. The entire evening was enjoyable for all involved from the lighting setup to the horn players performing their sequence moves. Mark King had a fair amount of banter with the audience between songs and even mentioned that his bass guitars are so old they need a constant tweak between songs.
Level 42 Finished the evening with an encore of “Lessons In Love“, straight into “The Chinese Way” without catching a breath and finishing with “Hot Water” ending at 10:40pm. Mark ended the evening saying He’ll see us all same time same place in 2 years time! All in all Level 42 performed a very tight excellent gig and if they ever play in a town near you I highly recommend you to go and watch them. You will not be disappointed.
The set-list was:
To Be With You
Running In The Family
Heathrow
The Sun Goes Down
Children Say
Turn It On
A Floating Life
It’s Over
Dune Tune
Kansas City Milkman
Starchild
Coup D’état
Something About You
Heaven In My Hands
Encore:
Lessons in Love
The Chinese Way
Hot Water
Th full set of images of both bands can be found here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/183687091@N03/albums/72157720152038170/with/51649958203/
Level 42 official site is : https://www.level42.com/
Johnny Hates Jazz Official site is: http://johnnyhatesjazz.com
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