379 Hello Level 42 - Love Meeting Love

Chart  entered : 30  August  1980

Chart  peak  : 61

Number  of  hits : 29

It  was  sadly  inevitable  perhaps  that  of  all  the  bands  associated  with  the  early  80s  Brit-funk  explosion  - very  few  of  whom  make  it  onto  here - that  the  most  commercially  successful  would  be  the  one  that  was  87.5 %  white.

Mark  King ( born  1958 ) , and  the   Gould  brothers  Rowland  known  as  "Boon"  ( born  1955 )  and  Phil ( born  1957 )  were  all  from  the  Isle  of  Wight  and  knew  each  other  on  the  local  music  scene  but  at  the  time  both  Mark  and  Phil  were  drummers  and  the  band  actually  came  together  in  London. In  the  late  seventies  Phil  went  to  the  Guildhall  School  of  Music  and  Drama  to  study  percussion  and  there  met  keyboard  player  Mike  Lindup  ( born  1959 ). Mike  was  born  in  London  and  was of  mixed  race.

Phil  got  involved  in  the  "M"  project  of  Malcolm  McLaren's  friend  Robin  Scott   and  played  on  his  worldwide  smash  Pop  Musik  in  1979  appearing  on  Top  of  the  Pops.  By  this  time  Mark  had  also  moved  to  London  after  starting  work  as  a  milkman. He  got  a  job  in  a  record  shop  where  he  started  learning  the  bass  and  briefly  played  drums  in  an  early  version  of  one  hit  wonders  Re-Flex. In  the  autumn  of  1979  Phil  introduced  Mark  to  Mike  and  also  M's  keyboard  player  Wally  Badarou  who  would  become  Level  42/s  producer. Mark  played  bass  on  a  track  on  M's  second  album  but  he  and  Phil  were  more  focused  on  forming  their  own  band,  named  after   The  Hitchhiker's  Guide  To  The  Galaxy.  Boon  joined  the  band   as  guitarist  and  saxophonist  after  returning  from  America.

They  were  spotted  jamming  by  Andy  Sojka  who  signed  them  to  his  Elite  label  who  let  them  record  the  B-side  to  the  jazz-funk  instrumental  "Journey  To... "  by  Powerline  which  was  put  out  as  a  white  label  single. "Sandstorm"  is  itself  an  instrumental  and  gives  a  first  outing  to  Mark's  thumb-slap  bass  technique . It's  OK  although  the  synth  sounds  are  very  dated.

Sojka  then  suggested  that  they  should  start  writing  songs. They  considered  bringing  in  a  singer  but  instead  decided  that  Mike  and  Mark  would  share  the  vocal  duties  and  Boon  and  Phil  would  write  the  lyrics. "Love  Meeting  Love"  was  to  be  their  first  proper  release  for  Elite  but  then  Polydor  snapped  them  up  and  took  over  the   single.

Written  by  Mark  and  Boon  it's  about  sex  but  doesn't  sound  very  erotic. Mark's  voice  is  distinctive  but  hard  and  flat  and  Mike's  softer  tones  would  surely  have  been  more  appropriate  for  the  material . It's  got  a  nice  loping  groove  but  the  song  itself  is  grey  and  dreary  and  the  long  cocktail  piano  intro  sends  out  all  the  wrong  signals  before  it  even  gets  going. I  know  there  are  diehard  Essex  lads   who   maintain  that  their  early  work  was  their  best  but  on  this  showing  I  can't  agree.