My friend Vanessa and I drove down to Oceanside around 2pm, where our friend, Kyna lives, and where we would be staying for the evening, after the concert. We arrived around 3:30pm, relaxed and got ready. Had dinner, then, headed out to The Belly Up in Solana Beach, which was 30 minutes away, where Level 42 would be playing that night. I had been waiting for that night for about 7 months, and couldn’t believe that it was about to come to fruition!
Just to give you a little bit of a background on my fandom: I’ve loved Level 42 since I was 7 years old. Yes, 7 years old. I believe it was “Love Games” that was on the radio at the time, and I absolutely loved it. Flash forward to 1985, “Something About You” came out, along with “Lessons in Love”, and I was done! I saw the video for SAY, fell in love with Mike Lindup, thought he was the most adorable thing and just absolutely went nuts for the song! I was 10 years old. As the years went by though, I sort of lost track of them. It wasn’t until May of 2000 that I was re-introduced to them, thanks to Jeff Thacher of Rockapella. He put in his bio (that the Rockapella fan club used to release) that Level 42 was one of his favourite groups. When I saw that, I thought to myself, “Level 42?! Oh my, I haven’t heard of them in a while.” So, I proceeded to look them up on the internet, and there I found out that they were still an actively touring group, but was sad to find out that only 2 of the 4 original members were left. As I found out more and more about them, I started buying their CDs off of Ebay. Discovered the older stuff, and fell in love all over again. At the time, I was also working at a law firm, where I worked with Ed, a paralegal, who turned out to be an absolute Levelhead (who’s also a gigging musician)! When he found out that I had just re-discovered Level 42, he offered to lend me his video tapes, “Fait Accompli” and “Live at Wembley 1986”. That’s when I fell in love with Mark King, and his incredible talent! The man is a bass-playing fool, with unsurpassed talent! I told myself that one day, I would love to travel to the UK just to see them play live, whatever configuration they may be in at the time. I didn’t think that they would ever come to the US to do concerts. Back then, it seemed like it was highly unlikely they would.
July 28, 2010. The day, I thought, would never come. I found myself getting ready to see my musical loves. My musical heroes, if you will. I was beside myself with excitement, but I tried not to show it. I didn’t want my expectations to be too high, only to be disappointed in the end. I had also heard, from other people who had already attended the shows in the East coast, that the band does a meet-and-greet after the shows! Whoa! Would it really be possible for me to meet them?! The thought was just too hard to fathom. When I talked to Jeff Thacher in San Juan Capistrano, after one of his gigs with Rockapella, about wanting to meet Level 42, he kind of discouraged me, and just said to just take as many pictures as I could. I hate to say it, but he burst my bubble. So, I went into the Level 42 gig at The Belly Up with very low expectations. My only consolation was that I had 2 concerts to go to. Anything more than that, would be a lovely bonus.
We got to The Belly Up a little before 8pm. As soon as we walked in, I got excited and nervous at the same time, something that one would feel going on a first date. Yup, that’s how I felt about seeing Level 42 for the first time. It felt like I was meeting them on our first date. Haha I noticed the long-time fans were already positioned in front of the stage. I knew I had no chance of getting up close and personal with my boys, so I opted to stand about 10 feet away from the stage. Unfortunately, being a 5-foot-tall Filipina, that wasn’t very ideal. It didn’t help that the 6-foot burly guys in front of my friends and me weren’t budging and would not let us go to the front, even though they knew that they could see above us just fine. Despite the fact that I was annoyed at those guys, I just let it slide because they were fellow Level 42 fans, and I wasn’t about to ruin my night just because of their lack of generosity.
Their opening act was called The Earful. Similar style of music as Level 42, but they had no vocals. They were pretty good, and the lead sax player, was definitely HOT. My friends and I called him Orlando Bloom, because he had similar features, which is definitely MY type. Hah! After their set, while the roadies were setting up for Level 42, some older guy stood behind us with a friend of his. He struck up a conversation with me, asked me if I was a fan of the band, and said that he used to work with Level 42, 25 years ago, as their chef. Hmm… And he proceeded to tell me that he’d buy us drinks, if we wanted, and perhaps meet the band later on. SUSPICIOUS. I tried to avoid him as much as possible, just as a precaution, because you never know what kind of agenda he had. Oy.
Finally, Level 42 takes the stage! They started coming out, one by one: Mike, Pete Ray, Mark, Nathan and Sean. I didn’t know who to look at first! My head was swimming! It was just all too surreal! Mark picks up his KingBass, and that was it! I think my head exploded!
I couldn’t see well where we were standing, so my friends and I decided to just go to the back, and look for an empty bench by the bar. We finally did find a spot, all the way at the back, across the bar, I was sitting at the very end of the bench. It was a nice little corner-spot that I found, I took the opportunity to sit on the railing instead, to elevate myself and get a better view of the stage, above the crowd, and it was awesome! I partied my heart out, sang along to all the songs, screamed at every opportune moment, and I was dancing in my seat! I was having a blast! Even though, I wasn’t up close, I had the best time (low expectations, remember?).
They sang the hits – “Something About You”, “Lessons in Love”, “Running in the Family”. They also did the lesser-known (in the US), “The Sun Goes Down (Living it Up)” – which I claim to be my song, because of the line, “There’s a girl at the back, making eyes at me. And her hair, long and black, it’s a sight to see.” I have very long, black hair. 
After the concert, we lingered around to see if they were coming out to meet the fans. While waiting, I went to look at the merch table to see if I can score some items that I didn’t have yet. I was hoping that they would have the 30th anniversary boxset (which they sold in PA, a couple of nights prior), but the guy said they didn’t have it. Bummer. So, I ended up just buying their “Live in Holland 2009 DVD” (which turned out to be AWESOME!). I asked the guy at the merch table if the band was coming out to meet with the fans. He said they weren’t. I asked him if he was sure, he said he was. My friends and I tried to linger a bit more to see if they were coming out, despite what the guy said. However, it was getting late, and we had an early the next day, so we headed home. Later on, I found out, through Twitter, from another long-time Level 42 fan, Carl, that the band did come out and meet with the fans and took pictures! However, I was long gone when they did! I was absolutely bummed, and couldn’t sleep that night because I missed, what I thought was, my only chance to meet them. I wasn’t expecting to meet them at The Grove the following night because it was a different type of venue, not an intimate one.
Anyway, despite some setbacks, I managed to really have fun. And I think my friends, who were new to Level 42, enjoyed watching me have fun! My first ever Level 42 concert was definitely what I expected, and more! Thank you for coming to the US after 23 years! The wait was definitely well worth it!
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