MP: Mark King

Mark Friggin' King, the mastermind behind the band Level 42.

Mr. King was a true pioneer in the slap/pop style, especially adding the style to pop music in the 80's. At the age of 19 he moved to London and ended up forming Level 42 (as a drummer) with Mike Lindup, and brothers Phil and Rowland Charles Gould in 1979. Mark then switched to the bass guitar cause he felt that Phil was a way better drummer than he was, and when the band started, Phil already had a kit, and Mark didn't. Also, at the music shop that Mark worked at, they didn't sell drum kits, so he had no way of practicing in the mean time. Nevertheless King's natural rhythmic intuition probably contributed to his distinctive bass playing style, along with the popularity of jazz funk in Britain at the time.

"At one of their first gigs, at the La Babalu club in Ryde, Level 42 were spotted by Andy Sojka, the head of small independent record label Elite and signed. The next year they were signed to Polydor and King spent the next nine years recording and touring with the band. The first Top 40 single, "Love Games", was released in 1981, heralding the band's first appearance on Top of the Pops. The big breakthrough came with the release of "The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up)" in 1983. While in Level 42, King found his bass-playing services in some demand. He was invited by Nik Kershaw to play on his second album The Riddle (1984) and by Midge Ure to play on his albums The Gift (1985) and Answers to Nothing (1988). Level 42 supported The Police in 1981, followed by tours with Steve Winwood in 1986 and Madonna in 1987. In 1986, King and Lindup performed alongside Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Mark Knopfler and Elton John at a Prince's Trust charity concert. They released the album Retroglide in 2006 and a European tour followed." - From wikipedia

TECHNICAL FACTS: Mark King helped to develop and popularize the slap and pop style of playing the bass guitar in the 1980s. The slapping and popping style was developed in the 1970s by funk bassists such as Larry Graham and further developed by jazz fusion bassists such as Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller. King developed a rapid playing speed using this technique, and introduced technical elements that enabled him to produce a mix of percussive effects while still playing a bass line. Mark's bass playing style is largely based on continuous 16th notes (aka semiquavers), sometimes described as "machine-gun" style. This "machine-gun" style consists of playing rapidly using a combination of thumb slaps, pops, hammer-ons, and fretting hand slaps.

INSTRUMENTS: Thumb Jaydee Mark King Signature, Alembic Mark King Signature, Status Graphite "The KingBass" Mark King Signature

At the ripe age of 53, Mark is still touring with Level 42, does his own solo gigs, and performs clinics all over the world, and he doesn't plan on stopping soon. Check out this video of Mark with Level 42 in 1983, THAT THUMB IS GOING NUTS.

Thanks for reading! Jake Ryan.