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Author: John Earls

Mark King and Mike Lindup talk to SDE about the new Level 42 box set

Posted on by John Earls

John Earls puts the questions to Mark and Mike

Level 42’s new 10CD boxset The Polydor Years: Volume 1 (1980-84) is a sterling reminder of just how quick the band’s remarkable progression was. From an instrumental collective inspired by roots music to being adopted by the Britfunk scene and soon bothering the Top 10, across the band’s first five albums are live staples such as ‘Starchild’, ‘The Chinese Way’, ‘Hot Water’ and of course ‘The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up)’.

With a wealth of B-sides, mixes and live tracks included among the boxset, SDE asked founder members Mark King and Mike Lindup to look back over their formative years. From sharing a bedsit in South London to hanging out in LA with Earth, Wind And Fire, Level 42’s singer/bassist and keyboardist/singer discuss their terrible dancing, the joy of B-sides and Prince’s unwitting influence on a classic…
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Steve Jansen and Robert Dean on Japan’s Quiet Life

Posted on by John Earls

One of the great cult bands, Japan have remained enigmatic since their final album Tin Drum in 1981. They briefly reformed as Rain Tree Crow ten years later, but Japan are as elusive as their music. Even 40 years on, the elegance and sophistication within their final three albums is like nothing else out there.
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Lack of ‘Happy Ending’ contributed to Tears For Fears management split

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Tears for Fears in 2004 promoting Everybody Loves A Happy Ending

Tears For Fears have told SuperDeluxeEdition how the failure to release their 2005 album Everybody Loves A Happy Ending on streaming services was partially behind the duo’s decision to change their management.
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35 today: The story of Arcadia’s So Red The Rose – In their own words

Posted on by John Earls

Released in November 1985, Arcadia’s only album So Red The Rose is one of the most remarkable side-projects in pop. Created by Duran Duran‘s Nick Rhodes and Simon Le Bon when they had time on their hands while Andy Taylor and John Taylor were living out their rock star dreams in The Power Station, So Red The Rose is often remembered as “the most pretentious album of all time”. But that’s largely because Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes keep telling people it is.
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Nick Rhodes on what makes a good reissue and a potential ‘Liberty’ redux

Posted on by John Earls

Nick Rhodes has told SuperDeluxeEdition he wants Duran Duran to release a deluxe edition of their Liberty album – and revealed he and John Taylor recently rediscovered “three or four” songs from the sessions of their third album, Seven And The Ragged Tiger.

Meanwhile, Rhodes also discussed plans for the band’s next new album, which will follow 2015’s Paper Gods.
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