Twenty five years after we first made the trip, a bepaunched gathering of the grey and balding descended on Oxford's New Theatre on Saturday night to see the latest incarnation of Level 42. Would they deliver the greatest hits routine which has become distinctly stale in recent years, or would the return to the fold of original keyboard player Mike Lindup prove reinvigorating?
When Mark King meandered on, looking more than ever like Mel Smith, and launched into 'Fashion Fever' - the most populist track from their most populist album - it seemed likely that a run through the FM gold repertoire might be in order. Early choices of hits like 'Leaving Me Now' (albeit with the frisson of its famous piano outro being played by the elegant Lindup) and 'Running In The Family' suggested likewise. But then the band wrenched itself from the comfort zone with some rarely heard gems. The selection of 'The Machine Stops', apparently due to a fans' website vote, was followed by the seductive 'Romance' from the neglected 'Forever Now' album, King in his exchanges with the audience sounding gratified that the band had been asked to move off the beaten track. Less predictable still was when a couple of songs later the epic 'Man' was given a rare outing. As the show drew towards its climax Lindup, until then a subdued, almost tangential figure looking less like a pop star than an interior designer, took his only lead vocal of the night with the soaring 'Starchild', before the singalong 'Lessons In Love' surprisingly segued into a storming 'Dive Into The Sun' from 2006 - a finale which belied King's early rallying cry that the setlist would include nothing but oldies.
Encores of 'The Chinese Way' and 'Hot Water' were to be anticipated, but sandwiched between them the eight minute instrumental 'The Pursuit Of Accidents' was as unexpected as it was welcome. If Level 42 can continue to juggle the demands of filling theatres with revisiting the arcane reaches of their back catalogue, then there's life in the old dog yet.
