Sunday has always been my least favourite day of the week to go to a gig as I do like that last few hours of relaxing before I have to go back to work on the Monday morning.

Fortunately for me tonight it was Mark King, Mike Lindup and the rest of the boys in Level 42 warming up a chilly Sunday in Bournemouth with a great gig at the Pavilion.

The evening didn't start well as I had gone to photograph the show only to find my prearranged pass was not at the box office. The unhelpful “if your names not on my list you’re not coming in” from the bands crew means no shots from tonight's gig to go with the review I’m afraid.

Still all of that soon vanished when the band hit the stage and powered straight into their instantly recognisable brand of funk/rock. This is probably classed as a home crowd for IOW based Mark King and the pretty full Pavilion welcomed him accordingly.

Three songs in and the first of the hits was given an airing Running In The Family from 1986 followed by World Machine from the 1985 album of the same name quickly followed by Children Say also from the Running In The Family album. The guys were joking that they were Queen Victoria's favorite band due to the age of some of the tunes but the crowd looked like they were all around when the songs were in the charts anyway so so what, a great song is a great song no matter when it was written.

This is the sixth time I have seen the band and the show was as slick as ever. There was no great stage set up but the lights and sound more than compensated for this. Forty minutes in the crowd were encouraged to get up and dance to Living It Up (Sun Goes Down) which they did on the promise that security couldn't throw us all out. Something About You, Lessons In Love, Hot Water, Sons and Daughters and most of the rest of the big hits were given an airing and kept the crowd on their feet for the rest of the evening. The evening ended with another classic tune Chinese Way sending everyone home happy.

They may have been around for a while but as a band they have stayed fresh, have an excellent back catalogue and certainly know how to put on a show. The crowd were mainly from the older demographic but I would recommend a Level 42 gig to any aspiring young musician out there who wants to learn from masters of the art of writing and performing great tunes that will stand the test of time.