He is a bass guitarist and drummer born in Cowes, Isle of Wight, England whose father was a dairyman.
While a child he concentrated on the drums after he had received his first kit after his middle school music teacher had encouraged him to go head into a musical career and he was also given guitar lessons when he was 12. When he was 19 he relocated to London and he did some work with the band M before forming the extremely successful pop group, Level 42, with co-members (the Gould brothers) and Mike Lindup.
He became known for his “slap bass” style and spent 9 years touring and recording with the band, seeing successes with songs such as “Something About You”, “Running With the Family”, “Lessons in Love” and “Love Games”. His membership of the band allowed him to tour with the some of the biggest names of the day such as The Police, Madonna and Steve Winwood and at the Princes Trust concert with Eric Clapton, Elton John, Mark Knopfler and Phil Collins.
His bass playing has been much in demand and he has also appeared on albums by Midge Ure and Nik Kershaw and in collaboration on Ferry Aid.
The Gould brothers left the band in 1987 but he continued on with Mike Lindup and although Level 42 finished in 1995 they are still performing and recording today with their latest release being the 2006 Retroglide, which was followed by a tour. Another tour was planned to take place throughout the UK in 2008.
In his solo career he released the albums Influences, One Man and Trash, which was manufactured and sold by him. Because of the success of his self-manufactured album he went on to release further live recordings on his own Sumerhouse Record label.
In 2012 he was still performing with Level 42 at various festivals and in September 2017 he was involved with a side project that released the album Gizmodrome.
He still lives on the Isle of Wight with his family and is a tourism ambassador for the island.
Here he is giving a solo bass performance…
Sources:
- http://www.level42.com/main.asp
- http://www.globalbass.com/archives/nov2000/Mark_King.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_King_(musician)
- http://www.answers.com/topic/mark-king-musician
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_(band)
- http://musicbrainz.org/artist/13028f9d-9f5b-4023-b6ed-f8653861b5f1.html
- http://www.ubersonik.com/uz_ints_mark_king.html