I could tell you the almost to the hour on April 24th, 1987 that I heard a LEVEL 42 song for the first time and knew who they were. It was on a trip to San Francisco with my Japanese girlfriend named Yuko who had brought along a copy of Running In The Family. We were just passing Goleta in the middle of the night, and Yuko reached into the glove compartment and pulled this cassette tape out...

Now, these were the days when the Pet Shop Boys were jingle-jangling car speakers into submission, so when I asked Yuko what the tape was she said, "Oh, they're a band from England... LEVEL 42." I was highly skeptical. How many bands were just a bunch of guys with synthesizers and drum machines, singing lyrics about angst and bi-sexual confusion...? The future did not bode well for enjoyable music.

Yuko owned a red 1980 Honda Accord at the time; purchased from the well-to-do Kataoka family of Pasadena. The road ahead was pitch black on the way up to Lompoc; all you could see were a few reflective strips on the freeway and the hood of the car. There were so few drivers out that the stars were easily visible through the windshield and the moonroof. I'd been paying close attention to the each stage of the journey, trying to mark how we were doing on time.  Yuko put the white cassette tape into the Sony tape deck, and everything in my life changed right then and there...

As each song played, I lost all track of everything accept the road and what I was listening to. Even after the A side ended with "It's Over" and flipped to the B side, I was mentally locked in to every note, waiting to see what would come out next... My whole sense of style and musical tastes were changed forever.

Since then, I've listened to LEVEL 42 so many times (thousands) that I've gone through about 7 or 8 Running In The Family CDs. I know what got me hooked into the sound of the band, but what about you? What got you started? Where were you when you first heard the band's music? How did their music affect the way you listen to songs and lyrics?

If you've got a story or anecdote, I'd love to put it on Sleepwalker 42. Share you stories with people who've had similar feelings and experiences, or show people who don't know the band's sound very well, just what they've been missing all this time.