It’s the mid nineties and it was the first time I’d heard the phrase “Leveling Up” of course it was the folk rock punk band the Levellers that were making waves in the music world with the album “Leveling the Land”
Following the release of that album I must have seen the band live on at least 6 occasions mainly with my good friend and gig buddy Jeff. Most of the gigs were in venues across the West Country including Torquay Riviera centre, Plymouth Pavilions and Exeter University so, easy for us both to get there after a hard days work.
Talking of work, around 1997 I was working a lot around the Bristol area, meaning an 80 mile journey into work. I was lucky my company car had a cassette radio fitted into it and I was able to spend the 1-1/2 hour journey blasting out my latest purchases. In those days Cassette singles were growing in popularity and at 99p to me it was better value than a can of coke.
So, no surprise my copy of the Levellers single “What a beautiful day” got plenty of playing time up and down the motorway. The song is one of those lift you up anthems to get your day going. Now, my boss at the time, a guy called Ken Jones was into his music and nothing gave me more pleasure than giving him an early morning call (6.30) on my way to work and turning up the sound announcing what a beautiful day it really was ! Bless him, Ken never complained about being woken in that way and would often be very complimentary about my early morning enthusiasm 😎
Back to the gigs, the Levellers were and probably still are a great live band, Plenty of fiddley diddley stuff in amongst their punk rock thing, they always had a great following with the band knowing how to work and lift the crowd upwards, at times it was exhausting watching it all play out!
All in all, at each gig a good time was had by everyone!
What a beautiful day indeed 😎🎸