THERE are not many people who can say that they have had their thumb insured for a staggering £3million but Mark King can, writes Alex Wellings.

Mark was the bass player in Level 42, who at the peak of their success were selling millions of albums and regularly storming up the charts.

But Level 42 weren't just any old band. They boasted one of the best bass players of all time. Mark's bass was at the heart of the group and his distinctive style revolved around his thumb.

Mark didn't pluck the strings or pick them with a plectrum, he slapped them with his thumb and so record company chiefs decided that it would be a good idea to insure the prized-digit - just in case.

"I had a thumb which was insured for £3million. It was at the height of our success. I felt good about it. It's probably only worth seventeen and six now," joked Mark, who is rehearsing for a series of concerts including a date at Worcester's Huntingdon Hall.

Level 42 were one of the big successes of the early '80s Brit-funk movement.

The band consisted of three lads from the Isle of Wight, Mark and brothers Phil and Boon Gould, who teamed up with Mike Lindup on keyboards and started to make music.

"We worked like crazy and built up a reputation as a live band. We were working seven nights a week and we built up quite a fan base, which meant that our albums sold reasonably well. By about '85 we had started to learn how to write some pretty decent tunes," said Mark.

Those tunes made up the World Machine album which sold by the shed-load and all of a sudden Mark and the rest of the band were dealing with a little more success than they wanted.

"We were constantly touring America. We were opening for Madonna and Stevie Winwood in the big baseball stadiums. One night we played to a crowd of 102,000. It was a bit frenetic."

By now Level 42 were moving some serious 'units' both in the UK and in the States, they sold 30million albums in all. But just when it seemed that they had the world at their feet, disaster struck.

Phil and Boon Gould, the drummer and guitarist, left the band due to the pressures of success.

Mark and Phil Lindup kept Level 42 going for another seven years or so, but it was never quite the same.

"We wrapped it all up in '94. Level 42 were really a band of the '80s and I felt it was time to call it a day. We finished with a good tour so I felt that we were finishing on a high," said Mark.

Mark King, one of the greatest bass players of all time, returned to his beloved Isle of Wight and retired.

The guitarist, who is 43 now, concentrated on his family. He has four children and seeing as money was not a problem, selling 30million albums has that effect on your bank balance, he was quite content to take it easy.

But then the internet came into his life.

"I became aware of the internet and when I was going on-line there were all these Level 42 websites. There were still a lot of fans out there," he said.

Mark also got a call from a publisher.

"He asked me what I was doing and if I was writing any songs. He wanted to have a listen. I played them and that led to releasing an album in '98."

Mark has now released four solo LPs and pretty soon the word on the web was that Mark and his bass were back.

But Level 42 were first and foremost a live band so every year Mark dusts off his bass and heads for a week's residency at London's Jazz Cafe. But this isn't any old concert, the fans choose what Mark and the rest of the band will play - by the internet of course

"I put a message on the website saying what songs do they want to hear. We do songs that were never played live by Level 42.

"We have people coming from America, Australia and Japan for the week in London," he said.

As part of his Jazz Cafe preparations Mark will be dropping in on Worcester's Huntingdon Hall on November 24 and he is looking forward to returning to the area.

"We played Huntingdon Hall last year and it was a nice evening. It's nice to be coming back."

Mark has teamed up with his brother Nathan on guitar, Lyndon Connor is on keyboards, and Gary Husband, who played with Level 42 for seven years, is on drums.

For ticket details of the November 24 gig contact the Huntingdon Hall box office on 01905 611427.