Level 42 play Australia for the first time in January 2027. More than forty years after Mark King's slap bass and Mike Lindup's falsetto made “Lessons in Love” and “Something About You” international hits, the band have six theatre shows booked, from two nights at the Astor Theatre in Perth on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 January to The Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane on Wednesday 27 January 2027.
In between come The Gov in Adelaide on Thursday 21 January, the Palais Theatre in Melbourne on Friday 22 January and the Enmore Theatre in Sydney on Sunday 24 January. The show focuses on World Machine, the 1985 album that broke the band internationally, together with a set of greatest hits.
This page lists the confirmed dates and venues, explains the shape of the route, describes each theatre and looks back at the band's long, strange absence from Australian and New Zealand stages, including the tour announced for May 2020 that never took place.
The run is short and tightly scheduled, ten days from first note to last. It starts in the west, with two consecutive nights at the Astor Theatre in Mount Lawley, Perth, on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 January 2027. Perth is the only city with more than one show, a sign of how strong the band's following there has remained.
From Perth the band cross to Adelaide for The Gov, the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, on Thursday 21 January, and play Melbourne's Palais Theatre in St Kilda the very next night, Friday 22 January. Sydney's Enmore Theatre in Newtown follows on Sunday 24 January, two days before the Australia Day public holiday.
The tour ends at The Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley on Wednesday 27 January 2027. No New Zealand date is part of this tour, and no support act had been announced as of 9 October 2026.
The current Level 42 line-up is led by Mark King on bass and vocals with Mike Lindup on keyboards and vocals, plus Nathan King on guitar, Sean Freeman on saxophone, Pete Ray Biggin on drums and a two-piece brass section of Dan Carpenter and Nichol Thomson. It is the band that has toured Europe steadily through the past decade.
The Astor Theatre on Beaufort Street in Mount Lawley opened in 1914 as the Lyceum Theatre and was rebuilt in Art Deco style in 1939. Listed on the State Register of Heritage Places, it reopened in 2009 as a venue for live music and comedy.
The Gov is the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel on Port Road in Hindmarsh, a pub dating from 1848 that was turned into a major live music venue in 1993. It won national best live music venue honours in 2017 and has been inducted into the SA Music Hall of Fame.
The Palais Theatre on the Lower Esplanade in St Kilda opened in 1927, designed by Henry Eli White, and seats about 2,896, making it the largest seated theatre in Australia. Listed on the Victorian Heritage Register, it has hosted acts from the Rolling Stones to the Bolshoi ballet.
The Enmore Theatre on Enmore Road in Newtown, in Sydney's inner west, opened in 1912 and was remodelled in Art Deco style in 1937. It holds about 1,700 seated or 2,500 standing and is the longest-running live theatre in Sydney.
The Fortitude Music Hall opened in July 2019 on the Brunswick Street Mall in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. It holds about 3,000 people standing and was built to fill the gap for a mid-sized concert hall in the city.
Monday 18 January 2027 — Astor Theatre, Perth. Night 1 of 2 at this venue. This is the opening night of the run.
Thursday 21 January 2027 — The Gov, Adelaide.
Friday 22 January 2027 — Palais Theatre, Melbourne.
Sunday 24 January 2027 — Enmore Theatre, Sydney.
Wednesday 27 January 2027 — The Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane. This venue closes the tour.
Level 42 have no documented concert history in Australia or New Zealand, and that is not a gap in the data: when the 2027 dates were announced, Australian music press described them as the band's first ever Australian tour. The setlist.fm archive has no Australian or New Zealand show by the band, and Wikipedia's account of their career does not mention one either.
Through the 1980s, Level 42 toured mostly in Britain, Scandinavia and continental Europe, with American arena tours supporting artists such as Steve Winwood and a support slot on a Madonna tour in 1987. Their busiest years, around World Machine and Running in the Family, came with constant touring in the northern hemisphere, and a trip south never fitted into the schedule.
There was a near miss. In February 2020 the band announced their first Australian and New Zealand dates for May of that year: the Astor Theatre in Perth on 14 May, the Palais Theatre in Melbourne on 16 May, the Enmore Theatre in Sydney on 18 May and The Civic in Auckland on 20 May. Mark King said at the time that he could not explain why the band had never made it down under. Those concerts did not take place, which is why the 2027 run is still billed as a first.
Three of the four rooms chosen in 2020 return in 2027: the Astor in Perth, the Palais in Melbourne and the Enmore in Sydney. Adelaide and Brisbane have been added, and Perth now has two nights. New Zealand, which had been promised The Civic in 2020, is not part of the 2027 announcement.
That absence never stopped the records from selling. In New Zealand, “Something About You” reached the top 20, “Lessons in Love” peaked at number 18 and the single “Running in the Family” reached number 9, while the Running in the Family album was certified gold there in 1987. For a generation of Australian and New Zealand listeners, Level 42 were a radio and video band they never saw on stage.
Level 42 formed in London in 1979 around musicians who had grown up on the Isle of Wight: Mark King and the brothers Phil and Boon Gould, joined by keyboard player Mike Lindup, whom Phil Gould had met at the Guildhall School of Music. King, originally a drummer, switched to bass and developed his thumb-slap style in a matter of weeks; the band took its name from the answer to life, the universe and everything in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
They began as an instrumental jazz-funk act, signed to Polydor in 1981 and moved steadily towards pop. “The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up)” gave them a first UK top 10 in 1983, and World Machine (1985) brought “Something About You”, their only US top 10, and “Leaving Me Now”. “Lessons in Love”, released in 1986, was their biggest seller, reaching number three in Britain and number one in Germany, Switzerland and Denmark.
Running in the Family (1987) marked the peak, but the original line-up split at the end of that year when both Gould brothers left. With Gary Husband on drums and guitarist Alan Murphy, who died in 1989, the band made Staring at the Sun (1988), then Guaranteed (1991) and Forever Now (1994), before playing a farewell show at the Royal Albert Hall in October 1994.
King revived the name in 2001 and Level 42 have toured ever since, releasing Retroglide in 2006, welcoming Lindup back full-time that year and issuing the Sirens EPs from 2013. Recent years brought festival headline sets across the UK and Europe, shows in Chile and Argentina in 2016 and a rare North American date opening the Festival d'été de Québec in 2019.
| Album | Year | AUS chart peak |
|---|---|---|
| Level 42 | 1981 | — |
| The Early Tapes | 1982 | — |
| The Pursuit of Accidents | 1982 | — |
| Standing in the Light | 1983 | — |
| True Colours | 1984 | — |
| World Machine | 1985 | — |
| Running in the Family | 1987 | — |
| Staring at the Sun | 1988 | — |
| Guaranteed | 1991 | — |
| Forever Now | 1994 | — |
| Retroglide | 2006 | — |
The 2027 show is framed around World Machine, and the choice is logical. Released in 1985, it was the record that took Level 42 beyond the British jazz-funk circuit: “Something About You” became their only US top 10 single and reached the top 20 in New Zealand, and “Leaving Me Now” gave them another UK top 20 hit. AllMusic later called it one of the finest pop albums of the mid-1980s.
It was also a turning point inside the band. Tensions between Phil Gould and Mark King over musical direction surfaced during the sessions, and Gould briefly walked out before the dispute was patched up, leading into the band's most successful year. Hearing those songs played by King and Lindup in Australian theatres, four decades on, is the core of the 2027 tour.
Perth opens the tour and is the only city with two shows, at the Astor Theatre on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 January 2027. The Astor, on Beaufort Street in Mount Lawley, opened in 1914 as the Lyceum and was rebuilt in Art Deco style in 1939; it was also the venue chosen for the opening night of the cancelled 2020 tour.
Starting in the west makes geographical sense, with the rest of the route moving east and then north up the coast. For Western Australian fans it also means two chances to see a band that has never played the state.
Melbourne's show is at the Palais Theatre in St Kilda on Friday 22 January 2027. Opened in 1927 and seating close to 2,900, it is the largest seated theatre in Australia and the biggest room on this tour, a natural home for a band whose sound depends on clean, detailed mixing.
Sydney follows on Sunday 24 January at the Enmore Theatre in Newtown, Sydney's longest-running live theatre. Both venues were also booked in 2020, so fans in both cities have waited almost seven years for these nights.
Adelaide and Brisbane were not on the 2020 route. Adelaide gets The Gov in Hindmarsh on Thursday 21 January 2027, a live-music pub that dates from 1848 and has been one of the city's key venues since the early 1990s.
Brisbane closes the tour at The Fortitude Music Hall on Wednesday 27 January. The hall opened in 2019 in Fortitude Valley and holds about 3,000 standing, making it one of the larger rooms of the six.
New Zealand fans had The Civic in Auckland booked for 20 May 2020, and the country has been loyal to the band on the charts, with gold for Running in the Family and a number 9 single for its title track.
As of 9 October 2026, however, the 2027 announcement covers Australia only. There is no Level 42 date in Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch, and this page will not suggest otherwise until one is confirmed.
The 2027 shows are built around World Machine, the 1985 record that includes “Something About You”, “Leaving Me Now” and “World Machine”, followed by a greatest-hits set. Expect “Lessons in Love”, “Running in the Family”, “The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up)”, “Hot Water” and “It's Over” to feature, though the exact running order has not been published.
Level 42's modern live show is a seven-piece affair: King's bass and lead vocals, Lindup's keyboards and high harmonies, guitar, drums, saxophone, trumpet and trombone. The brass section added in 2013 gives the older funk tracks more punch, and the 2012 anniversary tour even included an acoustic set with Lindup on accordion. There is no recent Australian set list to quote, because the band has never played here.
Because these are the band's first Australian concerts, most of the audience will be hearing the songs live for the first time. Mid-sized theatres suit a band built on musicianship, and a seated hall such as the Palais in Melbourne should give the bass and the vocal harmonies room to breathe.
Tickets have been on general sale since Friday 3 July 2026, following a promoter presale that opened on Wednesday 1 July. Buy through the official ticketing outlets listed by each venue or at the venue box offices, and if you are going in Perth, check whether your ticket is for Monday 18 or Tuesday 19 January.
There is no public Level 42 presale code to buy or share, and the presale period has long closed. Codes and guaranteed seats advertised on social media are not genuine. For sold-out nights, use only the official resale service of the original seller; many Australian theatres now issue name-locked mobile tickets.
The 2027 tour is a separate on-sale from the 2020 announcement. Sign up below for the alert to hear about new Level 42 ticket releases or any New Zealand dates.
Have Level 42 ever toured Australia before?
No. The January 2027 dates are described as the band's first ever Australian tour. A run announced for May 2020 did not take place.
When does the tour start?
At the Astor Theatre in Perth on Monday 18 January 2027, with a second Perth show on Tuesday 19 January.
When is Level 42 playing Melbourne?
On Friday 22 January 2027 at the Palais Theatre in St Kilda.
When is the Sydney show?
On Sunday 24 January 2027 at the Enmore Theatre in Newtown.
Where do Level 42 play in Adelaide and Brisbane?
Adelaide is The Gov on Thursday 21 January; Brisbane is The Fortitude Music Hall on Wednesday 27 January, the last night of the tour.
Are there New Zealand dates?
Not as of 9 October 2026. The 2027 tour covers five Australian cities only.
What will they play?
Songs from the 1985 album World Machine plus a greatest-hits set, which should include “Lessons in Love” and “Running in the Family”.
Is Mark King still in the band?
Yes. Mark King leads the band on bass and vocals, with original member Mike Lindup on keyboards and vocals.
Is there a Level 42 presale code?
There is no public code. The promoter presale opened on 1 July 2026 and general sale began on 3 July 2026.
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