Man trouble

Early profile from the first Cooking Vinyl decade. Paul Du Noyer visits Leven at the CORE Trust near the Marylebone Road, where a portrait of the Princess of Wales hangs in reception, and introduces the former “psyche-punk” singer as co-founder of the addiction charity and British spokesman of Robert Bly's Men's Movement. Leven wears knickerbockers and is a hard-drinking Scot. The attack of 1983, the end of Doll by Doll and the story of the girlfriend who ran off with the Dalai Lama's bodyguard and left Leven Bly cassettes are recounted. Leven defends the Men's Movement as common sense without a guru, speaks of “endarkenment” as the counterpart to enlightenment, promotes his whisky “Leven's Lament” (reportedly sold at Selfridges and Harrods) and bars as places of reflection. On the CORE Trust: no compulsory abstinence as in twelve-step programmes; ten staff, 30 therapists, supporters such as John Paul Getty Jr., Genesis, the Pet Shop Boys and Eric Clapton; Mike Scott donated a library. Musically current: The Argyll Cycle Volume One, with an album “Fairy Tales for Hard Men” planned.