Jackie Leven interview (originally done for Record Collector)

Long conversation over Guinness on the eve of Leven's debut at the Royal Festival Hall as support for Bruce Cockburn (March 1997), shortly before Fairytales For Hardmen. Leven says the pseudonym (Sir) John St. Field came about when he was stopped by the police in the street and spontaneously assumed another identity; as St. Field he opened in the early 70s for ELO, Man, Quintessence, East of Eden and Colosseum II. Control was recorded in 1971/72 at Mayfair Studios and released only in Spain. He mentions a duo “Saint Judas” with Colin Soutar and a BBC session from Newcastle in 1969, as well as Walkman recordings from Greece (material for later Haunted Valley CDs). On Doll by Doll: the concert with U2 at the Venue in 1979 (he says he delivered a drunken monologue to U2), no live recordings, the recording of Grand Passion and of the unreleased A Last Flick Of The Golden Wrench in parallel in both Utopia studios with Tom Newman, the rights situation of the Automatic albums at Warner and a planned box set at Cooking Vinyl. He corrects the story of the attack himself: not his throat cut, but almost strangled, and not two years but “a year and a bit” without a voice; at the time he was living behind a fish-and-chip shop in Lisson Grove. Further: the genesis of Fairytales from two B-sides (“Poortoun”, “Sir Patrick Spens”), a planned live album at the 12 Bar Club, Argyll Cycle Vol. 2 (with the Hilliard Ensemble?), the Argyll songs as the conclusion of a separation after which his ex-partner gave him Bly cassettes, the path to Cooking Vinyl (Sony interest, the lawyer's advice) and traditionals (Dick Gaughan, “Jim o Windygates”).