Poeten Leven

Portrait distributed via the NTB Pluss agency at the start of the tour. The “friend of Norway” sees himself above all as a poet. It recounts the near-death after a mugging in the early 80s (almost strangled, without a voice for over a year), then heroin – and his girlfriend running off with the Dalai Lama's bodyguard. His 18th album has now been released; the European tour began “this week” at John Dee in Oslo and continues to Bergen, Tromsø, Trondheim and Stavanger.

Leven says he does not know exactly why he starts in Norway; he likes the country at this time of year, especially Tromsø; he has never played in Norway or Sweden in good weather. He likes the Norwegian audience, even if it is sometimes rather drunk, especially in Bodø and Kabelvåg. He takes it as a compliment that he is called the great lost British rock star: in every generation some get lost, he lost commercially, but he is more a poet than a rock star and only ever wanted to play in a rock band. His boyhood wish to travel the world with a guitar has come true; he got lost and was found. He lives in a happy relationship with a jazz singer; “Single Father” is about his adult son.