'I am an abject failure'

Conversation over a pint at Marylebone station. Aizlewood begins with Leven's annual ritual: every spring he travels with a sleeping bag, a few books and little money to a randomly chosen country station and sets off walking to walk off his aggression. Stages of the biography follow, some told this way only here: son of a carpet fitter from Fife, work in a rocket factory, married at 16, driven out of the neighbourhood by a gang at 17, farm work from Cornwall to Glasgow, in Franco's Madrid in the early 70s, where Control was allegedly the only thing easily obtainable. Doll by Doll (“Dull By Dull” to their detractors), the 1983 attack in Market Street in Islington with a cut across the throat, loss of his falsetto, heroin, withdrawal, the CORE Trust (discreetly supported by Princess Diana); his partner and CORE co-founder ran off with the Dalai Lama's bodyguard. Leven has since withdrawn from running the trust and lives in Hampshire with Debbie, who is teaching him “80/20” organisation. Creatures of Light & Darkness processes the death of his father the previous year. Leven half-amusedly calls himself “an abject failure”, rejects a crossover in the manner of David Gray, describes the rigours of long German tours and his reserve of unrecorded songs. Overall tone: sympathetic, with regret at the little recognition he has received.