Interview: Jackie Leven before the Circa concert and the Madrugada support slot in Tromsø

Double-page preview with quotes from a conversation. Leven is coming to Tromsø at the weekend: first a solo concert at Circa on Saturday afternoon (5 pm), then as support act for Madrugada at their farewell concerts at the Kulturhuset on Sunday and Monday. The unusual afternoon start is explained by Leven's second passion, Liverpool FC: he has to watch the Tottenham–Liverpool match at half past six, he says, laughing.

The article summarises the biography (Doll by Doll, dissolved 1982; solo career; nocturnal attack after a studio session, almost strangled, loss of speech, of friends and of his partner, psychological problems, heroin, isolation; after a year the founding of a foundation for addiction rehabilitation) and calls him an honest, hard-working and unusually well-reviewed musician whom the Tromsø audience has often seen (a caption mentions one of Leven's “many Blårock concerts” and a dog named Basil who stays at home).

Leven says (self-report) that he has liked Tromsø since seeing a report in an English newspaper many years ago and telling his manager that was where he wanted to go. He always stays at the Grand Hotell, where he has written very many songs: wake up, breakfast, walk through the streets, write in the room. Impressions from the street and from pubs are “stored” and come out when he writes in peace. He knows Norwegian music well, used to support Midnight Choir, rates Bertine Zetlitz (a joint appearance in Stavanger, afterwards the same flight to Oslo) and thinks Norwegian music is currently “hip” in Britain. He calls the invitation from Madrugada a great honour; he remembers the day he got their first record.