Skotsk mørkemann

Portrait with quotations from conversation after Leven's concert at Dikselen, Haugesund, the previous week (08.04.2010). Sørhus introduces him as “Scotland's answer to Van Morrison”, who turns sixty in 2010. Leven says (in his own account) that Bergen was the first city in which he performed as a professional musician: at 16, in 1966, he toured with the American gospel/blues singer Doris Henderson, and Bergen was the first stop; he recalls arriving through the fjord and the stench of a fish-processing plant, but says he fell in love with Norway at once – the people had the same “madness” as the Scots. One of his favourite poets was Olav H. Hauge, so it was exciting to be close to his home region.

On the origin of “Rainy Day Bergen Women” he says he was woken in Bergen by coughing in the next room, looked out on the rainy street full of hurrying women and wrote the song in half an hour; his father had just died, and it was his first song about his death. In Haugesund some had taken him for an “old punk” and expected punk songs. He loves the studio because he is “incredibly good” in it, but the record company only allows an album every 18 months – hence the pseudonym Sir Vincent Lone.