Jackie Leven RIP

The Nottingham writer David Belbin (young-adult and crime novels) writes a personal obituary two days after Leven's death. He says he met Leven several times over the years and could hardly reconcile the affable, very funny man with the fearsome singer he saw in 1979 with Doll by Doll at the Garage in Nottingham – Leven told him twenty years later that it had been one of their few good gigs. Belbin mentions the John St Field album from the early 1970s, the assault, the heroin addiction and Leven's return as a prolific songwriter and storyteller, who he says made him laugh more than any current stand-up comedian.

He had a ticket for a concert in Derby in October 2011 that had been postponed – now he knew the reason. Leven, he says, never played encores (at most granting a single request), but after concerts he would hug and kiss fans and sign autographs. He points to the obituaries in the Guardian and the Herald and to Kevin Hewick's piece at Louder Than War, and posts the song To Live and Die in Levenland as an MP3. In the comments one reader recalls a concert at Jim's Café in Colne; in 2021 Belbin adds a reply pointing to the new tribute album.