Jackie Leven

Classic Telegraph obituary. Leven was said to be one of the most colourful and distinctive talents in rock and folk, without the success he deserved; a Telegraph critic (Neil McCormick) is said to have called Doll by Doll “the greatest band you've never heard of”. Biography: born into a Roma family in Kirkcaldy, father London-Irish, mother from Northumbria; truant, walks in the hills near Kirkcaldy, his mother's love of the blues, folk clubs, hitchhiking through Europe, busking in London, Control in 1971 as John St Field. With themes such as mental illness and homelessness, Doll by Doll set themselves apart from punk and split up after four albums. In 1983 an assault by a group of strangers on the way home from a recording session in north London; Leven says he thought he was going to die. Then separation, withdrawal, heroin, after two years recovery through Chinese treatment and “psychic healing”, co-founding of the Core Trust in Marylebone. Move to Oban, where the material for Mystery of Love (1994) came into being. Overview of the work: Forbidden Songs Of The Dying West (1995, male voice choir, Eddi Reader, Andy White), Fairy Tales For Hard Men (1997), Night Lilies (1998), Defending Ancient Springs (2000, Kathleen Raine, duet with David Thomas), Elegy For Johnny Cash (2005), Lovers At The Gun Club (2008) and the last album with “German Hotel Rooms” in its subtitle.