Reader comments on: Cult heroes: Jackie Leven found musical beauty in his wounds

Twenty comments (16–18.06.2015) under Graeme Thomson's “Cult heroes” piece. To one reader's charge that a dead man is being mythologised, fans reply that Leven did most of that himself. “Kevin1957”, who followed the band as a fan and was allowed to stay overnight in Maida Vale, reports that co-founder Robin Spreafico died of cancer in early 2015 and his successor Tony Waite a few years earlier; Doll by Doll, he says, did get front covers of Disc and Record Mirror at the time. Another reader remembers that Leven played regularly at the Brighton Folk Club in the early 1970s.

The most detailed is “simonhop”, a songwriter who supported him several times at the 12 Bar Club in the mid-1990s and booked Leven for a series in Bromley. Leven stayed overnight with him and, over vodka and orange juice, explained his storytelling technique: the audience does not want ordinary heroes; the storyteller must have experienced extraordinary things, and the truth must not get in the way. Leven later asked about printing one of simonhop's lyrics on an album cover, which never happened. Another reader was at the 12 Bar concert that was released as For Peace Comes Dropping Slow, saw Leven at the release concert for The Mystery of Love at the Borderline with an electric guitar, and in the 1990s exchanged letters with him about poetry (recommendation: Sharon Olds, The Father; conversation about Kenneth Patchen). TatankaYotanka announces the tribute evenings by Michael Weston King and Michael Cosgrave in Winchester and Birmingham.