Jackie Leven

Gary links a short YouTube video in which Leven speaks (first announced as a documentary, then corrected: “just him talking”). From this develops a thread of memories with a good 25 posts (Jan.–June 2019). “Artery” owns all the CDs, claims to have seen Leven almost a hundred times and wishes for vinyl or box-set editions from Cooking Vinyl. SteveT describes Leven's stage image – barefoot, in shorts, seemingly indifferent – and relays a statement by Michael Weston King: Leven was a perfectionist, sober before concerts, and expected the same of fellow musicians. retropath2 half disagrees: he says Leven often asked the audience on stage for a large vodka with lime in a pint glass. A debate follows about the pronunciation “Leeven” rather than “Levven” and a running gag with Leven's stage line “Sting is dead”.

retropath2 says Leven drew him into the old blog of The Word magazine, where he met a community of Leven devotees – forerunner of the Afterword community. Kaisfatdad saw Leven in Stockholm, most recently at the club Debaser. Baron Harkonnen says he discovered the band through an NME review of the album Doll by Doll in a pub in Wigan, found Leven again through Mike Scott's thanks on Fisherman's Blues and bought The Mystery of Love in Rhyl in 1994. Nick L says his future wife named Leven as her favourite musician when they met. Feedback_File and Gary name “Main Travelled Roads” as their favourite song; a link leads to the (according to YouTube comments, only) Doll by Doll film footage.