| Born in 1950 in the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland, Jackie Leven spent his childhood and teenage years surrounded by dying coal fields and fading woollen mills, and his song imagery remains conditioned by this early witnessing of a culture in crisis, and the community stresses that attend and characterise the passing of such a way of life and work.
His mother loved jazz and black American blues as exemplified by the likes of Lightnin' Hopkins, and Jackie grew up in the constant presence of music of this kind. This, married to Protestant hymn singing at school, and the dank salty common songs of Fife remain detectable as the melodic root of his rich and sure songwriting.
Teenage years in the '60's saw a further layering of influences - an acquired and abiding love of Russian and American poetry, blending with the pull of American West Coast Rock and acid rock- this whole procession of influences surfacing brilliantly on 1971's acid-hazed album 'Control', (made under the pseudonym John St. Field).
Jackie is an artist who has always seen his art as a living key to experience, and through the early/mid '70's he played music principally in order to observe and witness life in various parts of the world, such as half-year stretches living in Madrid and Berlin, while the former was still under the fist of Franco, and the latter was still a well-divided city.
Jackie Leven, now in his Forties, has enjoyed a long and varied career. A formidable singer, guitarist, songwriter and storyteller, his work, like many of the musical greats, falls into a category of its own. With some justification his outpourings have been called "Celtic Soul" and Jackie lives in an ancestral line that includes the likes of Van Morrison, Lightnin' Hopkins and unnamed singers of work-songs from all corners of the earth who share a universal voice.
Jackie first made a serious impact upon the UK music scene in the late 70s with rock band Doll By Doll, a hard-hitting classic two guitars, bass and drums outfit that beguiled audiences when they weren't scaring the pants off them with a rare on- stage intensity. The band made five superb albums of warped melodic rock music: Remember; Gypsy Blood; Doll By Doll; Grand Passion and A Last Flick of the Golden Wrench. The group disbanded in 1982 tired of struggling against the punk / new wave preoccupations of those times.
Jackie began recording as a solo artist in 1983 but this phase of a promising career ended in savage circumstances when, in the same year, he was nearly murdered. Speaking bravely of the painful incident he remembers only 'a powerful arm coming around my neck'. His larynx, tool of his trade was almost destroyed, thus silencing him for years. Jackie's answer was to turn to heroin - the classic 'drug of despair', after which, adding insult to injury, his girlfriend ran off with the Dalai Lama's bodyguard!
Deciding after a year of addiction that he 'wanted his life back', he released himself from addiction via a method of his own making which utilised acupuncture, psychic healing and reflexology. Jackie has fortunately bounced back investing in several significant (and controversial) new ventures with his typical charisma and energy. In 1995, he founded and created The CORE Trust - still the UK's only fully holistic service for the healing of addictions and used significantly by music show biz casualties. A registered addictions charity in central London, CORE continues to this day to offer the same treatment to people with all forms of addiction. CORE's success rate is among the highest in Europe, and in her lifetime, Diana, Princess of Wales was a champion and supporter of the Trust, being guest of honour at fundraising events and officially opening the centre's premises.
Jackie later became friends and colleagues with Robert Bly, author of the USA best-seller 'Iron John' and the recognised originator of the Mytho-Poetic Men's Movement. This 'Men's Work' with its most visible themes of warriorship, grief and shame, has polarised opinion amongst UK/USA feminist thinkers, and has demanded of Jackie a new role as spokesman for the work, giving talks/appearances throughout the UK (e.g. Gloria Hunniford, Kilroy, Tate Gallery, Royal College of Art, BBC TV Scotland etc. No wonder that Jackie has earned himself a reputation as the thinking man's rock star.
Since signing to Cooking Vinyl, Jackie has released five albums - 'The Mystery of Love is Greater Than the Mystery of Death', 'Forbidden Songs of the Dying West', 'The Argyll Cycle Volume 1', 'Fairy Tales for Hard Men' and 'Night Lilies' each one consolidating his reputation as a Rock 'n' Roll legend.
Jackie has been awarded the Jahrespreis der
Deutschen Schallplattenkritik - the most prestigious and serious critical
German award for the best record of the year. Yet another award for this
most deserving of artists, who will go down in history as a genius of his
time. |
