JACKIE LEVEN & THE GOTHIC ROAD ORCHESTRA

Event information

Cult Scottish poet, singer-songwriter and former Doll By Doll singer, whose fans include Robert Plant and Ian Rankin, Jackie Leven and his band play from his latest Cooking Vinyl album, 'Gothic Road' and are joined by folk legend Ralph McTell.
Description:
Born in 1950 into a Romany family, JACKIE LEVEN spent his childhood and teenage years as an outsider in the clannish, Fife, Scotland. Leven's band Doll By Doll made five critically acclaimed albums, before splitting.

In 1983, after a late night recording session for a solo album, Jackie was the subject of an unprovoked street attack during which he was nearly strangled. Unable to speak or sing, he lost his record deal, friends and way, entering his own period of psychic disorder, taking heroin and living in isolation for nearly a year. Since re-joining the world in 1985, he has released a string of excellent albums and the latest of those is 'Gothic Road'.

'Gothic Road' opens with the choral sound of 'Ghost Voices Of The Kursk' - three young Russian men from the northern seaboard city of Murmansk, all of whose brothers died in that Russian submarine tragedy. And so the stage is set for twelve strong tales from the 'Gothic Road' - powerful stories from one who has walked the road for nearly sixty years.

'a great musical maverick' Britain's lost rock star. Leven is probably the most talented singer-songwriter never to have become a household name, producing neglected masterpieces since 1971, while leading a dramatic and colourful life.' - NEIL MCCORMICK, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

www.jackieleven.co.uk
www.myspace.com/jackieleven


One of the great storytellers, and renowned for his virtuoso guitar style modelled on those of Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell, RAPLH MCTELL, is now celebrating 30 years on the road. Ralph made his debut in 1968 with the album 'Eight Frames a Second' and in 1974 the release of 'Streets of London' earned him an Ivor Novello Award and has since been covered by over 200 artists as diverse as Bruce Springsteen and Aretha Franklin. In 2002 he was presented with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

www.ralphmctell.co.uk


MORE INFO:
www.unionchapel.org.uk
www.twitter.com/putroots
www.pulluptheroots.co.uk