Question: Is it true that you were unable to sing for a period in the Eighties because you had your throat cut?

Jackie Leven: Well, not my throat cut but just being nearly strangled to death, and I couldn't speak, let alone sing, for some considerable time. I've got in the habit of saying two years but that's not true. It was actually a year and a bit. That was an interesting experience, suddenly not having that tool of my trade. You take that kind of thing for granted. Not being able to talk either. Also I couldn't listen to music. I hadn't noticed before but whenever [one] listens to anything, even in the background, [one's] throat tends to expand and contract with the rise and fall of melody. So it was painful to listen to music. So I kinda ended up with no friends, or just very bored friends who came over to look at me from time to time. I used to live at the back of this famous fish and chip shop in Lisson Grove at the time, and the bastards frying used to have music on all the time. So that was quite a tough time and taught me a lot.