Ladies Who Sing Leonard - Memo Music Hall

Tributes & covers; Leonard's songs on the soundtracks and TV
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Junk
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Location: Melbourne, Australia

Ladies Who Sing Leonard - Memo Music Hall

Post by Junk »

There will be a tribute concert on February 6th 2020 at the Memo Music Hall in Melbourne.
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Andrew (Darby)
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Re: Ladies Who Sing Leonard - Memo Music Hall

Post by Andrew (Darby) »

Thanks, this looks promising, must get along to it. 8)

Cheers,
Andrew :)
'I cannot give the reasons
I only sing the tunes
The sadness of the seasons
The madness of the moons'
~ Mervyn Peake ~
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Andrew (Darby)
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Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2002 5:46 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Ladies Who Sing Leonard - Memo Music Hall

Post by Andrew (Darby) »

Last night Junk and I experienced this fabulous concert featuring six talented vocalists and a few other instrumentalists performing a worthy selection of Leonard’s songs, as follows: Hey That’s No Way to Say Goodbye; Bird on a Wire; Tower of Song; Dance Me to the End of Love; Suzanne; Famous Blue Raincoat; Everybody Knows; I’m Your Man; Tonight Will Be Fine; Chelsea Hotel; The Goal; Who by Fire; You Want It Darker; Hallelujah; Passing Through; So Long Marianne.

Each of the songs was arranged and interpreted in an interesting or compelling way, with the women’s quite remarkable and unique individual voices offering a nice vocal variety across the spectrum. I also loved the exuberance, vitality and camaraderie of this group of relatively young performers, who remained on the stage together throughout. They performed with obvious conviction too, though there were the moments of laughter and irreverence. Anyway, the whole show was just so stirring, transcendent and joyous. :D

One of the highlights of the whole night for me was Anita Lester (aka ‘Devorah’) doing You Want It Darker, which was spellbinding. Those of you who may not have seen her in action before, can do so via the Facebook link below (originally posted by Allan Showalter), which includes her early version of this song recorded a little before Leonard died, one which she endeavored to send to Leonard, along with a heart-felt letter of homage to him as her mentor, in which she recounts how she became a fan of his after her father’s death when she was just 10 years of age. 8)

https://www.facebook.com/leonardcohen/p ... 2667299644

Additionally, here's Devorah performing You Want It Darker more recently, in a Ladies Who Sing Leonard show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MenJHFh5wo


Another captivating performance was I’m Your Man beautifully rendered in Yiddish.

The grand finale song of this awesome show was So Long Marianne, with the main six vocalists doing a verse each and the whole group doing the loud rousing chorus together after each verse… I have to say this is possibly the most enjoyable cover performance of the song I’ve ever heard.

Even though Leonard was only present in spirit, it was also a nice association that one of the performers was a Cohen, Gabriella Cohen, a recognized performer in her own right.

Below are links to a couple more YouTube recordings from earlier performances by the group.

Famous Blue Raincoat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0O89AC ... e=youtu.be

Hallelujah:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5GcwVCb-14


A joke from the night to finish with: this group of young women looked magnificent, all in white, with one of them commenting they might appear to be ‘brides of Leonard’, or perhaps ‘whores of Leonard’. ;-)

Cheers,
Andrew :)
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'I cannot give the reasons
I only sing the tunes
The sadness of the seasons
The madness of the moons'
~ Mervyn Peake ~
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B4real
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Location: Q'ld, Australia

Re: Ladies Who Sing Leonard - Memo Music Hall

Post by B4real »

In case this was missed recently under a song title -
https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewt ... 80#p376580 - here it is where it also belongs.
B4real wrote: Wed Mar 24, 2021 12:50 am Recently, Anita sang You Want It Darker in The Walking Dead. Here she sings Bird On The Wire on Australian radio.
First there's a short interview when she speaks about her contact with Leonard 3 weeks before he died.
Live on air Broadcast: Tue 23 Mar 2021, 5:30am
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/melbourne/ ... n/13268978
Melbourne singer-songwriter Anita Lester performs an incredible version of Leonard Cohen's 'Bird on a Wire' on Breakfast with Sammy J.

Anita is curator of an upcoming show called Ladies Who Sing Leonard.
It is said there are two shows on 21 and 22 April 2021 but so far I can only find reference to one date -
https://www.memomusichall.com.au/memo-g ... 0narrative.

https://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/ladies ... FpmXNLitPY
❊ When & Where ❊
Date: Thursday 22nd April 2021
Times: 7:00pm AEST
❊ Venue ❊
Memo Music Hall
88 Acland Street, St Kilda
0410 789 844

EDIT: I've just noticed the 22nd date above says sold out but I've just found the 21st seems not to be so far - https://www.memomusichall.com.au/memo-g ... 0narrative.

Maybe Andrew and Murray might like to attend again but if so, it looks like they'd better be quick to book :)
It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to B4real ~ me
Attitude is a self-fulfilling prophecy ~ me ...... The magic of art is the truth of its lies ~ me ...... Only left-handers are in their right mind!
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Andrew (Darby)
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Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2002 5:46 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Ladies Who Sing Leonard - Memo Music Hall

Post by Andrew (Darby) »

Thanks Bev, but upon checking, I see there are only standing spaces left... still tempting, but common sense may prevail, as standing for so long would reduce my enjoyment of the concert. ;-)

Cheers,
Andrew :)
'I cannot give the reasons
I only sing the tunes
The sadness of the seasons
The madness of the moons'
~ Mervyn Peake ~
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