leonardcohenforum.com

I have been to three Leonard concerts this year - the opening night in Manchester in June (tuesday 17 June), Royal Albert Hall (tuesday 18 November) and Birmingham NEC (saturday 22 November). Plus I have been to many others over the years, won't say how many makes me feel old.

The RAH and Birmingham concerts were terrific particularly at Birmingham where I had a really good view of the stage. By then the concert included all my favourites including The Partisan and Famous Blue Raincoat. And yes it was very emotional for everyone to hear him again in RAH and Birmingham but by then we knew he was back and on super charged form.

I think that opening night at Manchester has to have the edge, even if he didn't sing Blue Raincoat, because after 15 years no one really knew if he could still do it. The atmosphere was electric, you could almost cut the expectation in the air with a knife waiting for him to come on stage. No one could be sure what would happen - would he still be able to sing as well, would he remember the words and when he walked on he looked frail. All sorts of emotions. And when of course it turned out he was in better voice than ever, the audience's response was just super charged with all the emotions: relief, joy, nostalgia, delight. During Hallelujah at Manchester everyone around me was standing, singing, cheering and crying at the same time. Transcendental is the word I am looking for.

For me it was one of the concerts in the early 1980s (possibly late 70s) at the Hammersmith Odeon. A small group of us sat in the aisle and by the stage (in those days you weren't ejected by bouncers!). If I remember correctly, he had Greek musicians in his band. It was my first concert. There was a very beautiful young woman leaning against the stage and she had laid a rose on the stage and was gently circling the rose with her finger. Leonard sang Suzanne and he watched her from the corner of his eye throughout the song. It was a very touching moment. He was in fantastic form - and did numerous encores............

Hi Padma,

It was 1979 actually. The rose does strike a very distant chord, and I must have experienced it because, for all three shows, I was sitting about three rows back on the centre aisle of the left hand block (I probably saw you, too!).

All good things, John E

Mine was definitely Glastonbury this year. Just reflecting on the past year and one of my highlights was Leonard - such a brilliant performance that will stay with me forever. I have become a late fan although he has always been around in my life since the sixties, I love the richness of his 'old' voice and the natural stage presence he brings to his audience.

i enjoy reading this and hope people keep giving suggestions [of course its not really about the 'best' but a chance to think and evaluate, and for people who have live cds to share thoughts
etc]

re Glasto... i saw 4 this year [tho not M/C opera house and can only imagine how powerful that was] of course Glasto was half the length, but something about it all made it a totally transcendant religious/spiritual experience. Other friends who saw the a full show plus Glasto seem to feel the same way.

I did a write up on glasto but it was about 25 pages (!) so hard to summarise here

Deepest thanks to scorp and so whose filming and editing made sumthing very vaulable possible at least !
If any more footage emerges, can we be told, so it can be more complete.

watching it again makes me want to scream at the opportunity missed by the Mgt
to hav this be, say a BBC special at Xmas a la other performers. eeeek !
maybe one day we will find out before we die whether the filming that was done
for the screens was recorded ?

it wud make sense to tell us say 2/3 months after the official dvd comes out.

Reykjavík,Iceland 1988.

I've never been a big fan and had never seen Leonard Cohen live before last Saturday in Perth, Western Australia. I dragged my wife along and she thought it would be "music to slit your wrists to", but it was fantastic. I'm reluctant to say it was the best concert I've ever been to, but I simply cannot think of a better one - ever! And my wife loved it too! The sound was amazing, the band was excellent and his voice was just perfect.

I hope to goodness they bring out a live album of this tour!

Ha ha ha ha speak to Stan he is SAFC up above and within striking distance of the Stadium of and was there when Manchester wore his Famous Blue Raincoat, it was needed because of the tears that fell. Glad that it was so good for you