leonardcohenforum.com

Thanks everyone for a great night. As you can see I made it home. John it's just as well I went for the earlier train I would have been a nervous wreck if I thought I had missed the next one ( don't you just love their timekeeping!!)
Ali it was the bubble bath that caused the rash? Oh thank G-d
Diane thanks for arranging the night and you Rob for the presents and red needle. Lee thanks for the laughs.
Great meeting you all.

Thanks also Margaret for the dvd hope to catch up with you in the future.

Wendy

I wish I could have been there with you all I hope another meeting is arranged in the not too distant future.

Please feel free to copy and circulate the cd's between yourselves.

Margaret

I need you to PM postal addresses guys, as my email tried to break up Hallelujah into 68 peices to send to you as the file is 50kb My poor computer has being trying to send for hours, so I dont know if you got anything at all, I will download straight onto CD and post in the morning if I have your addresses by then
Ali

Being a bit obsessive about time keeping, it was 6.45 that I entered “the railway” pub last night. Before I reached the bar I was approached by a young woman (Diane) who said “You’re Rob”. It was not a question; it was a confident statement of fact. I thought, “This is my allotted fifteen minutes of fame, I walk into a pub I’ve never been to before, and I’m recognised by someone I’ve never met”. Diane introduced herself and put me right; it was not me she recognised, it was my hat.
Drinks in hand, we selected a secluded corner of the bar, put up a poster of Leonard in a (failed) attempt to be recognised by anyone not familiar with my cap. We set up a walkman and speakers to play some of Leonard’s music (it was live in Iceland) and waited for the guests to arrive, one by one.
After a while, we were all gathered, six Cohenites. Well, to be more exact, five Cohenites,……… and Lee. Ali had indicated on a previous post on this thread that her partner was not the most devoted fan of Leonard’s in the world. Immediately on arrival, Lee enthusiastically endorsed this account.
In conversation with Lee, I found that we had an enormous amount of shared musical interests, blues, rock n’ roll, jazz singers, in fact we loved every bit of each others musical tastes, except Leonard. Just a little aside, I’m a keen gardener, spent all this day at my allotment, and by an amazing coincidence I discovered that both Lee and I have, in the past, had a mutual interest in cultivating exotic herbs and fungi.
It was previously suggested that I was the official photographer for the evening, not true. It was merely my camera, John the shorts had asked a very beautiful barmaid to take a photograph of the whole group. John does seem to have a very cosy relationship with the barmaids, not just in this hostelry, but I was informed by one of the locals, in every bar in a thirty mile radius (John seldom goes thirty miles outside Bridgend).
It was a birthday party, and what is a birthday party without presents? (Margaret, we thank you for the items that you sent us). There was presents wrapped in birthday wrapping, and Diane, instrumental in calling this group together, made the toast. We raised our red needles with the salute “happy birthday Leonard”. It was at this exact moment that one of Bridgend’s more senior citizens, who had been viewing the opening of presents and the chinking of glasses with some bemused interest, put on his coat and said to us, “I don’t which one of you is Leonard, but have a happy birthday anyway” before leaving; we thought it best to not try and explain.

There are some aspects of the evening that I have decided should be kept confidential to the participants, in particular, everything after 10 pm. I trust that none of you will mention the round of “Cohen charades”. Suffice to say that the mime performed by Ali, Wendy and Diane to indicate the song “closing time”, while instantly recognisable, and much appreciated by all the gentlemen customers of “the railway” almost got us banned. It was only after the landlord had counted his takings for the night that he invited us back.
John, Ali, Lee, Wendy, Diane, about that photo. I will circulate it to you all before even thinking about posting it on the forum. In hindsight, I should not have left the photo shoot so late in the evening. I will accept any reasonable cash offer to not post it; anyway, I’m sure Jarrko has policies about publishing that kind of material on his website.

For Ali, Lee and Diane it was their first meeting with forum members, Wendy and John had met before, and I had never met any of them before. Sometimes we can dip into the forum and we look like a fractious, argumentative bunch of people. But take six of us, who for the most part had never met, put us together, and what do we get? An absolutely wonderful evening and everyone getting on really well. We really must do it again, soon.

Rob.

Well tonight it was my second favourite pub in Bridgend (until Leonard's Birthday Bash it was my fave) as it was Big Franks' 30-10th Birthday.

Sadly it wasn't nearly as much fun as last night although I think the high spot was Emma (Manageress of Railway) asking if we were going to visit again so she could order some Cranberry juice

Gareth couldn't believe that there were so many LC fans prepared to travel to gather together until I pointed out that LC was and is, at this point Helen chirped up to say that she thought that LC was dead as she had seen a documentary recently about him and Sarah was upset with me as I'd gone for a drink to celebrate Leonards Birthday and forgotten that it was hers as well (still at least it's easy to remember - LC & SLC makes a very poor scrabble hand!)

Looking forward to posting a little more regularly but avoiding any flame wars/etc

Wela Chi pawb

An addendum to my last post. One of the high points of the meet up was Diane bringing us “If it be your will”, lovingly translated into Welsh by her husband. This must be a first in the history of Cohenism! Whereas I cannot transmit the beauty of the sound of the welsh language to you, I can show you how it looks. Just the first verse………….

If it be your will os wyt'n dymuno
That I speak no more I mi siarad ddim mwy
And my voice be still ac I’m lais fod yn dawel
As it was before fel buodd o’r blaen
I will speak no more siaradef ddim mwy
I shall abide until cadwaf fy addewid tan
I am spoken for siaradaf drostaf
If it be your will os wyt’n dymuno

thank you for that,
Rob.

Rob: Thanks for that write up. It pretty much tallies with my recollection, apart from the charades bit !! I really don't know what you're talking about!! It obviously must have occured whilst I made a trip to the loo. Wendy..? Ali..? Actually, I think it was just a fantasy the guys made up between them, don't you ?

John, I reckon you did miss your train after our meeting, purposely, and you've been in town ever since. That's why you had that change of shorts with you - so you didn't need to go home. Am I right ?

As far as the photo is concerned , Rob, you can send it directly to my lawyer whose address I am pm-ing you. I strongly advise you to circulate said picture to nobody else for the time being...!

Margaret, I have already copied the dvd for everyone and am in the process of doing the cds, thanks again. What with your pressies and Rob's pressies, we should have plenty of 'new' Leonard to keep us going for a week or two.

Oh, yes! Let's do it again! We discussed a Bristol meet-up, as it would be easier for those living across the border in England to get there. Ali and Lee, you thought you knew an ideal spot in Bristol where you live. Is it close to the railway station?

See you later,

Diane

Lee's LC tribute

I have 5 CD's awaiting postal addresses, Diane, yours is due to be posted in the next hour, so hopefully it should hit your doormat tomorrow morning

Please, if critique is involved remember Lee sat in front of the computer mic and played it cold - just him and my accoustic guitar. It hasn't gone through a home studio programme to be cleaned up yet

As a follow up, I forced him to sit through my entire LC collection last night and he has managed to find 10 LC tracks he enjoyed (Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
and will start practicing some of them for the Bristol meet up.
ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND he was singing Hallelujah in his sleep the night of our meet up ............... Rob, was there some subliminal stuff going on with your walkman...???
Let's Take Bristol very soon
Ali

Rob, Wendy and Margaret, your CD's are in the post this morning.

Bristol has many venues we can use for our next meet up, if we decide a date, it may be worth posting a new thread and getting people to register an interest in coming, then we can decide where to hold it ( Diane may like to do this as she was so excellent at organizing the last one - )

Rob, you are a star, got Lee's post this morning - We love you!!!

John The Shorts, I will send your CD as soon as you PM me. Bristol has Shorts weather all year round mate
Ali

Hi Ali,

I have just come in from a wonderful bike ride and found your package waiting for me. It is playing as I write. Lee has a lovely, Leonard-like deep singing voice . I like it a lot, thanks! Can't wait until he tops the bill at Bristol. When I said, above, it would be an idea to post it on the forum, I meant with a link to it from, e.g. the 'poetry and music by forum members' section. Not that I have any idea how one goes about this , but it is a pity more people can't hear Lee's cover!

We have already agreed a weekend date would be best. I would find it difficult in December, as would others I guess. So if we are to start off nominating a month, I'd vote for either November, or late January/ early February. What do others think, including Margaret and Linmag and others who could travel to Bristol?

Rob, what really happened to the photo? I'd love to see it!

All the best,

Diane

Great reading each of your recollections( ) of the evening November might be a little tricky for me I will be away for a week from the 18th also my friends are busy conniving I mean organising something for me during Nov/Dec so probably Jan/Feb would be best for me.
Ali looking forward to hearing Lees' cd.

Wendy

Hi folks. I will be away this week until Friday, so if you want to start making any plans for the next meeting just go ahead without me. At the moment, I can make any weekend evening in January or February except that of 4/5th Feb. I looked at a map last night and noticed that Chester where you live Margaret is actually no closer to Bristol than to Bridgend, and may even be further away . Sorry. The next meeting we have after the Bristol one should surely be oooop north somewhere.

Wendy, John and Ali now I have your addresses discs will go out today.

See you,

Diane

Have a nice week away Diane

Thanks Ali, I'm actually going to spend some time with my cousin who is like a sister to me. She is very sick with cancer and has just been admitted to a hospice up in Lancaster. It will be great to see her, but very sad too as you can imagine. See you here next week.

Diane