leonardcohenforum.com

Berlin 4 October 2008

I should not be the first one to post this .. after all, I am quite new to this. But I am awake, online and with a perfect latte machiato in my hand!

Kirk Royal, 3 October

Anyway, it was probably all a dream ... 50 or so great people including most of the band, Sharon Robinson, Hattie and Charley Webb, Roscoe Beck, Bob Metzger, Dino Soldo, Rafael Gayol ... perhaps I missed someone .. and Henning and Jarkko and and .. Amazing atmosphere .. hello I'm .... , how are you? Good food, great craic (as some would say!) ... if it was not a dream - and plenty of people had cameras so there may even be some kind of proof - then thank-you Henning, thank-you all, thanks to Jarkko for the whole thing, and to the band for being as gracious and as wonderful as we always knew you were anyway. The dream continues right .. more events and a concert of some sort tonight!

Paul

That sounds fantastic! I wish I could be with you all. Enjoy yourself!

Paul, thanks for posting... So you guys met the band...??? Wow. Wa-haaay. Please tell all. What are they like? Dino, the Sublime Sisters, Roscoe, Sharon...? What did you talk about? Stories, please... as soon as you come back down to Earth... we can't wait. As I write, you're at the concert, with Henning the Fanmeister, Emperor Jarkko, and listening to... lets see, it's 22.30... must be second Encore ... FBR, perhaps? Or Closing Time...? Ach, you tell me. (Stuck here in the London rain, recovering from virus that stopped me collecting my front-row ticket for tonight... it hurts...). But your accounts will bring cheer. xx

Fantastic! Henning - well done for organising yet another brilliant weekend. Wish so much that we could have been there to enjoy it with you.
Padma and Harry

Thankyou Henning for the posters.
Sorry i couldnt stay long for the after-show party, early flight this AM, home in UK by 10.30hrs !
Fantastic night at the O2, really enjoyed the whole 24hr 'rolorcoaster ride' ( flight-food-beer-Mr Cohen-beer-sleep-flight).
Looking 4ward to November in London !

manchester 17/06 London 17/07 Berlin 04/10 London 13&14/11

Thx Henning for making these amazing weekend possible! We've seen a great Cohen concert together with a lot of nice Cohen fans we met in Berlin - and
I never ever had expected to sit next to Sharon Robinson, Roscoe Beck, Rafael Gayol for dinner! It was a great privilege meeting most of the band in person. Thanks you guys!
Cheers!
Hans-Juergen

Well, what shall I say. I had been looking forward to this weekend for a while but really didn't know what to expect as I had never met anyone before.

This was just amazing. You certainly are a group of of lovely open hearted people. I truly enjoyed getting to know all of you whom I have met and am looking forward to the next event.

And Henning - we cannot possibly thank you enough for all you have done. This certainly was a great, perfectly well organized weekend with lots of amazing surprises. All those goodies you gave us inbetween! Then Daniel Kahn was a discovery indeed and so was the nice restaurant on the first evening. And pursuading the band members to join us for dinner was such a fantastic idea. Henning, you are a star

Thanks to all the band members for coming to that dinner and being such a superb company. This certainly cannot be expected and is highly appreciated.

What a weekend!

Hope to see you all again soon,

Caren

It is almost impossible for me to describe the magical Berlin experience.

What a great pleasure it was to meet so many of you in person.
I was speechless - literally - when the musicians entered the restaurant. It was great to see how lovely and modest they were and I hope they enjoyed the evening as much as we did.

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome to the Cohen community, and a big thanks to Henning for the brilliant organization and generosity !

All the best,
Heike

All the Berlin people,

Both the concert and the pre-concert dinner with the band sound amazing ... but please, when you guys get your energy back, we'd love to hear more detail.

I've never met band members in my life, especially ones like these... what a thrill it must have been. So if you talked to them it would be really great to hear some more of their views on the tour, the music, whatever... (I assume that if they chose to have dinner with you, they must have been happy to share their stories). I'm logging on every hour - no pressure though!

Thanks in advance,
Habie x

Yes... It was a weekend of all weekends.... Having the band sitting by us as we ate was surreal but beautiful. They were all so gracious. Hattie and Charlie came to my table and we spoke, they are so gentle and beautiful. I asked them could i take their photo and they said of course and would I be in it too. I met Roscoe and he was so nice and down to earth.... these people were supporting one of the worlds, if not the worlds greatest artist, and they were so amazing and kind to stay in our company for the night. Sharon was a joy to meet and we hugged and when i managed to get from my second row to the front of stage for encore, she even waved down to me.... I feel so privileged. What can I say about the work Henning did for us ordinary fans? THANKS FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART HENNING.

Yes, Bernadine, it was really such an exciting, amazing and entertaining weekend. (Hey, although Henning introduced me to Raphael it was also very nice and not less interesting for me to meet you, your sister and other Cohenites). And you forgot to mention that you didn't hug only the band members but also famous German acters . Have a look here:

http://www.mdr.de/brisant/promi-klatsch/3853029.html

Kerstin

Hi Kerstin....... Good to hear from you and I hugged so many people I did not know who this guy was lol. Thanks for the link... that is hilarious !

And as the photograph shows he liked to meet you

Nice to see you have happily returned... I'm still not quite all that present in real life.
My colleague remarked that Leonard did me very good for I seem so happy and relaxed. Of course I had to tell her that it was not only Leonard but also the the people around him - and here I'm referring both to the band and the Cohenites.
I sometimes still have a hard time concentrating on my work for my thoughts keep wandering back to all these wonderful moments last weekend surprised us with.

Thank you Leonard !

and thanks to every one of you - and especially to our perfect manager of fans, Henning !

Hope to see you again

Claudia

Here are some pix by Eija
Brother Christoph shot a lot of pictures, Henning will post them on his tea-and-oranges website in the near future.


Frauke, Sharon, Henning


Barbara, Roscoe, Christoph


Jarkko, Charley, Sharon, Marco, Hattie


Kerstin, Rafael, Barbara


Bob and Ute


Picture Time for Dino!


Hattie, Frauke, Charley