Leonard in Eastbourne

[joshuawootton]

greetings all,

I was wondering if anyone could help me? I have been a Leonard Cohen fan since I can remember and on my 18th birthday I received a copy of Sylvie Simmons "I'm your man" within the book I discovered that Leonard Cohen played a show in Eastbourne, England. which is my home town so I obviously found this extremely exciting, especially as Eastbourne is a small town in southern England. upon further investigation I discovered the dates of this show were stretched over 2 nights 05.09.74 and 06.09.74. however this is as far as I could get. I have longed for years to find out where exactly this show took place so that I could inform the establishment and maybe even put a plaque in place. as news like this would be extremely exciting for the residents of my sleepy town. Any help at all would be appreciated. something like photographs or any general information regarding these shows. I thank you for simply reading this and I look forward to any responses I may receive.

kind regards

Joshua Wootton

[birminghamfan]

An interesting quest ! I always look at setlist.fm for info about past shows , but its a wiki type website so it's not necessarily complete . They don't mention shows in Eastbourne but certainly list the famous Brighton shows . It appears Leonard was playing in Belgium on 01 September 74 and in France on 07 Sept 74 , so its feasible in transport terms , ferries etc I wonder if the local newspaper has any mentions of Leonard shows around those dates ? Im told the local archives often keep copies of newspapers

Let us know what you find !

cheers , Steve

[birminghamfan]

Further info - I have found leonardcohenfiles.com and concerts.fandom.com both list the Eastbourne shows but with no venue specified . Is there a local Facebook group where you could ask the question ?

cheers , Steve

[Geoffrey]

i was there. it was a private CBS convention at eastbourne's grand hotel. he sang a few songs only, from 'new skin' album, if i remember correctly. an acquaintance who worked at a local music shop ('cass music') in grove road took it up on an audio cassette player, at least that what she said. a girl group called 'the three degrees' also performed. there was a small article about it in one of the local newspapers, either the eastbourne gazette or the eastbourne herald. it was either 1974 or 1976, i can't remember. immediately afterwards leonard did a proper concert either in portsmouth or brighton, it seems so long ago. i think jim devlin mentions the date in his book 'is this what you wanted'. hope this helps

[B4real]

Welcome to the forum, joshuawootton

Jim's book lists it as: 1974 Sept 5 & 6, Eastbourne, England - Grand Hotel: CBS Convention.

Here's a 2009 forum link mentioning this occasion in an interview with LC by Robin Pike in ZigZag Magazine, October 1974 - https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewt ... =5&t=20064

September 15th this year was a Sunday. The day after Wembley. It was pouring with rain when we left Aylesbury and pouring with rain when we reached Bristol. We had been told that the tour party were staying at the Royal Hotel but they were not expecting us. At 3.15 in the afternoon we stood in the foyer of a deserted hotel and asked for Mr. Cohen. After a brief telephone call by the receptionist we were sent up to the second floor. The door of the room was open and there laid on the bed phone in hand was Leonard Cohen. We were asked to wait in the next room and talked with John Miller, the bass player. The tour had opened at the CBS convention in Eastbourne the previous week. From there the band travelled to Paris to play at the Fete de L'Humanite, a gathering run by the French Communist Party, which was attended by 300,000 people and featured Theodorakis, Cohen and other literary figures. The British tour had opened in Edinburgh and the previous night had played Liverpool.

The whole interview is a good read.

Geoffrey - that would have been most interesting to be be there at that time

[Geoffrey]

thank you, b4real. after having found the devlin book, i see that the brighton concert was 10 days after the eastbourne jig. i have the full brighton concert on audio tape, two or three hours - but not the eastbourne one. leonard signed the register book at the reception when he booked in, but i don't know if such things are archived

[jim devlin]

Further researches since 1997 have found no evidence of Leonard playing Brussels on September 1, 1974.
JD

[B4real]

Further researches since 1997 have found no evidence of Leonard playing Brussels on September 1, 1974.
JD

Hi Jim,
That's interesting and would go along with the statement in the above interview and quoted again below -

The tour had opened at the CBS convention in Eastbourne the previous week.

And now I'm wondering which city the 28 songs listed from this 'Brussels concert' that I have actually belong to!
Any suggestions gratefully accepted so I can name them correctly.

[Geoffrey]

I'm wondering which city the 28 songs listed from this 'Brussels concert' that I have actually belong to! Any suggestions gratefully accepted so I can name them correctly.

the brussels concert probably did happen, for why would anyone laboriously compile an imaginary set-list of 28 songs? i think it's probably connected to the well known quantum-mechanical 'schrödinger's cat' paradox, a quirky phenomenon that causes time to divide into two branches. strange to think that leonard may still be alive, albeit in a universe inaccessible to those of us continuing on this timeline. there are more things between heaven and earth than are dreamed of in 'tunnel vision' philosophies, as was touched upon when leonard wrote "they'll never ever reach the moon, at least not the one that we're after."

[jim devlin]

Leonard's concert in Brussels in 1974 was September 30: Ancienne Belgique.

[B4real]

Thanks Jim for your help, I've altered the date.

Geoffrey, you might find this interesting about that clever cat
https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewt ... 15#p221873
.... and also Leonard who is divided into two
https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewt ... er%27s+cat

[Geoffrey]

Geoffrey, you might find this interesting about that clever cat

.... and also Leonard who is divided into two

everything interests me, b4real, except perhaps politics and football. blessed is the peacemaker, and those two divisive subjects all too often reveal man's need for war. thank you so much for the research you have done in order to respond to my post - greatly appreciated. the schrödinger's cat paradox will always be a challenging concept. anyone claiming to understand it has understood nothing at all, as opposed to anyone admitting they don't understand it. leonard studied the kabbalah, i have kept his mails - and were he with us today he would certainly be anxiously awaiting the pentagon's june release of hitherto classified UFO documents, not to mention our own helicopters flying on mars. we are living in unbelievably exciting times. below is an image of leonard "divided into two"

[Joe Way]

These posts make me wish that we had a "like" button. Greetings to my friends, Jim, Geoffrey & Bev. And best wishes to Joshuawooten.

Joe

[B4real]

Always lovely to 'see' you, Joe

Forgive me Leonard; for putting your song lyrics together in this way, but Geoffrey made me do it
For every action there is always a reaction. My divided image in my linked thread made Geoffrey post a return divided image above and somehow these previously divided words below also reacted and rearranged themselves

“I said this can't be me
Must be my double
My mirror twin, my next of kin
I’d know you in my sleep
I sit at your table every night,
And are we still leaning
Across the old table?
Is this my miracle of bread and fishes?
This the mystery of answered prayer?
Is this my table laid with golden dishes?”
She said, ‘There is a table set in heaven’
But I don't like to meet there all the time,
I'm leaving the table.”

greetings all,

I was wondering if anyone could help me? .....I have longed for years to find out where exactly this show took place so that I could inform the establishment and maybe even put a plaque in place as news like this would be extremely exciting for the residents of my sleepy town. Any help at all would be appreciated. something like photographs or any general information regarding these shows. I thank you for simply reading this and I look forward to any responses I may receive.

kind regards

Joshua Wootton

Joshua, Just wondering if you've made any progress with your endeavour now you know what building the two concerts were in way back then. I've tried to find a photograph of it for you, but so far no luck.

PS - Curt, as you know, I'm trying hard to distract myself.

[joshuawootton]

wow! I was not expecting such a gracious reaction to my endeavours. I would like to thank everyone for their time in researching this for me. having corresponded via email with the lovely Sylvie Simmons she advised me to go to my local library and search for any articles relating to the convention so that is my next port of call. in regards to the location of the convention, I have contacted them in order to establish if they have anything they can offer me in their archives. As yet I have not been offered a response. considering it being a rather "Up market" hotel I am doubtful they will be of much help but still the quest continues for photographs and I will keep you informed of any articles I may have the pleasure of finding in the local press.


thanks again

regards Joshua Wootton