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eeek, no. not laughing AT you (even if you never introduced yourself that night) btw sorry if uncool to clarify!


mikeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Couldn't introduce myself 'that night' (RAH, Monday) due to the minor inconvenience of not actually being there. I had to work all evening, hence choice of Tuesday for the concert. It would have been a pleasure to meet/greet you.
Another time (shall we nip over to New Zealand, then?) x
How ARE we going to cope when this tour finally joins the Big Tour Bus in the sky?

Habie wrote:Couldn't introduce myself 'that night' (RAH, Monday) due to the minor inconvenience of not actually being there. I had to work all evening, hence choice of Tuesday for the concert. It would have been a pleasure to meet/greet you.
Another time (shall we nip over to New Zealand, then?) x
How ARE we going to cope when this tour finally joins the Big Tour Bus in the sky?

I know there are sooo many train stations at West Hampstead. Do any have direct links to New Zealand, and is the journey covered by my 4 zone Oyster Card?

Dear Hydriot,

White flags dancing!

Completely understood the descriptive nature of your first post, my worries (which I did NOT express in my first email) arose from someone else's comments that I noticed only later on, perhaps only because I subconsciously felt guilty for bustling around the front row. In my first reply to you I only wanted to (1) honour the rose-bunch-lady, whom I didn't know but who helped me with her roses, (2) announce it to the whole forum that it was ME who was SO LUCKY to hand something to Leonard, and (3) express my deep concern that the miserable rosemary (that was also lost for a while during the concert, which caused another hassle!) annoyed or caused some trouble to Leonard (Jarkko knows my worries as after the concert I insisted him to tell Leonard that there were some good thoughts behind the rosemary, although it may have looked like an incidental weed picked up from the gutter [Tinderella knows it wasn't]).

Hydriot, shame we didn't meet or perhaps we did but we didn't MEET each other in Troubadour or Janet's Bar. I would never had imagined roses could cause so much trouble, I mean imagined trouble! Or maybe they never did. Having lived several years with a mobile phone (instead of a human) I know how wrong written things can go when they start going wrong. So I suggest we stop THIS discussion here before more mental damage is being caused - unless somebody wants to speculate on the results of the rosemary a bit more!

I cannot imagine Leonard appreciating anyone to be called 'rigid pompous wallflower' - although it sounds poetic!

Miia

Habie - I nearly met you on Tuesday but you were deep in conversation with Jarkko and Eija and I just popped over to say hello to them.

Miia are you the lady who came to Brick Lane? Was that flower from the Troubadour I was too far away to fling the flower to him and when I got home the dog ate it.

Hydriot you are not a 'rigid pompous wallflower'.

I am getting withdrawal symptoms and really can't understand why recordings and you tube just do not do justice to the concerts.

Can I come in late on this discussion, to follow Paula and say that I am trying to avoid withdrawls ...

...I wonder if this should this should be another thread- ? -

but I am thinking that it would be good to express hope and desire for Leonard to return - in due time - to promote the new cd (... once recorded). Of course I'd wish Leonard good resting times - it has (more than) been worth the wait since the last tour; please don't leave it so long till the next ... Our arms are open wide at the RAH ...

Paula : Sorry I was so deep in conversation the other day - I was a bit overexcited when talking to Jarkko and afterwards felt bad for incessantly babbling ... I later apologised, but only to Henning, as Jarkko was no longer around. Next time, I hope to meet you properly. I remember seeing you with your son - did he enjoy the concert??

Paula and A.Sukitu : re withdrawal symptoms, for what it's worth, here are my personal techniques so far :

1. Spending a lot of time on this website!
(however personal one's experience of Leonard's music, it helps to be among like-minded people whose ideas of poetry and attitude to life have been touched by Leonard's...) - Also, there are so many other treasures on this website to explore beyond the Forum... it's very rich, from lyrics-analysis to summaries of meetings with LC, to worldwide press coverage and links to all sorts of videos of Leonard (including that lovely one of him on a bench with a passing writer-hobo, chatting... I forget which thread, but it's enchanting).

2. Reading LC's poetry books (which I bought as a young woman and carried with me from home to home, but never read fully) to immerse myself in the poetry

3. Having a long bath, with candles burning and Juniper-scented water, and listening to the whole of I'm Your Man or New Skin (or if I'm really suffering Tour Withdrawal, I listen to MP3 recordings of some of the concerts - cavernous sound, but includes all the banter, so hugely enjoyable for instant nostalgics)

4. (Hardest one of all) ; trying to feel I've learned something tangible from Leonard's presence this year, in terms of courtesy, dignity, gentleness, wit and wisdom, sensuality, and most of all humility... like I said, the hard part!

You're right though, maybe this should be another thread : "SURVIVING WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS" or something"... I'll leave that decision to the moderators.

Love to all x

Habie -
I so agree with your list! (tho' for me, #3 is "a shake-down in the shower").
#4 stays with me: the glory and the grace ...
Maybe it is my age-thing, maybe it is my thing, maybe it is the thing - to appreciate witnessing such glory and grace.
and
Mostly I am avoiding withdrawals with denying that this is the "last" tour. Surely the troubadours will return to promote new material. I'm waiting and believing.

Love to all too! xx

Some messages about Obama/US politics have been removed from this thread. This is supposed to deal with Leonard Cohen's concert at Royal Albert Hall. If you want to discuss Obama, there are plenty of threads available in the "Everything else" section.

sirp2000 wrote:What a wonderful evening last night (the 18th) was. Leonard and the band were magnificent and audience quiet but adoring. It was as if everyone was sitting there in awe, struck dumb by "the beauty of the word".

Thanks, Andy, for letting me have such a wonderful seat, front row of the stalls block H. It was great to meet and sit next to you. Here's my film of Marianne, including Leonard skipping onto the stage at the start.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LkGSFYogaMY

I also filmed the Partisan and most of Democracy which I could post on youtube if anyone requests it.

Roll on Brighton!

if you filmed any of the brighton gig, can you pleeeeeease post it on youtube?

ps to how I remember being there:

Habie - another thing to add: have you read Troubadour's beautiful rememberances on pg 5 of this thread? I read it and feel that I have been with the glory and the grace; my greed is abated (yet my ambivalence rises - I still hope that the bunch of heroes will return in the future to promote new material, or only to enjoy the experience of performing the songs).
So now I await the cd/dvd of the live shows - plus news of the Pacific Tour. (may it make progress).

Habie,

Thanks for the survival list. I'll work my way through it but how many does your bath hold as I suspect the need for support grows by the minute.
Little to add except the possibility that that having enjoyed himself so much Leonard may want to do it, or at least some of it, again. I don't know if the affection, respect and devotion that so many people clearly hold for him, both as a performer and person, took him by surprise but there can be no doubt that he has and continues to touch so many lives and that, if anything, the feeling gets stronger, certainly as far as I am concerned, some 40 years after first hearing what was, at the time, a very different voice regaling me of the virtues of the Sisters of Mercy. As Jennifer Warnes, who I guess is a pretty good judge, says, far more eloquently than I could ever hope to, he can "pry open your heart with a crowbar"and that she had never know anyone "with more courage to go where all of us are afraid to go". This has been the most amazing year which we will all treasure and we should be grateful that we were able to share it with Leonard. Thank you Leonard and your incredible band and thanks Jarkko, we'll need you to keep up the marvellous work.

scorp wrote:
if you filmed any of the brighton gig, can you pleeeeeease post it on youtube?

Sorry, scorp, but for Brighton, my last concert, I decided to attend without the camera as I wanted to absorb the whole experience in my heart and soul without the distraction of pushing buttons. It was wonderful, but apologies for not sharing it this time.

Jarkko, have you been on a course on how to delete posts indiscriminately.

A political issue arising from a concert is part of that concert.

efc - Complain ye not! ...the thread has been moved to the Everything Else section.

sirp 2000 - Congratulations on not bringing a camera to Brighton. The absence of the detestable little glaring screens was was one of the great bonuses of that particular show. I heard they helped to spoil the Albert Hall experience for other people I know.

Cheers, John E