You go a whole lifetime without seeing a Canadian musician and in 2008 you disregard whole continents in a bizarre flurry of Canadaphilia – Stars, Holy Fuck, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen all in a few months. What will 2009 have to offer? Hot new and old bands from Estonia? Top sounds from New Zealand?
Mine was probably the traditional path to Cohen’s music. As a young man I determined to prove to myself that there was a sensitive streak inside me which women might find appealing and that my musical tastes were becoming catholic and discerning. The plan was a dismal failure on both counts but it was worth a go. Perhaps some of you were luckier.
No longer in the first flush of youth Cohen has been obliged to come out of retirement because his accountant ran off with his pension. He has been playing a series of well received shows and expectations were high in a music venue sponsored by a mobile phone company. O tempora o mores.
The glowing reviews were not wrong. The O2 is an enormous space. Cohen managed to make the evening very intimate and there were some genuinely funny, self-deprecating moments for example “the last time I played London was fourteen or fifteen years ago. I was just a sixty year old kid with a lot of crazy dreams.” It was long set – starting at just after 8pm and lasting till 11pm with a brief interval but Cohen never waned and reminded this reviewer of a more agile and dapper Albert Steptoe dressed for a date in the Dog and Duck in his trilby and smart suit.
Several times Cohen described himself as feeling “honoured” and “privileged” to be playing. He was utterly sincere. The large screens on which the show was projected revealed a profound and real modest joy at the reception his songs received. He was generous with the applause naming each musician several times in the course of the evening after they played their solo parts.
The choice of songs drew heavily from Cohen’s 1980s repertoire. The recorded versions have rather dated but songs like Tonight we take Berlin and set closer Closing Time worked well live. The arrangements were plusher than would normally be to my taste but the musical director probably reckoned that they had to be fairly smooth to counterbalance Cohen’s golden voice. It’s easy to carp. I wanted to hear Famous blue raincoat but it didn’t make the cut. Everything else the audience wanted was in there and Hallelujah got one of the most heartfelt audience responses I’ve ever seen. Did you know that it was once voted the best ever Canadian song?
At the risk of getting too gushy – this was a superb, charming, uplifting performance and I fear that every musician I ever see again will be measured against it.
Liam redux 
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