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Hallelujah! Cohen keeps fans happy with third O2 gig
Danny Brierley, Evening Standard8 Aug 2008
Leonard Cohen, the man behind some of the world's most memorably miserable ballads, is proving so popular he has announced an extra London gig this autumn.
Cohen, who turns 74 next month, has clearly struck a chord with Londoners. His 13 November concert at the O2 arena in Greenwich sold out in just 24 hours, prompting the Canadian singer-songwriter to stage another show the next day. Tickets for that performance on 14 November will go on sale "soon" and are expected to sell out quickly.
Even Cohen's most ardent fans will be surprised by the singer's sudden fashionability among the young, fuelled by a star turn at Glastonbury in June and the Big Chill festival in Ledbury, Herefordshire, at the weekend. The Glastonbury performance attracted rave reviews and his performance of one of his cheerier songs Hallelujah as the sun went down was considered by many the highlight of the festival.
Promoter Rob Hallett said: "London and the UK appear to have an insatiable appetite for this remarkable artist. An epidemic of taste has broken out."
Cohen's world tour, which began in Canada in May and resumes in Europe next month, is his first for 15 years. It has prompted a huge revival in interest in the artist including a Radio 4 documentary Leonard And Marianne, broadcast at the weekend, about his love affair with Marianne Ihlen, the wife of a Norwegian novelist and included an interview with Cohen about the relationship. The couple lived together on a Greek island after meeting in 1960. The affair was immortalised in one of Cohen's best known songs So Long, Marianne, recorded more than four decades ago - before even some of the parents of his new-found fans were born.
It will be the second O2 engagement this year. Cohen first played the venue last month, to critical acclaim.
Evening Standard critic John Aizlewood wrote: "Three hours, one interval and four encores later, he ran - yes ran - off stage, leaving an audience including Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and former Culture Secretary Chris Smith overpowered by a magnificent performance - and not just magnificent for a 73-year-old.
"His warmth, his intelligence and his child-like delight in an adoring audience was enough. Indeed, when he recited A Thousand Kisses Deep, backed only by Neil Larsen's keyboards, to a backdrop of reverential silence until the standing ovation afterwards, it was as if Leonard Cohen had set up camp in my lounge."
Reader views (2)
I saw him in the first concert and will go again, it was one of the best live music experiences I have ever had - the whole house was with him in a way not many performers can achieve. And you don't have to make any allowances for age. It is not just a ticket think of it as buying land in heaven for a couple of hours!
- John Malagash, London UK, 08/08/2008 18:44
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One of Montreal's greatest exports for sure, eh?
- Fraser, Telford Park, 08/08/2008 14:08
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