‘I bunked off school to see him at the Royal Albert Hall’
I stole money from my mother’s drawer, bunked off school, caught a train from South Wales to London, bought a ticket from a ticket tout outside the Royal Albert Hall for a Leonard Cohen concert. I had a seat so near to the stage and a hard core group of the audience just stayed and stayed and Leonard just played and played for about 100 of us. It was magical.
Leonard Cohen’s poetry, words, music, humour, his searing clarity about what it is to be human have all been constant companions throughout my life.
Pixcel, a social worker in the north of England having recently completed an MA in social work at the age of 59
Closing Time for a haunting, luminous and often wryly funny poet and singer. I first became a fan in high school about 40+ years ago. My fondest memory was of him phoning my school after I had written a poem featuring him and my teacher had sent it to his publisher. Somehow they read it to him over the phone and he contacted me for a chat. A kind, human gesture.
In recent years, I was lucky to see him on his long 2008-2013 tour several times. What set him apart from so many others of his generation was that he actually got better over 60 with such brilliant songs as The Future and Almost Like the Blues; he didn't just churn out his back catalogue. Thank you and bless you, Leonard.
‘Listening to his music again I found the darkness she was at home with’
Another apple had fallen from our musical orchard, very sad news. When i was 15-years-old my girlfriend sat me down and played me his music, i pretended to like what I heard as I imagined the reward. She dumped me. I tuned back in a few years later and found the darkness she was at home with. Thank you Diane Twigg.
mrdifford
‘Leonard Cohen, the Jew who reclaimed Berlin’
The Nazis built Waldbuhne for the 1936 Olympics, modeled on the 3rd century BC Epidaurus theatre. Seating 25,000 people, Hitler’s box once stood in the middle section, but if ever proof was needed that our world has changed forever, it was when thousands and thousands of Germans, with tears in their eyes, sang First We Take Manhattan, and shouted and yelled along with Cohen the line: “Then we take Berlin!” The world’s favourite troubadour loved it, laughing and waiting for the crowd to sing the line with him.
‘He is the poet of my eternal youth’
I remember Leonard had a concert in Bucharest on his birthday. We all sang happy birthday to this humble and brilliant man and he would thank us, his friends. And as the sun was setting down, he reflected on our hard past and praised the freedom that made it possible for him to come to Romania.
I have been to many concerts, but I have never heard such thoughtful and meaningful words from a performing artist. We were all deeply impressed and felt more connected to him, as he understood the sorrows of our past and of our souls. Hat’s off, you will be remembered for ever and ever! He is the poet of my eternal youth.
Viorela, 37-year-old from Bucharest
Laura hearing 'Take This Waltz' live for the first time
We were lucky to see Leonard Cohen live at the 02 Arena in 2013. This photo captures the overwhelming effect Leonards music has on us; seeing him perform live was incredibly special. He made he arena an intimate space, Leonard and his band giving "everything we got". An unforgettable memory of an eternal legend.
‘I was so captivated I went to every night he played’
On his comeback tour his management weren’t sure that he had still had a public. So they held a series of gigs at Manchester Opera House. I had a ticket for the opening night but was so captivated I went to every night. The reception was superb and the ‘Great Tour’ began. Three hour shows, ecstatic crowds.
We drove to Croatia in 2013 and saw him in the beautiful setting of a Roman ampitheatre. He didn’t fail. The music transcended generations and brought people together, albeit briefly in dark times. He was a man who was gracious, tender, vulnerable and, contrary to popular myth, witty and warm.
Dave McMurrugh, a teacher in Sofia, Bulgaria
‘I felt like I knew Cohen even though I’d never met him’
You get to know some people without seeing their faces even once. In fact, you know them better than people you’ve actually met, that you’ve shared a bottle of wine with, better than the people whose gestures and moves you know. Cohen, much like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, was one of those rare people to me.
I remember watching my mom drinking a glass of wine and smoking a cigarette by the window, listening to “So Long, Marianne”. She seemed very mysterious and sorrowful, it is one of my first memories of her. I was 5.
I remember discovering the old tapes at home while we were moving from Istanbul to another city. They were from the times that my dad, actually a journalist, had to sell tapes because he couldn’t find a job after the 1980 coup. He had to make copies of Leonard Cohen tapes, that were hard to be found in Turkey at that time, and sold them. I remember listening to “Avalanche” for the first time from a very old tape, on which my dad had written “Songs of Love and Hate” with a pen. I was 8.
I remember watching him live for the first time ever in a historical amphitheatre in Istanbul. I remember feeling paralyzed the whole time, and being filled with admiration at his grace. I was 22.
And last, but not least at all, I remember very, very clearly the last gift he gave me before he left. I remember drinking the raki I brought there in a Nordic country, listening to his last and magnificent album with an amazing man who had suddenly sneaked into my life, and who was a Cohen fan as much as I was. I remember the magic of that night and how grateful we felt. I was 29.
Eylül Görmüş, 29-year-old founder and partner at Dem Teahouse in İstanbul, Turkey
I discovered Leonard Cohen at a time when I was very sad, despairing even, in my early 20s. People joke about how gloomy he can be, but when you are depressed, connecting to that powerful, intelligent voice who talks to you in a way that makes sense....it was very uplifting to feel less alone. I will miss him.
‘He was the constant in an ever changing world’
I was introduced to Leonard back in 1968 as a 15-year-old schoolboy by my chemistry teacher Keith Hender at the after school youth club, of the all the music played, his stopped me in my tracks. I may not have understood all of his words but I knew he had something important to tell.
Over the years I have stayed faithful, even managing to get to two of his concerts, one in Toronto and one at the O2 in London. His songs are the ones you always go back to, timeless and poignant. He has been a huge part of my musical life and shall always be number one. He was the soul one was searching for, the constant in an ever changing world. Rest in peace Leonard.
Jonathan Cox, retired Royal Navy Officer
