Sincerely, L Cohen

We went to the BIC (Bournemouth International Centre) on Tuesday, to see Leonard Cohen.

I'd seen him back in 1970 at the Isle of Wight, and then in 1976, so I wasn't sure what he'd be like now.

Certainly his voice sounded rough on recent albums, although he looked on good form at Glastonbury (from the YouTube excerpts: of course, they're all taken on somebody's mobile phone, and the crowd activity tends to obscure the stage action)

Anyway, he was brilliant.

He looked amazing (hope I'm that good at 74), he literally ran onto the stage, his band was superb, especially the Spanish guitarist, and even his voice didn't sound that bad: he's learned to live with the (very low) limited range.

And of course, the songs...wonderful.

The audience was incredibly middle aged and middle class, so there wasn't a lot of stage surfing or dancing in the mosh pit, but they loved it anyway.

He has a lovely dry wit: "I last appeared on stage 15 years ago. I was 60: just a young kid with a crazy dream."

He gave good value for money too: there must have been half a dozen encores, and he didn't finish until 11.

The only trouble is, we're not used to late nights these days, and we're still not quite over it: but it was worth it.

Lazy Sunday

...as the Small Faces had it.

Goodbye to the lovely Laura

I haven't mentioned TXF for the last couple of weeks, because it hasn't been that exciting, but I guess I must mention the end of Laura.

She was astonishing on the first week's show, with Alicia Keys' "Falling", but hadn't done anything outstanding since, although I still liked her.

My other favourite, Rachel, survived despite some bad publicity and a lacklustre performance.

Meanwhile JLS and Alexandra continue to impress each week.

Monday Monday

Nobody's reading this, so I can say what I like...