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...

Another Saturday Night

Much beloved of Cat Stevens, and of course the Bay City Rollers (while for Elton John it's a good chance for a bit of rough-and-tumble) but for me it's still a night in.

Anyway, last week's wasn't that remarkable.

Laura and Rachel were again good (I love the way Rachel smiles sweetly at the judges' comments and assures them that 'It's all taken on board' while actually she wants to strangle them); Diana now seems to be the favourite, and I like the boyband, as I have from the start.

Hopefully more excitement tomorrow.

Past and present

Suffering from logorrhoea today...

I think I've discovered two new tenses in the Englsih language.

There's football commentator's past:

"He's come up the wing, he's centred the ball, and Rooney's shot for goal" (trans: "He came up the wing, he centred the ball, and Rooney shot for goal")

And then there's Macdonald's present:

"I'm liking your hair" (trans: "I like your hair")

Not sure what their significance is, just thought I'd mention it...

My friend the radio

For years I've tended to go to sleep with the radio on, and usually find it still on all through the night.

I often wonder whether, if I left it on, say, a French station, I'd eventually wake up with perfect French. Don't think so, but you never know.

For a long time-maybe twenty years-it was always Radio 4 on long wave, which at about 2am changed into the BBC World Service, then back again at about 5:30 to good old Radio 4.

The World Service always had its own distinctive character.

It sounded like it was coming from a long way away, and the voices always sounded slightly shouty, and slow, and clearly enunciated, like they were English people trying to get foreigners top understand. And of course there was the theme tune, Lilibullero (sp?)

Some time ago, I became a Radio 5 Live fan, and that of course is on through the night anyway (the title 'Up all night' always raising a slight titter) so I've tended to listen to that.

But then last Xmas I got a DAB radio, and one of the stations that gives you is the World Service.

But it's not the same: it just sounds like another BBC channel, a combination of 4 & 5 perhaps, without its own distinctive slant, its feeling of being 'away from it all' somewhere around the world.

Back to the nonsense next time, after I've watched this week's X Factor.