CONCERT REPORTS: Istanbul, August 5 and 6

[oblivion]

just back from the great city of istanbul, as leonard said in hallelujah, a little appetizer for you

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[Laura]

Ooooh, how lovely! I want a poster like that in Bucharest too!!!

Laura

[oblivion]

hi laura, it was for me also a surprise, i had never seen a poster of leonard in this size!

[Chubi]

I had never seen someone being photographed several times around a city in front of posters.

[rini]

yeah..exactly veronique! everytime and everwhere she noticed a poster, she cleared the people in front and got one of us photograph her ))

[Laura]

Oh well, you have to resign yourself to some strange behaviour when you're meeting Cohenites.

Laura

[oblivion]

yes, indeed

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[oblivion]

after all those wonderful concerts i´ve seen, i could not believe to have a intesification, but from the moment i knew he would play in the oriental world, i felt this is finally
the place his mood belongs to and i had to go there! i met a bunch of loveley persons, we spent an unforgetable time toghether! some hours before the concert i met a guy from täbris and he tried to find tickets for his sister and his father, so i told him to follow me to meet vero, patty, özgür, zehra,carolyn+ danny on taksim square, i had never seen any of these people, but from the very first moment we felt so familiar and all of us could attend the show. i was sitting quite in front and beside me a gentleman 90 years old enyoying the band and leonard , with tears on my face and happyness in my heart i was listening to the show . some friends of mine ask me : you have seen the show, why you spent so much time and money? but every time i had the very chance to be there i feel so fulfilled , nothing counts more. i think leonard and his great musicians loved the audience and the amphitheatre, completly different from other venues. thank you friends from the bosporus region, chanting and moving and feeling his songs so much!! after the show patty, vero and myself found out we stay in the same place! what a coincidence!! we are guided by signals from the heaven.on saturday we went all
together to the princess islands, on the ferryboat i was suddenly surrounded by orphants from libanon, i told them i´m also an orphan now, and we are only passing through

[rini]

Ute, you should tell about the ice-creams too it was the sweetest ice-cream i tasted in my life, sweetened by affection indeed..

[phillip]

Hi

I loved what you wrote I have been a fan for 21 years and have got all his books and albums etc... I first saw Loeonard in concert in 1993 and 3 times on this tour so 4 times altogether now he sure is great and I am glad to of seen him here in England and especially in Liverpool as it is so close to my home town! I saw him in Manchester and Birmingham and will never forget these fantastic concerts, now I have to watch on you tube as I doubt he will come back to UK again:( I will never forget the concerts what a night:)

Hello everybody,

This will be my first post though I'm kind of a long-time-reader, so please forgive my mistakes.

Last night was my very first -and probably the last, not only because of Mr.Cohen's age, but also because of mine- L Cohen concert. I had been waiting for months, and here in Turkey we literally waited for this miracle for a long, long time. I cannot easily write down what I feel right now, each and every song was so beautiful, and I was so close to the stage, so close him, and there were so many people with fedoras and so many people with wide smiles of witnessing this divine event..

Of course, our dear one came on the stage exactly at 21:00, and of course, he started with a beautiful Dance me the End of Love, I can't remember much about te first couple of songs, I just looked at Mr.Cohen, then at Sharon Robinson, then at Javier Mas, and Webb Sisters, Roscoe Beck, everybody, everybody on the stage.. Were they real? This night.. had it come at last?

After watching so many videos, reading so many concert reports and listening his records for a long -well, that can be taken relatively, I'm fifteen- long time, seeing all those wondrous people was unbelievably beautiful for me. And I guess Leonard has rewarded us with a wondrous setlist, the most confused ones were the biggest fans, I guess, when we heard the words "I remember you well, in Chelsea Hotel", we did not expect, we did not hope it to be in. So beautiful. And when it was the time for Waiting for the Miracle, we were relieved, looking at the miracle in front of us. It is nomore such an original phrase, but we could really watch just L.Cohen, even if he had not sung a single note.

And what a "Who by Fire" was that, Javier Mas' solo intro was about three minutes, and it brought the audience to the point of fainting from pleasure. Actually, we were kind of a good audience, there was no fabulous singing along in Marianne like it the ones in Dublin, Venice and Lisbon, but, for example, at the ending of I'm Your Man, Mr.Cohen just looked at us and we shouted, I guess all four thousand of us, "I'M YOUR MAN!".

When the first part was over, I felt happiness and utter pain together. Here was the show, here was the man and his band, but half of the show was already consumed by our hungry hearts and after the second half, the man and his band was to go, to leave us and our city. I knew that I will never feel the same. I still cannot dare and touch my IPod.

And what a beautiful second part was it, The Partisan, Tower of Song, Everybody Knows, the beautiful essence in the air, the smile on Leonard's face, Dino Soldo's enjoyable gestures, Sharon Robinson's and Charley and Hattie Webb's beauty, Lord, how adorable was the slight flitting of their hair in both the artifactal and the natural wind, and how lucky I was to be able too see that.

And when he said " I didn't come here to the great city of İstanbul just to fool ya ", we could do anything to take the time back. But the time kept passing as the notes floated, and when he said my favourite lines in Closing Time "I loved you for your beauty, but that doesn't make a fool'o me, you're in it for your beauty too" I wanted to cry, the dream was almost over, leaving bitter memories and a longing for a next time, which I hope so much to happen.

And when he left the stage, it was as unbelievable as the moment that he entered in. I looked at the emptied scene and wondered, if one experiences such a pleasure in fifteen, what can give him further awe and pleasure to him? What miracle can be more beautiful than this one? Whom music can I listen to but L Cohen's, and which record can I listen to with the same joy if there won't be a "Live in İstanbul?" ( no, even a fabulous record of the concert would not give the same pleasure, I know..)

It was quite hard to find and buy a ticket for me, and later it was a miracle - I keep using and using this word, but so many miracles happened in and about the miracle itself- to get a ticket in the 3rd row. I, unfortunately, cannot take the first flight to the next destination of Leonard and the band, but I would merrily spend months watching them over and over again, night after night, and following them wherever they go..

It was not the best concert of my life, it was the best night of my life-- please do not undertake fifteen years.

And if there were anybody from the forum, yes, I was the boy with the fedora, the vest and the spectacles.

It is quite an over-emotional and long entry with probably numerous weak points and grammar mistakes in it, so if you read this far, I thank you.

..La la, la la la la la la, la la la la la la, La,la,la..

[tomsakic]

Welcome speech, August 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OBPMrupoc4

Waiting for the Miracle (August 5): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEerZ5qJk4g

Who By Fire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_RbWNBlm68

Everybody Knows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CByVXFFbR_4

So Long Marianne (August 5): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv9z59culAU

If It Be Your Will (Aug 6): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh2vYOjKj0A

[Joe Way]

Hi Ute,
Loved seeing the pictures and reading your report (and all the others)! We were in Istanbul right before the Hydra Event in 2002 and I agree that it would be a wonderful place to see Leonard. We'll look forward to seeing you in Barcelona.

Thanks, Tom for collecting all of the great Youtubes!

Joe

[caroline]

Hi Ute and fellow Istanbul Cohenites,
Just a quick thanks for your lovely photos and heart felt review...it was a magical few days.
Have a great time in Spain and hope to see you all again soon...
love Caroline

[oblivion]

hi joe,
thanks for your kind words
as leonard said " i did not come to the great city of istanbul...."it´s really an amazing city
and the fact, that we met each other without knowing before and spent a great time together was incredible ,
we allways said: thank you so much leonard for bringing us together and beeing able to see life from a bright side!
i´m very glad to see you both in barcelona!!

best regards ute

greetings from our small, but fine multinational-bosporus-fan-club!
Özgür, Behrang, Caroline, Veronique, Patty, Ute, Danny

[oblivion]

hi tom,
actually i want to
thank you for posting the links!!
the performance of "i´m your man" was specially in istanbul,
leonard stopped singing at one point and let the audience sing,
it would be great to have a recording of that......
best regards
ute