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Leonard Cohen announces first world tour in over 15 years

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Leonard Cohen

The legendary Canadian singer/ songwriter, Leonard Cohen has just announced his long-anticipated 2008 world tour, marking a return to the live arena after a 15 year absence. The tour is due to start on 6th June in Toronto, the city that kick-started his career as a recording and literary artist, and then go on to Europe. His UK leg of the tour will cover the cities of Dublin, Manchester, and London. He will also be performing at the renowned Glastonbury Festival on 29th June.

Cohen, well known as a singer, songwriter, poet, and novelist, was inducted into the ‘Canadian Music Hall of Fame’ in 1991 and the ‘Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006’. Adding to these critically acclaimed achievements, on 10th March 2008 he was inducted into the ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’ for his influential songwriting and music contribution.

His well known classics include albums like ‘Songs Of Leonard Cohen’ (1967), ‘Songs Of Love And Hate’ (1970) and ‘I’m Your Man’ (1990), right up to 1992’s ‘The Future’ , 2001’s ‘Ten New Songs’ and 2004’s ‘Dear Heather’. Many of his songs have been covered by many other recording artists, estimated over 1330 times!

In this 2008 World Tour, Cohen will be capturing his audience from intimate theatres, to major arenas and rock festivals, proving his remarkable spread of fan generations. He will be joined by world renowned musicians: Roscoe Beck (bass & vocals, music director), Neil Larsen (keyboard, accordion, brass instruments), Bob Metzger (guitar, steel guitar & vocals), Javier Mas (acoustic guitar & misc. string instruments), Christine Wu (violin, viola, cello & keyboard), Rafael Gayol (drums & percussion) and Dino Soldo (keyboard, saxophone, wind instruments & vocals).

Tickets for the UK dates will be available shortly.

Siripen O'Connell