Hallelujah: Cohen rules

Above: Leonard Cohen played to a near-capacity 7000 crowd at Rochford Winery. The audience just couldn’t get enough of him. Right: Among many from the local tourism industry enjoying the Cohen experience were (from left) Amanda Ruck, Des Mullan, Sally Browne, Caroline Gray, Meg Payton, Suzanne Halliday and Graeme Rathbone. 	     Picture: Kath GannawayAbove: Leonard Cohen played to a near-capacity 7000 crowd at Rochford Winery. The audience just couldn’t get enough of him. Right: Among many from the local tourism industry enjoying the Cohen experience were (from left) Amanda Ruck, Des Mullan, Sally Browne, Caroline Gray, Meg Payton, Suzanne Halliday and Graeme Rathbone. Picture: Kath Gannaway

By Kath Gannaway
LEONARD Cohen seduced 7000 people at Rochford Winery on Saturday night, the majority long-time fans of the now 74-year-old, but others newly annointed – teenagers, families and 30-somethings.
Some came for Australia’s own poet-songwriter Paul Kelly, others cited the Choir of Hard Knocks’ cover of Cohen’s Hallelujah as their introduction.
If Rochford were looking for support for its argument that its serves a cultural and economic purpose to the region, they found it in the Canadian. While the majority of the audience came from out of the valley, there were still a substantial number of local faces among the huge crowd.
Cohen skipped onto the stage to massive applause, and it didn’t stop all night.
In a dark suit, pencil tie and Fedora, he was on stage for three hours, including an eight-song encore.
With the parched hills and green vineyards as a backdrop, people simply couldn’t get enough of the music and words that can bring tears to many an eye – Suzanne, Everybody Knows, the seductive I’m Your Man, Bird on a Wire, his masterpiece Hallelujah, delivered with aching passion, and the spoken Thousand Kisses Deep … among his best.
“It’s a great honour to play for you this afternoon,” he said, but clearly, the honour was with the audience likely appreciating that as it was Cohen’s first tour in 24 years, it was a life-time opportunity.
“It’s a privilege to gather in a place like this,” he continued “ … in a peaceful country when so much of the world is lost in chaos and suffering.
“So ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
Cohen skipped off stage to a prolonged standing ovation … and that was just interval.
His music reflects in profound terms on war, sex, politics and life in general at its most complex, but there were also lighter moments from the man who talks of his younger days – at 60 – when “I was just a kid with a crazy dream”.
Suzanne Halliday, founder of the Yarra Valley Regional Food Group and co-founder of Coldstream Hills Wines, was one who spoke out in support of the concert series after complaints last year from nearby residents about noise and disruption to traffic.
“We should all be really proud that Rochford can host such a world-class event,” Ms Halliday said. “Their concerts cater for people of all walks of life and they do it brilliantly. Anybody who came from anywhere in the world would be impressed. “I’m just so proud to be in the Yarra Valley and see this carried off so well.”