Old Ideas World Tour
| Tour by Leonard Cohen | |
 |
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| Associated album | Old Ideas |
|---|---|
| Start date | August 12, 2012 |
| End date | December 21, 2013 |
| Legs | 5 |
| No. of shows | 63 in Europe 46 in North America 16 in Oceania 125 in Total |
| Leonard Cohen concert chronology | |
The Old Ideas World Tour is the final concert tour by Canadian poet and singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen in support of his 2012 album Old Ideas. The tour started in August 2012, and ended in December 2013.
On March 26, 2012 Cohen announced the first eighteen concerts taking place in Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal forming part of the first European leg of the 'Old Ideas World Tour'. On April 2 two further concerts were added in Ghent due to high public demand and on April 4 it was announced that Cohen would perform a third concert for the same reason. It was revealed by the Telegraph newspaper that Cohen would perform his only UK show at the Hop Farm Country Farm in Kent in September. On May 17 a second concert at the Hop Farm Country Farm was announced for September 9. However, on August 23 both concerts would be moved to Wembley Arena in London, England for unspecified reasons.
The first leg of the tour consisted of 31 shows, played all over Europe. The structure of each show was similar to the previous tour. The main set was split into two blocks with a short intermission in between. Many songs from the latest record were performed, most of them for the first time ever. "Darkness" (known as The Darkness on the previous tour) was the only song on the record that had been performed before this leg. "Amen", "Come Healing" and the aforementioned "Darkness" would become tour staples, played in every show on this leg. Other new songs that were performed more or less regular are "Going Home", "Different Sides", "Crazy to Love You", "Banjo" and "Anyhow". "Lullaby" and "Show Me the Place" remained the only two songs from the album not played on this leg.
Apart from the new songs, some older songs made their way into the set, most notably the song Alexandra Leaving. It was performed in every show entirely by Sharon Robinson after a short introduction by Cohen. The song was preceded by the song Coming Back to You from the album Various Positions. It was performed in an acoustic version by the Webb Sisters, with Charlie and Hattie Webb taking over the vocals and instrumentation (harp and guitar). Both songs were not played on the previous tour. Other songs that were not performed on the previous tour were "I Can't Forget", "The Guests", and "Light As the Breeze" (performed for the first time ever). "Night Comes On" was played regularly on this leg of the tour after having only two outings on the previous tour.
The concerts themselves were longer than the concerts at the beginning of the last tour. Opening night in Ghent for example featured 33 songs, with four encore blocks containing 9 songs. The concerts of this leg would often end close to or at curfew of the respective venues, with the last song often being "Save the Last Dance for Me", a song made famous by The Drifters. Overall, 40 different songs were performed on this leg.
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