Leonard Cohen passes away

Canadian poet, novelist and singer Leonard Cohen has passed away aged 82. A talismanic figure of the 1960s, Cohen commanded attention with the singular tone of his voice and his writing style.

Among his best known songs are 'Suzanne', 'So Long Marianne', 'Tower Of Song', and 'Hallelujah'. While much of his body of work was not hugely successful commercially, he became an icon with his bare-bones folk-style and commentary on the human experience, religion, love, and regret crafting songs both beautiful and profound.

Cohen had toured widely in the 60s and 70s including an appearance at the Isle Of Wight Festival in 1970 but then sought solace in meditation, and for part of the 1990s lived in a Zen Buddhist monastery outside Los Angeles, far from the world of fame he had shunned, performing menial tasks like cleaning toilets.

Cohen leaves a huge influence on live, recorded, and popular music, and poetry, in more recent years he began to perform live with festival appearances at Hop Farm, Summer Pops, Big Chill, Festival Internacional de Benicassim, and Glastonbury Festival when he kick started his touring in 2008.