At 74 years of age he bounced onto the stage; the audience was immediately on their feet to welcome him. His first song, Dance me to the End of Love – perfection – and so he continued, one fabulous hit after another. 

 The Entertainment Centre is a big barn of a place; not my favourite venue in Sydney, and it was a sellout of course. Leonard hasn’t been in Australia since the mid eighties. But despite all those thousands of people around me I can still imagine that he is singing and speaking just to me.

 His band was wonderful. He lovingly allowed each of the band members to showcase their talents; they provided a perfect balance of colour and harmony that allowed Leonard’s voice, his deep, seductive voice, to convey all the emotions that his words deserve. And his diction! Every word – I heard every word he sang.

 He introduced his band and I’m thinking: Wow, that was a great concert – but wait, he wasn’t saying goodbye; he was saying he’ll be back in a bit for the second half of the show!

 In all I think he sang more than twenty songs and also recited two poems, at times he chatted to the audience in his sardonic style and at the end, after three encores he blessed us all. Well, we felt bless I can tell you. All those thousands of fans went out into the entertainment precinct on a warm summer evening floating on a sea of Leonard Love.