The artists, the tribute

ANTONY

'I stood in for Laurie Anderson on the Came So Far For Beauty show in Sydney. I got contacted at the last minute and I didn't want to do it. I thought that I couldn't sing those songs, that it would not be good for me.

But it turned out to be one of the greatest experiences of my performing life. It's such an amazing concept and you have such a brilliant, outrageous community of people together.

I was so used to Leonard's approach to his songs that I never considered them before. I didn't think it was a good idea. I did If It Be Your Will and The Guests, which became a staple of mine after that. I fell in love with it and I did it at every show for a year.

Hal Willner is very intuitive. He may strike you as wildy disorganised, but he has his own logic, his own way of putting things together. Sometimes, you don't really know what he's up to or what's he's suggesting until you get there and you realise it was perfect. His instincts are always right."

LAURIE ANDERSON

'This kind of show could be a nightmare. The temptation is to make everything sound different, but I love the fact that you can hear Leonard Cohen's voice as the dominant one over the evening. The interpertations are interesting, but that's not the point. It is that the songwriter himself is singing to you.

I had total trust from the beginning. First of all, Leonard Cohen is one of the world's greatest songwriters so even if you do them all acapella, they will sound great. With Hal thinking of different arrangements and ways to do them, it was going to be really organic.

Hal has amazing ears and he creates this great atmosphere of what I call 'whatever'. You're free to figure out any way you want to do the song, but he's always listening.

It's easy to print your style on an artist you're producing, but that's not Hal. He spends a huge amount of energy looking for something unique in what you're doing and then, very subtly so you think it's your idea, he points you in that direction. That's an incredible skill. It's lonely to be out on the road by yourself performing, so to be part of a big group like this is amazing. One of the things I love about this, besides the songs and Hal, is being with a group. It might be some resurrection of my ideas of living in a commune, but it's great to have a small role in a show where you're not carrying the whole evening on your own."

MARY MARGARET O'HARA

"This is the first time I've done Came So Far For Beauty. It's actually my first show in Dublin since I played the Olympia and got fired from The Late, Late Show back in 1989! I've done lots of things with Hal before, six or seven things I reckon. He really does seek you out when he has a project he thinks is right for you.

The Hal I know is kind of different to the Hal everyone else talks about. I know him as a friend. I read somewhere that he decides who's going to do what in advance and I never knew that! I think he works with people in all kinds of ways.

I'm embarrassed to say that I don't really know a lot about Leonard Cohen Of course, he's Canadian and so loved in this country, but I'm ashamed to say I don't know as much as I should about him. But Hal phoned me up about coming to Dublin and I said yes right away.

You've got to see it for Antony. When I saw the show in Sydney, Antony was wild. It was such an education and so uplifting, especially the reaction from the crowd. It just was amazing."

RENNIE SPARKS (HANDSOME FAMILY)

"We did the Harry Smith show with Hal so he just gave us a call and asked did we like Leonard Cohen. Of course, we did and of course, Hal would know from our CDs that we were inspired by him. I'm sure it didn't hurt either that Brett (Sparks) has a nice deep voice which would serve some of the songs very well.

It's a really rehearsed performance, it's not a fly-by-night thing. There's an excellent band who play with everyone and we spent hours before the first performance going through all the songs and putting in a lot of work.

Before we did the shows, Famous Blue Raincoat was such a special song to us. In a way, I could almost never imagine attempting to sing it because it's so beautiful. It seemed like such an untouchable song, a song that's so personal to Leonard Cohen, that I thought I would burst into flames when I approached the first note.

It's been a great pleasure to sing that song. You may never necessarily know what that song means, and I don't want to know everything about it, but I now have a more personal relationship with it."

GAVIN FRIDAY

"I've done four of these tribute shows with Hal, three Harry Smith shows and one Randy Newman show. They're like surreal schoolrooms, full of these amazing singers and musicians.

Of course, there's a pecking order with the songs. I'm sure Lou Reed will get to pick his own material - 'I'm doing Tower of Song and you're not'. But Hal will throw one at you that you want to do and one he wants you to do.

I first met Hal about 1987. I'd signed to Island Records and Chris Blackwell suggested I should meet him. I knew of his work though the Kurt Weill and Nino Roto albums. We hit it off and he went on to produce my first solo album Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves.

For the Rogue's Gallery album, he rang me up and asked who was in town. We tried to get Sinead O'Connor and Shane McGowan but both didn't turn up.

He had 10 songs which he thought I would like. He'd throw stuff at you, get it sorted there and then and, bang, one or two takes. He'll know what he wants and he'll have an idea in his head how the singer should sing.

He's a real one-off. He looks at records in the same way as a movie director looks at movies. He looks at the character that a vocalist brings out and he lets you fit into the suit yourself. He challenges you. When we did the Randy Newman show, he wanted me to do Leave Your Hat and I went 'no, I'm not doing that'. He said I'd bring it somewhere else and he was right.

In my head, I had schmuck Tom Jones connotations, but we brought it somewhere else, almost to a Michael Jackson place."