Haron and I were chatting last week about the nigh-miraculous quality of some of the stage performances we’ve seen this year.

To date, 2008 includes the best gig I’ve ever seen (Portishead); the best drama (the quite stunning ‘Black Watch‘) and the best ballet (Matthew Bourne’s wonderful new ‘Dorian Gray’).

We were en route to adding “best performance of a song ever” to the list, as we headed to see the legendary Leonard Cohen play the Royal Albert Hall. His rendition of ‘Hallelujah’ was quite simply awesome.

That said, it was my second-favourite of his songs – The Future – that produced the evening’s startle. The version I know of the song comes from the soundtrack to ‘Natural Born Killers’ – and I’m pretty sure it’s abbreviated, as I certainly don’t remember the line:

“And now the wheels of heaven stop
you feel the devil’s riding crop.”

Haron was quite transported by the thought of Leonard Cohen having anything to do with riding crops. I, meanwhile, was wondering whether his delightful backing singers needed any help understanding the line…