I was lucky enough to see Leonard Cohen at Glastonbury this year and the experience was about as spiritual as standing in a crowded field can be. As the sun set behind the Pyramid stage, the frail form of the septuagenarian singer hypnotised us with some of the most poetic songs ever written.

Tears were shed and massed voices joined together in what seemed unrepeatable, eternal moments.

In Brighton the setting couldn't have been more different - the unsteady unwashed of Glastonbury replaced by the sober souls who sat before an unexpectedly re-energised legend.

But Cohen's powerful presence, humble humour and almost impossibly low baritone again produced a kind of religious communion between the performer and his audience.

Impeccably attired as always, the 74 year-old fairly leapt onto the stage, revealing no hint of tiredness at the end of a long tour.

Almost all Cohen's songs can be called classics, but over the course of the three-hour performance he generously provided many of his best-loved, early works: Bird On The Wire, Chelsea Hotel #2, Suzanne, So Long, Marianne and Famous Blue Raincoat were all delivered flawlessly, with Cohen often playing acoustic guitar in bassist Roscoe Beck's supportive arrangements.

Much has been made of the musicianship of Cohen's band, and Cohen made much of them himself. He introduced all of them twice and often stepped out of the spotlight with his fedora clutched to his heart, leaving his outstanding backing singers to deliver whole songs such as Boogie Street (Sharon Robinson) and If It Be Your Will (The Webb sisters).

As he knelt to deliver Hallelujah and his voice cracked a little, the mortality of the man was exposed. He prefaced his prayer for humanity, Anthem, with a short meditation on the difficulty of the times and, after a wryly humourous reading of I Tried To Leave You in the encore ("I hope you're satisfied") he drew his whole band together at the front of the stage for a finale of Wither Thou Goest.

"May happiness find you in your lonely moments," he said, blessing the crowd at the end.

And, truly, we were blessed.