The Quarterly of Leonard Cohen Club Nederland

Yvonne (on the left) and Bea. Photo by Hedwig Rothmeier. The Intensity was published for thirteen years until Spring 2000 by Yvonne Hakze and Bea de Koning in Holland. Yvonne tells how it all begun: "Michel van Meyer wanted to start a Leonard Cohen Fanclub in Holland. It was October 1980. The Dutch Radio broadcasted a part of Leonard’s concert in Amsterdam. After the programme the DJ advertised the new club and soon Michel had ten people interested in this project. They named their club "Intensity". However, after two issues of the fanzine the group lost contact." In 1985 Yvonne met some Dutch people at concert in Germany. They told her about the club. Yvonne had not been a member of the first club but wanted to start it all up again. She contacted Michael; he didn’t want to be involved this time. Michael advised her to get in touch with Bea. Yvonne put an ad in a local newspaper and there it was: a new Intensity club and its magazine. They started with a Dutch magazine, later on there were both Dutch and English versions, and finally they concentrated on the English edition. Intensity had hundreds of subscribers from numerous countires around the world. The club also collected a remarkable archive of newspaper and magazine cuttings, records, audio and video tapes etc. Once a year the club had a meeting in Holland.