Ever wanted to experience the best of the great balladeer Neil Diamond the way it was intended? Now you can! Photo: CSCC.
It’s been over 50 years since Neil Diamond released Hot August Night – one of the highest-selling and most-loved albums in Australia.
In 1973 and 1974, Hot August Night spent a phenomenal 29 weeks at number 1 on the album charts and has charted several times since in this country.
And with smash hits like Sweet Caroline and Song Sung Blue and many more singalong classics, who wouldn’t love it?
But did you know the original format that clinched the album’s epic masterpiece status was with a 30-piece orchestra?
Almost three decades ago, when the album was set to celebrate its quarter-century anniversary, die-hard Diamond fan, performer and promoter Peter J Byrne decided to create a tribute show – and to do it right.
The debut with the Sydney International Orchestra sold out a venue of 4000 and continued to sell out as it toured the country and overseas, using local symphony orchestras along the way.
The latest iteration, Classical Diamond Trilogy in Symphony, combines the magic of three Diamond albums – Hot August Night (1972), Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973) and The Jazz Singer (1980). Peter joins the Canberra Symphony Orchestra (CSO) to bring it to life at Canberra Southern Cross Club next month.
Peter says there’s good reason for the show’s popularity.
“Most people probably wouldn’t think of listening to his music with a symphony orchestra, but this show transports them to what it must have been like to have been there in the ’70s and ’80s when he released these three legendary albums. It’s Neil Diamond as it was meant to be,” he says.
“Hearing the music of Neil Diamond is one thing, but with a symphony orchestra, it’s an experience on a whole other level.
“I have collaborated with the CSO on this show for the better part of 15 years and the people of Canberra always love it.”
Peter says it’s important that the show honours Neil Diamond, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 2018 and is no longer touring.
He has reason to believe he has achieved that.
“When Neil Diamond was touring Australia in the mid-90s promoting Tennessee Moon, his record company rang me up and asked if I wanted to meet him. Of course, I said yes, and I have a picture of that moment proudly hanging on my wall at home,” Peter says.
“When the show won Best Production Show at the Australian Entertainment MO Awards, somehow he found out. He wrote to me and enclosed a beautiful photo with the words ‘Dear Peter, thanks for the wonderful tribute show’ – and that hangs proudly on my wall as well.
“I think one of the reasons audiences love the show, and perhaps why he has endorsed it, is that I don’t pretend to be him – I have too much respect for him to do that. When I sing, I sound like him, but I’m an Irish guy celebrating his music, and when I tell stories, I just lean into that.”
Billed as a night of symphonic mastery and a celebration of the “enduring legacy of one of the world’s greatest musical storytellers”, Classical Diamond not only delves into these iconic albums but also presents a curated selection of Neil Diamond’s greatest hits spanning five decades.
Classical Diamond Trilogy in Symphony comes to Canberra South Cross Club in Woden on Saturday, 10 August, from 8 pm. Show tickets are $86.40, or patrons can make a night of it and enjoy a two-course meal in a private dining area and the show for $132.30. Book through Ticketek.
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