Neil News

I wish everyone a very safe and happy Holiday Season and hope those, like me, lucky enough to be seeing Neil in 2005 have an absolute ball at the concerts.
And for those who are still waiting for concerts to be announced in their area - I hope that announcement comes very soon for you :-}

Things have been happening so fast since my last update that I haven't had time to keep up with them here!!
We have however been keeping things pretty up-to-date on our
Crunchy Granola Suite page

A tour has been announced in the UK & Ireland for May/June 2005, including a return to Woburn Abbey on June 4th - a significant date in Neil's song 'Desiree'!! Fans who can attend that show are bound to have a fantastic night and I hope Neil will sing 'Desiree' for you.....

We've also just had two extra concerts added here in OZ at the end of the tour -

Monday 28th March in Melbourne
Wednesday 30th March in Brisbane

A new FOND newsletter arrived in the mail during the week with lots of fantastic pics from Neil's '96 OZ tour, and transcripts of recent interviews on OZ TV & radio - a real treat for all the OZ fans especially!!!!
I'm so looking forward to seeing Neil in March, and catching up with old friends and making new ones -
it's going to be a real blast!!!!!!

Well, we've had lots of newspaper articles and concert ads in the papers in the last couple of weeks, so we know we're not just dreaming - Neil really is coming to OZ & NZ in March next year..

Tickets have sold so well that there are now 3 concerts each in Sydney & Melbourne and 2 in Brisbane. Perth and Adelaide tickets haven't gone on general sale yet, so maybe they might get an extra show too, although there aren't usually as many there as on the East coast. Don't give up hope WA & SA fans though - dreams can come true!!!!

The I Am...I Said main page has links to quite a few of the newspaper articles.

The red letter day has arrived!!!!!!!!
Neil's concert ad is finally in our Melbourne daily paper today :-}

It's different to the one posted on the I A...I S board last weekend which was from an interstate paper - that one had the rear view from the 'Stages' set on it.

We're all getting very excited now - interstate flights are booked, accommodation organised and of course, tickets will be in our hot little hands very soon!!!!!!!!
We're hoping news of concerts in the rest of the world will soon be announced too - and that Neil will be releasing the new album we're told in the article below that he's recording, in time for our tour......

Neil Diamond and Rachel Farley

Dinkum Diamond barracks for Lions
PAUL STEWART in Los Angeles
22 Aug 04

AMERICAN music superstar Neil Diamond has been converted to a Brisbane Lions fan.
And he also gets to his feet to sing our national anthem when an Aussie wins gold in Athens.
Diamond, 63, said his "indoctrination" was thanks to his girlfriend – marketing executive Rachel Farley, 33, from Brisbane.

Diamond, who will play at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on March 15, met Farley during his 1996 Australian tour when she was marketing his merchandise.

"Every time Australia wins gold she makes me stand to attention with her, salute and sing Advance Australia Fair," laughed the world renowned singer-songwriter in his private Los Angeles studio.
"Honestly, she is like some crazy cheerleader, a typical Aussie who loves her sport.
"She is also indoctrinating me to Aussie rules and the Brisbane Lions."

Diamond said he was barracking for the Aussies in between recording a new album.
"I'm recording during the day and then I rush home at night to watch the Olympics and to relax.
"My favourite sport is the fencing.
"Not many people know that I got a scholarship to university to be part of the fencing team. The song writing came later."

For an exclusive Neil Diamond interview on his "career of a lifetime" see next week's IE section.

Tickets for Neil Diamond at Rod Laver Arena on March 22 go on sale 9am on Tuesday, September 7, with an Internet pre-sale on Friday, September 3.

Neil's official website now has confirmation of the OZ tour and dates - we can get excited now!!!!!!!

At long last it seems we Aussie & Kiwi fans are going to see Neil in concert again :-}

We Aussies were absolutely thrilled to read in our newspaper last weekend that Neil is one of the artists due to visit our shores in 2005 for some Hot August Nights in February - which is usually our hottest month of the year so that will be perfectly awesome...
A day or so later we heard from Kiwi friends that their papers were also rife with reports that Neil will be doing a couple of concerts there in Feb - and then Neil was heard on NZ radio and it seems his first concert will be in Wellington NZ on
Feb 14th - Valentines Day !! What a fantastic night for a Neil concert.....
A fan who emailed Paul Dainty, the promoter here in OZ who usually brings Neil here, was told to watch "Enough Rope" an OZ interview show, this coming Monday Aug 16th, and the interviewer, Andrew Denton, announced on his show last Monday that next week he will be talking to
NEIL DIAMOND

I'm not sure if Andrew's show is Australia wide, and possibly it's not shown in NZ, but for those of you who can pick up the show, be in your seats with VCRs at the ready at 9.30pm next Monday (or whatever time Andrew's on in your neck of the woods)!!!!! I believe it will be a satellite interview, and we're keeping everything crossed that Neil will announce concert dates - or if not actual dates, at least officially announce a tour DownUnder!!!!
We've been waiting such a long, long time, but it really does seem that our patience is about to be rewarded :-}
And of course, we're hoping this is just the start and that the rest of the world will be seeing Neil in their areas during next year too.....
If you'd like to read the newspaper articles, there are links to them on the I Am...I Said main page...

A small group of us went to see Steve Cummins Neil Diamond tribute show a couple of weeks ago and had an absolute ball!!!! Steve commented during the show that in all the shows he's done all over OZ he'd never come across anyone who sang along to and knew the words to as many songs as this lady - and pointed to me!!! He said he'd started to get lost on the last song so looked at me, read my lips, and was able to keep up!!! For the next song, he got down off the stage and came and took my hand and got me up on the floor in front of the stage to dance with him. He did try to get me to sing into the mic, but I've been told by many people that my singing leaves a lot to be desired, so I gracefully declined - didn't want everyone packing up
and going home!!! I stayed up and danced through most of the song though and had great fun..

A very belated Happy New Year to you all and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Holiday season.. I've been having problems with my computer for several months so haven't been able to put up any updates for some time, but hopefully you've been keeping up to date with our few bits of Neil news on our Crunchy Granola Suite web site.

A couple of us had a great time at our Melbourne Zoo where they put on twilight concerts through the summer - yes it's summer here in OZ even though many of you have been having to survive dreadfully cold winter weather! Anyway, Steve Cummins, a fabulous Neil tribute artist did a two hour concert there a few weeks ago and there's a report and pic up on our site.

We also had a great bbq birthday party for Neil and you'll find pics of that on the site too.... Always most enjoyable to get together with Neil friends, Neil music and Neil chat :-}

And of course, Stages finally made it to OZ and we've all been thoroughly enjoying the whole of that wonderful set... Just Love the DVD - so good to have that concert footage especially as we in OZ missed out on seeing Neil live last tour. And the Backstage part is a real eye opener into how much work goes into putting on a tour, and how involved Neil gets in the work....

We're still hearing that Neil is working on his new album, and with a bit of luck, will be touring again when it's finished - and we're still desperately hoping OZ will be the first port of call... We're great believers in Happy Endings down here!!!

Unfortunately, still no Neil news to report, but a couple of things that may be
of interest to you.
First, a very talented Neil fan, Fawzia Begum, has recorded an instrumental tribute album of Neil songs played in her very own style. Fawzia is selling her album,
'Forever Inspired - a Tribute to Neil Diamond'
through her website . You can also listen to samples on the web site.
Good luck with this venture Fawzia :-}

Second - Neil fans from the early days may remember his bass guitarist from '68 - '71, Randy Cierley/Sterling, and wonder what ever became of him. Well, a very good friend of mine in the US has recently become an email buddy of Randy's and, with his permission, sent me these pics of him and Neil to use on my site.

If you'd like to read Randy's story, from before, during and since his years with Neil and the band, check out his new website. There's more pics on there for you to check out too..
I didn't become a Neil fan until late '72/early '73 when 'Hot August Night' hit Australia and brought the man and his music to our attention, so I didn't really know much about Randy and I found his story very interesting - I'm sure you will too...

Hello again folks - haven't had much to report for a while, but finally we Victorian fans have had a little bit of a Neil fix!! A few of us went along to see Chris Newman and his band Sapphire last night, and were treated to a looooong bracket of Neil songs :-} Chris used to be a member of our fan club and always sang for us at our get-togethers, so it was really good to catch up with him and his wife Anne again, and to sing and dance along with Neil fan/friends to some great Neil music.

The members of our fan club have, for the moment, been taken in by the US FOND club, and we got a lovely Newsletter a few weeks back, along with our membership cards and gorgeous pic of Neil :-} In Neil's note on the front he says that he actually started writing again on the second day of his R & R break in his cabin in Denver after his New Year's Eve concert, and has got the beginnings of a new album down on paper!!!!! So let's keep those positive vibes going for the release of a wonderful new album - maybe for Christmas????

Nothing new to report on Neil at this point - as far as we know he's still having some well deserved R & R, and we hope will soon be starting to write some more 'Beautiful Noise' for us.

Three of we Aussie fans have decided to start an online
Crunchy Granola Suite
to give all the OZ & NZ fans a place where we can keep up with what's going on Neilwise in our part of the world. We've got a chat room link on the page, and hope in the near future to be able to organise a regular chat time that will suit all DownUnder fans - please come and visit the page and email us with any thoughts you might have in this regard.
Of course, fans from all over the world are very welcome to come and take a look too, but the info we'll be providing will be for what's happening DownUnder...
We hope this will help to fill the gap left by the closure of OZ FOND...

Thank you for all the years of 'Beautiful Noise',
Hope there are many more to come

May your birthday be a time of love, peace and happiness
With a year full of dreams come true to follow

Hope you've all had a fantastic start to the New Year and that 2003 will be a wonderful Neil year for us all :-} It's sure going by quickly already.

Unfortunately, it hasn't started all that well for we DownUnder fans - not only are we not going to get to see Neil, but our OZ FOND fan club is sadly not continuing this year. For those of us who have Internet access and are therefore able to read all the news about Neil online, at least we will be able to keep up easily with what's happening with Neil without our newsletters. But it won't be quite the same not having our fan club birthday parties and other 'Neil fixes' which we all look forward to so much. Those of us who have formed friendships through the club will of course still have our own gatherings, so whilst things will change, our love of Neil and his music, and our friendships through him will continue and flourish. I'd like to say "Thank You Dianne for all you've done for the club and the fans over the last 10 years - we've really appreciated it."

We all hope Neil and the band are having a relaxing very well deserved break, and that Neil will soon be inspired to start writing that new album he mentioned full of lots more 'Beautiful Noises'

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful New Year..

As Christmas approaches, this final leg of Neil's tour is about two thirds of the way through, and fans and critics alike are saying Neil is still in wonderful form, and the concerts are a real blast.
Hope all still to attend shows will have a wonderful time, and that those who will be sharing New Year's Eve in Denver with Neil will have a New Year's Eve they will never forget :-}

Next week will see Neil back on the road for what, according to his note on the front of the latest US FOND newsletter, will be the final leg of this tour.
Many excited fans are eagerly waiting to experience Brother Love's Travellin' Salvation Show - some for the first time, others having enjoyed the experience once or perhaps many times before.
I hope all of you will have THE best time!

Unfortunately this seems to tell us that we in OZ & NZ won't be getting our 'Neil fixes' any time soon:-( But he did say that after resting up for a while after the
New Year's Eve concert in Denver, he will be picking up his songwriting pen again to try and give us some more 'Beautiful Noises'. So perhaps by the end of next year or early 2004 there will be another new Neil album for us all to enjoy:-)
Not quite the same as having him here singing just for us - but something to really look forward to none-the-less.
And who knows - perhaps he'll start his next tour DownUnder to promote that new album..... We'll be keeping our fingers crossed anyway..

Sorry to have been so long with another update, but we OZ & NZ folk are still waiting and waiting for those 'DownUnder' Neil dates. I've been hoping to have them to post, but as there are now more dates for the US in December, I thought I should post those.
I believe it's a very long time since Neil has been to a few of these places, so I'm sure there'll be some real excited fans reading this :-}

Tue 3rd Dec 02 Lubbock, TX United Spirit Arena
Thu 5th Dec 02 Albuquerque, NM Tingley Coliseum
Fri 6th Dec 02 Las Cruces, NM Pan American Center
Sun 8th Dec 02 Fresno, CA Selland Arena
Wed 11th Dec 02 Reno, NV Lawlor Events Center
Fri 13th Dec 02 Nampa, ID Idaho Center
Sun 15th Dec 02 Spokane, WA Spokane Arena
Tue 17th Dec 02 Billings, MT MetraPark Arena
Thu19th Dec 02 Ames, IA Hilton Coliseum
Fri 20th Dec 02 Kansas City, MO Kemper Arena
Sun 22nd Dec 02 San Antonio, TX SBC Center
Fri 27th Dec 02 Las Vegas, NV MGM Grand Garden Arena
Sat 28th Dec 02 Las Vegas, NV MGM Grand Garden Arena
Sun 29th Dec 02 Phoenix, AZ America West Arena
Tue 31st Dec 02 Denver, CO Pepsi Center

We're still trying to be hopeful that Neil will make it DownUnder early next year - there's been nothing official either way, so as long as he hasn't said he's not coming, we'll keep on sending our very best 'Diamond Please Do DownUnder' vibes :-}

The I Am...I Said message board has had a major makeover and it's fantastic :-} Please check it out for many reviews from the last leg of Neil's tour, as well as some really amazing new features ....

Well, it looks like we Aussie's are finally going to get the news we've all been waiting for!!! Our daily newspaper carried a story yesterday about the musical acts who are due to appear in OZ later in the year and early next year - and Paul Dainty, the promoter who usually brings Neil over says that Neil is close to signing to tour in Nov/Dec :-}
OK - we know that's still not official, but it's the closest to official we've had so far, so we're a lot more hopeful now that we WILL see Neil before the year is over:-}
During last week a couple more dates were added to the US and Canadian tour, so it looks like more of our friends over there will get the chance to see Neil again too....

FOND members in the US received news yesterday that has them all jumping for joy again!! Neil has added more dates for the US and Canada in September and early October.
We'd heard last week about the one in Albany onSept 21st, and there were rumours of others, but now they have been posted on Neil's official web site.
I believe it's a while since Neil has toured in Canada, so I'm especially happy for all the Canadian fans who'll be able to
see him close to home again :-}
Hope everyone who goes along gets great seats and has a ball!!

Sept. 5 New Orleans, LA New Orleans Arena
Sept. 8 Memphis, TN The Pyramid
Sept. 10 Reading, PA Sovereign Center
Sept. 13 Worcester, MA Centrum Centre
Sept. 17 Uniondale, NY Nassau Vet. Mem. Coliseum
Sept. 18 E. Rutherford, NJ Continental Airlines Arena
Sept. 20 Portland, ME Cumberland Co. Civic Ctr.
Sept. 21 Albany, NY Pepsi Arena
Sept. 23 Manchester, NH Verizon Wireless Arena
Sept. 25 Ottawa, Ont. Corel Centre
Sept. 26 Toronto, Ont. Air Canada Centre
Sept. 29 Winnipeg, Man Winnipeg Arena (not available through Ticketmaster)
Oct. 1 Edmonton, Alb. Skyreach Centre
Oct. 2 Calgary, Alb. Pengrowth Saddledome
Oct. 4 Vancouver, BC General Motors Place

Neil also made a very brief appearance on SNL last Saturday night -
check out the I Am...I Said message board for pics and more info....

A new note on Neil's official website tells of an award he
recently received from SESAC, and also a
'grandchildren's tour' he's just been on :-}
Click on the 'notes' button when you get to the main page to read what Neil has to say..

The Essential Neil Diamond CD
has finally been released here in OZ in time for Mothers Day last weekend, and has entered the charts at #9!!!
It was very exciting to open the paper this morning and see this, even though the write up isn't very flattering and the pic is from Three Chord Opera!!! :-}

However, for some reason the wonderful Yes I Will/Lady Magdelene track, live from one of the concerts last year with Neil playing piano, has been left off the OZ release. I guess lots of Mums were still very happy with their present :-}

We fans with Internet access are somewhat blue though - it seems another concert has been announced for the US on September 21st in Albany NY. Great news for the US fans, but we really were hoping for concert dates for OZ before the end of the year. We seem to have been waiting for ever, it was August last year that we first heard Neil would be here this year and the date we got then was May! Looks like we'll just have to be patient for a while longer - but, oh, it's soooooo hard to keep being patient!!!!!

Neil and the band started another break from the tour last week, and I've been waiting and hoping that we'd have some news of the OZ leg of the tour - but nothing so far.
The Feb and March US concerts were again wonderful and thoroughly enjoyed by all the fans who attended, and even by those of us who weren't there but have been keeping up with events through reading the fan reviews on the I Am...I Said message board. Thank you all for sharing your magic Neil times with us :-}
I hope Neil and the band enjoy their break and are ready and refreshed for the Ireland & UK leg of the tour in July - I know the fans over there are already getting very excited and are eagerly awaiting Neil's arrival in July.....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Neil re-started his US tour last week and performed at the Astrodome, Houston at the end of theRodeo on Wed 13th.
Sounds like a fabulous time was had by all :-}

You can read fan reviews of the Rodeo and other concerts on the
I Am..I Said
message board.

I hope Neil and his family, and fans everywhere had a wonderful Christmas and a happy and healthy start to the New Year.
I'm a little late with my birthday greeting, but Happy Birthday for the 24th Neil,
hope you had a ball, and thanks again for all the 'Beautiful Noise' and concert joy you've brought us over the years :-}
Our OZ FOND in Melbourne will be celebrating this auspicious event with a Lunch and afternoon get-together on Sunday 27th Jan, and we're all looking forward to a great afternoon, sharing Neil music, Neil talk and Neil trivia with each other...

There have been more US concert dates announced for February and March which some of you may have already seen, but for those who haven't, here they are:

Feb. 10 Pensacola, FL Pensacola Civic Center
Feb. 12 Austin, TX Frank Erwin Center
Feb. 13 Houston, TX Rodeo Houston
Feb. 16 Tampa, FL Ice Palace
Feb. 17 Orlando, FL TD Waterhouse Centre
Feb. 21 Miami, FL American Airlines Arena
Feb. 23 Charlotte, NC Charlotte Coliseum
Feb. 25 Pittsburgh, PA Mellon Arena
Feb. 26 State College, PA Bryce Jordan Center
Feb. 28 Buffalo, NY HSBC Arena

March 1 Rochester, NY Blue Cross Arena
March 3 Wilkes-Barre, PA First Union Arena @ Casey Plaza
March 6 Providence, RI Dunkin Donuts Center
March 7 Hartford, CT Hartford Civic Center *
March 9 N. Charleston, SC North Charleston Coliseum
March 10 Atlanta, GA Philips Arena

* Hartford Civic Center box office will not be open for the first day of sales.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Monday, January 28th at 10 am. and will be available at the venue box offices, Ticketmaster locations and through www.ticketmaster.com

Also, great news for Irish &UK fans with concert dates for July being announced at the following venues

July 5 Dublin Lansdowne Road Stadium
July 8 Glasgow SECC
July 13 Manchester M E N Arena
July 16 Newcastle TELEWEST ARENA NEWCASTLE
July 19 Birmingham NEC BIRMINGHAM
July 23 Nottingham NOTTINGHAM ARENA
July 24 Sheffield SHEFFIELD ARENA
July 27 London EARLS COURT

Only the Dublin one has so far been mentioned on Neil's official website, but a fan posted on the I Am...I Said message board last night that they have bought tickets for the Earl's Court concert, so I think it's definitely time for UK fans to get excited too!!!!!
PM UPDATE!!!!! The Ireland & UK dates are now all posted on Neil's site :-}

Neil and Melissa Etheridge have recorded a new duet version of Neil's "America" which will be used as theme music for NBC's promotion of the upcoming 2002 Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games, to be broadcast February 8-24. US fans may have already heard it on the radio or seen it on TV - wish we could see it here in OZ!!!

We're very hopeful of getting dates for our OZ concerts in the very near future - John Laws, our DJ whoNeil has spoken to on air several times, and has told him he'll give him the 'scoop' on tour dates, will be back on air next week, so if you hear a very loud scream coming across the ocean during next week, don't worry, it will just be the OZ fans screaming for joy at finally knowing when we're going to see our favourite singer again :-}


This one is from around 1969	And this one about 33 years later