NEIL you still ROCK

On Monday 16th November, hubby and I went to see Neil Diamond at Perth Arena.

We took the train to the city (transport is included in the ticket price) and we saw hundreds of "oldies" on the train and joked that we were probably the youngest "oldies" there.

From Perth Central station it's a 5 minute walk to Perth Arena, and upon arrival we once again noticed it was mostly an older crowd queuing up to go inside.

Neil Diamond was very much part of our musical culture and he's also one of my husband's favourite singers.

The stage with lit up with a diamond shape from which he emerged.

Neil Diamond emerging from the Diamond

Neil joked that he had last been in Perth for a concert in 1976 and that Perth had only 1 building back then, but it had grown a lot since and was a beautiful city.

Almost 2 hours of non-stop singing from his old favourites to a few songs from his newest album from 2014, from which he sang "The art of love" (below from YouTube).

I loved "Brooklyn Roads" about his childhood and with background pictures taken by his Dad.

Singing Brooklyn roads

The audience loved when he played "Red, Red Wine" and stood up to accompany him.
After almost 2 hours he introduced us to his 13 men (11 men, 2 women) band, thanked the audience and left the stage.
Hardly anyone moved and they all clapped and cheered and whistled....
He came back to sing another 3 songs, the second of which was "Sweet Caroline" for which the audience once again stood up and accompanied the chorus.

He didn't disappoint and although he's 74 he's still charming and still has that unmistakable beautiful voice. We loved the concert!

My husband and I (photo taken by the people sitting next to us)

Listen to "The Art of Love" from Neil Diamond's 2014 album (from Youtube), a really beautiful song.