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Neil Diamond’s 50th Anniversary Tour Review

  • April 18, 2017
  • 4 min read
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Neil Diamond’s 50th Anniversary Tour Review

 

I was blessed to attend Neil Diamond’s 50th Anniversary Tour stop in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Vivint Arena recently. Neil Diamond is one of the only artist that can make a 19,000 plus venue feel like an intimate gathering. He came out with a full band that also included his background singers Julia and Maxine Waters. Behind Diamond was an actual Diamond LCD screen that showed his career highlights and different scenes depending on the songs. He started his performance with the song “Cherry, Cherry” playing guitar on a song which is considered Diamond’s first big hit and had reached number six on the Billboard Charts. He followed that up with the harmonica backed “You Got to Me” which is one of my personal favorite Neil Diamond songs where he talks about falling in love which was released on his second album Just For You in 1967 and eventually reached number number 18 on the billboard charts. After this song he thanked the lovely people of Salt Lake City and said “I played this city for the first time in October 1969 which is about 48 years ago and asked are we ready to party again” as the crowd roared and went into a song off his thirteenth albumin called “September Morn” a touching song where he recounts a childhood love story while clouds played on the LCD screen, an emotional song and ended it tapping his heart and extended his hand in appreciation of the crowd. Neil Diamond then performed his song “Novella Serenade” and followed that up with “Love on the Rocks” a Golden Globe Award Winning Song from the film Jazz Singer. He than said “it’s tough being a man in this world today because the world asked you to be vulnerable and your not gonna do that because your a man. This song defies me to be vulnerable” and went into “Play Me” which is a very romantic song which features some of the most memorable lyrics in musical history “You are the sun, I am the moon, / You are the words, I am the tune, / Play me.” After performing that song and and erupting applause Neil Diamond stated “I’m going to get spoiled. Here is a song I wrote in 1976 in a hotel room with my daughters trying to get my music heard” going into his song “Beautiful Noise” which is a song he wrote to convince producer Robbie Robertson the guitarist with The Band to produce his album, Robbie Robertson went on to produce the album and this song became the title track. Neil Diamond then stated “I was born and raised in Brooklyn, Ny surrounded by friends and family but you had to be careful when you stepped outside because you might get into bad trouble” and went into his song “Jungle TIme”. The kid from Brooklyn who attended Abraham Lincoln High School which has birth successful alumni such as Harvey Keitel and Louis Gossett Jr. has set the standard for a musical career. This may have been many Salt Lake City Residents last opportunity to see Neil Diamond who is 76 years old. He still has upcoming tour dates and I would highly recommend that if Neil Diamond is coming to a city near you that you check out his show, you can find out on his website http://www.neildiamond.com/tour/. Very few artists have the endurance and stamina to perform sets like this and witnessing Neil do this nearing 80 years old is absolutely a sight to see. Also the catalogue of music that he has is incomparable. Neil Diamond is the standard that musicians should strive for.

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Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan is an accomplished promoter, event planner, producer, activist, counselor, poet and blogger. Within the course of two and a half years Chris Ryan has worked with some of NYC's most established promoters/event planners, been named 2007′s GaySocialite of the year, granted a promoter of the year award from NYC's most famous gay establishment, Splash. He's worked in some of NYC's top venues including; Avalon, Capitale, Cipriani, Cielo, Pacha, Element, Le Poisson Rouge, XL, G Lounge, Plumm, Hilton Hotel, Indigo Hotel, Spirit, Myst/Quo, Splash, The Ritz, Vlada, Roseland Ballroom, Heaven, etc. In 2008, Chris Ryan has begun to unveil some of the most innovative & unique parties New York City has ever seen. The Fusion events "fuse" together all disciplines of art into an event that remains diverse yet cohesive at the same time. ChrisRyanNYC.com won best gay promotions website from NYC Event Patrons in 2008 & he was granted an award from the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, Gov. Patterson & Michelle Clunie (QAF) saluting him for his hard work in nightlife. Chris Ryan has also begun working with many renown companies, including; doctors, lawyers, physicians, modeling agencies & more. Chris Ryan has been responsible for wide-scale promotions for all these companies & generating tremendous business. Chris Ryan has even started to become National with events taking place in LA & Miami this year. In May of 2009 Chris Ryan received the very prestigious honor of being named a "40 Under 40″ Gays in America by the Advocate Magazine. He also created three successful parties that generated over 1,500 patrons each. In January of 2010 Chris Ryan was featured as one of the top promoters to look out for in Noize Magazine Chris Ryan joined forces with legendary promoter/event producer, Lee Chappell and created one of the most talked about events of all 2010, Desire @ Capitale. Chris Ryan and Lee featured one of the most outstanding artists NYC has ever seen, "Oh Land." Her performance coupled with an exquisite and unforgettable set design added to this extravagant event that held over 1,000 patrons in one of NYC's most successful PRIDE events! Chris Ryan then joined forces with legendary Pacha promoter, Rob Fernandez in addition to Jake Resnicow and Tommy Marinelli to bring one of the largest and most successful parties worldwide to NYC, MATINEE. The event on Governor's Island saw over 2,000+ attendees and one of the most ambitious productions ever. In 2011 Chris Ryan started Emerge Music Promotions with business partner Darren Melchiorre. Emerge Music promotions began signing artists with plans to develop and market the artists to the community at large. Emerge Music promotions has big events planned for 2012 and 2013. Chris Ryan debuted the IMAGE events which took place on top of two of NYC's most beautiful rooftop venues, Rare View and Indigo Hotel. The events were blogged everywhere and featured the fashion designs of several clothing designers, artists and photographers. Chris Ryan felt that fashion and art should be displayed at every event and attracted the likes of Malan Breton, Calvin Klein and even Katy Perry. Chris Ryan began an extremely successful event which incorporated the concept of a house party into a nightclub atmosphere. The event Twist'D at G Lounge has been one of the most talked about events in NYC and allows it's audience to play nearly-naked Twister, beer pong, flip cup & more with other attendees. Chris Ryan was granted an excellence in volunteering award from AVP (Anti-Violence Project) for all his efforts in supporting the organization. 2013 has a very promising landscape on the horizon and Chris Ryan is complacent in saying "you haven't seen anything yet!"

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