Dublin
Dances with Delight to Dynamic Diamond!
14th June, 2008
Croke Park, Dublin Ireland
On stage; 8.19pm
Off stage; 10.17pm
Concert time; 1hr 58mnts.
Neil wore; Black shirt with thick black stripe on arms collar & cuffs and Gold
threads, Black trousers & Grey jacket with discreet sparkles
Neil Diamond continued his triumphant march through Europe with an amazing near
2 hour show before a massive crowd of over 52,000 at Croke Park, Dublin tonight.
A short but heavy pre-show rain shower had many fans buying ponchos and putting
on wet weather clothes, but our concerns of another Glasgow like deluge were
allayed as the skies soon brightened up and the rest of the evening was
pleasantly cool and dry!
This impressive venue has an important place in the history of Neil's concerts
in Ireland, and indeed in Europe. It hosted Neil's first ever show in this
beautiful country in 1984, (also my first visit to Dublin). It was also the
first outdoor venue Neil had played in Europe since his 1977 Woburn Abbey show.
When we came back in 1989 it was to see Neil at the RDS Simmonscourt Pavilion,
but in 1992 it was back to Croke Park (on our wedding anniversary!) for 2 more
great shows in the round. 1996 saw another great Croke Park in the round show
during the Tennessee Moon tour (when Neil famously tripped up the last step to
the stage in the evening sunshine)
In 1999 we enjoyed a smaller more intimate series as Neil performed 6 shows at
The Point Theatre, while in 2002 he debuted for 2 shows at Lansdowne Road Rugby
Stadium and returned there for another sell-out show in 2005.
But Croke Park started his close up love affair with some of the most passionate
fans to be found anywhere in the world, so it is appropriate that he returned
here tonight. And what a wonderful makeover this famous old lady has had since
Neil's last performance here and this is now a stunning modern stadium to rival
the best in Europe!
To be part of an Irish crowd watching Neil perform live is a truly outstanding
experience and the audience was enthusiastically noisy well before Neil arrived
on the giant stage. Even Bertie Ahern was seen rushing eagerly to his seat! As
Neil sang the opening bars of One more bite of the Apple it was already destined
to be a special night and when he moved effortlessly into Holly Holy it was
already clear that every single song would be welcomed with massive cheers from
this wildly appreciative crowd! And the look of joy on Neil's face told
everything of how much he loved this special crowd in this special place!
Street Life followed and already huge groups of enthusiastic fans all over the
stadium were ignoring the orders of stewards to remain seated and were up and
dancing. Neil then talked about spending the last 18 months writing his new
album but that he had always looked forward to returning to Ireland to sing for
the greatest fans in the world! (He has said this to other crowds at other
venues, but no one can doubt that these amazing Irish fans are right up there
with the best!) Greater numbers defied the orders to sit as Beautiful Noise
arrived to a carnival style welcome; During Lady Oh we saw two couples dancing
romantically together while watching each other and Neil seemingly at the same
time!
Neil's invitation to the crowd to dance during Cherry Cherry was instantly taken
up, especially in those sections with the more eagle-eyed stewards and this
great audience young and old simply rocked along to this early classic and
showed their own great appreciation of Neil's fantastic band as well, while the
band had wide grins all around as they responded to the tumultuous reception!
Thank the Lord for the Nighttime brought more of the same as Neil worked his
stage left and accepted a Yellow Rose from a fan, and attempted to put it in his
water glass, but missed and it fell to the stage! Love on the Rocks followed and
brought huge applause that rocked this great stadium to its foundations.
The superb Home before Dark was again pure class while Don't Go There simply
continued the festivities at the same high level. Pretty Amazing Grace was again
greatly appreciated as has become standard.
Once more Hot August Night's opening songs were fantastically well received and
the open air venue, housing many many more thousands than The Greek could,
seemed to add to the atmosphere as Crunchy Granola Suite was sung word perfect
by many who repeated the feat with the superlative Done Too Soon! And Red Red
Wine as well as continuing the Greek Theatre connection produced an all stadium
sing-along!
Brooklyn Roads with Neil astride his stool started the great autobiographical
section and the massive screens allowed everyone a wonderful view of the early
personal footage from the Diamond family home movie archives!; I Am.. I Said..
is forever a massive favourite here, and Neil started the anthem on his stool
before rising to complete it and to hear the great audience participation from
such a massive crowd was simply spine-tingling, and yet again Neil was forced to
halt before concluding to receive the acclaim of the crowd! Solitary Man showed
simply that class is permanent and was lapped up appreciatively by those old
enough to remember it first time as well as those who must have been born a
decade or two after!
Forever in Blue Jeans finally saw the stewards give up as simply everyone stood
and sang and danced along as Neil worked stage right, and it could possibly have
been heard elsewhere in Ireland, if not the rest of Europe, and as Sweet
Caroline followed the huge stadium went wild and simply refused to be seated!
Neil's little table complete with wine was waiting for the next song, but the
deafening response had Neil pleading that he had other songs to sing, but he
conceded defeat and reprised Sweet Caroline for only the 2nd time on this tour,
the first time being in Munich. You don't bring me Flowers was finally able to
proceed and brought together Neil, his table and wine, and then Linda in one of
THE great moments among many on this amazing tour and Linda received the
deserved acclaim for her performance of great style.
Song Sung Blue brought the brief "quiet" time to an end as it seemed like the
great stadium swayed gently from side to side with its huge human load and then
rocked on once more as everyone moved up through the gears to wildly participate
in the infectious feel-good of I'm a Believer during which Neil finally threw
off his jacket!
Man of God displayed its impressive credentials to great approbation yet again
and then we all licked our lips as the inspirational Hell Yeah was delivered by
Neil in sensational style and received by this simply sensational crowd in a
manner that surely guaranteed it an instant passport into his next "All time
hits" collection. It is impossible to describe in mere words the impact this
fantastic song has had on so many people during this tour, and tonight
emphatically confirmed that! Bertie Ahern was seen making his exit at this time,
in doing so he missed the great climax to the show
Neil left the stage to simply unbelievable noise but was never going to be
allowed to stay away long. Sure enough he came back soon in his impressive dark
red shirt with even darker collar to lead 52,000 devotees stampeding through a
super-charged Cracklin' Rosie and looking around in the dusk at the lights, the
huge screens and the happy ecstatic faces of several generations of fans it
seemed like the stadium was about to take off! But not quite yet! First Neil
gave us America (the first time since the opening Rotterdam show) complete with
the fantastic video that climaxed with the American and Irish flags flying
together on the massive screens!
But he still had so many souls to be saved, and that was achieved in style as
the great preacher ushered us all inside his ragged tent to be delivered by the
indomitable Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show!
As a quite remarkable show ended Neil looked as fired up as he has ever been and
took huge and merited ovations from the multitudes before leaving his remarkable
band of multi talented musicians to receive their own reward for a fantastic
performance in which they all shone, individually and as a closely knit team.
As we moved slowly and reluctantly out into the packed streets around the
wonderful stadium so we had several reprises of Sweet Caroline from the still
excited crowds as the great memories lingered and everyone seemed set on
partying long into this memorable night!
And finally congratulations to John Sexton who secured fantastic front row seats
for the concert just a day or two before the show. How great that such a huge
long-time local fan got such a great reward for his perseverance and dedication
over the years!
Nice also to catch up with Leo Cummins again, albeit as briefly as our Hamburg
meeting!
Tonight's playlist;
#1;One more bite of the Apple/Holly Holy; #2;Street Life; #3;Beautiful Noise;
#4; Lady Oh; #5; Cherry Cherry #6; Thank the Lord for the Night time #7; Love on
the Rocks #8; Home Before Dark; #9; Don't go there; #10 Pretty Amazing Grace;
#11; Crunchy Granola Suite; #12; Done Too Soon; #13; Red Red Wine #14; Brooklyn
Roads; #15; I Am.. I Said..; #16; Solitary Man; #17; Forever in Blue Jeans; #18;
Sweet Caroline; #19; Sweet Caroline (Reprise) #20; You don't bring me Flowers;
#21 Song Sung Blue; #22; I'm a Believer; #23; Man of God; #24; Hell Yeah;
WALK-OFF; #25; Cracklin' Rosie; #26; America; #27; BROTHER LOVE'S TRAVELLING
SALVATION SHOW; Final walk-off Band Walk-off
Next Review; Rose Bowl, Southampton, England
Ian Graham.