Neil Diamond Delights Attentive SPAC Crowd

by Bill Rice, The Troy Record, September 5, 1972

Neil Diamond presented a concert at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center Sunday evening that was as perfect a pop show as any ever held under the roof of the amphitheater. Over 12,000 people of differing ages were in the audience, both on the lawn and inside, and never have we seen so many as attentive at SPAC.

Dlamond, presenting himself in a more flamboyant style than in his concert of last year, didn’t need to capture this audience. They were his before he even walked out on stage.

Wearing a colorfully frilled, white suede outfit, he paced and varied his concert perfectly from ballad to uptempo tune, and from well-known to lesser-known songs, blending everything together with a warm personal approach.

One Act

We have always been against meaningless first-half performances that have little relation to the main performing group, and we think Neil Diamond proved a point — that they are unnecessary. He performed without a group preceding him, and without intermission. He was on stage for nearly an hour and three-quarters, and finally tore himself away from his audience at about 10:30, just about the time Ike and Tina Turner were coming on the evening before. We don’t think a Neil Diamond fan in the audience (weren’t they all?) went home disappointed.

It was nice to hear an entertainer take the time to compliment the beautiful Saratoga setting he was performing in, as Diamond did. Many don’t seem to notice.

Diamond presented some of his songs more dramatically than we remembered him doing a year ago. He had a good-sized group backing him, consisting of seven men who divided their efforts between guitar, electric bass, drums and bongos, keyboards, banjo and mandolin. Included in the line-up of songs were Solitary Man; Sweet Caroline; You’ll Be a Woman Soon; Shilo; Kentucky Woman; Song, Sung Blue; Cracklin Rose, and Holly Holy.

Future Plans

In an interview after the show Diamond proved to be as gracious off stage as he is on. He said he considers himself to be a songwriter first and a singer second, and may drop out of sight after his current tour, to devote himself to writing and some acting on Broadway.

A movie career is not in his immediate plans, but he expects to have an opera ready when he returns in two years.

It was revealed at SPAC over the weekend that Bll Cobsy is expected to appear Sept. 16 at 7 p.m.

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