Thank You Australia Concert: Live 1976 (2008)

Neil Diamond is an American legend. He is one of the finest and most successful songwriters of the last forty years as well as being a multi-platinum selling recording artist and one of the most dynamic and consummate live performers of his generation. This concert from the Sydney Sports Stadium was the culmination of his Australia & New Zealand tour in 1976, an event that marked his comeback to the live stage after a creatively fruitful four year sabbatical from live performance. The vast crowd was typical of this record-breaking tour, still one of the most memorable in Australian history, and Neil Diamond delivered the enthralling performance of a true showman.

TRACK LISTING 1) Missa 2)Soolaimon 3) Play Me 4) Solitary Man 5) Cherry Cherry 6) Sweet Caroline 7) The Last Picasso 8) Longfellow Serenade 9) Song Sung Blue 10) Cracklin' Rosie 11) Holly Holy 12) I Am...I Said 13) Anthem 14) Be 15) Dear Father 16) Skybird 17) Lonely Looking Sky 18) Anthem (reprise) 19) Be (reprise) 20) Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show 21) I've Been This Way Before

Bonus Features * Restored version of "Morningside", a track that was partly cut due to a commercial break in the original live broadcast. * 50-minute interview with Neil Diamond filmed during the Australian tour. * Neil Diamond's on stage commercial breaks. * Behind The Scenes: David Frost's original build-up to the concert for Channel 9 TV. * Photo Gallery. * English Closed Captioning throughout the performance.

Ohh what could have been.

As a life long Neil Diamond fan, in fact I can remember being rocked to sleep as a baby to the echo's of Hot August Night, I was so excited to find this DVD and the era the it represented, the Mid-70's when Neil Diamond was the essential Singer-Songwritter of his generation. Nobody had yet heard of Billy Joel, Elton John or Bruce Springsteen. When it came to male singer-songwritters, Neil was the man. The song selection and concert presentation on this DVD is first rate a nice mix of his early classics and just released songs from Johnathan Livingston Seagull and Beutiful Noise recordings with an appropiriate amount of crowd interaction. In the Mid-70's Diamond's voice was still strong and he was singing his music, not talking it like he has progressed towards in the mid-80's and later. My biggest disappointment with this video is the sound mixing. Realizing this video is over 30 years old and there are serious sound limitations in the source tape, but still it does not appear to have been any effort or attempt to clean up the sound. There is no 5:1 suround sound offered and in portions of the DVD the sound has a repetative "hissing" that is either an poor dual layering of the disc or a source tape defect. I found this sound defect to be very distracting from an otherwise historical DVD presentation. It is a shame, the producers did not spend a few more dollars to clean up and present the audio in the first class presentation that it deserved. If the music from Woodstock/Jimi Hendrix and early Rolling Stones can be made almost prestine, then there is no excuse for the defects in this DVD's audio. So for the concert, songs, presentation 5 stars, for the audio 1 star, overall 3 stars, but ohh what it COULD have been. July 6, 2008

Unedited. Great. Unusual 45 minute Interview with Neil as Bonus Feature.

This is a MUST HAVE for any Neil Diamond fan. I consider it the BEST CONCERT FOOTAGE of Neil Diamond to date for it's wonderful song selection, the fact that it's unedited, and for Neil's good choice of wardrobe...seriously. (The "Love At The Greek," "Greatest Hits Live" and even the more recent "Stages" concert footage all capture him wearing outfits that are amongst the worst he's worn, and don't go with the deep introspection and rock edge of his music.)

This DVD captures the "James Dean" quality in Diamond's stage performance that was such a part of his early career, but never preserved on film....until now.

Also, there's an highly unusual 45 minute long interview with Neil Diamond in the "Bonus Features" section where the interviewer asks Neil some of the most personal and unusual questions you can imagine. Intriguing. July 6, 2008

The Best Neil Diamond DVD ever!

This is the best Neil Diamond DVD to come out. Other Neil Diamond Dvds are either chopped up Tv specials or 60 min made for TV affairs. Not so with "Thank you Ausrailla" concert in March 1976. Recorded before a large crowd of 38000 people(a record at the time)You get the complete 2 hour concert plus bonus features.

Most experts agree that it's better to film a concert rather than videotaping it. However, It appears that the tapes have been preserved and taken care of. The quality of the picture and sound are very good.

There is a bonus track of "Morningside", which has been restored. During the origanal broadcast, it was cut short by a comerical break. I wish they would have edited this song into the concert. This is only a minor thing-no big deal.

If you are a diamond fan, you will want this DVD. Buy it. You won't find a more complete Neil Diamond concert on DVD than this! July 4, 2008

Think twice before buying!

Think twice before investing you hard earned Dollars for this DVD. Neils' performance is excellent! The video quality is dated! The producer seems to like low shots of the performer with bright spots in the background, which washes out the picture for a time (to me its annoyng) The really bad part of this disc is the sound quality. It ranges from good to downright awful. At times his vocals are great, then for whatever reason there is an annoying echo to his voice. Thruout most of the program the Synthesizer sounds like it was recorded at 33 1/2 rpm, and played back at 20rpm (very sour sound)The mixing is definately lacking. I am a rabid Neil Diamond fan, and I was able to listen to abour three fourths of this before giving up. I feel this is one program that should have been left buried in the Vaults.
July 3, 2008

Complete agreement with 1st reviewer

Completely agree with first reviewer. If you like Neil from this era (1970s) this is it. You get Neil's sincerity and great delivery of his songs. I've seen bits and pieces on IAIS website and am eagerly forward to the complete masterpiece. June 24, 2008

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