Irish Neil Diamond tribute act reveals how he got the singer’s seal of approval
Ireland’s tribute singer Peter Byrne thrills fans with Neil shows
He hit the big time in Australia as a Neil Diamond tribute singer after a chance encounter in a pub, but Dubliner Peter Byrne today recalls how he almost missed the opportunity following a love split.
Sensational performer Byrne, originally from Dublin’s Drimnagh, had emigrated to Sydney at the age of 25 in the late ’80s with his then Irish girlfriend.
However, Peter’s dream of a new life fell apart when his relationship broke down. “The girl I was with ran off with somebody,” he tells the Sunday World today.
“I was pretty much close to packing up and going home. Then one night a neighbour of a mate of mine, who I moved in with, invited me to join him at a pub in the city where he was meeting a friend who worked there.
“The friend was singing there from 10pm to two in the morning and he said to me, ‘I hate this job, I’m too old for it, do you want my job?’ He was 60. He knew I sang, but he’d never heard me singing.
“He called the manager down and told him, ‘This guy is Peter Byrne, he’s very good. I’m quitting, I can’t do these late nights anymore.’ So the manager gave me a two-week trial.
“I immediately bought a sound system and a decent guitar and I learned four hours of material… all the sing-a-long songs. After two weeks I had the place hopping. I never looked back.”
The affable Dubliner, now 62, admits he couldn’t believe his good fortune when his career took off into the stratosphere after he stumbled into the music of Love On The Rocks singer Neil Diamond.
“They talk about the luck of the Irish and I do think it exists,” Peter laughs.
“One of the jobs I had was working in a restaurant as a singer and musician playing in the background. One night a guy said, ‘Do you know the Neil Diamond song, I Am… I Said?’ I didn’t know it, but I went off and learned it and when he came back the following week with his wife I sang it.
He went on to have a thriving career as a Neil Diamond tribute artist performing hits such as Sweet Caroline, Cracklin’ Rosie and Song Sung Blue, and selling out 70 shows a year.
Then in 1997 Byrne took a giant leap forward when he decided to perform the Diamond songs with a full orchestra.
“In 1997 Neil Diamond’s Hot August Night album was celebrating its 25th anniversary,” Peter tells me.
“It was recorded at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles with 30-piece symphony orchestra. I decided to do a salute to the album by hiring a 30-piece orchestra myself and staging it in a venue in Sydney.
“There were 4,000 people at the show and that changed everything, that took me to another level. I then did it with the Sydney symphony orchestra, then the Melbourne orchestra…and it took off from there around Australia.
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