A father bringing an album of Hot August Nights home one day in 1972 was the beginning of an obsession for the young Jason Taylor. That album would spend twenty-nine weeks at number one in Australia and for a youngster like Taylor it became the fascination of sneak peaks when dad wasn’t looking.
Taylor tells me he grew up listening to the records of Neil Diamond, Elvis and Cat Stevens, mimicking their voices and singing styles. He turned professional as a singer when he was nineteen and spent the next fifteen years in cover bands. In his early thirties, he married and had a family and a normal job. The latest show he is bringing to Tasmania has evolved from those early cover bands with a tribute show to Neil Diamond called The Neil Diamond Show. Taylor praises his drummer Rowan “the machine” who he says, “hits harder than your morning cup of coffee.”
He is looking forward to visiting Tassie because his brother, co-conspirator in those sneak peaks lives here. He’s also eager to visit the Theatre Royal as on first look it “felt like somewhere we must play” and finally Taylor is “a big fan of Tassie whisky, especially The Lark” he says “you have gorgeous whisky you have down there” so, if any larks are flying by consider a tour for Taylor who would love to visit.
Right from the start Taylor says this is not a show where he puts on cheesy wigs, in fact he does not look like Neil. he makes it clear he is not an impersonator but instead he takes the catch cry of some American guests in the crowd, when the band played at the new Melbourne jazz bar, saying the show “was a celebration, not an imitation”. Taylor has made use of that catch cry “in masting and stuff”.
Taylor says this show is “a laid back re-frame” of Diamond’s songs capturing their energy, there will be some ballads n the traditional sense but the reggae of ‘Red, Red Wine’ and ‘Holly Holy’ are revamped with “a lot of heat and passion as opposed to a chilled out lazy Sunday afternoon version”.
While Taylor calls Niel Diamond the Jewish Elvis, he was different in that he wrote his own songs.
Diamond is presently enjoying a resurgence and Taylor says the interest has come partly from the movie ‘Song, Sung, Blue’ and the new theatrical show in Melbourne ‘A Beautiful Noise’.
Taylor is glad to see “a lot of eighteen and nineteen year olds” representative in his audiences, brought along possibly by parents who are fans and also because of their own love of the music and this was evidenced when he attended his daughter’s graduation, among the kids dancing to the music, there was of course, as well as the current hits the obligatory ‘Sweet Caroline’. Taylor’s own favourite Diamond song and no, it’s not Sweet Caroline, instead it’s the song that evokes memories of his dad over fifty years ago bringing home that album, the song ‘I said I am’.
Taylor will be performing with his band in the Neil Diamond show at the Theatre Royal, Hobart Saturday 28 March.
