Neil Diamond stakes out December road work
BySep 22, 2002 10:00 PM
Neil Diamond will work the tour circuit through the end of the year as he continues to support his 2001 release, “Three Chord Opera.”
Neil Diamond will work the tour circuit through the end of the year as he continues to support his 2001 release, “Three Chord Opera.”
As with the jaunt’s previous legs, pre-sale tickets for the December dates will be sold through Ticketmaster.com before they hit the general market. The password-protected pre-sale begins on Sept. 23 (the password is “Starflight"), and continues until Sept. 29, according to Diamond’s official website. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Sept. 30 in most markets; consult Diamond’s website for more information.
“Three Chord Opera” is Diamond’s first collection of new material in five years. The album peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Though he has never had a No. 1 album, Diamond has established himself as one of the arena circuit’s most reliable draws. According to Amusement Business, his 1996 tour was the fifth-highest grossing of that year, pulling in $25.3 million, and his 1998 tour grossed more than $42 million over 85 shows.
A three-year layoff from the road didn’t hurt Diamond’s drawing power; his 2001 outing behind “Three Chord Opera” grossed $35.4 million over 46 shows, making it the 10th highest-grossing tour of the year, according to Pollstar.
Last year, Sony released “The Essential Neil Diamond,” which includes 32 digitally-remastered songs from Diamond’s back catalog, as well as six previously unreleased live songs from his 2001 tour.