Now to celebrate the singer-songwriter, Irishman Peter Byrne has put together a concept show about the great man.

“My show is more of a tribute to his music rather than the man himself,” Byrne said.

“Having an Irish accent doesn’t help.”

So there won’t be any fake accents or fake wigs, but you can bet the songs will be the same.

“The audience will get the music from the amazing band I have, but at no time do I pretend to be him (Neil Diamond),” Byrne said.

“I try to tell stories about his music and how his life came together.

“There’s a bit of Irish humour in there as well.”

Byrne said it was hard to pack 50 years of music into one two-and-a-half-hour-show, but that just meant the crowd were constantly on the edge of their seats.

“You can’t go past Cracklin’ Rosie or Sweet Caroline,” he said. “But there is so much good music to choose from, they all have a tendency to get the crowd going.”

Like many, he grew up listening to the tunes of Diamond and soon grew passionate about his music.

“When I started out doing this, I admit that I did grow the long hair and tried to be like Neil,” Byrne said.

“But I soon discovered that people like the Irish charm and wit that I bring on stage.

“I want people to remember the name Peter Byrne rather than just some guy performing as Neil Diamond.”

He said there was a lot more than just learning the lyrics to his show.

“There’s a lot of research prior to it about the history of the songs,” Byrne said.

“Even after the show when I’m chatting with people they might tell me something interesting that I didn’t know and I’ll include that in my next performance. It’s not just for adults either, I just played a show where the youngest members of the audience were 10 and 12.”

Peter Byrne will be performing his ‘Forever Diamond’ show at the Griffith Regional Theatre on Saturday, June 4.

Ticket prices are:

Member: $64.90  

Adults: $69.90  

Cons/U21: $64.90  

Group 10+: $59.90