Gloria Hunniford Show


Gloria Hunniford travels to New York to interview Neil. The showing of the interview coincided with the belated release in the UK of Neil's latest CD - Three Chord Opera.
	The interview started with Neil talking about where he had been born. It certainly wasn't a ghetto. He described Coney Island as a bit like Brighton in England. It had great hot dogs, cotton candy, parades and was a lot of fun. When he was ten, the family had moved to a more inner city section - Flatbush. It got hot there with no sea breezes to cool you down.
	His dad had a shop there on Church Avenue. The street names around there had English names like Argyle Road (Argyle - English??) Westminster Road and Rugby Road. The shop was a dry goods store selling socks, blue jeans, undies, ladies bras and stockings of which he knew every colour. Keeping him working in the store had kept him out of trouble.
	On being asked when he got into songwriting, Neil said it had been when he went to camp and heard singers there. He got a guitar when he was fourteen, took lessons and started writing songs soon after. Gloria asked if he knew he had a natural instinct for song writing. His reply was - No, his first songs had been terrible. He didn't think he had talent - he just got a lot of enjoyment out of it.
*The Cherry Cherry video was then slotted into the interview.*


	The conversation then moved on to leaving college and going to work in the Brill Building (which was very close to where they were at that very moment.). Neil said he had realised that he wouldn't pass organic chemistry so wouldn't get through his medical course. He had hoped to be a researcher in biology. That fascinated him and he had a microscope that he used at home. This was his hobby.
	After three and a half years at college he left to take up a four month writing contract. He hadn't told his parents for quite a while. However even though they were disappointed that he had given up the college course, they were very much in his corner with regards his music. He was fired from many music houses but continued to learn the craft from those around him. He was eight years there in the area just learning how to write music.
Another clip from Cherry Cherry was then shown.


	Gloria went on to ask if he had always wanted to be a performer. Neil's answer was No, but he had always done demos of his songs. That had gained him a lot of experience but he didn't really dream of being a singer. His real dream was just to make a living as a song writer. She asked then if that made him a reluctant performer. He denied that. Once he started getting offers, he would play anywhere. He had always been a ham and an exhibitionist.and that side started to came out.


Part One finished with footage of Neil singing Beautiful Noise from the Las Vegas show.

If you would like to download a sound file of this interview you should visit Steve's great new Neil site - Focus on Neil Diamond

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Gloria Hunniford Show
Channel 5 Part One - Tuesday 4th September, 2001