TVAM92 Part 3

This final part of the programme begins with Neil rehearsing Hooked on the Memory of You with Linda Press. They finish off with a kiss and Neil really hams it up for the camera. Linda gets totally swept off her feet. The interviewer says not to worry because his relationship with vocalist Linda Press is purely professional. Her husband has been Neil's band leader for twenty years! Neil points Reinie out to the camera.

On the record the female voice is provided by Kim Carnes and is Neil's first duet since the 1978 worldwide hit with Barbra Steisand - You Don't Bring Me Flowers.

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Neil goes on -

"I've stayed away from it because I thought it would always be compared to my duet with Barbra. But Kim was in the studio, we didn't have anything planned. She's a terrific girl. I've always loved the way she sings and she was there. I said "Kim I haven't done a duet since Barbra. Will you please sing with me for a half hour or an hour?"

She was willing to do it and we recorded two or three songs that we really liked. One of which we have on the album. So now maybe I have broken that fear of duets that came after You Don't Bring Me Flowers."

The interviewer said that only time would tell if it would be as big a hit. One thing that Neil and his band are confident of is a warm reception on tour particularly in the UK, one of their happiest hunting grounds.
Neil to Linda - "Say Hello to everybody." Linda - "Hello London, we hope to be shopping on your streets very soon."
Neil added - "You bet we do. And she is serious about this. Expect a big rise in the national economy."

>Neil then went on to talk about his memories of the UK. "I have a million happy memories of playing England. From way back in 1966 playing Top Of The Pops and hanging out with Mick Jagger and Jimmy Hendrix backstage and trying to pick up the chorus girls to playing Festival Hall, to playing Royal Albert Hall, to playing Annabels, to playing Woburn Abbey for 75,000 people to playing Wembley Arena. Absolutely fantastic every time."
Then they bring up press criticism - Neil - "Sometimes it gets embarrassing and usually not all the facts are right. But I remember when The Jazz Singer came out I got terrible reviews for it and I had never experienced terrible reviews before like that in my life. I have a whole scrapbook of reviews from The Jazz Singer which are terrible reviews. "Diamond Stinks. Diamond Dull As Can Be. Neil Zircon." Also in that book I had my first live performance review which was also the most disastrous review. They said I should go back to song writing and never make an appearance again. So it kind of keeps things in balance. You know the writers may say one thing but somehow the public has a way of finding what they like in people. So I have got it in perspective - it's not all terrible and it's not all great. It's just hard work and loving what you are doing.
The interviewer said you certainly get that impression from the camaraderie he shows with the band through to what he does best - singing and performing. And despite sales topping twenty million since signing to Columbia in 1973, fans will be glad to know he had never even contemplated early retirement. Neil - It's too great. It's too much. It's what I do. It's what I am. It's what I have worked since I was seventeen years old for. Matter of fact in the show we play the song I wrote when I was seventeen. It's the first song I wrote and we do it - that just reminded me. It's a fun tune. It's called Hear Them Bells and it is really terrible. But I think people will enjoy it."
Neil then heads off on the Harley.

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