By Helen Musa

Shockwaves swept through the music world when it was revealed in 2018 that legendary US singer Neil Diamond had Parkinson’s disease and would no longer tour.

Now, a pair of enterprising musicians is taking up the baton for Parkinson’s research in a show they say will “shake it up”, and it’s coming to Canberra.

Entertainers Damian Mullin and Peter Byrne, an ambassador for the Shake It Up Australia Foundation since Diamond’s diagnosis, will play Elvis Presley and Neil Diamond respectively in From a Diamond to a King, coming to the Canberra Southern Cross Club.

With $10 from every ticket going to the not-for-profit foundation, which supports research into Parkinson’s disease, the tour aims to help tackle a growing neurological disorder. With 35 new diagnoses every day in Australia, the need is critical.

The brainchild of Band His Business, part of Byrne’s mate Shane Hill’s operation, the tour is part of a drive to achieve better outcomes for people with Parkinson’s.

When I catch up by phone with Byrne, I discover that he and Mullin will be supported by a 30-strong band drawn from the Canberra Symphony Orchestra.

With that musical firepower and a venue capacity of 800 to 900 people, he is optimistic of a good outcome.

But Elvis and Neil Diamond? The connection is not immediately obvious, except that both, one dead and the other very much alive, are still adored around the world.

“Well, I had to come up with an idea connecting them,” Byrne tells me. “Then I discovered that Elvis recorded a live version of Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline in Las Vegas in 1970, so I sing that in the first half and we do a ripper of a reprise in the second.”

Another connection is that Diamond covered Presley’s classic Don’t Be Cruel on his album Up on the Roof: Songs from the Brill Building.

So did Elvis and Neil Diamond ever meet? I ask.

No, is the answer, making this something of a what-if scenario, imagining the two performers in their prime.

Their health conditions, of course, were very different. Diamond did not overindulge like Elvis, although he did smoke. Even so, Byrne reports, Diamond’s voice remained strong. People may not realise that, although he stopped touring, he has continued writing and recording music and recently released a new album.

Like many people with Parkinson’s, Diamond spent some time concealing his condition, believing it was “an old-person’s disease”. He was to discover that the stereotypes surrounding Parkinson’s do not apply to everyone.

Not all sufferers experience tremors; some may have difficulties with walking or other symptoms. In Diamond’s case, Byrne recalls, the condition appeared to affect his memory, including his ability to recall lyrics.

“I saw him in early 2018 and he was mixing up words. I thought it was weird, and then I heard from someone in a fan club that he’d been doing that for quite a long time.”

Forgetfulness might not matter in a recording studio, but it brought Diamond’s touring career to an end. He had generally visited Australia only every six or seven years, and his diagnosis in 2018 forced him to cancel the Australian and New Zealand dates of his 50th anniversary tour.

Byrne has been a Diamond tragic since he was 15.

“It really grabbed me. I got haunted by the melodies and the beautiful lyrics. I was hooked and I still am today,” he says.

He admits that his Irish accent occasionally comes through in the Diamond songs.

As for his counterpart Mullin, Byrne says, “He dresses exactly like Elvis and he’s got this charismatic personality on stage.” Sometimes, he adds, women want to grab bits of Mullin’s clothing, even though he is an impersonator.

Byrne ends on a mysterious note, hinting that he and Mullin are planning a showstopper together at the end of the concert, performing a duet that never happened in real life.

What’s the bet it will be Heartbreak Hotel?

From a Diamond to a King, Canberra Southern Cross Club, Woden, November 6.

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