“I was fearless. I could write a song immediately in front of the audience, the band would join in, and they had no idea what I was doing! You have to be a little crazy to do something like that”: How Neil Diamond flew by the seat of his pants in the ’70s

Neil Diamond.

Live albums were a very big deal in the 1970s. Peter Frampton became a superstar with the multi-million selling Frampton Comes Alive! Kiss and Cheap Trick both got their big breakthroughs with live albums – Kiss Alive! in 1975 and At Budokan in ’79. And then there was Neil Diamond’s blockbuster, Hot August Night.

Recorded on 24 August 1972 during a 10-night stand at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, Hot August Night sold more than two million copies in the US. But most amazing of all was the album’s success in Australia, where it held the No 1 spot for a mind-boggling 29 weeks.