Entertainment
11 April, 2025
Zac’s love for Sweet Caroline
NEIL Diamond fans, get ready – The Sweet Caroline Tour is bringing the legendary hits to Cairns on April 15 at CPAC for a night of nostalgia and singalongs.
Led by Sydney touring muso Zac Coombs, The Sweet Caroline Tour: A Tribute to Neil Diamond is a fun greatest hits show that will transport you back to the 1960s and 70s with costumes, outfits and sets reminiscent of Diamond’s shows and paired with great vocals and a live band.
Diamond fans will get to relive beloved hits like ‘Sweet Caroline’, ‘Cherry Cherry’, ‘Red, Red Wine’, ‘Shilo’ and more at the CPAC theatre on Tuesday, April 15 from 7.30pm.
“We’ve been doing this show since 2021,” Mr Coombs said.
“I got the role in late 2020 and I spent about six months researching and developing my skills to learn how to be Neil Diamond on stage, learning the songs – most of that catalogue I already knew from my solo performing days – and stage performance, studying the mannerisms and getting the intonation right.
“So big fans of Neil Diamond who come to the show can rest assured that all the big hits that they know and love will be performed.
“The idea is that this show is a storyteller show and in my role as Neil Diamond I talk about the songs and the inspiration behind them because Neil wrote all of his own material, so I tell stories about these songs and how he came to write them.”
Mr Coombs will be accompanied by a seven-piece band, the lighting and the outfits worn on stage are all inspired on how Neil Diamond used to do his shows, so people can be transported to a different era of music.
“The costumes we’ve chosen are indicative of what Neil performed in, especially through the 60s and 70s,” he said.
“It’s all state-of-the-art lighting and the whole idea is to get as close as we can to the real Neil Diamond as possible, to be as authentic and respectful to the music as we can.
“I really enjoy singing the ballads like ‘September Morn’, ‘I am ... I said’, ‘You Know What I Mean’ and the rock and roll ones like ‘Cherry Cherry’ and obviously ‘Sweet Caroline’ is the one everyone wants to hear and it’s a great anthemic moment.
“This is the second time we toured Australia, we did it back in 2022 and I’m really glad to say that we’re bringing it back up to Cairns.”
To buy tickets, visit
