A retired policeman who has spent almost £250,000 going to Neil Diamond gigs is preparing to follow him around the world again.
Ian Graham, 60, from Edinburgh, will follow the Sweet Caroline singer to 18 concerts across Europe and two in the US in 2015.
Mr Graham's four cats are named after Neil Diamond songs, he has the singer's initials as his car number plate and wears the same jumper to every gig with the logo: 'Neil Diamond, the frog who dreamed of becoming a King.'
"I get recognised by this jumper as I wear it to every concert," Mr Graham said.
"It's very symbolic to me as the words are taken from a line in I Am, I Said.
"I'll be wearing it at Blackpool as I will on every other night of the tour this year.
"It's great that the last night of the UK tour is in Blackpool at a new venue that is open air. Every Neil Diamond concert we go to is special but Blackpool will be particularly memorable for me and my wife Jenny this year as it marks her 100th concert."
Mr Graham said he has enough memorabilia to fill a museum and his favourite item is his autographed police helmet.
He said: "I gave this to Neil 13 years ago but then his wife Katie spotted me at a concert at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles three years ago and she returned it to me as Neil had written a message to me saying 'Thank you for all the kind words.'
"That is very special and has pride of place in a glass cabinet to protect it.
"But I'm no different to any other fan. It doesn't matter whether you've been to one concert or hundreds. I'm just fortunate that I've been able to follow and support him so much."
ends
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article