This was advertised as a “Route Of Kings Concert” but I’m not sure why! We haven’t had a king in UK since 1952 but several venues around the country are holding a host of concerts with a few acts (The Cure, Bryan Adams, Meat Loaf) playing most of them. The concert tonight was in Hyde Park which is a massive (former Royal) park in the centre of London. A large area was boarded off for these concerts. The VIP hospitality suite had tickets for sale at Ł200 ($300) plus the price of the concert tickets so obviously I just bought a normal ticket but I was lucky enough to get a front row seat (obviously on the left!) so I could see really well, plus there were two enormous screens either side of the stage.

The support band The Real People played for about half an hour (but it seemed far longer!) so we took our seats near the end of their set. Promptly at 7.45 the announcer said that it was “KASIM SULTON” and Kasim walked out on stage looking very confident despite looking VERY nervous a few minutes beforehand! (The tickets said “no cameras” so I left mine at home but several people did take pics so I’ll add some that I’ve been promised later.) Kasim was wearing a black loose shirt and his black trousers and introduced himself by saying that he played bass for Meat Loaf and that he was one of the “friends” on this “Meat Loaf and Friends Just Havin’ Fun In The Summer Tour”! Kasim then launched into his great, strong “I gave no promise or guarantee” opener from Don’t Hold Me Back!

Other than just once at the beginning of the song, Kasim’s voice sounded very clear and strong tonight although he didn’t do the strong “strong” in it! Later a friend who is a big Meat Loaf fan said that he really liked this song!

Next Kasim said that this was his first solo set outside of US ever and that playing in front of 11,000 people was quite an experience! He then told us that his new album Quid Pro Quo will be released in August and he played Before She Was Gone from it! He sang the first verse and chorus solo and then Meat Loaf’s Mark Alexander joined in on keyboards and John Miceli played the drums - that was just amazing to hear! As much as I like Kasim’s solo acoustic version of the song, playing it as a trio made it sound far more like the album version as it gave it a fuller sound. It’s no wonder that for the next round of Kasim gigs, I’m torn between wanting to hear Kasim playing totally solo and progressing to a trio!

Kasim next switched guitars but the other one wasn’t even remotely in tune (he made some comment about good workmen and their tools!) and this was despite the guitar tech playing with the guitar before Kasim went on stage. Instead Kasim switched back to his original guitar but he had to tune it up slightly. While he was doing that he joked that it was good that people weren’t telling him to hurry up so obviously then some jokers did which resulted in Kasim saying that he felt at home after that!

Kasim next gave a faultless, confident performance of his lovely (newest) song Sacrifice which will also be on Quid Pro Quo. I think that if Before She Was Gone didn’t persuade people to buy Quid Pro Quo, Sacrifice will have - thank goodness that the album will be available at Meat Loaf’s concerts in the Autumn!

Kasim then left the stage to loads of applause, some cheers and even people whistling their appreciation!

There next followed two other sets and then the people went home really happy after seeing a great Kasim Sulton set…..!

Okay! As Kasim was on stage during the other two sets, I’ll review them too (but the highlight of the whole show for me was seeing Kasim’s solo set as I didn’t know whether to look at him directly or the great close-ups of him on the video screens!).

After only about a two minute break, all the band came on stage for Patti Russo’s set. They played three songs (Tie Your Mother Down, Madeline and another song) all which were of the rocking variety. Patti’s voice was as strong as ever but I was disappointed that her stage demeanour wasn’t as strong. Kasim sang a nice lot of vocals in the set and Patti highlighted Damon La Scott quite a bit. For Patti’s set Kasim was wearing his loose red/black shirt.

After only about another two minute break, the background tape of gentle drums and maracas started and Meat Loaf walked on stage and commenced his pacing. I’m glad that I got to see the two shows in US as it really highlighted the difference between the UK and US crowds. Although by nature the British are more reserved generally, they certainly embrace Meat Loaf far more as they just went wild!

For this set Kasim made his dramatic entrance about 8 minutes after Meat Loaf had walked on stage and he was wearing his third top of the evening - that lovely tight white shirt that shows off his arms so well! Again Meat Loaf messed up the “And I want”s so Kasim had to cover for him….not that I was complaining!

The two new Testify songs Mad About A Mercury and Tear Me Down went down well with the crowd but another Meat Loaf fan remarked to me after the show that she too thought it was strange that he chose to start his set with four lesser known tracks.

Meat Loaf has said on more than one occasion (incorrectly I believe) that he HAS to play DeadRinger For Love for UK audiences so that was the fifth track tonight and it was very obvious that more people were singing along to that one more than they did to a song like Lawyers, Guns and Money.

After Anything For Love, they went straight into Paradise By The Dashboard Light and thank goodness it was a shorter version again tonight. At one point in the song, Meat Loaf licks Patti’s arm and then kisses her full on the lips twice - she certainly earns her money!

Next the stools were brought out and they sang Two Outta Three Ain't Bad (with Kasim standing to get the audience to sing part of it). Meat Loaf’s other daughter, Amanda, also joined them on stage for this one. A friend later told me that during part of the show someone came out and placed two bras onto the stage and it was at this point that Meat Loaf supposedly spotted them. (I’m sure that Cadott was spontaneous but this show obviously wasn’t.) Some more bras were thrown from the audience (but not as many as there were at Cadott) and Meat Loaf gave Kasim the task of tying them to Meat’s microphone stand (it was obvious that Kasim is used to handling bras!).

Meat then said that they were going to sing a song that was a hit in UK and they started I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth) before Meat reckoned that he heard someone call out for another song (it was obvious that he didn’t remember the words too well either!). This then led to him embarrassing some poor girl at the front and then John Golden singing Mony Mony.

I had noticed at Cadott that the audience were singing extra lines during the song that I didn’t recognise. As we don’t do that in UK, Meat stopped the song and told us that we were supposed to be singing “Hey,….(something), Get f*&ked, Get laid” so most people did sing it after that! (I’m not sure if these were the actual words that they sing in US or not as most of the band seemed to find it funny!).

They next sang You Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth before launching into my favourite Bat Out Of Hell which was as great as always! The audience actually sang part of that song on their own too!

After the obligatory band bow they all left the stage but the people just didn’t stop clapping and cheering so Meat Loaf came back on! He said that this was the first time in 15 years that he’s come back after Bat Out Of Hell and then got the rest of the band back on stage. Kasim was the last to appear and he had obviously thought that the show was well and truly over as he’d changed into a black jumper - his fourth outfit of the evening!

They sang Chuck Berry’s Johnny Be Good and most of the audience joined in singing it too! Just as the band were finishing the song, Meat Loaf indicated to Kasim to keep it going so that he left the stage with them all playing and then the band finished!

What an amazing show! What a way to get over jetlag!

Roll on Leeds tomorrow….!

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