Several people had built it up to being a “special one-off promotional concert” originally meant for just media but 300 fans being allowed in where they would be show-casing the new album, plus playing the old Meat Loaf standards, (akin to the 1995 Beacon Theater Welcome To The Neighbourhood album show) but in fact it appeared more to be just another concert of the Summer and Winter Tours with 2 new songs thrown in!

It was nice to see the show up really close as the venue was small (capacity varied from 1,200 to 2,000 depending on who was asked!) but I don’t have a clue where these “media” people were as it just seemed to be fans (although there was a big after show party). There were even ticket touts selling tickets outside the venue.

Security was very strict (as it usually is in Germany) - they even checked whether my mobile phone could take photos! However a few people did mange to get cameras in and there were only a few security guards so it was relatively easy after the concert had started for people to take photos.

It was a very wide stage so, as there weren’t many people there, it was easy to get quite near the front. We opted to stand just about 4 rows back (on Kasim’s side, of course!). Unfortunately the stage was only about 2 foot high so quite often Kasim was the only person that I could see (not that I was complaining!) but it also seemed that all the six feet tall people had converged on the left. Add to that the German habit of raising their hands in the air to clap (and underarm shaving appears to be optional!) and often I’ve viewed concerts better when further back at Wembley.

We got in the hall at about 7.00pm and pretty soon Kasim came out carrying a guitar and then spent about 20 minutes at the back of the drum riser with John Miceli and the sound guy in discussion. Every so often one of them would go off and then return for more talks! The show was scheduled to start at 8.00pm but at 8.05pm a guy in a very smart black dress suit came out with a microphone. His announcement (in German) received loads of applause but when we asked for a translation, apparently he had just stated that smoking was not allowed during the show as it “upset the band”! Some people get the easy jobs!

At 8.15pm the drumming backing track music started and Meat Loaf came on and did his usual pacing that incites the audience. Eventually John Miceli bashed the drums once and then Mark Alexander played the short classical part before John Golden, Pearl Aday and Patti Russo started basing their drums too. What was effective this time that I haven’t noticed before was that either the drum or the drumsticks had lights so that when they were drumming fast it looked like they were on fire!

Eventually (it seemed to me!) the star of the show arrived to play his great bass chords for a few seconds at the centre of the stage! Kasim was wearing a light blue shirt with black trousers which made a lovely change from his usual all-black ensemble. After Kasim, the new lead guitarist, Paul Crook, made his appearance on stage and he has a really good stage presence! He also seemed to be almost constantly smiling and looking as though he was enjoying the set which Damon never seemed to do.

Eventually the song itself (Life Is A Lemon) started properly and it was very much the standard way of performing it with the backing tape of “oohs” at the beginning and blacking the stage on the “fade to black line”. I’m not sure how it was supposed to go tonight (as Meat never seems to sing the middle part twice the same way and usually Kasim has to cover for him) but tonight they both sang the first “And I want”, then Kasim sang the second “And I want” by himself (brilliant!) and Meat sang the third on his own. At one point in the song Kasim went across to the right of the stage (he moves around the stage a lot during the set!) and stood opposite Paul Crook playing his guitar. They were obviously talking too so that Kasim had to half run back across the stage and then shout at the microphone so that he didn’t miss the next line!

Kasim played Life Is A Lemon on his maroon coloured bass but as they were holding the last note (as Meat does at the end of most of his songs) he went to the side of the stage and switched to his black bass which he then played for most of the rest of the set (he switched back to his maroon for another song and then once more went back to his black one).

After Life Is A Lemon they went straight into Crazy About A Mercury, Mercury Blues, “That car song” or whatever the correct title is! Having heard both this song and Tear Me Down first during the Summer, I associate the two together and this is definitely my favourite - maybe if Kasim had included the line “Meat Loaf was born in Texas” in his wonderful song We The People, then that may have been on the album instead of the inferior Tear Me Down!

It was a pretty standard performance of Lawyers, Guns and Money other then the section before Meat Loaf sings “the s**t has hit the fan” as he really extended the lead up to that part! DeadRinger For Love was inflicted on us next (it’s probably my less favourite Meat Loaf track).

There were dreadful problems with the sound during the spoken part of Tear Me Down. For some reason I heard the words come out of the right bank of speakers and then they were echoed out of the left, with that and Meat speaking through parts of it too, it was very hard to understand what was being said. Also tonight Kasim’s microphone was turned far further down than usual throughout the whole concert which I thought was a shame.

With no introduction, they then played the title track of Meat Loaf’s forthcoming album Couldn’t Have Said It Better Myself. Although it’s a duet with Patti Russo, in composition it’s very similar to Did I Say That in the varying speeds of verses and the chorus - towards the end of the song, at least tonight, Patti’s vocals came off stronger than Meat’s to me.

It wasn’t until the seventh song of the set list that John Golden finally played on the keyboards (after the intro on the guitar), he hadn't ben playing them for long when there was some problem as he stopped and went to the side of the stage to get them sorted out! John is the third person I’ve seen in that role and John really seems to have made it his own as he keeps coming out from behind the microphone to play at the front of the stage whenever he gets the chance. Unfortunately Kasim seemed to be having an attack of vertigo tonight as only twice during the whole set did he venture to the front of the stage, much to my dismay.

A friend told me after the gig that a couple of people (who now have black eyes!) had mentioned to him that Kasim looked “bored” on stage tonight. I don’t think it was so much boredom as concentration. I think few people realise how much Kasim actually does for Meat Loaf and the band. Whereas Meat Loaf and the rest of the band just turn up and play at the rehearsals and the concerts, Kasim, as Musical Director, is responsible for the arrangements of all the songs as well as organising the rehearsals and things at the venues themselves. Just in this past month, Kasim has had to break-in a new band member (and remember Meat Loaf often ad-libs songs so they have to be ready for all eventualities). This is on top of working out the arrangements for a live performance of new songs from the album. After the show tonight, I’m surprised that Kasim didn’t have a stiff neck from constantly looking to his left at what Meat and the rest of the band were doing - I was standing in direct line with his microphone and he very rarely looked straight forward due to this.

After Anything For Love, they sang Paradise By The Dashboard Light and right at the beginning Meat Loaf climbed up on the drum riser and poured two bottles of water onto John’s drums as he bashed them so that the water went flying everywhere! Meat Loaf then did the bit where he gets the audience to shout and the band to play a few notes in “competition”. Near the start of doing this, poor Paul Crook started playing when he shouldn’t have done so Meat asked him if he thought this was “your first f**kin’ gig with me or something?”, which, of course, it was! Meat then got them to put a spotlight on Paul!

The German audiences are similar to the English ones in that they will sing along at any chance that they get so when they got to the arguing part of the song, the audience started singing on their own and Meat worked that into the sketch.

After Paradise, the band left the stage and Meat mentioned the Wetten Dass show. He then introduced the band starting with John Golden before quickly introducing Kasim and then everyone else. He then started talking about his new album and that it will be out on 31st March. He also said that tonight was the first time that they had performed the track live and so on. As he was in mid-flow at this time, Kasim went off stage to attend to something really important(!) as Meat was saying that they were going to perform the full version of Did I Say That for the first time. Meat then noticed that Kasim was missing, remembered that he had introduced him and asked him if he’d been off-stage for a cigarette - Kasim just roared with laughter!

They then sang the seven minute version of Did I Say That? and it was amazing that most of the people around me were singing along too, despite the single only being released that day (although it’s received extensive airplay due to being the theme tune of the German TV epic). Even though I’m not over keen on the song at the moment (I’ve only heard it about 3 or 4 times), out of all the songs I heard tonight, that was the one that I was humming to myself on my half hour walk back to my car so it must be catchy!

I don’t know the song well enough to know how it was performed tonight but after the concert, a friend who is a Meat Loaf fan told me that twice during it, Meat sang the wrong words and that Kasim put him back on track! It was interesting that after both Did I Say That and Couldn’t Have Said It Better, Meat Loaf went up to Kasim and obviously asked him how he did! It seems incredible that someone as outgoing as Meat still needs reassurance at times.

They next got stools out for Patti and Pearl and the whole band sang Two Outta Three Ain't Bad. Even though Kasim encouraged us to sing the second verse, this audience really didn’t need too much encouragement! The general consensus at the after-show post mortem was that it was because of this that Meat decided to sing I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth). However, what he appeared to have forgotten were the words to his part so it ended up with the audience singing his part and Patti hers! During the US and UK tours, they started off singing a line or so of this song and then Meat would “hear” someone request Mony Mony which John Golden would sing, however tonight we sang the whole of the first verse and a chorus.

Next Meat started “Would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?” before Patti reminded him that Pearl hadn’t sung Guilty which she duly did! Although she sounded good, this song seemed slightly out of kilter with the rest of the concert as none of the other band members had had a solo spot.

Next they played You Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth before my favourite, Bat Out Of Hell! At the beginning of the song Meat said something to Kasim who then went around the rest of the band repeating it. After fans looked at the set list, it became apparent that Meat had decided that tonight they wouldn’t sing the third new song off the album, Forever Young, as they had planned. Kasim played Bat Out Of Hell with his ear pieces out of his ears so I'm not sure if there was some problem with them (as Meat had experienced earlier too) or what.

It was then time for the band line-up at the front of the stage before Johnny Be Good (which was on the set list). At the end, the stage went black and they all disappeared.

I think that if I had just been expecting a normal concert tonight, then I (and others) would have enjoyed it more as it was actually a good show. Although not a real consolation for the two cancelled Kasim Sulton gigs, it was still great to see Kasim on stage for two and a quarter hours!