(The sign on the side of the bus said "Virgin Oxford Street 18:00 Today!)
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From what I can garner from various messageboards and mailing lists, it appears that Mercury Records have not been promoting or distributing Meat Loaf’s new single fully in UK (Meat’s largest market). Despite him performing it on several TV shows and a lot of fans buying several copies, it only reached 31 in the UK charts (the third lowest of 13 new entries) in the first week. One major complaint was that loads of stores weren’t stocking the single. Meat Loaf’s new album was released on Monday and a record signing was booked for today but it appears that at the thirteenth hour, Meat decided to hire an open top red London double decker bus and play live from the top of it on the way to the signing! From what he posted on the MLUKFC board, he arranged this and for some press to be there (cameras from the top 3 national UK TV stations were filming) and it was to be a surprise to both the record company and Virgin Megastore. In UK we have had about the mildest Spring ever with hardly any rain but, as soon as I set out, it started drizzling and continued almost all evening! I was slightly concerned in case it would be cancelled but the show must go on! (I then also worried about them getting electrocuted but thankfully it didn’t happen.)
 Surprisingly for London rush hour traffic on a Friday evening, they arrived about on time and stopped immediately outside Virgin Megastore. Thankfully Kasim was facing towards the store so I had a perfect view. Alex and Lucy (who had been running beside the bus for a short distance) said that they had just played DeadRinger For Love but outside the store they played Meat Loaf’s new single Couldn’t Have Said It Better which sounded just brilliant - it was really loud and they all gave a great performance. Afterwards we could hear Meat Loaf saying to “play something else…anything!” so Kasim chose All Revved Up. I think this was my favourite part as I later realised that Meat Loaf had got off the bus (he had an interview to record before the signing) so Kasim and Patti Russo sung the lead vocals which was just brilliant to hear! As soon as they finished all the band rushed down onto the lower deck of the bus where it was dry which was funny to watch! (Thankfully later they all came out to sign things and pose for photos.) I didn’t realise quite how wet they actually were until I saw Kasim close up and his jacket was soaked right through! Later on ITV television in the London area they showed a two minute segment on them and there were some great shots of John Miceli hitting the cymbals and the water bouncing off them! I also noticed at the store that Kasim kept re-tuning his bass which he never usually does on stage so maybe raindrops and bass strings don’t go together too well. For an impromptu quickly planned event, it was a wonderful way to spend a Friday evening!
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Meat Loaf
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