What confused me was what exactly was this Plymouth concert?!!!

We were told that it wasn't a promo concert (in fact there was only one photographer there other than Meat's own photographer) and Meat is supposed to have to said to one fan that it's too expensive to play a promo concert in UK.

In a local Plymouth paper it said "The sold-out shows - which also include a date at Capital FM's Party in the Park event in Hyde Park, London - will follow a short tour of the US in support of his latest offering, Couldn't Have Said It Better. A 15-date UK tour will then follow at the end of the year" but it was before the "short"(?) US tour.

Meat Loaf posted the next day on MLUKFC "last nite was not our new set was not the whole show not The lights were bringing, that was a a wram up and the first time we had done three of the songs". We assume that they were only on stage for about 2 hours but the first US concert is on Wednesday so is that another warm up concert? And if it was a warm up concert, why was it advertised as his first of the World Tour (and why did we have to pay full whack for the tickets?!).

Well, whatever the concert was, I thoroughly enjoyed it but personally I was a bit disappointed. Please remember that this is just my (subjective) opinion. It was a good concert but not as good as I had hoped.

The stage presentation of Do IT was a great idea and brilliant visually but I was disappointed in the rest of the set and concert. They only played three songs that were new to a live performance (Testify, Love You Out Loud and Do It) and all the rest had virtually the same arrangements and stage theatrics (e.g. Meat grabbing Patti's breasts and then putting her over his shoulder during Paradise).

Anyway…..

It was a five hour drive for me to Plymouth but thankfully I had company for a change and the 5 hours of Kasim and Meat Loaf chat made the journey go quite quickly. We got there at about 5.00pm and joined the queue - there were only about 10 people in front of us. Thankfully we stood by some doors so we could hear the sound check….the sight of some Meat Loaf fans with their ears glued to the door was hilarious! We heard Testify, Do It! And Love You Out Loud plus loads and loads of drumming!

The doors opened at 6.30pm and very soon the other 10 people that I was with had deserted me to make their way to the middle of the stage (I’m sure that Kasim thinks I either have no friends or BO as I’m usually on my own at the gigs!). Luckily I managed to find a nice space right by the speakers on the left and the people either side of me were chatty!

Originally the concert had a support act but we were told that they were cancelled. We assumed that it was so that the concert was over early ready for the Party In The Park afternoon gig tomorrow (Patti told someone after the show that Kasim, Meat Loaf and John Miceli flew up to London while the others were going by road).

During most of the hour long wait for the concert inside the hall, the guitar techs were busy testing instruments and laying out the water bottles and towels. There was obviously a big problem with Randy Flowers’ (the new utility guy) guitar foot pedals as they spent about 30 minutes on it and eventually replaced a massive chunk of technology in there. Randy had an incredible selection of pedals and levers for his guitar! Paul Crook has a couple on his side of the stage and Kasim has none but Randy had about three banks of the things - I just hope that Kasim never trips over them!

At almost exactly 7.30pm the lights went down and Randy Flowers walked on stage playing guitar. Meat Loaf then came on stage (with a stool) and sang about one verse of Lost Boys And Golden Girls, plus John was drumming and I think that Mark Alexander was playing the piano too. Unfortunately the sound was absolutely dreadful during that song in particular - I honestly could not make out one single word of the song!

Next (with nobody on stage) we had the Jim Steinman Wasted Youth speech which IMO really didn’t fit into the show or mood in any way.

It was then time for Do It! Meat Loaf had said that it was going to be something special and he was correct (if only all the songs in the concert had had some thought behind their presentation then I would have been far happier). What happened in Do It! was that all the band wore white masks and white gloves. The stage was all black and I think that a blue light was used so that all you could see were these white mask faces, white gloves and some of the instruments! To make it even more effective some of the band members were dashing all over the stage! (As Kasim was using a guitar that I’ve not see him play before it took me a couple of seconds to make him out but knowing his movements on stage it wasn’t too difficult!) The effect was really clever, although the people right in the centre of the stage at the front said that they could see their clothes through the light.

Next came Life Is A Lemon which was almost exactly the same arrangement as on other tours (even to having the stage blackened at the “fade to black” line) other than Kasim not singing most of the first verse which he has always done before - it wasn’t a case of him missing it either as he was standing at his microphone. Also, near the end, Meat sang the “And I want part” on his own.

Tear Me Down was almost the same arrangement as the Summer and Winter Meat Loaf and Friends Just Makin’ Money Tours other than they didn’t have the big yellow Post It pads and the spoken part sounded like the actual CD recording. All Revved Up was the same arrangement as usual (with the long intro that the majority of people don’t recognise for quite a while) although Meat did do a bit of play-acting at the beginning where he pretended that he was waiting for a telephone to ring.

Testify was the second new song and, although it’s not my favourite track on the album by far, at this stage I was desperate to hear another new song - I was responsible for someone driving over from Germany for this show on the basis that there will be new songs! Testify comes over quite well on stage and in typical Meat Loaf fashion just when most people thought that the song was over, he started talking about seeing some distant light and (eventually) starting to sing again. Apparently he said part of this speech on his knees but I must have been looking at the left hand side of the stage at that point!

Next was the third and final new song - Love You Out Loud. There are a wonderful lot of background vocals on this one so I really enjoyed hearing it. I also found on the drive up to London that this was the song that was going through my head virtually the whole journey.

Next it was back to the well worn path of Anything For Love. As usual Meat Loaf did his silly part where he doesn’t sing it to start with. One of those “oh no I won’t” was actually in the wrong part of the tune to have sung it even if he had wanted! Having seen Anything For Love live about 200 times there’s not much to say other than it was virtually the same arrangement (less repeats in the middle as has been the case on recent tours) and the usual “screwing around” pause near the end. Meat Loaf did hold one note right at the end for quite a while that I was quite impressed with though!

Couldn’t Have Said It Better was next and that received a great reception from the audience - loads of people around me were singing along to it so, although it only reached 31 in the charts, people do seem to know the song! They omitted the slow beginning part and substituted some loud drumming from John Miceli.

Next they sang another duet, I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth) but I felt as though Meat Loaf wasn’t 100% confident about singing this song….as though at any moment he could have slipped into the wrong verse! The band played it perfectly and confidently though - every time I hear the musical part in the middle I’m reminded of the 1996 tour and Kasim being silhouetted against the fire video!

Next the band left the stage (there had been a few cigarette breaks already) and Meat Loaf sat on part of the drum riser. Randy Flowers came on stage playing (I think) an electric acoustic guitar and Mark Alexander tinkled the ivories for the beginning of Two Outta Three Ain’t Bad. This was VERY reminiscent of the 1996 tour when Kasim and Mark used to play the intro for as long as Meat waffled on for.

Meat Loaf introduced all the band other than Patti and I think (but I’ll freely admit that I’m biased) that Kasim received the loudest applause! Meat Loaf did tell Renee Cologne that she should wear a padded bra next time (rather strange from someone who has a lot of padding himself in that area).

Once again, it was the usual old arrangement of Two Outta Three with the audience (mainly being encouraged by Kasim) singing part of one verse by ourselves.

Next I just knew that they were going to go straight into Bat Out Of Hell! Don’t get me wrong that is one of my favourite all time songs but I can’t believe how many concerts I’ve seen that song follow Two Outta Three! Something like a short burst of Puff The Magic Dragon in between would be so refreshing!

It was a good performance of Bat Out Of Hell - Paul Crook especially is really playing that track well (especially compared to Cologne). My travel companions mentioned on the drive that they like Paul’s heavier style and he really plays to the audience well. At the end of the song, we had the inevitable “from all of us” spiel before they left the stage.

Of course it wasn’t long before they were back again and I could have almost put money on them playing Mercury Blues (an apt title with Meat’s record company problems)! Thankfully they did prolong this song for a fair bit (rather like they used to Rock’n’Roll Dreams) with most of the guitar players standing at the front of the stage. Meat Loaf played this song on a guitar that had the Union Jack (the UK flag) painted on it.

I thought that we were getting away with it but no, they just had to play Paradise! I suppose the biggest surprise here was that it was the last song. Paradise was exactly the same as the recent tours even to the part of Meat Loaf grabbing Patti’s breasts and then putting her over his shoulder but the play-by-play speech part was slightly late being played so I noticed the Musical Director glancing at the guys off-stage a few times!

Next Meat Loaf introduced Patti and then it was time for the band line-up at the front of the stage and for them to exit.

In all they were on stage for about 2 hours and 2 minutes which was VERY short for a Meat Loaf concert - when we left the hall, it was still light! We did hear that Kasim, Meat Loaf and John were flying to London that evening but most people remarked on how short the concert was.

I must admit that I felt a bit cheated overall. What we had was a good concert but, considering that the band has been rehearsing for so many hours each day since May and the tour was supposed to have started almost a fortnight previously, I fail to see why there were not more new to stage songs and why the stage presentation of the old “favourites” that they have to play hadn’t been choreographed already! I know Meat was ill but couldn’t have spent that time working out how to do a different slant to Paradise for instance. It’s just my assumption but I would guess that the band are more than ready to play new songs but it’s Meat that isn’t.

The band are excellent! Paul Crook posted about them wanting to be the best version of The Neverland Express ever. Although I only first saw Meat Loaf in 1994 I have seen about 6 versions of the band and I think that this IS the best version (followed closely by the Steve Buslowe / Pat Thrall version).

I think that Paul himself is a real asset to the band. He does play more heavily than Damon La Scott ever did and he has far more stage presence. He does seem to move around the stage a fair bit but at least he’s not afraid to go to the front anymore.

Randy Flowers is very nice looking (it makes a change to have someone other then Kasim who is good looking on stage!) and already seems to be switching from guitar to keyboards well and moving well. However at one point, Meat Loaf did go over and prod his chest a few times which we took to mean that he should play it more from the heart (but we could be totally wrong).

While I hate the idea of a father / step daughter split, having Renee Cologne in the band is a real bonus IMO. It was difficult for me to see Renee (as I was concentrating on the left side of the stage!) but she was 100% better on stage than Sarah Douglas. Having an extra guitar in places is a real asset too IMHO and she didn’t seem to flag with the tambourine either! I just feel sorry for her as already I heard one guy say that she’s less attractive than Pearl - those men are all the same!

As for Mark Alexander, I'm afraid that he was way too far away from me for me to be able to see him in any detail but I still reckon that he's the best keyboard player that I've seen play with Meat Loaf - although Tom Brislin was good at the fast stuff, Mark seems to feel the slow songs far better.

I just can’t imagine The Neverland Express without John Miceli bashing the drums! Tonight at the beginning of one song, John did a really long drum solo which was very impressive. For most of it, Meat Loaf stood behind him so at one part John drummed around the drums to him and looked at him and then did it again. Inevitably Meat Loaf next poured two bottles of water over the drums so that as John bashed them, the water flew everywhere! It was left to the drum tech to later dry off everything! Also on John’s drum kit tonight was one of those masks which moved forward everytime that John hit the bass drum!

Patti was great as always! She’s swapped sides of the stage with Renee so now she’s on Kasim’s side. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her flag in a show or not visibly really enjoy it! All the more amazing considering the heels that she was wearing - her feet were almost at right angles to the floor!

As for the star of the show, he was just brilliant as always! His voice sounded really good tonight (which made it even more of a shame that he didn’t play an opening set) and he seemed quite relaxed on stage (not all tense as in Cologne) but very alert….he was looking all around the rest of the band a lot. Kasim also seemed to have loads of energy tonight, even to the point of jumping a couple of times and doing his step when it looks like he’s about to trip over his own feet! He was also all over the stage quite a lot.

Kasim was wearing those light camel-coloured trousers with a pattern in that he’s worn at least once on stage before and a multi coloured (but not overly) stripped shirt. It was made of like a cheesecloth material so that it looked slightly crumpled. Kasim obviously got quite hot tonight as there were some sweat marks on his back by the end of the set but I don’t remember him wiping the sweat off his face at all. He’s also got a slightly shorter haircut! Other than for Bat Out Of Hell and Mercury Blues (I think) when he used his maroon guitar and using a different one in Do It!, Kasim used his black bass throughout the rest of the concert.

As I stated earlier, I did enjoy the concert but I was disappointed and, in hindsight, I felt that it was an unfairly rushed set.