Ticket to the concert - £31.75
Petrol for the 300 mile round trip - £40.00
Parking at the NEC - £6.00
Seeing Kasim play his music in front of 12,000 people - priceless!

As soon as I walked into the NEC I checked that Kasim’s stool was set up on stage and thankfully it was! The lights dimmed at about 7.40pm and there was about a minute of nothing before Kasim half ran / half bounced on stage! I think he was expecting someone to introduce him but nobody did so he had to introduce himself “Ladies and Gentleman - Kasim Sulton” which fell slightly flat as most people there didn’t realise that it was Kasim Sulton introducing Kasim Sulton! (It always gets a big laugh if he has to do it at his solo gigs as people are there to see Kasim).

Kasim then explained that he plays with Meat Loaf but that first he was going to sing some of his own songs and he started with Sacrifice. For all of Kasim’s set he used his metal-acoustic guitar (the one he uses in Testify) and at the start of his set his capo was already on his guitar. For the ignorant (like I was in Halle) a capo is that clothes peg thingy that allows one to play open chords higher up on the neck. This way, one can change keys but still play the same chord shapes. So, musicians use it often when they want to play a song in a different key but want to play the same chord shapes as they would lower on the guitar neck. (That was what Doug Kennedy told me and I still don’t understand it - personally I think Kasim’s trying to save on his guitar strings!)

Kasim’s voice sounded brilliant in Sacrifice - really strong and he sang the song faultlessly. His guitar work is just amazing in that and in the guitar solo part he slowed it and then did that muted string bit which is so effective!

Next Kasim mentioned Quid Pro Quo and that it was available to purchase in the venue (thankfully it was positioned better at all the merchandise stalls than at Halle but at £15 it is quite expensive as that makes it about $20…maybe they have to add on VAT if it’s sold in UK). Kasim then removed his capo and sang Before She Was Gone. I don’t think it was my imagination but I that Kasim sang it slightly slower than normal. One part I did notice was that when he sang the “like a dying fire” part the word “fire” was echoed after he sang it - I don’t know how that was done unless they turned on an echo in the microphone for that one word. Again Kasim’s voice was very strong in this song.

Kasim next explained that he was pleased to be in England and that he’d just played with Meat Loaf in Germany. He said that at the two concerts that he had opened he had asked the promoters to tell him a few words of German so that he could say them but that by the time he got on stage, he always forget them! He also said that he had been getting fed up with seeing Star Trek dubbed into German!

Kasim’s final song was Don’t Hold Me Back but he didn’t start it with his loud “I gave no promise or guarantee!” but instead played a few chords of guitar before starting the song. Somebody was recently called “a prick” for saying that another singer’s voice was not so good one evening (!) so at the risk of being called the same, unfortunately vocally this was not the best performance I’ve heard of DHMB. I’m not sure if the guitar was tuned too high or just that Kasim needed a sip of water but his voice sounded very husky throughout the song. He still received a loud round of applause afterwards though!

And then, all too soon for me, it was time for Kasim to leave the stage after another great opening set!

When we had entered the venue they were playing Meat Loaf videos on the big screens (such a nice change from the usual crap music used for people going into concerts) and after Kasim’s set, they played some more videos (personally I would have thought that Kasim could have played another 3 or 4 songs instead!). I didn’t realise that he’d made so many videos as they played ones of songs that they weren’t singing tonight.

Due to the fact that it’s a two and a half hour concert and loads happens in that time, also as there are loads of concerts coming up, I’m not going to give a detailed rundown of each song but I will say that Meat Loaf looked 100% recovered to me. All day long whenever my mobile rang I was worried in case it was a call to say that the concert was cancelled but, if you hadn’t known he had been ill last week (or even if you had) you certainly wouldn’t have guessed it from tonight’s performance.

There were reports from Oberhausen that he was being careful about the high notes at the start of the concert but tonight his voice was strong right from the start.

In Life Is A lemon, Meat Loaf spent a lot of time with Randy Flowers and Paul Crook getting them both to play lead guitar which was incredible to watch and hear! At the beginning of that song Patti and CC both had black cape things on before they took them off to reveal their devil and angel outfits - I don’t remember that happening in Halle. Also back at this concert was the recorded “oohs” and “aahs” that were missing at Halle.

Near the end of Lawyers Guns and Money (just before the “the sh!t has hit the fan” part) they used to sing “lawyers, guns and money” about six times but tonight they sang it loads more until indicated to stop by Meat Loaf.

The intro into DeadRinger For Love went on and on tonight. First Meat Loaf goes over to CC and Paul and tries to get CC introduced in him, before he goes over to Patti (who is chatting to Kasim and Randy) and tries the same thing. Tonight as soon as Patti moved over towards Kasim and started chatting to him he very obviously checked his flies for some reason!

One of the definite concert highlights for me was towards the end of DeadRinger when Meat Loaf and Patti were doing something at the front of the stage as Kasim, Randy, Paul and CC all stood in front of the drums and they had Kasim playing the melody of DeadRinger on his bass! It was magical! Often in the concert, Paul and Randy’s guitar playing is highlighted so it was great to see and hear Kasim’s bass too!

The next highlight was Testify as at the start of the song, Kasim played the intro on the guitar he used in his solo set but at the front centre of the stage with the spotlight on him! Then when they started singing the song, it was a duet with Kasim and Meat Loaf singing the vocals - it was just brilliant to hear! Definitely the best version I’ve ever heard of Testify!!

In Halle during the Red Rose speech, they had some red roses. I don’t know if it was intentional tonight or not but there weren’t any so after the “I bet you say that to all the boys” line, Meat Loaf brought Patti over a coke of Coke and told her that it was the real thing! By the look on her face, she wasn’t expecting it!

After Couldn’t Have Said It Better, the stage went dark and they played the I’d Lie For You video and another one (I think it was Objects). They then all came back on stage for Frying Pan. Unfortunately this broke up the atmosphere a bit as all the venue lights were still dark so it was difficult for people to go out but some did and then it was even harder to see when they came back in.

All the band had changed clothes (Kasim had mentioned this on KS.com a while back) but to me it just seemed to break up the show a bit but it wasn’t a proper intermission. Before the break (and for his solo set) Kasim was wearing black trousers and shirt and a lovely grey coloured patterned jacket that looked really good on him. After the break, Kasim wore his tour program outfit. For the first time in about 8 years that I’ve seen, after the break, Meat Loaf wasn’t wearing all black but instead had a black velvet long coat on and a white shirt.

I used to love Out Of The Frying pan (And Into The Fire) on the 1994 tour but I was a bit disappointed with tonight’s version. All the rest of the concert, I could hear all the vocals very clearly but for this song the instruments seemed to drown them all out to me. It also seemed to lack the excitement of the other tour too. On the ’94 tour they used to have a blast of real flame going up a few times at the front of the stage (I was always worried that Kasim would step onto the pad at the wrong time!) but the special effect tonight were 4 very large paper flames like they used to use on the NOTP tour…I suppose they’re reluctant to use real flames nowadays. They also didn’t have the guitarists playing at the front of the stage which is great to watch with I thought was a shame too.

Meat Loaf sat for the beginning of Did I Say That (he had for the first verse of All Revved Up too) but once the song got fast, so did he!

Paradise was slightly more dragged out than it has been on recent tours. The twist though was that Meat Loaf made Patti a cup of coffee and then started reading a newspaper to supposedly find out what was on at the pictures when she starts kissing and mauling him instead of the other way round.

They then went straight into Bat Out Of Hell - I think that’s probably the only song that they don’t ever change and I think there would be an outcry if they ever did!

After that, Kasim and Randy handed in their guitars ready for the band bow but Meat Loaf got Paul to start playing We Are Family so (other than Patti) there was no band introductions or a band bow (maybe they were getting near the curfew?). They sang We Are Family and then went into a bit of It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It). During that they unfolded from the roof two Union Jacks (the third one wouldn’t budge) and the confetti machines went off (but to the sides so we in the middle missed them totally) and then Meat Loaf exited the stage. The band played a few more bars and then the stage went dark and they left too. As I said after Halle, I think that last part lets the concert down the most.

And that’s only the first of the UK concerts!

Many thanks to ChrisH for all the photos on this page.

Idea for the opening paragraph is swipped from the Mirror Of The Soul website.