When I first entered the venue from the back of the hall it looked like the centre front of the stage was empty which really disappointed me (but I wasn’t surprised). As I got nearer to the front I saw THE STOOL which indicated that Kasim would be playing his opening set tonight! (I’ve never been so pleased to see a stool!)

At about 7.45pm Kasim was introduced and walked onto the stage wearing his red suit with that white shirt that looks SO very good on him! Even some of the women around me were remarking on it after his set!

Kasim started by first asking us if we were looking forward to an evening of rocking rock and roll and then joked that he had Meat Loaf tied up in the dressing room and that it was going to be Kasim alone on stage for the next 3 hours (what a wonderful idea!). The audience always seem to appreciate it more when Kasim explains that he’s Meat Loaf’s bass player which he did tonight. He also said something along the lines that “I promise” that his set wouldn’t be long. As I was surrounded with people with Brummie accents, the way that Kasim said that one word “promise” sounded just so American! Kasim then launched into Don’t Hold Me Back.

For anyone who saw Kasim play this song last night, tonight they will have heard a different version as he started with his “I gave no promise or guarantee” vocals. The opposite to last night, Kasim’s voice was very slightly husky (I doubt that most people will have noticed it) in the first song but got stronger through his set. However he still sang a strong “strong” at the usual part and the next note was almost spot on (a lot cleaner than the Quid Pro Quo version).

Next Kasim explained that he used to be in Utopia and that he was going to sing a Todd Rundgren song. Unfortunately relatively few people in UK know who Todd is and even less would know Todd’s version of Cliché and therefore appreciate how good Kasim’s version is - when I heard Todd sing it on stage, I only really could make out the Madonna lines whereas when Kasim sings it EVERY word is clear.

Kasim next mentioned Quid Pro Quo and that it was available at the venue and then made a lovely speech about Meat Loaf and how Kasim appreciates his giving him a chance to play his music on the nights that he does.

Kasim’s final song was Sacrifice which I’d guessed he’d play as I saw the capo (I know the lingo!) on the end of his guitar. He sang a brilliant performance of the song and it really shows off his guitar playing so well too.

All too soon for me, it was time for Kasim to leave the stage. He said goodbye and as the people were applauding he bent down to the microphone twice to say something else but they had already switched it off and his bum was hardly off the stool! Eventually he just shouted it and it was to say that Meat Loaf would be on soon!

I know it’s only a pipedream but I just wish that Kasim could open all the UK concerts. The original announcement was that Kasim would open all the concerts at which there are Meet and Greets and others (depending on curfews and what’s happening backstage). Now that there are no M&Gs I wonder where that leaves Kasim’s set?!! I hate driving to venues think “will he or won’t he?”.

They then played a couple of Meat Loaf videos again but while they were doing that, the stewards came around and asked us to stand up! Apparently it was on Meat Loaf’s instructions that he wanted the first five rows to stand and be allowed up to the barrier at the front. Yesterday apparently he had got upset as everyone was sitting so he told the stewards to get us up and today it was done before they even came on stage. Due to some fast telephoning when the tickets went on sale by my friend, we were only one seat along tonight so we were again in the front row and centre stage…unfortunately the seats on the tour go downhill from now on!

I’ve received such a bollocking from several people today about my comments yesterday so I will just say that Meat Loaf was on stage tonight and sang. Whether he sang well and whether he looked ill or not is apparently a sensitive (and subjective) subject. I’ll freely admit that I listened to Kasim’s vocals more than Meat Loaf’s anyway and certainly tonight Meat Loaf had intermittent problems with a couple of microphones which didn’t help too.

The set list was similar to last night other than they omitted Lawyers, Guns and Money but added Forever Young (it was on the set list as ???Forever Young???) so it sounds as though they weren’t sure if it would be included or not.

Kasim certainly seemed to be singing more vocals with Meat Loaf tonight. I’m not sure whether he actually was singing more or whether I just noticed more but it certainly improved the concert for me! There was also one point (I think at the end of Mercury Blues) when Kasim gave three very shrill whistles ….I wouldn’t like to be standing next to him when he does that!

Randy Flowers was having a nightmare evening with his guitar strings as he broke one in Life Is A Lemon and then another just as the spotlight was on him for the intro into Testify! He managed to play the intro with just the other strings.

Without wishing to do a song by song review, the first few songs really get the audience warmed up nicely. I hadn’t noticed before but the masks for Do It have red eye sockets which give them an evil look. Meat Loaf was nowhere near the microphone today when he “sang” the first line of that song!

At the beginning of DeadRinger For Love when Patti moved over to Kasim and Randy, she and Kasim shook hands tonight! Later in that song we had that great bass guitar part which I did manage to video today (although Patti walked across my line of sight a few times).

There was a very long gospel intro into Testify tonight before Kasim played his great opening on his orange guitar. That part seemed to be a bit shorter tonight and he was more towards the side of the stage then the centre but when he and Meat Loaf were singing the vocals it was just wonderful to hear!

After Testify Meat Loaf went offstage while the band played the intro into Anything For Love. They then got to the part when it is just Mark playing the piano ready for Meat Loaf to start singing but he hadn’t come back on stage! Kasim went to the side of the stage and then ran around the back of the drums. From where I was (about 20 feet away) I could hear Kasim calling “John! John” and then they all played some more of the loud intro into Anything For Love. There were A LOT of worried faces in the audience at that part (especially around me) and people asking if Meat Loaf had passed out again!

Meat Loaf then walked on stage doing up his shirt…..he’d got changed but had taken longer than expected! Phew! Something that needs to be worked out I think but thankfully nothing more worrying! Meat Loaf later said that he hadn’t even had time to put his shoes on and in fact he sang the rest of the concert in his socks!

When they get to the quiet part of Anything For Love (after the “screwing around” line) there is always some smart Alec who thinks it’s funny to call something out. For some reason tonight Meat Loaf got very annoyed (last night he just told them to “shut the f+ck up”) but today he threw his microphone down and walked off to the side of the stage. He was only gone for a few seconds thankfully and then came back and finished the song.

We didn’t have “the intermission” of the videos tonight after Couldn’t Have Said It Better which I thought made the concert flow so much better. Also far better (in my opinion) was Out Of The Frying Pan (And Into The Fire) as the words were far more distinct tonight. The sound generally was louder than last night (my ears are ringing tonight and they didn’t yesterday) but I thought that this song in particular was just more energetic than yesterday.

During Paradise By The Dashboard Light tonight, Meat Loaf went running off into the audience. Nobody really knew why until he spied some people with coffee and asked to have it to give to Patti. The audience seemed to enjoy him running off the stage to near them but it just seemed to fall flat as it broke up the song too much and it took a while for them to understand why he was doing it. (I also didn’t understand why a couple would still be drinking a Starbucks Coffee so late in the concert as there weren’t any for sale at the venue!) If he had gone running into the audience during It’s Only Rock’n’Roll, I think that would have been far more effective as a finale. Anyway, once he returned to the stage with the coffee, he then read a newspaper again so Patti started kissing and mauling him. After the “Stop right now” part, Meat Loaf ended up dropping his microphone (no wonder they didn’t work so well tonight!) and kneeled at the side of the stage. Kasim picked it up and played his bass while the microphone was still in his right hand!

Bat Out Of Hell was as brilliant as ever but I did notice that both yesterday and today, Meat Loaf didn’t do that running sideways across the stage part.

Tonight we did have the band bow and they all stood on stage and took a step forward as Meat Loaf introduced them. He then sat on a stool and told us that when he recorded CHSIB he really did think that it was going to be his final album and that it wasn’t until Jim Steinman rang him to suggest that they make Bat III that he decided to record another album. He dedicated Forever Young to everybody who was in the audience.

At the Halle concert I (half) joked that I thought it was dreadful that Kasim sang so few words in Forever Young…tonight they cut out 7 words so that Kasim sang absolutely NOTHING!! (It wasn’t just Kasim as Randy didn’t sing at all either.) I just couldn’t believe that they have one of the best voices there are in the music business on stage and he’s not singing a song - that’s almost evil!

When they sang We Are Family / It’s Only Rock’n’Roll they played far more of the latter than they did last night and even got the audience to sing it for a while too. This seemed to be unrehearsed as the band didn’t seem to know when to sing and one of them didn’t know when not to play but it was effective. Last night the flag on Paul’s side of the stage wouldn’t open and tonight it was the turn of the flag on Kasim’s side! I wonder if they actually only have two and a quarter Union Jacks! (It’ll be interesting to see if they use the Union Jack or the Welsh and Scottish flags when they go to those parts of the country.) The confetti machines were going the best that I’ve seen them. They are pointed towards the sides of the audience but today some of it made it’s way over to the middle too.

And then, all too soon for me, Kasim left the stage.

For photos of Kasim's opening set, click here.

Video Clips
Kasim's bass playing in DeadRinger For Love
A shakey 6 second clip of Kasim's vocals in Testify