Originally this was going to be the final concert of the tour so it was a very International audience tonight with loads of fans having flown in especially from US, Germany and Holland….and those were just the people that I knew!

We thought that these were our worst seats of the concert as they were over on Paul’s side of the stage and back in row 7 (as in 1994 I once sat right at the back of the venue, I know that row 7 is pretty good but it’s easy to complain when you are surrounded by a load of “concert snobs” who HAVE to be at the front!). Amazingly though I had a lovely surprise that when I walked in I discovered that with the diabolical cramped seating at Wembley (“London’s premier venue” remember!) row 7 at Wembley is about the same distance from the stage as row 4 in Manchester was the previous evening - think EasyJet seating compared to American Airlines seating! Even better was the fact that our seats were on the aisle towards the middle of the stage so we were as far over in Paul’s block as we could be so I could see Kasim perfectly all evening! Brilliant!

The short review of Kasim Sulton's opening set was that it was brilliant. For the more detailed review click here.

If anything the Manchester crowd last night were far more subdued than tonight’s crowd as tonight they cheered and most stood when Meat Loaf was wheeled out (literally this time!) for the morbid beginning of the concert. Most soon realised how boring this part is so sat again and continued sitting through Do It too. It wasn’t until Life Is A Lemon and Meat Loaf telling all the ushers to leave the aisles (they don’t of course but it does tell people that it’s okay to stand) that the people got up again.

I really like Life Is A Lemon and individually I like Mercury Blues and Lawyers, Guns and Money but in some ways I think it is a bit of overkill at the beginning of the concert as they tend to blend into each other (if he is going to drop any song, I think it should be Lawyers rather than Did I Say That but I guess Lawyers is easier to sing). Meat Loaf had the fake money again in Lawyers but tonight when he threw it, it all fell into the pit. Considering human nature and Meat Loaf’s physical appearance I think realistically he would be better off trying to pull the girls by using the money rather than gyrating his groin as he does but that’s one of the best parts about a Meat Loaf concert as he knows he’s not good looking and yet he really hams it up on stage with comments like him being a “sex god” and this sort of thing. Tonight at this part of the concert, Meat Loaf also put on some oversize orange glasses and his “Elton John eat your heart out” comment was funny!

My favourite part of DeadRinger is still when Kasim, Randy, Paul and CC stand together and they emphasise the bass part….I just wish that was longer! There is usually some interaction between Kasim and CC when they share the microphone for a couple of lines but there wasn’t tonight.

The start of Testify went on and on tonight. Randy Flowers is just brilliant on the guitar (when Kasim played that role, he played keyboards and rhythm but Randy plays it as keyboards and lead guitar). Meat Loaf never sings the beginning of Testify the same way twice and Randy plays the guitar perfectly to match what Meat Loaf is singing - he uses one of those steel thimble things for part of it too so it has a real blues feeling to it.

For that song, CC came on stage wearing a massive necklace…..in the shape of a guitar! The more I watch her, the more convinced I become that she isn’t playing it as she does it fine for a while and then she’ll forget to move the fingers of a left hand for a few chords! I think it was so much better when they didn’t have this pretence and had Kasim actually playing it as it was much louder too. Trainee roadie Meat Loaf managed to move the new microphone stand for Kasim and CC okay but he put it in a spot on the stage where there was no spotlight so they were singing lead (with Meat Loaf) but there was no light on them! I think someone needs to put a cross on the stage for where Meat Loaf should place it. Tonight it was Kasim who removed the stand.

Thankfully Meat Loaf didn’t waste any time going into the audience tonight during You Took The Words but he did stop the song to complain that the sides of the venue weren’t singing as well. Although this wastes time to me, at least we had the benefit of hearing Kasim start us off singing again (wonderful!). Thankfully the Couldn’t Have Said It Better / Frying Pan / Did I Say That part was back in full tonight. Unfortunately though, the lighting wasn’t as good in Did I Say That as in Belfast, they lit the stage with a stunning purple light but that was missing tonight. Meat Loaf and Patti then also sang part of I’d Lie For You.

The “guess the animal” part of Paradise was just silly tonight. Granted I don’t like the time wasting antics anyway but tonight Meat Loaf decided that Patti had to guess the first animal by eating part of it. He put a blindfold on her (with her funny comment of “mind the eye make-up!”) and then showed us a bloodshot eye that she was supposed to eat. Unfortunately it was very obvious that she took out something that was a totally different colour that she put in her mouth! The next animal was a guy in a panda suit before they finally got back to singing the song.

The rest of the concert followed the usual routine of the introductions, them going off stage, them coming back for Anything For Love and Bat Out Of Hell and then the band bow. Tonight there were quite a few roses thrown on the stage (I blame the Germans!!) and a bra too which Kasim seemed to take quite an interest in! A friend of mine who is a big Meat Loaf fan (but a realistic one too) and has seen him on stage 100s of times, said that he thought that Meat Loaf's voice sounded good tonight - "it tailed off a bit in the middle but was strong again by the end". I'll willingly admit that I can rarely make out if Meat loaf's voice is good or not as I tune to Kasim's vocals myself.

At the end of the concert, Meat Loaf looked totally exhausted which is not something I’ve noticed before. It may be because it’s coming up to the end of the tour or maybe because they played two consecutive nights…thankfully the concerts in January all but once have at least one day off between them. Although I complain about his stage antics and what I consider is time wasting, I’ve always said that Meat Loaf puts on a really great concert / show.