After they blacken the stage, I just hate the one second silence that greets Kasim’s introduction as people are wondering why it’s not Meat Loaf walking on stage! Thankfully people do start applauding and even more thankfully the applause is usually twice as loud when Kasim walks off stage as he’s impressed so many people! Tonight Kasim even mentioned himself that he knows people are expecting to see Meat Loaf and not “some guy with an acoustic guitar”!

Kasim wished us all a Happy New Year and said that he was celebrating his 20th year in the music business “or is it my 25th or 26th or 27th?”! Whatever it is I’m sure that there were some people who thought that he must have started when he was still in nappies as even the close up shots on ten foot high screens didn’t make him look his age. For the first time tonight, I noticed that Kasim was chewing gum during his own set.

There were no surprises in Kasim’s set tonight but his voice did sound exceptionally good. I’m not a great fan of this one day concert, one day off concert schedule (it makes way too much driving for me!) but if this results in Kasim’s voice sounding SO good at all the concerts, then it’s well worth it.

After Don’t Hold Me Back (when he hit every note perfectly!) he said that he had cut his finger but that being the professional, he would carry on playing! In fact even during Meat Loaf’s set he sucked his finger a few times.

Kasim said that he just had a few copies of Quid Pro Quo available to sell. He said that he only had one or two copies and then changed it to a few more! This then neatly lead into a song “off that album” Before She Was Gone.

Kasim’s final song was Sacrifice which is a good fast closer to his set. Tonight he played it with the muted guitar part which I really like - I’ve heard it played that way so many times now that I miss it when I hear the album version.

And then, all too soon for me, it was time for Kasim to leave the stage! I really hadn’t realised how much I looked forward to Kasim’s opening set until it was missing in Cardiff. I’m just so glad that he was back tonight!

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