I think the gates opened at 4.30pm and I got there at about 4.40pm so I could have easily have stood just a couple of rows back and got a good view but as Meat Loaf wasn’t due on stage until 10.15pm I found some steps to sit on and waited for my friends to arrive.

The first band started at about 5.30pm and were called Lunick who I think were from Germany and were so unmemorable that I’ve already forgotten what they played other than it was a girl lead singer and they did sing their songs in English. Mel C (from The Spice Girls) was next on stage and I thought her performance was better than when she played at Party In The Park in 2003 but proved the saying about 4 separate parts not being equal to the whole. Next we had Juli who the crowd obviously loved! It was a German band fronted by another female singer but they sang in German this time. They played for about an hour and a half including an encore which the crowd insisted on!

During Juli’s performance we tried to work out how to get somewhere near the front (essential for me bearing in mind that Kasim was unlikely to be shown too often on the screens) but it was so packed that we had trouble even getting anywhere in line with one of the screens far less remotely anywhere less than 100 foot from the stage! The official report was that there were 15,000 people but I think that was understated comparing the size of that crowd to the seated capacity of somewhere like Wembley Arena. Tickets for this gig were less than half price of all the other gigs on this tour added to which it was a blistering hot day and evening so I think that maybe their official capacity was 15,000 but they kept letting people in! One newspaper said the next day that there were 48,000 people there and I tend to think that’s closer to the truth.

Knowing that at these types of shows, all Europeans like to drink, we opted for waiting for Juli to finish and then tried to make our way to the front and it worked perfectly as loads of people were coming out of the crowd while we went in. Then God came to our rescue too as we had a quick downpour of rain so that even more people left so we ended up about 4 rows from the front in line with Randy….perfect!

Unfortunately it seems that there must be something in the water in Hannover as there were an awful lot of tall people there so for a lot of the show I could only see Kasim, Randy and Patti! Meat Loaf came over to our side a lot and Paul ran across a few times but I rarely saw CC or Mark (and John’s quite hidden by his drums anyway).

There was a stall of merchandise at the venue (mainly T-shirts but sadly no copies of Quid Pro Quo - in fact no CDs at all!) and according to the T-shirt this tour (including the American leg) is called The Hair Of The Dog Tour. (The Pori, Finland gig isn’t listed on the T-shirt.) We had to explain to some of the Europeans with us what that meant (we had to explain what “Whore” meant too!) but we took it to mean that it was kind of an extension to the Couldn’t Have Said It Better Tour in 2003 / 2004. On stage during that tour Meat Loaf had announced that he would be recording Bat Out Of Hell III with Jim Steinman and even a few months ago he posted something similar on the MLUKFC messageboard. Meat Loaf has also been quoted as saying that on this tour they will be playing some of the new songs from the album. Sadly since then there have been rumours circulating (starting from quite reliable sources) that plans for the album are now not going ahead. Kasim’s last message had just said that they had rehearsed some new songs (no mention of BOOH3) and apparently on the NDR website for this gig there was download of a brief interview with Meat Loaf where he says that they are going to start recording a new album in October but refrains from calling it BOOH3. Consequently some of the fans I spoke to at this gig were disappointed with the setlist as they were hoping to hear new songs from BOOH3. After hearing a recording of WPOMBHTM I certainly hope that BOOH3 does go ahead but for this tour, I’m just going to enjoy what they do play!

It was easy to tell from Kasim’s manner on stage tonight that this was the first gig of the tour as he definitely had some nervous energy! He was also DEFINITELY the Musical Director tonight as he was all over the stage directing the band and crew and never seemed to stop! He was fascinating to watch and it really showed how professional he is.

(I didn’t take any photos tonight as I was too busy watching what was going on but Kasim was wearing black trousers and a new fitted shirt that I haven’t seen before. It was green/blue in colour with a pattern in parts (that reminded me of algae!) but it looked really good on him. He’s also had a recent hair cut and he wore his glasses through the whole set. Kasim also only played the one guitar all the concert - his black one.)

The gig started with Kasim walking on stage with Randy Flowers and directing him to begin the kinda bluesy start to the first song. Paul Crook soon started playing too and then Kasim and John (drums) joined in. They all stood at the front of the stage for this song and didn’t sing at all. Then Meat Loaf (wearing sun glasses) and Patti and CC walked on and sang, all standing together at the front centre of the stage. I later discovered that this song was called Whore but sadly I couldn’t make out a single word of the whole song! (I later asked a friend and she said the same thing.)

Next they sang Life Is A Lemon but it seemed to be a slightly shorter version this time. This was then quickly followed by Out Of The Frying Pan (And Into The Fire). There were no special effects this time (although the backdrop of the whole Meat Loaf section of the concert is the picture of the massive bat and the guy on the ledge with the burned out city). I really like both Lemon and Frying pan so it was great to start the concert with those two rocking numbers!

We next had the second “new” song which was a cover of Black Betty. It’s not a very long song and I think they could have chosen a better song to cover but it was just a basic version with nothing special added. The one plus point was that I noticed that Kasim sang almost all of Meat Loaf’s words with him! Also several times during the whole concert it seemed that Kasim had to reassure Meat Loaf about how was doing!

Next we had DeadRinger For Love which is one of my least favourite Meat Loaf songs but it was a big hit in the UK so they often include it in the set list. At the beginning of the song, Meat Loaf called for some money and went off stage to get a wad of cash. As I said before I couldn’t really see too well what was happening at the right of the stage but towards the end of the song, both Patti and CC were snogging Meat Loaf and the two girls went off together with the money so Meat Loaf called out that it must have been some sort of lesbian thing.

Next we had virtually the only song of the whole set that could be called even remotely a slower song, You Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth. Thankfully Meat Loaf didn’t play out the part where the audience sing for too long (although he did say that we weren’t singing loud enough).

Next they played what I thought was a short slow song (I think Meat Loaf was sitting on a stool at this point but I couldn’t see too well) and then they went into a fast rocking song. As they then sang a slow bit at the end, I realised that in fact this was all one song! It’s called Only When I Feel and there is a two minute version on the Jim Steinman Wuthering Heights soundtrack which is the fast part. The fast part in the middle consists of words like "If it ain’t real, fake it" and "If it ain’t broke, break it" with the two words of each line sung louder so it’s really effective.

Next was All Revved Up with the musical intro that not everybody recognises immediately (although it wasn’t as long an intro as on other tours). This was then followed by another one of my least favourite Meat Loaf songs, Paradise By The Dashboard Light. Thankfully the amateur dramatics were minimal - Meat Loaf was wearing his red and white cardigan thing again and Patti wore her Paradise leather jacket and they just did a back to back thing before kissing and thankfully not too much "arguing" at the end before she kneed him. There was a very long gap between the time that Meat Loaf and Patti started snogging and the Phil Ruzzo tape started which the Musical Director very obviously pointed out to the guys off stage was far too long!

At the end of Paradise Meat Loaf introduced Patti Russo (in a high pitched voice!) but that was the only person of the band that was introduced. We then had the first sort of encore (as they had briefly left the stage) before Paul Crook came back and played an abbreviated version of the intro into Anything For Love. Rather than the long version that they usually play, they all (Meat Loaf included) started singing "I would do anything for love but I won’t do that" a few times before he sang the first verse. They then went into a chorus and the straight into the duo part at the end.

Next we had my favourite Bat Out Of Hell which was brilliant! It was totally unaltered (I don’t think they’d dare change it!) and was just great to hear again! It was then time for a band bow before they all left the stage!

Next a NDR disc jockey came on stage but some of the crowd started booing as Meat Loaf hadn’t played a proper encore (there wasn’t one listed on the set list) so they then came back on stage and sang Mercury Blues.

All in all I thought it was a really enjoyable concert and well worth that long drive! I was surprised though that as it’s called The Hair Of The Dog Tour that they only played one song from the album Couldn’t Have Said It Better. Two friends who listen keenly to Meat Loaf’s voice both made the observation that his voice was “rough” for the first part of the gig but had warmed up by the end. For me it was just fascinating watching Kasim on stage tonight as he really earnt his money as Musical Director. It was also a very good warm-up for Kasim’s solo gig in Manchester on 4th July!!!

Roll on Skive tomorrow……!

Comments about Kasim at this concert taken from various messageboards and mailing lists include:
"Kasim was as charming as ever - he smiled and pointed his finger at me while he was singing the All Revved Up line "And you were nothing but a lonely all-American girl...""

Other websites
The NDR2 website (the radio station who hosted the festival) has a photo of Kasim onstage on Friday night.

Some photos by Tamara Angeletti of this concert have been added to the Meat Loaf German Fan Club website. The ones that feature Kasim are:
Perfect line
In the groove
Singing
With Randy Flowers
The line-up
Mercury Blues

The German website MeatLoafRocks.de has links to some photos of this concert on this page. The best shot of Kasim (IMHO) is:
With Paul Crook

There's a photo of Kasim on stage at this concert here on KSultonBass.com

The set lists and reviews thread on the Meat Loaf UK Fan Club website about this gig.

Back to Meat Loaf's Hair Of The Dog Tour

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