As soon as I walked into the hall I realised that something as missing as there was no front curtain (there was nothing to attach it to). Luckily I remembered from a previous concert at this venue that the stage wasn't very high (last time I couldn't see too well) so I arrived early. I think that the support band must have arrived late as they were still doing their soundcheck when the audience were in the hall.
After the usual rain, thunder and lightening effects the band walked on stage (with Kasim just finishing his cigarette!) before Meat Loaf made his appearance. It made a nice change to actually see the band during Home By Now / No Matter What and confirmed what I'd said all along that they do NOT sing that song but that the vocals are on a backing tape.
Kasim was wearing his usual long black leather coat with a black jumper and camel colored trousers with a pattern that he wore once before in Birmingham. He had his watch on as usual but not his ring.
A funny thing happened during 'Stump the Band' in the acoustic part (Meat Loaf gets the audience to shout out any song they want played to see if they can 'Stump the Band' but obviously it's all been rehearsed beforehand although the band play their part well by pretending to decide how to play it!) as Meat Loaf supposedly heard someone request I Love Rock'n'Roll which Kasim said was originally recorded by Joan Jett. Meat Loaf got Pearl to sing lead on it (her voice came over really well) but for the second verse she produced the lyrics as she hadn't had time to learn all the words for this song that she wasn't supposed to know that they were going to sing! They finally turned up Tom's microphone for 1999 so we could actually hear what he was singing for the first time.
After Bat Out of Hell they came back on an performed a melody of classic rock and roll songs which really got the audience going (another great European audience). Kasim sang the deep part of Summertime Blues in an extremely deep voice (he certainly has a large vocal range). This encore was a great bonus at the end of the concert.
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