Review by Mike Piercy:
THREE BATS and a PIANO

If the Manchester audience was somewhat subdued at times on opening night Sheffield was anything but. There’s something about a Sheffield audience and something about a rainy Bank Holiday Sunday with no work the next day that conspires to make a Meat Loaf concert such an enthusiastic event. Did I say rainy, it was foul wet weather outside but warm as toast inside the Arena.

Sunday night proved to be another Sheffield occasion which will live in the memory. Meat has always seemed to like Sheffield and once again they took him to their hearts. There was a real buzz about this audience who arrived ready to sing and sing they did from the outset. I’ve seen so many great Meat Loaf concerts in Sheffield and this one ranks among the best.

This time Meat and the band are nearing the end of the UK first leg of the arena tour and the Neverland Express continues to excite and amaze with their musical prowess. Are we surprised? No, but a show like this relies on a tight ship and these guys are just fantastic musicians. I think it’s appropriate here to mention Mark Alexander’s wonderful piano which rings out so melodically throughout the show and “super sticksman” John Micelli for keeping it all going at the back without being grilled alive by pyro!

As is customary on this tour the short intro that is All revved up featuring Dave Luther on sax started proceedings before Paradise was upon us with Meat and Aspen Miller once again playing out teenage dreams. Aspen once again wore the miniscule Dallas Cowboys style cheerleaders outfit but this time managed to insult Meat after he started to strip off saying that she wished he’d put the clothes back on. A fine version of You took the words followed before Frying Pan’s flame pods turned back night for a week, a really dramatic part of the show which thrilled the audience as constant flame and fire rose from the stage floor in long and short bursts - this was indeed a hot show … but wait until you see the gas bill Meat! Life is a Lemon with lemon coloured flash pods was a highlight and featured Paul’s solo and had the song ending with fireworks from the rig. Anything for love was so much better than opening night with Aspen Miller again singing beautifully in that stunning black dress and meat really stepping up vocally.

Meat was in fine vocal form and his vocal prowess showed once again on Objects in the Rear View Mirror which he thankfully chose to sing without over-embellishment and it was wonderful. This great song was given the treatment it deserved and it was a tour de force tonight. Thanks Meat. Rock n’ roll dreams ended the first half on a melodic high augmented by golden rain fireworks from the rig. This was an excellent first half, a band on top form and Meat in fine fettle.

CC and Aspen shared the vocals on Seize the Night which started the second half before my continued least favourite Meat song If it ain’t broke once again proved to me that if you lose melody you lose the audience and of course those awful inlatables rose yet again supposedly resembling band members … a good lawyer might be able to sue for misrepresentation!

Bad for good improves the more guitar is used and the heavier that guitar is … another killer live number. A mention here for Dave luther who is a truly great sax player. Then In the land of the pigs was introduced which came across as a powerful addition to the set and frankly better live than The Monster is Loose. Blind as a bat proved once again to be another dramatic live song with wonderful solos by Paul and Randy.

Marion Raven came out to perform another excellent version of It’s all coming back to me now which Meat sang really well. Then as the first chords from the motorcycle guitar rang out leading us in to Bat Out of Hell it was almost over. Paul’s solo got a bit lost in the middle but a quick recovery steered this amazing song back on track and with a flourish and more fireworks it was over. The audience were singing throughout but on this they really took over and made it such a memorable night.

The usual encores of Black Betty, Mercury Blues and Gimme Shelter followed to conclude an excellent concert and a totally enthralling one with the band now well honed and Meat delivering a wonderful performance throughout. It was a really powerful and well paced show interlaced with quite a bit of Meat chatting to the audience. Top value for money.

We now have to wait until November and the second leg of the Tour with a date in Manchester … after that ...?

What would we like to see on the next leg? Remove the band inflatables and replace them with a flying bat when BOOH is played, do purely Bat Out of Hell I, II, and III material (no covers). Until then we await the live DVD with growing anticipation.

Sadly Mike Piercy passed away a few months after this concert.

Comments posted by fans on mailing lists include:
"WOW!! What an absolutely awesome show! I am still on a high from it!! Meat and the band were in awesome form, They all are really truly awesome musicians!"

"Highlights for me were Frying Pan, and Pigs which is one of the best live songs I have heard."

"It was my cousins first Meat concert and she said that every other live act she had seen in he past Meat and the band just put them really to shame!"

"What was very apparent to me,was how relaxed Meat was,so chatty and funny with the audience,off the cuff humour."

" Really hard to choose a favourite song but Pigs totally blew me away; his energy on that was out of this world and the band were incredible!"

"I must say congrats to the Sheffield audience they were rocking and certainly added hugely to the night, they were fantastic!!!"

"Great show, much better than the last show i attended in 2003, good set list and nice tight sound."

"What a rockin' show - dare I say best so far on the current tour!"

"I took my sister and her boyfriend both of which was their first meat concert and they were both impressed. My sister was totally taken with 'Land of the pigs' and had only listened to it once in the car on the way to the gig. She much preferred it live because it came across as really powerful, so well done Meat!"

"That was my 3rd Meat Loaf concert and I drove home to Hull with just one word zapping around my head - Awesome."

Other websites:
MLUKFC.com has some comments by fans about this concert here.

The messageboard attached to Meat Loaf's official website MeatLoaf.net has some comments by fans here.

Video clips from the concert:
Click here and here for two 15 second video-clips of Kasim Sulton during Blind As A Bat at this concert. The first clip emphasises Kasim's bass playing and the second clip his singing.

Click here for Kasim sharing a laugh with Paul Crook during the intro of Out Of The Frying Pan (And Into The Fire).

Please note that the sound on these clips is not great but that is due to my camera rather than the sound at the concert.

Meat Loaf Bat Out Of Hell III Tour