The concert was filmed (I assume for Dutch TV - see the Future Appearances section for details) and they were using those shots on the massive video screens (usually they just have two cameras at the front of the stage) and it was just hilarious to watch! Obviously the television crew hadn’t been to one of these concerts before as they kept missing the highlights! At one point during Music by John Miles, the guitarist Laurie Wisefield walks all the way to the front of the stage for the dramatic guitar solo and the cameras missed it totally…..even though John Miles was looking at him playing too! There’s also another track when the percussionist Patrick De Smeet waves his mallet at the front of the stage to get the audience to cheer and again they missed it until he’d done it about twice! I also think it must have been amateur cameraman night as constantly the camera would still be recording but the cameraman had dropped the camera to show a nice shot of the floor! Hilarious!

However the cameramen did redeem themselves as the opening shot of Bonnie Tyler’s It’s A Heartache was a close-up shot of Kasim’s hands playing the intro on his acoustic guitar! Unfortunately I think that was about the only time that the cameras found him all night though! Tonight Kasim was wearing a black suit with his blacker (darker black?) shirt.

After Bonnie Tyler tonight, they announced that there was a special surprise guest - Chris de Burgh! I know he’s playing the concerts in Holland (the week after next) but I guess they brought him in tonight as the concert will be screened in Holland. He only sang the one song, Lady In Red, but the crowd all seemed to know it and joined in with him.

We then had Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 before the lights dimmed and Kasim lead the band on stage! Thankfully Meat managed to start Home By Now / No Matter What on his own tonight! Have I mentioned how great Kasim’s vocals sound in that song?!!

In You Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth, the band sang and clapped all through that part but the crowd tonight had already found it’s rhythm. As usual they went wild when Anything For Love started (they get far more excited than the staid UK or US audiences do!). Kasim wandered around the stage again tonight!

I think that this was the longest set that they’ve played so far on this tour as the intro into Paradise By The Dashboard Light lasted for over five minutes! First Meat Loaf spotlighted Laurie Wisefield playing guitar, then he got the conductor, Robert Groslot, down to jive beside him! Meat Loaf next went into the orchestra itself and got a guy playing a trombone (I think!) to do a solo spot too! Meat also got the audience to sing the word “Light” at one part and decided that we didn’t sing it loud enough so we had to sing it again! For the first time at these concerts, during the argument part, Meat and Patti reverted back to the 1999 script (“It never felt so good”, “You’re right ,it never felt good with you” and “Oh you thought I was talking about you?!!!”).

All too soon for me, Kasim left the stage but thankfully was only off for Land Of Hope And Glory before he returns with all the cast to sing Yellow Submarine! I felt a bit sorry for Chris de Burgh as he looked as though he hadn’t rehearsed that song at all so he didn’t know what or when to sing. At one point Meat Loaf took him aside and then when he sang the descant part, Kasim shared his microphone!

Roll on tomorrow night…..!

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