Once again the television cameras were recording the show but the shots that were shown on the screens were better than last night - another six concerts and the director will get it viewable! There were two separate shots of John Miles’ feet but tonight they finally showed Laurie Wiseman’s turn in the spotlight too! Some of the guys in the orchestra really get into the music but they’ve totally missed them - there are two guys who keep standing in time with the music and, at some points, literally leaping in the air off their seats as the music reaches a crescendo - all missed!

I assume that because it was being filmed, all the artists wore exactly the same clothes as they had last night! People like Meat Loaf, Patti, Carl Jenkins, Marco Borsato and Carl Huybrechts rarely wear different clothes but it did mean that Kasim wore his black suit and darker shirt again! (I guess I messed up the continuity for the television though as I wore a different T-shirt tonight!!!) As Belgium was playing in the World Cup play-offs tonight, during the interval they showed some of the football - I think Belgium was winning!

Thankfully it was another treble dose of Kasim tonight! The first hint of that was as he took his place amongst the Electric Band before John Miles starts playing Total Eclipse Of The Heart. Again tonight they showed Kasim’s hands playing the start of It’s A Heartache but tonight they also panned to his face too! I hope they show that one when it’s televised! Later there was another shot of Kasim as well!

After Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (why did Liszt write such long tunes?!!), Kasim lead the band back on stage in the twilight while the orchestra played the beginning of Home By Now / No Matter What. Although Kasim doesn’t play much guitar in that song (he doesn’t even play the very deep part at the beginning), his vocals more than make up for it!

With only about a one beat pause, they go into You Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth (which seemed to be the same arrangement as last night) and then that lead into Anything For Love. At the end of that song, Kasim goes over to the far left of the stage and Laurie Wiseman comes down off his perch to join him (I noticed tonight that Kasim threw at least one pic down into the area by the side of the stage at someone!).

There was a long intro into Paradise By The Dashboard Light again tonight with first Laurie being spotlighted (he’s excellent on the guitar) and then Meat going into the orchestra and getting one of the guys who plays the trumpet or trombone to play too! He then did that silly bit with the audience about making the sound of their applause and calls louder and softer - it was fun to see the orchestra joining in with that though!

Tonight when Meat Loaf and Patti were doing their play acting in the middle of the song, as usual, Kasim went to stand by the sound board (so that they knew when to start the baseball commentary tape) but tonight there was a spotlight on him which gave us a great opportunity to see his guitar playing in that bit - it was VERY impressive!

After Land Of Hope And Glory (the Europeans sing it slightly different to how the British do as they sing “Who are born of thee” and we sing “Who were born of thee”), all the artists came back on stage again (with Kasim avoiding the bouquets) to sing Yellow Submarine! It seems that the powers-that-be have finally seen sense and have given Kasim a microphone so that he could sing the descant part - it sounds far better like that! By the end of the song, Kasim had moved over to the far right of the stage and he and John Miles were singing together!

Roll on tomorrow night…..!

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