They were back on form tonight and firing on all cylinders!

The show tonight wasn’t sold out as there was plenty of room in the standing area and one block of (restricted view) seats was empty but it was still a loud friendly Dutch crowd. As I (deliberately) got there late, I just stood by the door for a while and some people started just chatting to me!

It was a white shirt night as tonight Martin Fry was wearing his much better looking black suit and white shirt and then John Miles for the first time on the tour wore a white shirt too! I was hoping that Kasim would too but sadly not (although he did look good in a black T-shirt under his open red and black shirt). Or maybe Martin Fry and John Miles shared the shirt (as John Miles wore a black T-shirt in the line-up) and Kasim didn’t want to be the third person to wear the shirt that evening!!

Chris de Burgh’s voice sounded a lot better tonight so we came to the conclusion that he must have had some problem with it when he first joined the tour. He still can’t hit all the notes in Lady In Red but the notes he does make don’t sound off-key anymore.

The Special Guest again tonight was the Belgium guy who sings (or talks a lot through) a couple of amusing songs. One of them is about a church and the crowd keep singing “O lay O Lar” before there’s a fast part that they all clap in. Considering that generally people look quite smart on stage at these shows, this guy is dreadfully underdressed as he just wears jeans and a grey T-shirt! The first time he walked on stage I mistook him for a roadie! At over 47 minutes tonight, Meat Loaf’s set is getting longer and longer (brilliant!!) and his voice is still sounding okay considering that this was the seventh concert on consecutive nights. Unfortunately though Kasim wasn’t on stage for quite all the set tonight! I’m not sure why but during Home By Now / No Matter What, he walked across the stage and back to where the steps are that they enter by and spoke to someone at side stage (that’s where the stage manager and the NOTP organisers are). Later he went back there again and even disappeared down the stairs briefly! (Maybe I should ask for a few Dutch Guilders back from my ticket for tonight!!)

I was quite near the front tonight (on Kasim’s side) so I had a great view until it came to Paradise By The Dashboard Light when one of the video monitor screen cameras moved right in front of Kasim! Of course no close-up shots were taken of Kasim (yet again!!) and it meant that all I could see of him whenever he was at his microphone during that song was his hands on his guitar so that was what I watched! Although Meat Loaf doesn’t feature Kasim at the beginning of the song, his guitar playing is amazing throughout that whole track - his fingers (both hands) just fly across his strings through the whole song! If you get a chance, watch him play that!

Of course we failed miserably tonight in singing the word “Light” so all the band, the choir and the orchestra walked off stage again! Tonight they went much further as some of them (including Kasim) even went down the steps! At the beginning of Paradise Meat Loaf went into the orchestra and told them all to get up and dance! There’s one lady who rarely takes part in any of the theatrical parts of the show but even she got up once she saw Meat Loaf heading towards her!

Tonight Meat Loaf did an even longer bit of acting before he moved across to Patti (that’s probably why the set was longer!) so Kasim had longer to move around the stage! First he stood behind the orchestra as they were doing their stands and sits that are choreographed by the conductor Robert Groslot, before he moved near the sound board to get them to start the baseball commentary tape. Once his chore was completed, Kasim then went up to where the choir stand and danced and joined them for a while! They’re often a neglected part of the show so you could see by the looks on their faces how much they appreciated that!

I think the line of people from the orchestra wanting to slap hands with Meat Loaf tonight must have been 30 long - it just grows and grows! Tonight the drummer for NOTP, Trevor Murrell, gently hit the cymbals each time Meat slapped someone. Kasim and the rest of the band are at the end of the line always but tonight Kasim could only get as far as the piano so he had to lean across it to make contact because the line was that long!

Tonight Kasim had a microphone in his hand as he walked on stage so he joined in with Patti Russo and Mark Alexander during their verse! Although I’ll freely admit that obviously my views are totally biased, I think that with Kasim singing, it made the sound much better as Mark tends to be drowned out by Patti’s strong vocals but with Kasim singing along too, it sounded more balanced.

The whole of the Yellow Submarine section is very light-hearted and all the stars seem to enjoy that part! Tonight someone threw a large hand glove on stage so Meat Loaf “played” the piano with it while John had procured a strange shaped balloon that he was showing around! The Special Guest Belgian guy walked on carrying a microphone stand with no microphone (I knew he was a part-time roadie!) and he proceeded to sing into that which Kasim found hilarious! Most nights Kasim goes across to the right of the stage and tonight as he was walking across he was grabbed by Martin Fry who proceeded to swing him around by his arm a few times (hmm!). When he escaped, Kasim went over to the double basses and actually played one of them for a while!! Amazing!

And finally a word of warning to anyone who goes to any of these great concerts at The Ahoy (they’re probably the best of the tour IMO), be very careful where you park your car, especially if it’s obviously a foreign car! Tonight I parked in a well lit car park with CCTV cameras and a security guard and mine was still broken into! Fortunately the thief obviously had very bad taste as he left all my Kasim Sulton cassettes alone!

Roll on tomorow night…..!

Back to Kasim Sulton at Night Of The Proms