Yellow Submarine
It also seemed to me a slightly subdued performance. Although the crowd weren’t as loud as a Belgium standing crowd they were far better than any of the German audiences. However Charles II was very quiet tonight - he only got out of his seat when the whole orchestra did and didn’t do any of his leaping and I really missed it! (His mate wasn’t there either.) Although it may have been because I couldn’t see him too well but Kasim didn’t seem quite as bouncy as normal either.
The compere Karl Huybrechts appears to have lost his shiny blue and silver jacket as he just wore a mauve shirt tonight (he wore white on Saturday) but he still appears to give out the same patter each night! He does appear (he talks Flemish!) to positively encourage the crowd to get up though which makes him the best presenter of these shows IMO. During Fucik’s Entry Of The Gladiators (the tune that all circuses use) several long congas were formed around the hall. As often happens lots of couples got up to dance during Gounod’s Waltz but tonight one couple at the front of the stage made an arch for another couple to go through and by the end of the song at least fifty couples had joined the line and they’d stretched across the front of the stage and down one aisle! It was amazing to watch!
The order was slightly more back to normal as we had Martin Fry (black suite with his wide tie tonight) and John Miles in the first half. However, near the end of the first half, just as I was expecting Michael Borsato, the piano came through the stage and John Miles sat at it. To my delight he stated playing the opening bars of Total Eclipse Of The Heart and Bonnie Tyler walked on stage! I immediately looked to the guitar part of the band and Kasim was sitting there - a nice unexpected surprise! People really like Bonnie Tyler’s set but her singing voice is very rough nowadays and when she talks it’s even worse but she has does have a good stage presence.
Most people stood and sang through It’s A Heartache (she said that it was her second record and that it was released 23 years ago!). Kasim stands to play acoustic guitar during that song and although the light isn’t directly on him, when Laurie Wisefield moves to the front of the stage, he does move into that light!
Thankfully Michael Borsato performed in the second half and got the crowd going as always! He keeps shouting the word “Springer” which I assume is Flemish for jump so everyone (including us!) bounces up and down!
After Liszt’s loooong Hungarian Rhapsody Number 2, the piano appeared again and Kasim walked on stage. Again it took until Meat Loaf sat on his stool at the front of the stage (but still in the dark) before people recognised his shape and started clapping. Unfortunately from the angle I was seated, Pearl was blocking my view of Kasim for most of the set (or to be exact her boobs were - if she was flat chested I would have been able to have seen him far better) but it meant that I could really concentrate on his vocals during No Matter What and they sounded amazing. I know I’ve often said that but they really are so clear in that song!
The people of Antwerp all seemed to know the clapping for You Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth and didn’t need any encouragement to join in. Meat Loaf continued that part for quite a while tonight while he walked around.
The crowd all clapped a lot at the start of Anything For Love and then Patti gets a big round of applause when she starts singing which I still don’t quite understand as it’s not as though she’s only just walked on stage. Kasim usually plays the intro to that song at the right side of the stage which is great for that part of the crowd as most of the action is on the left. Once Kasim finished singing in Anything For Love he walked towards the back of the stage. There are some steps up to where The Electric Band and the choir sit and Kasim usually leans against that barrier. Laurie Wisefield always joins him and they have quite a chat while Meat and Patti are doing their screwing around part (Meat Loaf often will really extend that part unnecessarily long). I often wonder if people around me wonder why I’m straining my neck to look at the side of the stage but that’s who I pay to see!
Kasim and Laurie walked together to the front of the stage for the beginning of Paradise By The Dashboard Light but then Kasim dropped back and Laurie walked to the middle. Unfortunately Meat Loaf has rediscovered that four digit white glove so he was playing around with that for a while again. It’s also that part of the set that Mark gets a chance to show off his talents on the piano - I’d forgotten quite how good he is!
The orchestra didn’t leave the stage tonight but Meat Loaf did tell us about how many NOTP the conductor has done before we had to sing it again. As he reckoned our second attempt was even worse than our first, we had to sing it again! Before we do that Meat Loaf sings the few words before it and he was way off key tonight so he just laughed while Mark played the correct note.
Tonight they omitted the part where Meat Loaf “chats up” Patti and they started kissing immediately that they finished singing. The baseball commentary tape was played straightaway too. Kasim wandered into the orchestra again and stood watching them stand and sit, conducted by Robert Groslot. While Patti was singing the “Do you love me, will you love me forever?” part, Kasim jokingly got down on one knee and sang it to a girl in the orchestra! For only the second time on the tour, Meat Loaf introduced all the band members by name to get their due applause!
Yellow Submarine was as light hearted as ever again tonight. During the part when Mark and Patti are singing about their friends living next door, someone said into a microphone “That’s Kasim and John”! Obviously my Kasim antenna wasn’t working too well tonight as I saw Kasim removing the wrapper from some flowers on the piano and then I lost him totally! Later John took the wrapper-less flowers to the electric band and placed one flower between Laurie Wisefield’s teeth!
Roll on tomorrow night…..!
It was the first of two seated shows tonight, and it definitely is different then when we were able to stand, to say the least! We had balcony seats, but I thought they were quite nice actually; we could see pretty much the entire orchestra and Fine Fleur very well, as well as the main performers. It was close to the stage, but more of a side view, but I still enjoyed it!
Martin Fry was first up and in a “normal” suit but with the WIDEST white tie I’ve seen. His set was the same as it’s been basically.
I think somewhere at this point, I looked at the backstage area and saw the back of a woman’s head quickly following someone to directly behind the stage itself. I only saw the back of her, and that her hair was very white blonde, but the words immediately out of my mouth were that I had just seen Bonnie Tyler backstage. But I wasn’t certain after I thought about it. I guess I had seen her, as later she was announced as the special “surprise” guest for the night.
When she came on, everyone went wild. Her voice has aged over the years, it seems, but she really put on a nice show and was getting everyone to sing along, which was nice to see. The first song, it was a little difficult to spot Kasim at first, but after that, he would then stand up for the second song anyway, so it was really nice to see him playing guitar for her - I think it was rhythm guitar. John Miles played the piano for Bonnie and also sang the “Turn Around” parts to Total Eclipse. To me, he sounded pretty close to the original.
Speaking of John Miles, he did quite well during his set, both songs went down rather well.
But, besides Kasim (and Meat), the biggest hit of the evening was Marco Borsato, but I could say that about his set every evening. With the seated crowd, I do believe his second and third songs were what finally got them up and staying up for quite a bit.
None of the floor crowd was allowed to come to the front of the stage however, but they all were allowed to stand in the isles jam-packed and dance as much as they wanted. This soon changed though when Meat and the band took the stage. By the second song, Took the Words, Meat was gesturing to everyone to come forward and they tried but several times the guards would stop them. Meat actually looked angry about this briefly, until the one guard furthest over to the soundboard side let them know it was alright (I kind of think Kasim MIGHT’VE ran over and told someone who told him it was OK). So the floor was totally filled for Meat’s set. I do believe during Paradise tonight, one of the double bassists pulled out a blonde wig and started head banging to the music.
Yellow Submarine was nice and quite funny as usual. Kasim managed to play the harp during the song, which made Meat for some reason want to join him and try it - Meat seems to do that a lot, if someone is doing a certain dance move or say, if a few people were messing around on the piano, he’d try and join whatever was receiving the most attention onstage. Which, I bet is smart, because it always looks like a lot of fun! Before too long, it was over and we were on our way!
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