There was a fair amount of trepidation in my little group as we entered the venue (Europe’s largest indoor arena) as several of us remembered how Meat Loaf went down like a lead balloon when he played here in November! I think we were all half wishing that last night’s great concert in Antwerp was the final one of the tour but, in some ways, that made me personally even more determined to enjoy tonight!

During the show, I tried hard not to think “oh that’s the last time I’m going to hear…..” etc and, other than for Chris de Burgh’s set, the artists seemed to treat it just like any other concert. However I certainly am going to miss hearing Music (Was my first Love) as I think that this is the song that I’ll remember above all others sounding wonderful with a full orchestra! This was another venue where they had to wheel the piano out and when John Miles had finished playing, he helped the roadies wheel it to the back of the stage!

Chris de Burgh came on and did his usual movements (pose at the left for applause, walk to the conductor and shake his hand, motion for the crowd to clap the background singers and then walk to the microphone) but as he started singing Lady In Red the conductor, Robert Groslot, walked from his raised stand and danced with Patti Russo who was wearing a red dress! Apparently Kasim Sulton, Meat Loaf, John Miceli and Mark Alexander were standing by the barrier watching too (nobody told me!)! Later in the song, two Chris de Burgh fans went to the front of the stage and gave him some flowers so he lay on his back on the stage and kissed the girls…..enough said! Later in his set, when he went into the audience, he started kissing every woman within lip distance and I saw at least one woman swap places with her husband so that she was spared that ordeal!

At the end of his set, when he went to pick up the spare baton and skip around the stage waving it, he found that someone had changed it to a blue duster on a stick! As he showed it to Robert Groslot, the conductor had a yellow one that was later passed around some of the orchestra members so they dusted their instruments!

We’d only reached our seats about 5 minutes before the concert was due to start and bearing in mind that this venue holds about 18,000 people seated, we’d remarked on how quiet everyone was so during the interval, my group especially were concerned about what Cologne’s reaction would be to Meat Loaf again, especially as they seemed even less reluctant to stand for Chris de Burgh than last time! A couple of our group had spoken to Meat Loaf the night before and apparently he was quite apprehensive too so we decided amongst ourselves that we would all stand as soon as they started Anything For Love in the hope that everyone would else would follow and blow them if they didn’t!

After Leith Al Deen had posed on stage again and I had (thankfully!) heard Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody for the final time, Kasim and the rest of the band appeared and thankfully they received quite a good round of applause but first there was the piano to sort out! The roadies had pushed it to it’s usual place at the front of the stage but Mark Alexander seemed to want it moved slightly as both he and Kasim spent a while moving it an inch forwards and two inches back!

Of course it was the usual setlist but Kasim’s vocals in Home By Now / No Matter What sounded exceptionally good tonight! (Have I mentioned how great he sounds in any of my reviews before?!!) Maybe it was because we heard the NOTP CD version of that track on the drive to Cologne and (other than one line) his vocals have been tuned waaay down so it was great to hear them properly one last time!

Massive praise must go to Michael Marxen as, forgetting the plans, he leapt to his feet and started applauding as soon as You Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth started so the rest of our group did the same ….. and then the other 18,000 people followed! There were some VERY happy Meat Loaf fans around me!! We were also helped by the fact that Eva from the German Meat Loaf Fan Club and some of her friends in the front row of the middle block stood immediately too (they even had sparklers!).

You Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth was great, Anything For Love was brilliant and Paradise By The Dashboard Light was so wonderfully OTT as always, plus the crowd stayed on their feet for the rest of the set!

Of course Cologne sat again until the last chorus of Land Of Hope And Glory but then remained standing for the introductions (no Chris de Burgh) and Yellow Submarine. Kasim started that song by playing the intro perfectly on the harp again before he came to the front of the stage and joined in the fun!

After they all left the stage, Meat Loaf suddenly appeared at the barrier and came into the audience to shake hands with people! He was obviously very high on adrenalin at that moment!

And that was it……….the end of the 2001 Night Of The Proms Tour! When the tour first started, I wasn’t too sure about how many of the concerts I would actually attend but they were far better than I expected and the audiences (especially in Antwerp and Rotterdam) made the atmosphere incredible! What an experience….!

Roll on Kasim Sulton’s “Have Guitar, Will Travel Tour” …..!

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