Exhausted at the end of the tour!

This is me, exhausted, at the end of the tour!

Well it was a brilliant six weeks or so! Eventually I'll get around to writing up the final week (Liverpool and Zurich) but for now I'll just leave you with the tour grand total!

Mileage this week: 1,057 miles

Grand Tour Total (in my car) – 7,601 miles

Roll on US in 7 weeks!!

A busy few days ahead!

I can't believe that it's almost the end of the European leg of the tour already! After months of anticipation and it's nearly over! Thankfully I still have US to look forward to but that seems so far away....

HOWEVER! First of all there are two more concerts...and a load of driving for Sue! It's Liverpool tomorrow (a round trip of about 500 miles) and I've arranged to meet a friend in the afternoon so I'm going up early.

I have to work on Tuesday and then get an early night as I have to get up at about 2.00am for my very long round trip to Switzerland on Wednesday! Unfortunately the concert doesn't start until 8.30pm so I hope I can get back in time for work on Thursday morning.

(A minor detail but sleep doesn't fit into my Wednesday / Thursday schedule, unless I can dose on the boat!)

I have crap seats in Liverpool (so I'm taking binoculars) but I'm in the front row on Kasim's side at Switzerland so that will be brilliant

Warwick Castle

My English geography really isn't too good! Originally I thought that Warwick was up near Liverpool somewhere so I was going to stay up there but it turns out that it's south of Birmingham and according to MapQuest.com would only take me 2 hours and 8 minutes to get there! It also gave me a chance to drive along the M40 which I haven't been along before so that was interesting (I'm not looking forward to going back to Liverpool tomorrow as I prefer driving somewhere different!).

I set off at about 4.00pm and stopped for something to eat on the way so I reached Warwick just before 7.00pm. Warwick is in "Shakespeare Country" and is a lovely city although a bit hilly! The castle car park was full, as were the first couple of car parks in the city that I found but I soon parked in another and thankfully it was free.

It took me 10 minutes to walk to the castle and then another 10 minutes in the grounds as they took us all along some footpaths and we ended up at the back. I feel so sorry for the people back there as they really wouldn't have been able to have spotted anyone on stage but would have had to use the screens instead. It took me almost another 10 minutes to walk to my seat in the third row too!

Unfortunately the stage was a long way back but thankfully I was on Kasim's side! As I wrote in my review at http://www.KasimInfo.com/2005/07/16.html it was another good concert. As most people in my row went to the front, I stayed back in the third row (but moved nearer the middle) and had a perfect view!

I took quite a few photos tonight too. I'm not a natural photographer but I'm really proud of two of them. I'll copy Kasim's method and copy them into seperate posts below. I don't know how these two came out so well when sometimes he was closer to me but they did!

This was the longest concert of the tour so far but as they started earlier, it finished by 10.10pm. We then had the struggle to get out of the grounds as the castle isn't really set up for 16,000 people to exit at once. I just followed the crowd and ended up outside the castle but I wasn't sure where! Thankfully they were well organised and had some locals there with maps to help us! I got back to my car by 10.40pm and made my obligatory call to a friend to report on the concert!

Driving home seemed tough again tonight for some reason! I have a day off tomorrow and I'm not going anywhere near my car as I'm getting weary of driving at the moment!

I got home at 1.30am and got to sleep by 2.00am.

Mileage today: 292 miles

Tour total (in my car) – 6,544 miles

My favourite photo of the evening

I'm really proud of this photo!

My artistic photo!

I think it looks like a collage but it is an actual photo!

Blickling Hall

Norfolk in England is the part that sticks out (bulges) on the east side just above London. It’s the part of the country that is nearest to Holland and consequently is very flat and has the occasional windmill. There are also several RAF airbases and some American ones…..plus a couple of prisons so I didn’t stop for any hitch-hikers!

I left the house at about 1.30pm (as my directions said that it was about a 3 hour drive and it’s a standing concert) and just after I’d gone through the Dartford Tunnel, I realised that I’d left my driving directions at home! I resorted to that old fashioned thing called a map and hoped for the best as my map is over 10 years old! I didn’t expect that they had moved Blickling Hall but I wasn’t sure how accurate all the roads were!

Thankfully I managed to find my way to Blickling Hall okay but I was surprised that there were only signs for the venue about 5 miles away. When I got there I parked and walked across a field to where people were queuing in roped aisles. I had tickets for this concert for two friends and tickets for the Warwick Castle concert tomorrow for two others so thankfully I found those people okay (or rather they found me!).

The gates were supposed to open at 6.30pm but apparently they often open early there but some security guards came round to say that there had been an accident at the venue and an ambulance had been called so we would be let in late – he joked that Meat Loaf had a blister on his thumb!

They opened the gates at about 5.45pm and I was disgusted to see that loads of people just walked under the ropes to get in faster. Something my German friends always say is that it’s only the British that know how to queue and the fact that people of all sorts of ages were doing this was a sad photo of the me-society nowadays. Of course it would have helped if they had shelled out for a better method of dividing the aisles and had some security there but they probably didn’t expect people to act in such a manner.

When I did get inside thankfully it was quite easy to walk to near the front and I was amazed at this venue that people had their picnic tables and folding chairs right up to the stage – at Harewood House they made any picnickers go to the back. At about 7.20pm people started standing but there were still some people that stayed on their seats.

Before Hurricane Party played they explained that their rhythm guitarist had been run over by a Land Rover while he was sunbathing and that their manager would be playing instead from the wings. This guy has an absolute massive head of very blonde hair so how the driver of the Land Rover missed him is beyond me! There are also fields of sheep all around (two people I spoke to walked through one to get to the venue) so I would have thought that the driver would have been used to looking out for them and Johnny could easily have been mistaken for a sheep! Johnny came back from hospital during the set (he had a broken arm) and received a massive round of applause as he still sang on stage! (I felt sorry for the people who had paid $400 for a platinum package as because they were running late, they couldn't get their guaranteed spot in front of the stage so they had to stand on the side of the stage so had a dreadful view of mainly Meat Loaf and Paul Crook's backs! I'd have been annoyed too if I'd paid $400 and only seen that! At least Kasim seemed to feel sorry for them and went over to them once or twice.)

Meat Loaf played for about an hour and 50 minutes and it was another good concert – my favourites are Out Of The Frying Pan and Two Outta Three Ain’t Bad (plus Kasim starting us singing in You Took The Words!). I was about 4 rows back from Kasim’s side of the stage so I had a great view until 5 people pushed in about halfway through.

After the gig I went to the merchandise stall (as someone asked me to buy a T-shirt for them) and it was good to see that there were lots of the KSulton Bass postcards there!

I had some trouble finding my car (I’d parked in front of a tree but there were loads of trees!) but I managed to get out of the car park quite quickly. For some reason I found the drive home quite tough. I pulled into a service station and actually slept for nearly an hour. When I woke there were loads of wild rabbits playing by my car so I sat there and watched them for a while!

I got home at 3.30am and was fast asleep by 4.00am. I never did get to see Blickling Hall itself!

Mileage today: 283 miles

Tour total (in my car) – 6,252 miles

US plans

My original plan for the US concerts was to fly to Biloxi, drive to Robinsonville and go to that concert in Mississippi, then travel down to Florida for the Clearwater and Miami concerts, travel up to Biloxi for the last concert and fly home from there. They've since added another concert (the final one of the tour) at Kansas City so obviously I want to stay for that, plus I'm now travelling with some friends for part of the trip.

I've been keeping an eye on the cost of flights to and from Biloxi and they've been about £440. Biloxi to Kansas City is about 14 hours by car (900 miles) and as one concert is the day after another, flying is really the best option. A return flight from Biloxi to Kansas City is slightly over £100.

Today I thought I would try costing a roundtrip of London to Memphis (the nearest airport to Robinsonville), Biloxi to Kansas City and Kansas City to London and it only costs £460 including all taxes so I was really happy with that! I've also wanted to visit Graceland for quite a while so hopefully I can fit that in too!

Blackout in Liverpool

I left for Liverpool at about 2.00pm which was slightly later than I intended so I put my foot down a bit (or as much as I can in my car!) and managed to stick at about 80mph most of the way (the speed limit in UK is 70mph but 80mph is acceptable). By 5.30pm I was only about 40 miles from Liverpool so I stopped for a cup of tea. I got to the venue by 7.10pm and there was a big sign for free parking there. They also had signs for the VIP parking but I just followed the queue and parked right near the venue with nobody asking me if I was VIP or not!

I'd booked this ticket by myself but by coincidence I was only two seats away from two friends so that was good. I actually watched Hurricane Party from my seat and thankfully they weren't as loud as at the outdoor venues. I was in the 7th row and it was supposed to have been the row directly behind the VIP seats here but it turns out that they didn't sell all the VIP seats so the 6th row was the first cheaper row. These were all people who had booked their tickets a couple of months later than us and ended up in the row in front! The VIP here was about £200 ($300) and mainly consisted of a champagne reception before the concert and an open bar afterwards. It was obvious though that although they had paid a lot of money for their tickets most of them only knew the songs from Bat Out Of Hell so weren't the biggest fans.

Disaster struck for me about 5 minutes before Kasim was due on stage as there was nobody sitting in the seat in the row in front of me so I had a perfect view as I was in line with his mic stand but then some people shifted along and the place went dark for me as this MASSIVE guy totally blocked my view! Basically if I wanted to see Kasim when he was at his mic I literally had to lean partway across someone either side of me to see him! It's not like I could just listen to the music either as the sound there was a bit muddy! I managed to take a couple of photos of Kasim when he emerged from the shadows of the mountain but my enjoyment of the concert was certainly marred. I literally could see all the rest of the band except Kasim (and Patti when she was at her mic) - it was so frustrating! If only they had tiered seating.....

I got out of the car park quite quickly and managed to find the motorway okay. It seemed far longer driving home than it did driving up there but I managed it with no catnaps and only stopping once for petrol.

I got in at 3.30am and found that one of my website clients had sent me something that they wanted added to their site that evening! Thankfully it only took me about 20 minutes (and it was still evening somewhere in the world then!) so I fell into bed at 4.00am and did NOT want to get up when my alarm went at 6.30am!

Mileage today: 498 miles
Tour total (in my car) –5, 969 miles

Chatsworth House

I left home at about 2.30pm and just leisurely drove along the M25 and up the M1 to Chatsworth House. I was surprised at how far off the motorway the house was but it did give me a chance to drive through the Derbyshire Dales which are really pretty. There was a big sign at the entrance to the house saying "No ticket no entry" and they did check that we had tickets before they let us park.

As I didn't get there until just before 7.00pm I parked near the back of the car park (which made exiting faster). I opted to listen to Hurricane Party from there. I could still clearly hear every note they played at a comfortable level. I then walked to my seventh row seat which took about 15 minutes so that shows how loud Hurricane Party were!

This was one of the concerts where TicketMaster had reallocated me (without having the common decency to inform me first) from the front row to the seventh row. I forgot to check which was supposed to have been my seat but the people I did ask had bought theirs through TicketMaster about two months after I bought mine so presumably after FanFire had been unable to sell their $400 packages - so why were the seats not offered back to those who had been moved?!!

It turns out that I had sold tickets for friends via E-Bay to the girls in the next two seats so we had a nice chat...and I was told off for not wearing a MLUKFC badge (I'm not sure I even have one!).

As I wrote in my review it was a good concert and the audience were far better than at Leeds Castle as they stood the whole gig. I actually took quite a few photos too! I was really lucky as I had my camera on ready to take a still picture when Kasim played a very brief bass solo so I caught that on video!

I left once it finished and walked back to the car. Rather than joining the exit queue near where I was parked, I drove across the field (I need a 4 X 4 for the tour!) towards the gate so I was out within 20 minutes of the end of the concert! I think that the band or at least Meat Loaf had left straightaway as a huge cheer went up when one bus pulled away (when I was still near my seat) and that was lead by police cars with flashing lights.

As I'd had a lie-in this morning, I found the journey home quite easy and got in at about 2.30am. I hadn't had to stop for any catnaps and I'd managed to do the whole trip on less than one tank of petrol so I was pleased with that.

Mileage today: 389 miles
Tour total (in my car) –5, 471 miles

Leeds Castle, Maidstone - my local gig!

I really felt as though I needed a good night out tonight. I'd had a busy week (with little sleep) plus of course the bombings in London. Although I didn't feel concerned going back into London today (I thought it was the safest day ever to travel) there was a strange atmosphere at work and outside there was a very visible lot of police. Charing Cross station was closed just before I got there but other than that my main impression was how quiet the trains were (I had a double seat to myself all the way in). Lots of people didn't make it into the office. A couple were due to travel problems but the rest were because they were concerned. I may sound a bit hard but since the IRA were bombing London for most of my childhood I've never yet gone into London without thinking about the possibility of a bomb (even yesterday morning) - when I used to go up to London for days out with my parents we were used to arranging to meet at a certain place if we got separated and we always had a second place too in case there was a bomb scare (not the politically correct "security alert" that they use now).

Anyway I worked until 5.00pm and came home and watched the news while I got changed. I left at about 6.20pm as Leeds Castle is only about 35 miles from me (and most of that is motorway). It was okay until they told us to get off the motorway at junction 7 which is the one before the castle. They then lead us through a load of small villages which took a fair while. The AA (Automobile Association) signs were crap as often they were put on the actual junction itself and once there was no sign at a roundabout so I just followed everyone else.

The final part of the journey was a single track road and took ages! A few times I switched the car off as we just sat there. I'd planned to see Hurricane Party (the support act) from the back as they were so loud at Harewood House but in fact I listened to them in that country lane! There was then about a 15 minute walk from the car park to the concert area.

My seat was in the third row and I met up with some people I knew there. As I said in my review at http://www.KasimInfo.com/2005/07/08.html it was a good concert and I had a perfect view! I was talking to a friend before the concert (this person has been to a few concerts on the tour too) and we were both saying that this is a good tour but not a great one. I'm not sure if it's because it's a shorter set or whether it's because they're playing a lot of songs that I'm not all that keen on or what it is but this tour isn't getting me as excited (maybe that's the wrong word) as other Meat Loaf tours like the CHSIB tour. I still deeply regret the concerts I missed and I'm still planning to go to the rest of the concerts in Europe and some in US but I'm just not as inspired on this tour.

Getting out of the car park was a lot easier than at Harewood House and the Kent police were brilliant as they'd stopped all the other traffic and we had an easy journey to the nearest entrance to the motorway so I was home within 45 minutes!

Roll on Chatsworth House on Sunday!

Mileage today: 76 miles
Tour total (in my car) –5, 082 miles

Hollywood tickets

I saw that someone had posted on Meat Loaf.net that tickets were on Internet presale for the Hollywood, Florida (near Miami) concert. They'd gone on sale about 20 minutes earlier so I quickly logged on and managed to get a seat in the 4th row!! It's on Paul's side but at least it's one decent seat in US!

Kasim's solo gig

Work today was hard and staying awake in the meeting (when I mainly had to listen) was tougher! I left work at 2.00pm and got in by 3.00pm. I left at 3.30pm and drove up to Manchester. Although it's a workday in UK the traffic flowed well and I pulled off for a late lunch around rush-hour.

I got to within about 40 miles of Manchester by about 7.45pm so, as Kasim wasn't due on until 11.00pm, I had a catnap in a service station (which I badly needed!).

The directions I had were fine until I got to Manchester City Centre when they directed me down a buses only road! As I knew I was near the venue I just found somewhere to park and decided to walk. It was about 10.30pm by now so I asked someone the way to Oldham Street and of course the guy I asked was a bit drunk! He told me to go to the top of the road I was in and kept telling me (by which I mean at least 3 times!) that THIS side was Oldham Street and the OTHER side was Oldham Road! At the top of the road I was in was a street running acrossways and I knew that the one street couldn't have two names so I was a bit confused - I expected to see "this side" and "that side" divided by a river or a range of mountains the way he was saying it!

At the top of the road was a hotel so I asked in there for directions and was told that at the end of that block were some traffic lights and they were where Oldham Road turned into Oldham Street and Oldham Street actually ran parallel with the road I had just walked up! Five minutes later I walked past the end of a crossroad and saw my car! It took me 15 minutes to walk to the venue and one minute to walk back to my car!

When I walked into The Night and Day Cafe I bought a drink at the bar and a friend managed to spot me. As it was someone that I haven't seen for a few weeks and we had tickets and things to sort out, we went to the front of the cafe (away from the music on stage so we could hear each other) and did that. While we were doing that various people I knew came up to say hello which was nice. The funniest thing was another friend who spotted us straightaway (we were sitting near the door) and just came across to talk to us, forgetting to pay so the door guy came after him! We later joked that he should just go behind the bar and help himself to a drink too!

Kasim's gig was amazing! I really thought this day would never come - Kasim actually playing a solo gig in UK! I still can't get over how brilliant his voice was!

I left straight afterwards as I had such a long drive ahead of me. As it turned out it was just as well that I did that as I didn't get home until 5.30am and a friend rang me on the way home to say that she had stayed at the venue for quite a while afterwards so I would have had no sleep if I'd have waited around. She did say that she drove home with a huge grin on her face after having such a great evening!

I think it's because I was already tired that it was more of an effort driving home tonight. I had one catnap at about 3.30am. It was just beginning to get light then so I thought it best to sleep for 20 minutes so that I could then drive in the light as that's so much easier.

I got home at about 5.25am, was in bed at 5.30am and had to get up at 6.30am! Thankfully I was on quite a high as I'd had such a good evening.

And did I mention how great Kasim's voice was.....!

Mileage today: 469 miles
Tour total (in my car) –5, 006 miles

Harewood House

I set off at about 11.00am and it was a steady drive with not too much traffic up the M11 and then onto the A1(M). I stopped for some lunch on the way and reached Harewood House at about 4.00pm which was when the car park was supposed to have opened. It had obviously opened earlier as there were already cars in there and I was greeted with the amazing sight of about half a mile of people across a field in an orderly queue....only in England!!

I joined the queue and just sat in the sun. Loads of people had picnics and folding chairs. They opened the gates at about 6.00pm and I managed to make my way to about the 6th row on Kasim's side. There was nobody tall in front of me so I had a perfect view.

I've written a review on KI.com but it was one of my favourite concerts of the tour (so far) especially as Two Outta Three Ain't Bad was added to the set and the instrumental in the middle of that was brilliant!

The concert finished at 10.50pm and I was back at my car by 11.00pm but I didn't get out of the grounds until 12.30am as every single vehicle had to go through one archway! To make it worse I couldn't get a signal on my mobile phone so I couldn't even ring the people I promised to give a concert report to!

The trip home was long and I had to pull over once for a catnap and once for petrol so I didn't get home until 5.00am. I fell into bed and getting up at 6.30am was difficult!

Mileage today: 464 miles
Tour total (in my car) –4, 537 miles

A busy few days ahead

After missing 3 concerts of the tour so far, I did look into going to Killarney for the gig today. I could get a flight okay but the hotels were over £100 for the night (as it's only a small town) and I can't justify spending £300 on one Meat loaf concert when I could put that money towards the rest of the tour and seeing some in US.

It looks like I have a couple of busy days ahead of me! Tomorrow I drive up to Leeds (about 5 hours) for the concert at Harewood House. I then have to drive home afterwards as I have "that" meeting in London on Monday morning. I'm going to leave work in the mid-afternoon and drive back up the motorway for Kasim's solo gig in Manchester (about 6 hours) and then drive home afterwards for work the next day in London. I'm just wondering where I'm going to fit sleep into all of this, especially as Kasim is now playing at 11.00pm instead of 10.30pm! The good news is that there is nobody listed after him now so hopefully he may play for more than 40 minutes!!!