A brilliant Kasim opening set!

A & P picked me up promptly at 3.15pm and we drive to a Chinese for Pat to have some lunch. There was a temperature gauge outside the restaurant and it said 100 degrees - brilliant! We got to the OSP track by 4.00pm and they weren’t very well organised! Will Call wasn’t open yet (it was just a tent!) and they didn’t know a thing about the truck that was supposed to be driving straight to Biloxi after the concert to take things to people there.

The concert was being held in the middle of the racetrack but it was a surprisingly large area so we were hardly conscious of the track. P had arranged with one of the crew to have a seat (as she can’t stand for long) so she went in early and saw the soundcheck! We stood outside listening to it but I didn’t think that Meat Loaf was there as we could only hear the background vocals…apparently he faced the back of the stage to sing. P did say that they were having fun during the soundcheck as Kasim was putting bottles of water on stage for Meat Loaf and he was kicking them over the fence! For the soundcheck they tested their instruments and then played Warrior, Whore, Life Is A Lemon and All Revved Up.

Next Kasim did his soundcheck and as he was sitting at the front of the stage, I could see him which was brilliant! Unfortunately it started to rain a bit so he just sang part of Bully and There Goes My Inspiration.

Next we saw Kasim hand in his bass (the raffle stall was just near the entrance) but apparently he didn’t have a case for it!

They let us into the grounds at 5.30pm and we were about 8th and 9th in line but it was SO civilised! Totally different from European General Admission concerts as everybody calmly walked in and then decided where they wanted to sit (they all had these folding chairs) and it was all a case of "after you", "no after you"! Ann and I opted to be slightly off centre on Kasim’s side but as the stage wasn’t very wide, we ended up in front of Kasim’s microphone. Unfortunately there was a fence that was about 5’10 high about three inches from the stage. It meant that it was hard to take photos if you were close up but it also meant that the band members were actually handing people guitar pics! P brought her chair down and joined us too.

Unfortunately then the heavens opened and it absolutely lashed down. It only lasted for about 15 minutes but even my underwear got wet! There was one guy selling disposable covers there but he soon sold out! It had the effect of lowering the temperature (to about 85!) but it also became very humid so my clothes took ages to dry.

Before Kasim walked on stage someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was Sue - it was someone that I’ve been e-mailing on and off with for a few months but she didn’t know until just recently that she was going to this concert! It was great to put a face to a name - apparently she recognised me from a photo of me she’d seen!

First of all in a field away from us a bit, they had the Dancing Diggers! These were 4 JCBs that moved around to music! It didn’t help that we could only see the tops of them from where we were but it was certainly different! Lots of the tour crew stood on stage to watch them too.

I bought some tickets for the raffle for Kasim’s guitar. I never win raffles (but it was a good cause) and today was no exception. They also raffled one of Meat Loaf’s guitars but the lady in front of me bought $80 worth of tickets for Kasim’s! The guy got rather confused as it was $2 each or 3 for $5 and he struggled with calculating that! There was a great poster there too about the raffle with a lovely photo of Kasim on it!

Kasim played for about half an hour and it was a brilliant set! He played six songs today (so it was like a mini solo show) and both his voice and guitar playing was faultless! The highlight for me was hearing The One Sure Thing again!

I did realise later that I was the only one in the front row (virtually the only one there!) who wasn’t in a chair but I was okay sitting on the ground, however one lady behind us said that they had a spare chair and very kindly lent it to me!! You wouldn’t get that in UK!

Next we had the raffle for the guitars and I was about 40 tickets out for Kasim’s…so near and yet so far!

Meat Loaf came on stage at about 8.45pm and everybody stood up. People also came from the back but there was none of the pushing and shoving that you get at European (especially Irish) concerts. The only problem we had in my section was some guy who went berserk! He was jumping up and down the whole set, shouting and really shaking the fence! I wasn’t sure if he was high, quite excited or drunk but I (and most people) soon moved away from him as he was kicking his legs backwards when he jumped! The funny thing was that he had a really lovely quiet girlfriend who would occasionally just wipe him down with his shirt that he had soon taken off before he started jumping again! I stood in front of Randy’s microphone and had a perfect view! (There’s a review of both Meat Loaf’s set and Kasim’s set on KI.com.) Apparently Deborah was there and Meat Loaf walked over and kissed her twice during the set (I didn’t see that as I was too far to the left).

The concert finished at about 10.40pm and we walked back to the car. We never did see that truck (and Meat Loaf didn’t read out the company’s name) so I don’t think it was there so we still have the whole of the boot and the spare seat full of clothes!

Thankfully we got out quite quickly (there weren’t really many cars there). A & P wanted to go out for a drink but they found somewhere near my hotel so I just walked back. It was just as well as one of my clients had sent me a small project he wants online in the next 48 hours so I worked on that until 2.00am.

(I was taking a photo of Kasim here when I realised that Meat Loaf was by him so I zoomed back a bit on my camera and it was only when I got back to my room that I realised that Meat Loaf was tweaking Kasim's nose at the time!)