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heat · 18 Jan 2004, 11:42

Here's an article i thought i'd share with you from today's Mail on Sunday. It's complete and utter BULLOCKS, but here goes...

Meat Loaf - Cardiff International Arena

MEAT LOAF'S WELL PAST HIS SELL - BY DATE..

You are a veteran rock star, making what's billed as your Last World Tour, and you collapse on stage at Wembley with chest pains. After being treated for an irregular heartbeat, do you (a) gracefully retire, or (b) reschedule some dates, instruct your backing singers to put on nurses' uniforms, and get them to wheel you back on stage in a hospital bed?

Meat Loaf was never big on being graceful. In the rough world of hard rock, many a star looks as if he could be one of his roadies, but Meat Loaf was the fiorst to look like one of his trucks.

For years, it made him unique, but then along came hip-hop, with it's posses of oversized performers, and now the bigger waistline is sweeping the English speaking world. Soon, the average American will feel that Meat Loaf is on the scrawny side.

Mr Loaf's Cardiff date had been postponed twice for health reasons. At the arena, a recorded message assured callers the show was still on. One out of three ain't good. But here he was, rising form his bed to tread the boards like the showman he is.

He didn't dance, but he did trot around for 150 minutes. His voice hasn't changed since Bat Out Of Hell ruled the album chart : it's still the sound of a plaintive mammoth.

He likes to throw everything at an audience - slapstick routines, ghoulish masks, fake flames, flying sofa's and his own comic book personality. The trick of shining floodlights in the crowds face is used four times in the first two numbers. Track three is an interminable rifferama; so is track four. After a heart scare, you'd think that life was too short.

His best song is Jim Steinman's I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That): it's big, romantic and everybody wonders what it is he won't do. Bat Out Of Hell and Dead Ringer For Love still hit the spot, but thier piano - driven verbosity draws heavily from early Bruce Springsteen. Meat Loaf is to Springsteen what Oasis are to Lennon, taking one strand of a complex oeuvre and making it bigger and brasher.

Meat Loaf wins over Cardiff in the end, but he is too self - indulgent and his patter verges on the bullying. 'Hey! I didn't ask you to talk!!' he says when some fans dare open thier mouths mid-anecdote. If rock theatre is what you are after, it's done far better by Peter Gabriel.

3 stars out of 5

I have absolutely no idea what Meat Loaf concert he was at - but it sure as hell wasn't the same one as me....

18 Jan 2004, 11:42	#1
heat Rampant Loafer... Join Date: 29.07.2002 Location: welshy wales Posts: 5,706	Meat In Mail On Sunday... Here's an article i thought i'd share with you from today's Mail on Sunday. It's complete and utter BULLOCKS, but here goes... Meat Loaf - Cardiff International Arena MEAT LOAF'S WELL PAST HIS SELL - BY DATE.. You are a veteran rock star, making what's billed as your Last World Tour, and you collapse on stage at Wembley with chest pains. After being treated for an irregular heartbeat, do you (a) gracefully retire, or (b) reschedule some dates, instruct your backing singers to put on nurses' uniforms, and get them to wheel you back on stage in a hospital bed? Meat Loaf was never big on being graceful. In the rough world of hard rock, many a star looks as if he could be one of his roadies, but Meat Loaf was the fiorst to look like one of his trucks. For years, it made him unique, but then along came hip-hop, with it's posses of oversized performers, and now the bigger waistline is sweeping the English speaking world. Soon, the average American will feel that Meat Loaf is on the scrawny side. Mr Loaf's Cardiff date had been postponed twice for health reasons. At the arena, a recorded message assured callers the show was still on. One out of three ain't good. But here he was, rising form his bed to tread the boards like the showman he is. He didn't dance, but he did trot around for 150 minutes. His voice hasn't changed since Bat Out Of Hell ruled the album chart : it's still the sound of a plaintive mammoth. He likes to throw everything at an audience - slapstick routines, ghoulish masks, fake flames, flying sofa's and his own comic book personality. The trick of shining floodlights in the crowds face is used four times in the first two numbers. Track three is an interminable rifferama; so is track four. After a heart scare, you'd think that life was too short. His best song is Jim Steinman's I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That): it's big, romantic and everybody wonders what it is he won't do. Bat Out Of Hell and Dead Ringer For Love still hit the spot, but thier piano - driven verbosity draws heavily from early Bruce Springsteen. Meat Loaf is to Springsteen what Oasis are to Lennon, taking one strand of a complex oeuvre and making it bigger and brasher. Meat Loaf wins over Cardiff in the end, but he is too self - indulgent and his patter verges on the bullying. 'Hey! I didn't ask you to talk!!' he says when some fans dare open thier mouths mid-anecdote. If rock theatre is what you are after, it's done far better by Peter Gabriel. 3 stars out of 5 I have absolutely no idea what Meat Loaf concert he was at - but it sure as hell wasn't the same one as me....