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Are You Happy Now? Yellow Cab Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing Libertine Cliché There Goes My Inspiration Before She Was Gone Somebody Loves You The One Sure Thing Watching The World Go By Sacrifice 
Review by SueW:
The 12 Bar Club is located in Denmark Street which has an amazing musical pedigree and almost all the shops in the street are music related (mainly musical instruments).
We got to the venue at about 7.30pm and I was quite pleased to see an A-board outside citing Kasim as the main act tonight! When we went in it was great to see that already at that time there were about 8 ticks by Kasim’s name for who had come to see him and none by the other two acts!
I knew that the venue held 100 people but it was smaller than I imagined so they certainly must pack people in nose to nose if 100 turn up! For tonight they had laid out some seats – we counted 19 on the ground floor and 7 up in the balcony so it was literally standing room only by the time Kasim took the stage! In fact there were more people there to see Kasim than there were the other two acts put together which was impressive.
The opening act Alex Lipinski was a lot better than I expected. He played about a 30 minute acoustic set and had a decent voice. His second song was Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing In The Dark and he sang it quite well. It was also nice that he stayed to watch Kasim’s set afterwards too.
Kasim took the stage at 8.45pm and played for almost exactly an hour and this gig is now in my top 10 solo gigs of his as his voice was really clear, his patter was well thought out and very funny and he really created a great rapport with the audience.
After Kasim had thanked Alex for opening and thanked us all for attending, he sang his great Are You Happy Now? He then went almost straight into Yellow Cab other than telling us that it was written by a Londoner about New York! It was actually during this song that I pinched myself as I couldn’t believe that I was actually seeing Kasim Sulton playing a solo gig in London!
Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing was next complete with a “take it fellows” in the middle musical part!
Kasim then spoke about how he got to the gig tonight which was hilarious! He said that he was quite tense about it as it was the first time that he’d driven on the right hand side of the road. Kasim said that driving in London was like Blade Runner as he arrived at the rush hour and that bus drivers were shouting at him as he didn’t realise that he couldn’t drive in the bus lanes! He explained it as being like the way he shouts at people in New York City!
Kasim then sang Utopia’s Libertine and afterwards spoke about working with Todd Rundgren before he played Cliché, however tonight he played a short guitar intro into the song rather than his usual vocal beginning. Kasim sang that song really well tonight and his voice suits it perfectly. Kasim followed that by There Goes My Inspiration.
After that Kasim asked us how we all were and someone asked him back how he was so he said that he was fine other than having no nails after his drive down from Nottingham! He then told us that he’d told his father before he had passed away that they should visit London. Kasim said that he had been playing gigs in London since 1976 and he remembered that back then we only had 3 television channels (he was correct although he got one of the names wrong). He also told us that he’d always said that if he ever moved abroad that he’d move to London.
Kasim’s own song from Quid Pro Quo Before She Was Gone was next on his set list and it was obvious that lots of people at the gig knew the song. Kasim explained that the following song was written about us (the fans) and that it was due to us that he gets such enjoyment out of playing his music live. He then played Nik Kershaw’s Somebody Loves You.
Kasim next spoke about playing bass in Meat Loaf’s band (while he tuned his guitar to a different key). Kasim joked that he was only five and a half years old when he played bass on Bat Out Of Hell back in 1976! He also said that when he recorded it he remembered thinking that he’d never hear those tracks again and now 32 years later he’s been playing them with Meat Loaf for 15 years!
Kasim then told us that he was going to play one of his own songs - The One Sure Thing. Kasim explained that he usually dedicated this song to someone (me!) at his solo gigs and that tonight "she is the reason that I’m at this gig….she lent me her GPS"!
The One Sure Thing has been my favourite song I think ever since I first heard it in Columbus in 2001 and usually I notice if Kasim sings the words wrong but tonight I was totally wrapped up in it so I was really surprised when he stopped during the second verse to check what the words were! On listening to my recording later he sang the first line of the second verse (When you’re running out of purpose nothing ever seems to go as planned) okay but then instead of When you feel you’ve reached your limit and all you want to do is understand, I’ll be there to offer you light, tell you everything’s going to be all right he went back to the first verse and sang the When I’m filled with indecision will you help me just to choose as best I can part. Kasim then realised that he’d remember the words if he sang the chorus again but unfortunately he went wrong again (not that I think many people realised) as he sang the first two lines of the second verse and then went back to When I’m filled with indecision will you help me just to choose as best I can again! It was still a lovely performance of the song as his voice fits the tune beautifully. He did berate himself afterwards for getting the words wrong though.
Kasim then explained that he’s not a prolific writer ("I’m a very aggressive under-achiever"!) but that he was going to play his most recent song and said that as he’s got older he’s tended to be more self-reflective. Kasim then went off on a tangent and spoke about how expensive our petrol (gas) prices are in UK (we are currently playing about $5.20 a gallon!).
After Watching The World Go By, Kasim asked us how the traffic would be by now. (The drive was certainly on his mind but he was very funny with it!) Somebody replied that the traffic would be really bad so Kasim should play for another hour! He then thanked us profusely for coming to the gig and said how much he’d enjoyed it before he played Sacrifice (which I think everybody in the crowd recognised). There was a slightly abortive start to the song as his guitar wasn’t totally in tune but when he played the song, it was a brilliant performance, including that wonderful muted guitar string part that I really like in the final chorus.
Kasim received a standing ovation before he left the stage and then ensured that he spoke to everyone there and had photos taken with everyone who wanted one. I lost count of the number of people I heard remark on what a lovely guy he is!
And that was the first (and hopefully not last) Kasim Sulton London solo gig!
Just one footnote (that I’m sure Kasim won’t mind me repeating) is that after he went outside I was sitting in the bar area with some friends having a drink when Kasim came back in with a massive grin on his face to tell us that he had put his guitar in the back of the car and then promptly got into the passenger seat!
Video clips:
There are a number of videos by nickdeaves of Kasim Sulton's solo gig at the 12 Bar Club in London, England last week on YouTube.com:
For details about Kasim's drive to this gig see his video on YouTube.com here.
Comments posted by fans on mailing lists and messageboards include:
"It was a brilliant gig and Kasim sounded wonderful."
"Lets hope Kasim fixes up another solo london show perhaps on the Friday night before the meat show on staurday - if so I'll be there in a shot."
The venue (taken from the KasimInfo.com Blog that day):
The gig is at the 12 Bar Club in Denmark Street and the nearest tube station is Tottenham Court Road. Kasim's set is due to start between 8.00pm and 8.30pm and will last about an hour. Tickets are £6 (about $10) and are available on the door.
Denmark Street is a short narrow road which is notable for its connections with British popular music and is known as the British Tin Pan Alley. Artists including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Donovan and Jimmy Hendrix have all recorded in that very street and Elton John wrote Your Song there too!
Click here for more info about this gig.
Pre-show page on KasimInfo.com:
Many thanks to Kathy Borror for all the photos on this page. All Rights Reserved |