In his post here he says that today he's done 3 hours of press and "now I go to make edits for the today show with the band".

There is also a link from there to purchase tickets online at TicketWeb.com here. Unfortunately they spell his surname wrong but it does say that doors open at 6.30pm and that under 21s will be omitted with a $2 surcharge.

For The Royal Albert Hall concert last week people couldn't buy seats together using this company so most friends either had to swap tickets or sit apart from the people they went to the concert with. This time people assumed that there wouldn't be the same problem but there was! It was also compounded by the fact that when people put tickets into their shopping basket the software didn't give the exact seat location so fans were buying blind! (There were also reports that lots of people had their cards rejected even when there were funds on the account.)

Tickets went on sale through FanFire at 3.00pm and yet both TicketMaster, TicketLine and the various venues had pre-sales which started at 9.00am this morning. Each of these had good seats available so there was no advantage in waiting for the fan club presale.

Meat Loaf himself has posted here apologising for this and saying that he's been trying to sort it out.

Meanwhile there are already second row seats available for one of the concerts on E-Bay.com at way over face value!

Although fans in Virginia will be disappointed, it's not surprising that Kasim won't be playing that gig as that week he's playing a TV show and mini-concert in Los Angeles on the Tuesday, a concert in New York City on the Thursday and another concert in Toronto, Canada on the Saturday!

Tickets for all the concerts which have so far been announced (except this concert) in UK go on presale at Meat Loaf's official website MeatLoaf.net tomorrow at 10.00am (3.00pm BST). Tickets for the Dublin concert went on presale today here and it is standing at the front.

Paul O'Grady is a 51 year old guy from the north of England (who still retains quite a strong northern accent) who has hosted this show since 2004. Paul originally became famous for his alter ego - the blonde bombsite Lily Savage but now appears to have retired her. In July this year Paul suffered his second heart attack and was told by his doctors to ease his schedule. Consequently this week he will not be appearing on the show and different "celebrities" will be hosting it instead. Today's show will be hosted by the television presenter Alan Titchmarsh who is famous for presenting programmes on gardening since 1996.

Many thanks to Jennifer Salyer for finding this clip (and for spotting that I'm shown in the clip of the audience!!)

Kasim Sulton plays bass and sings background vocals (which were arranged by Todd Rundgren) on this track. The other track(s) on the single is the intro to Warrior (which isn't listed on the liner notes) into Whore. No musicians are listed on this track but it sounds like it may be a live version of the track in which case Kasim plays bass on the track.

Congratulations to Kasim as (I believe) that this is the first time that he's been in the UK charts with the same song by two different artists! (Celine Dion had a #3 hit with the same song and Kasim sang background vocals on that track.)

The last time that Kasim was in the UK Singles Chart was in 2003 with Couldn't Have Said It Better.

There were also critics reviews of the concert (which don't mention Kasim) in The Times here, the Evening Standard here and The Guardian newspapers.

There are threads from fans about the concert on Meat Loaf's official website MeatLoaf.net here and MLUKFC.com here. Unfortunately though despite there being 283 posts as I write this, none of them mention Kasim! (I'll add my review soon which will even things up a bit!)

There are a few photos of Kasim in those threads. Direct links to the best ones are:

This photo shows Kasim in his baseball top.

Kasim and Randy Flowers.

Just Kasim.

Kasim in action with Paul Crook.

This link is from high up and shows all the band and orchestra on stage.

Kasim.

This photo shows the backdrop and stage nicely.

Kasim with Paul Crook.

Kasim mid-note!

Kasim surrounded by fans after the concert.

Kasim and fan after the show.

Kasim during Bat Out Of Hell.

Many thanks to Vicki Pearson of Republic-of-Loafdom.com for this link.

Click here for photos and videoclips of both shows.

The video shows Kasim Sulton on Todd Rundgren's Power Trio Tour in 2000 singing Couldn't I Just Tell You. There are some great close-up shots of Kasim during the song.

Towards the end of the song when Kasim and Todd do the scissor kicks, it shows Kasim falling over on his bass cord. The clip doesn't say where it was recorded so it may be the Anaheim concert when he broke his foot (as I only remember him falling once on that tour) but he seems to be laughing about it far more than I remembered (or maybe the pain hadn't started yet).

(If you watch the video to the end the fall is shown from a different camera angle and even again in slow motion!)

From 1949 until 1998 there was a show on British television called Come Dancing which was a competition over several weeks featuring various areas of Britain competing at ballroom dancing (waltzes, quick step, ch-ch-cha etc). More famous than the contestents were all the tafetta, sequins and satin dresses!

A couple of years ago they reinstated the competition but this time called it Strictly Come Dancing and it now features a professional dancer coupled with a "celebrity". Each week there is a telephone vote and one couple are knocked out. This is only the third week in this series so there are 12 couples left. (Probably the most famous person in the series this time is Emma Bunton who was Baby Spice in The Spice Girls.) This link is for the show's official website. There are two parts to this show - the first part shows the dancing demonstrations for this week and the second part shows the results (it's a phone vote) plus is the part that Kasim will be on. This part airs from 9.35pm until 10.05pm (4.35pm to 5.05pm EST). There's also an old appearance by Meat Loaf on the show just before this one on the channel BBC2 from Top Of The Pops which will hopefully also include Kasim!

This show is recorded in London and most people say that the studio is far smaller than it appears on television. As only Kasim Sulton and Mark Alexander (piano) will be playing in the band tonight there is bound to be some (if not all) recorded music used! Apparently tickets for this whole 13 part television series went within 4 hours and there were over 150,000 applications!

Although the tour starts in US in March, typically tickets for European concerts go on sale 6 - 8 months before a concert whereas in US they go on sale closer to the concert hence the reason that the UK and Ireland dates are being announced first.

Thursday 10th May - Manchester Evening News Arena, Manchester, England
Monday 14th May - NEC Arena, Birmingham, England
Friday 18th May - SECC, Glasgow, Scotland
Sunday 20th May - Newcastle Arena, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England
Wednesday 23rd May - Wembley Arena, London, England
Sunday 27th May - Sheffield Arena, Sheffield, England

More dates will be added over the next few weeks and tickets go on presale on Wednesday.

There's a nice blurb on the ticketing link page too. As the blurb will disappear after the gig, it says:

"What do Bon Jovi, Todd Rundgren, Mick Jagger, Meat Loaf, Celine Dion, Joan Jett and Hall & Oates have in common? Singer / songwriter Kasim Sulton has played or recorded with them all!

As Meat Loaf and The New Cars Road Rage Tours take time off this coming December and January, Kasim has scheduled another series of his own gigs at venues all over the US and on December 29, 2006, he will be opening his 2007 Tour with a very special 90 minute "Holiday Show" at the famed "Bitter End" in New York City. The Bitter End web site is: www.bitterend.com.

Brooklyn-born Sulton started his career playing piano for David Bowie's publicist Cherry Vanilla before joining Todd Rundgren's prog-rock group Utopia in 1976. Kasim played bass and sang vocals in the band for 10 years during which time they released 6 studio albums and Kasim increasingly took on more of the lead vocals. Kasim also wrote their only Top Thirty hit Set Me Free.

Since 1993 Kasim has been with Meat Loaf where he's been his Musical Director since 1998. Kasim also sang or played on both Bat Out Of Hell and Bat Out Of Hell II. The third Bat album "The Monster Is Loose" has just been released and Kasim's bass and distinctive vocals are featured once again in the album's soon to be mega hits: "It's All Coming Back To Me Now", "Alive", "What About Love", "If It Ain't Broke" and "Blind As A Bat".

In recent years Kasim has also been making his name as a producer too having produced the Meat Loaf album StoryTellers in 1999 and Rick Reynolds' album Unstoppable last year. Kasim released his last solo album Quid Pro Quo in 2002 to critical acclaim by both critics and fans alike and in 2003 it won the Kweevak.com Viewers Choice Award. He has promised a new solo album for late 2007 or early 2008.

Kasim plans to play 6-10 gigs this winter. He believes that good songs can always be sung with just an acoustic guitar and a voice and he aims to prove that with a selection of his own songs, some from Todd Rundgren and Utopia, plus some he's chosen from The Cars and even Meat Loaf too.

Critics worldwide have heaped praise upon Kasim. Mike O'Cull from ChicagoGigs.com, says: "Kasim is a songwriter of uncommon gifts. I cannot recommend this performer highly enough to anyone who is a fan of pop music or singer/songwriters in general. He was simply one of the best I've ever seen". Kasim will be talking on stage about his 31 year career in the music business as well as playing a mixture of his own music, plus songs from his days in Utopia, music from The Cars, Todd Rundgren and even Meat Loaf.

Kasim is thrilled to be able to announce that his good friends, the unique, talented, funny, one of a kind Doug Kennedy (www.douglasrkennedy.com) and Dennis Delguardio will be joining him on stage for this very special night of music, fun, laughter and storytelling.

Show time is promptly at 8:00pm and tickets can be bought at the door for $35 or online for $30."

12/29 - The Bitter End, New York City, NY (a Special Holiday Show)
01/26 - The Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH.

More info has been added to the Kasim Sulton 2006 / 2007 Tour page. (A new 2007 page will be added after more dates are announced.)

March and April - US tour (1st March - tour starts in Florida)
May and June - Europe and UK tour (10th May tour starts in Europe)
July and August - US tour
September and October - Europe and UK tour

Many thanks to RadioMaster for recording this interview.