The dates confirmed so far are:
Sun 12/02/07 - House Of Blues, Dallas, TX
Tue 12/04/07 - Antones, Austin, TX
Wed 12/05/07 - House Of Blues, New Orleans, LA
Fri 12/07/07 - The Rex Theater, Pittsburgh, PA
Sat 12/08/07 - The Tralf, Buffalo, NY
Tue 12/11/07 - Promowest, Columbus, OH
Wed 12/12/07 - Bogarts, Cincinnati, OH
Thu 12/13/07 - House Of Blues, Chicago, IL
Sat 12/15/07 - Calvin Theater, N Hampton, MA
Sun 12/16/07 - The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA

More dates are to be added and the Gigs section of KasimInfo.com will be added with venue and ticketing details soon.

Below is a (very rough!) drawing of the stage area. It's not to scale and the audience were closer than indicated on this but the 3 black bits (walkways) are where Meat Loaf and the band could walk out.

There are only 2 concerts (Nottingham and Cardiff) where the Bat Caves were offered from sale right from the start as these were the two that were added later. At most of the UK venues some fans were contacted later and asked if they wanted to "upgarde" to the Bat Cave (tickets are double the price of normal tickets plus you receive a T-shirt and plastic laminate) but the way that fans were chosen seems to have been rather a lottery as some fans in the front rows were asked and others were not! Apprently at the German concerts, other than those people who always get in before the doors open, it was down to security about who got in the Bat Cave and who didn't.

The main audience are further back from the stage (probably 50 feet further back than with the standard stage layout) which may be why Meat Loaf stands at the end of the middle walkway so much during the concert. At the first concert (Dortmund) the majority of the people in the Bat Cave had his back to them for most of the concert but fans have reported that he is interacting with the Bat Cave more now.

The concern of several fans (myself included!) is how much fans at the front will be able to see of Kasim Sulton (and the rest of the band) when it is a seated concert and if the audience does sit (which can happen at UK concerts), especially as there's only one song (Anything For Love) when Kasim usually goes up the walkways.

John Miceli has some photos of the Bat Caves here and Chriss77 took some photos of them in use at a concert near the start of this thread.

Photos of that concert will be added to KasimInfo.com soon.

According to the venue website, doors open at 6.30pm with the support act (Meat Loaf's daughter Pearl AdayMeat Loaf's set is supposed to last from 8.10pm until 10.30pm (15.10 to 17.30 NYC time). Bat Cave tickets were also sold for this concert at £109 (about $200).

This concert is mainly a standing concert (but with seating at the back) and tickets are £37.50 to £45 (about $65 to $85). The website says that the availablity of tickets is "good" which is not good news for ticket sales! Apparently Donny Osmond played here last night and it was sold out (although that may have been a seated concert).

Kasim Sulton has played at this venue lots of times over the past few years (with Meat Loaf). The last time that Kasim was here was on Friday 18th May 2007. This venue is Scotland's national venue for public events and it has five main exhibition halls of area up to 10,000 m². It is probably best known for hosting its concerts with acts such as The Rolling Stones, U2, Oasis, Genesis, Kylie Minogue, Sting and many others with concerts taking place almost every other night. When it is fully seated it holds 8,200.

The SECC was built in 1985 and has the nickname among locals of "The Big Red Shed", owing to its outward appearance which resembled a giant red painted warehouse. However the nickname has become redundant following the building being repainted grey in recent years!

Click here to view the venue website.

Photos of that concert will be added to KasimInfo.com soon.

Click here to read the article. They cite the reason is "because he has piled on the pounds". Considering that he used to be considerably larger back in the 1970s that hardly rings true.

The Sun is not generally known for the accuracy of its reporting. In fact it's well known that hacks from the paper snoop around one of the (non music) messageboards that I use and post rumors and fan reports directly from there.

On the subject of photography at concerts, at some of the recent German shows, some fans have reported that they were told by security that they were not allowed to take photos when they were in the Bat Caves. However there are also reports that Meat Loaf even took one fan's camera at one concert to take some photos of CC for her and at another concert was disappointed that nobody had a camera so he could take photos again!

The photos of Kasim in Dortmund are numbers 52 to 54.

The photos of Kasim in Leipzig are numbers 11, 13, 29, 35 to 37, 40, 41, 43, 47, 75 and 98.

There are numerous ways of traveling from Bremen in the north of Germany to Glasgow in the north of the British Isles so this part of the tour will be a total estimate!

The fastest way would be by plane despite the fact that there are no direct flights between the two cities (although they could charter a plane). A one way flight via Frankfurt will cost a whopping $594!

There are several ferry routes that can be taken. These include Hook of Holland to Harwich, England, Ostend, Belguim to Ramsgate, England and Calais, France to Dover, England. All 3 routes will include driving through the length of England to get to the west coast of Scotland where Glasgow is located.

Another alternative is to catch Eurostar (a train which runs under the English Channel between England and France) from Calais, France to Dover, England. As the lorries won't have flown, the best estimate is the one below which is 919 miles and will take almost 15 hours (although it is highly unlikely that Kasim will take that route!). This route will go from Germany through Holland, through Belguim, through France, through England into Scotland!

Meat Loaf 2nd European leg Tour Mileage by road to date venue to venue (estimated) - 1,953 miles.