(If anyone does listen, please do me a favor and e-mail me details about what Rick says as my media player won't work on that station!)

Below is a photo taken at the end of the concert, plus a close-up of Kasim in the photo.

Many thanks to the kind person who provided this photo.

Well, officially it won't be announced until Tuesday 14th March but there's quite a giveaway at KonoctiHarbor.com (scroll down and the banner is on the left, plus I've posted it here on the right). The date given is Saturday 27th May (Memorial Day Weekend) and tickets go on sale on a month today at 10.00am!

It's not known whether the concert will be held at either the indoor or outdoor venue at this location but it does look as though the New Cars will be the headline act.

The indoor venue seats 1,000 people and seats vary between $45 and $109 for the different shows. Seats in the balcony / perimeter with no dinner are between $45 and $75 (depending on the artist) and seats in rows 1 to 5 with dinner are usually between $65 and $109.

The outdoor venue seats 5,000 fans (all within 200 feet of the stage) and it overlooks Clear Lake. Seats in the bleachers with no dinner are between $39 and $59 and premier seating with a pre-show barbeque are usually between $84 and $138 (depending on the artist). Seats in rows 1 to 11 have varied between $59 and $109.

The New Cars Tour Dates page has been updated with links.

In his review about the events after the gig he says "Kaz came out and although everyone wanted his attention, he took a quick sec to shake my hand and pose for a pic. He could easily get snotty and selective (you’d think he might with so many people vying for his attention), but he was incredibly accommodating". There's also a really great photo of Kasim at this link.

The link to a photo of the set list is interesting for the comments beside the song titles - Drive is listed as "Acoustic".

Many thanks to TRiFanOK for finding this review.

At the end of January reports appeared about Sanctuary announcing a rescue deal which it hopes will save the company. This report on Reuters.com explains it fully. Sanctuary shares have fallen more than 90 per cent since last June. Apparently they closed up 0.2p yesterday at 1.49p, valuing the company at £5.42m (about $8m).

It is not known how or even whether the problems at Sanctuary will affect Kasim's signing with the record label but some fans believe that the fact that he chose to make all of Yellow Cab available to download makes it unlikely that a different version of Quid Pro Quo with additional tracks will be released on the label in the future. Kasim has stated nothing in public about this to date.

Kasim flew to England to appear as part of Meat Loaf's backing band (playing guitar and singing background vocals) when they sang I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That). However on the airplane on the flight over, the story goes that Bon Jovi were on the same flight. As their bass player had just left the band, they asked Kasim to fill-in. Kasim played I'll Sleep When I'm Dead with Bon Jovi.

In June and July 1998 Kasim toured Japan, Australia and Europe (Germany, Holland and England) as part of Bon Jovi's lead guitarist Richie Sambora's band (click here for reviews and photos from that tour). Later that year Kasim played a one-off fan party as part of Jon Bon Jovi's band in New Jersey. Below are some photos from that event.

(By coincidence this years edition of The Brits are being held tonight in London.)

Most fans believe that the similarity between the two logos can not be a coincidence.

The bands on these shows play in Bryant Park on 40th Street and 8th Avenue. The shows are free but in order to get near the stage fans have to get to the park very early (6.00am or 7.00am!).

Kasim was supposed to have appeared on this show during the Summer of 2003 but Meat Loaf cancelled the appearance due to illness.

This link is a slightly more balanced report.

The incident involved a bad landing at Manchester Airport when Kasim was returning with Meat Loaf and the rest of the band from a gig in Hamburg, Germany. Kasim recounted what happened in his online journal here but the incident occured in June last year and no explaination was given in The Sun about why they were publishing the story now! This link has details about the story that was published at the time (although with a photo of the food meatloaf!).

The article in today's Sun newspaper claims that Meat Loaf's weight was to blame for the incident citing that "cabin crew ignored orders to seat the 17st singer and his band at the front" of the plane to prevent this (plus they state that there was heavy luggage strapped into seats in the plane). The article doesn't explain how if Meat Loaf does weigh 17 stone (238 pounds) then how seating someone of Kasim's slight build would have made much of a difference!

Just a note about KasimInfo.com has I've been asked a couple of questions about it recently and I know that there has been a massive increase in the amount of traffic to the website since Kasim started working as part of The New Cars. KasimInfo.com isn't an official website but it has been described as "an authorized website" about Kasim (for example the link on Quid Pro Quo to this website and Kasim mentioning KasimInfo.com on stage at his solo gigs several times). Kasim will often pass info to this site and info from outside sources is checked but as this website is geared towards his fans, there are times when rumors are posted here too (even when sometimes I know parts of them to be incorrect!) but they are always clearly indicated as rumors. Also, some fun things are added too during quiet periods e.g. the "Pop star Kasim named as most fasionable artist" link from two weeks ago.

Obviously as the aim is to update the website more than once each day, sometimes more obsecure links and comments are added (sometimes it's hard to find relevent topical things to post!) but hopefully most readers of this website will find things interesting as the more mundane items are offset by important items like news, tour dates, reviews and, when Kasim is on tour, details of each venue that he plays are posted (which I know lots of fans find interesting).

Although the song sounds like a boy / girl song, Kasim has mentioned at several of his solo gigs that he wrote the song due to his frustration at not being released from his contract so that he could record a solo album.

On a similar topic the fan-run website TheNewCars.net has been closed. The comment on the site is "Regretfully, we've been asked to delete this site. We'll be back in March.". The website owner posted elsewhere "As it turns out, the band's management company didn't even like that I had any mention of The New Cars on my site. I don't understand how this band is still supposed to be a secret."