Zurich

Well, thats is folks.
All done here.
Good show tonight, nice venue. Smaller than the shows we've been doing but fun nonetheless.
I'm looking forward to getting home for a little break.
With any luck, we'll be back again this way soon... until then... stay safe and keep rockin'.

K

the always present Randy shot 

The fans 

Patty by the duck pond 

Outside the venue 

Inside the venue 

Nice coach inside the Museum we played at 

The Stage 

The Venue 

behind the drums 

Zurich 

Zurich 

The Lake by our hotel 

Patty in Anything For Love 

Sparklers? 

Meat walkin on stage 

Patty and John 

Watchin' BB on the Internet 

Pam and Donnie waiting for the show to start 

Johnny warming up 

TC after a jump in the river 

Mark livin' large 

Billy S. 

Mark is giving me that look again 

CC's dinner 

The guys at dinner 

Patty checking her stock portfolio finding out shes made a million 

Bickling Hall / Warwick Castle

We played the last of the Stately Homes concert series this weekend. It wasn't without some drama as well.
One of the Guitarists from the opening band, Hurricane Party, was looking for a nice place in a field to have a bit of a lie down. He chose a shaded spot behind a small Land Rover truck just outside of the backstage area.
He was resting quite peacefully when the driver of the Land Rover needed to move the vehicle. Unfortunately, the driver failed to notice the skinny blond guy sleeping behind his truck and summarily ran over him. Not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES. Thats right, he ran over the guy! Amazingly, Johnny the guitarist walked away with only a broken wrist and tire tracks across his back. Oh, and he probably did loose a couple of his allotted nine lives in the process.
Other than this little incident (and a few others I can recall) the UK / Euro tour has gone great. Meat has been in top form and the band has been tight.
We've got one more show in the UK, Liverpool on Monday then one show in Zurich, then it's back to the states for the remaining two months of this tour.
I've had a great time keeping this little journal and I'm going to continue once we start playing shows in the US.
Hope you all had as much fun looking at this as I had doing it.

K

The audience at Bickling Hall 

Hurricane Party's manager takes up some slack. 

Johnny, the guitar player from Hurricane Party who, earlier that day had a run in with a Land Rover 

Mark opens the show on Guitar 

The audience at Bickling Hall 

Me and Randy 

Anything For Love 

Randy and Paul on stage 

View of the Castle from the walkway in 

I wonder how old this entrance is? 

Warwick Castle Turret 

Warwick Castle 

The Garden at Warwick Castle 

From the back of the venue 

My very old, very close friend JACK! 

What post would be compleat without a Randy shot? 

me and Randy backstage 

I see a couple of faces in the audience that are quite familiar 

Black Betty 

Hurry up, take the shot before Meat sees us! 

TC in a fit of brilliance 

Patty says, EEEEEHHHHYYYY! 

Randy  

Crook in a crouch 

TC takes a BAD picture 

TC takes a nice picture 

My shoes look really nice in this shot 

Nice Light 

Bat Out Of Hell 

Liverpool

Got here early in the day after taking the train up by myself from Manchester.
Liverpool is a medium size city most famous for ... need I say?
This is where the Titanic sailed from in the early 1900's. That and one other event makes this a special place.
The venue is actually located in the Docklands area of the city.
The show was great and the crowd of about 5000 people were on their feet the whole evening. It was a rare in-door gig for us and we're coming back here next week for the second of two shows. The one we did last night was added on at the last minute because the tickets went so fast.
It's gotten extremely warm here all of a sudden and the sunshine has returned to Northern England. For a while I was wearing sweaters and a jacket but I think it might be time to break out the shorts!

Welcome to Liverpool 

Pick your face out of the crowd 

Nice picture of T.C. 

Me from behind 

Looking across stage 

Pauls stretching again 

Paul from the wings 

Paul in his best Rock stance 

Paul from the wings 

On Stage 

Paul and Randy with Pam in the back. 

John cecks out Marks booty 

Randy, Paul and Charlie backstage 

Randy wanted me to delet this picture ... I said no 

T.C looking at .... Ummmm, I dunno 

Swish the Truck Driver. He's really a Teddy Bear. 

Bill B. our tour manager and Stewart our Merchandiser  

Billy S. Checking his stock portfolio 

Paul Crooks preshow warm up 

Myself, Mark and Mack chatting backstage 

The Cool Ranch Chip failed, Patty is putting a new one in, this time it's Spicy Mesquite 

Chatsworth House

Last night we played another in the series of Stately Homes concerts. This time it was Chatsworth House in Darbyshire.
I've learned that this particular "House" is home to the Duke and Dutchess of Darbyshire. Unfortunately the Duke passed away while ago but the Dutchess is still amoung us and I'm told a lovely old lady at the young age of 80 something.
She only lives in a small portion of the house and opens it to the public for tours, also, she supposedly loves to allow people on to these magnificent grounds to enjoy the scenic views, sheep grazing and walking paths. As a matter of fact, I decided to spare you all detailed pictures of what we had to be careful NOT to step all over the backstage area.
I'm working on my own Stately Home here in the UK and before I leave I'll post a picture of it finished.
Last nights show was great and once again, the audience was well into it. The US is going to have to go a long way in matching the enthusiasm we've been recieving when we take the stage.
I'm back in Manchester now and am on my way out to enjoy a nice sunny day here.
See ya later!

Chatsworth House 

Part of the Stately Home 

The Hunting Tower ... available for rental. 

Chatsworth House 

Charlies taking my neck off for a second so I can check something out. 

Charlie and I doing some minor surgery to my Bass 

A view from the parking lot 

How cool would it be to live here? 

The whole Monte 

The groundsbelow the House 

Small residence building next to the Home 

Leeds Castle (Kent, UK)

We played our first show in 4 days last night at Leeds Castle.
While it's difficult to get the time to actually go into these "Stately Homes" to check them out, the views from the outside are truly impressive. You can just imagine what it was like 3 - 400 years ago with Archers standing guard in the turrets.
The show was a good one in my opinion, save for the deluge of rain that fell on the crowd prior to us going on.
The funniest thing was the amount of water that had collected on the tarp covering the stage which no one knew about until a few gusts of wind came along, blew buckets of water down and summarily drenched the first few rows of unsuspecting fans! Cameras and all. I knew a few of these people and felt so bad for them.
Thankfully the rain stopped earlier but I'm sure being practically drowned sitting at the show didn't help the comfortability factor for some.
On to Chatsworth tomorrow!

Leeds Castle 

View of the Castle from the South 

Looking at the Castle from the putting green across the Moat 

Small 'residence building' on the grounds of the Castle 

Nice view of the Leeds Castle Moat 

Danny Miranda is currently on tour playing Bass with Queen and Paul Rogers 

Danny and I talking Basses 

I explaing a bit about my Signature Bass to Danny 

Billy S. is our resident computer guru. Anyone with any IT problems makes a bee line to him 

Billy and Mark 'trying' to fix Marks limping computer 

Initially, Meat thought Randy was making nice with him 

Randy starts acting weird ... attacking Meat Loaf backstage 

This is the Bands dressing room. It gives new meaning to the term 'Put Out To Pasture' 

Patty giving me the 'go away' look 

Crook ... METAL 

Patty is implanting a new chip in Randy's brain .I'm thinking it's probably either Guacamole flavored or Cool Ranch. 

The Guitarist, a lefty! 

Hurricane Part - Nice bunch of guys doin their thang 

Hurricane Party on stage 

We're OK, I'm OK

Just a quick note to let you know that everyone in the band and crew is fine after the terrible events here in London this morning.
Thank you for your concern.
All our thoughts and prayers go out to anyone who may be affected by what can only be described as more sensless harm perpetrated on innocent people.

Backtracking

Last week we had the chance to stay over night in Killarney, Ireland. Initially we were scheduled to fly in for the show, turn around afterwards and go right back to the UK but the decision was made to stay over night at this hotel about 15 minutes from the gig.
What a treat. as you can see from the pictures below, this was such a beautiful place that none of us really wanted to leave and the talk of the day centered around each one of us wanting to vacation here in the future.
I'm so much a 'city guy'. I'm not really one for wide open spaces but I have to say this place is gorgeous. Rolling Irish hills and amazing views all around.
It's the quintessential tucked away gem of a vacation spot. If you ever find yourself in Ireland, you absolutely must make this a place to see.

Kasim

The view from the second florr of the Hotel looking out over the Lakes of Kilarney 

Another view of the Lakes 

Old Church across from the Hotel 

Time for a Group (5 - 7ths anyway) photo 

Patty and Randy in front of the Hotel we stayed in. 

Another view of the Lakes 

Opposite view from the Lakes 

How amazing is this place? 

Randy modeling the fall line from CK 

"I don't want my picture took" 

Patty Russo 

The Lakes Of Kilarney 

Looking across the road from the Hotel in Kilarney 

Manchester Solo

I did my first ever solo show outside of the US last night.
What a great experience.
Meat Loaf decided that he wanted to go to London a day earlier than scheduled so he and the rest of the band departed Manchester in the early afternoon and I was left on my own to twiddle my thumbs for the better part of the day until it was time for me to go over to the Night & Day Cafe for my show.
Originally I thought there was only four acts on the bill. Turned out to be six. Part of an all Acoustic Night at the venue. I had wanted to do some sort of sound check before the evenings festivities started at 8PM but opted to stay in my room a little longer and try and finish up a new song I was working on. I needed a few more lyrics so I could at least play it somewhat finished and not 'la la la' my way through any wiggly bits.
I got to the club around 7:45. Way too early. All I could do was sit around in the backstage area and look at lyrics I was sure to forget once I started playing.
The first guy on was a delightful young Lad from Stockton, just down the road from Manchester. I met him later that night and gave him some words of encouragement for doing his own songs. He might not have been great but I gave him credit for getting up there and trying. Thats how it starts.
About this time, some of the other performers started showing up in the backstage area off the Girls WC. One of who was named Randy Russo! No relation to either Meat Loaf band member.
She was accompanied by some tosser in a fedora who, while tuning his interestingly uncommon Lap Steel Guitar (Hey I know what will separate me from the others, I'll play a LAP STEEL! Then I'll be really COOL), made some flip comment about me being "that Kasseem guy who plays with Meat Loaf?" I replied that yes, I was him and "my name is Kasim, pleased to meet you."
Tosser with Fedora and Lap Steel: "So... like, ummm, what do you do with Meat Loaf? Are you like ... in his band or something?"
Kasim: "Yeah, I'm his Bass Player and Musical Director"
Tosser: "So, your just a side man then?"
Kasim: "Well ... I don't ONLY play with Meat Loaf, I play with many other artists as well." Tosser: "Right, as a side man."
Kasim: "Nice hat Jerkoff, go upstairs and make a fool of yourself will ya?"
He was there with Ms. Russo who was very nice. That they were both New Yorkers was interesting. Even if I did want to strangle one of them.
Now that I had my dander up, I was ready to wait another hour and a half before I would go on stage.
Anyway ... to make a long story even LONGER, I got on stage and once again, all was right in the world. I was at home. Well, not really home, but it felt good.
Thank you to all who came out in support of my first UK solo show. Thanks to Jay at Night & Day for allowing me a slot at the last moment and with any luck at all, I'll be back this way again in the not too distant future for a more extended run of these kind of shows.
I'll be posting some pictures taken over the last few days for you so, check back soon.

Kasim

Kasim's Room