The Meat Loaf Story

For those of you who don't know, the Meat Loaf Story is a stage show chronicling the career of the mighty rock legend Meat Loaf.

Steve Steinman has the mammoth task of impersonating Meat Loaf, he is able to pull off this impressive feat with relative ease unlike certain other tribute acts.

The show starts off with Steve belting out some of the classic tracks from the album 'Bat Out Of Hell- such as 'Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad ', and 'All Revved Up', interspersed with video footage from certain tracks.

Steve's vocals are top notch and at times if you close your eyes you would genuinely think that Meat Loaf is on the stage. Steve dresses like Meat Loaf and has pretty much mastered all of the stage theatrics that Meat Loaf uses such as raising the arm slowly and wiggling the fingers as the notes get higher.

Steve portrays the emotion behind the songs superbly and he has a dramatic way of delivering certain songs, but above all of this, even after playing these songs night after night, year after year, he still manages to unearth that raw passion to make every song sound like he still enjoys singing them.

Even though Steve is a splendid vocalist and entertainer, the show would not be half as good if it wasn't for his female vocalist Zoe Sharmin. Steve and Zoe have a superb chemistry between them. The pair of them just bounce of each other, even when things go slightly wrong.

It isn't just Meat Loaf material that is belted out. The show slowly evolves into a gargantuan showcase to display most of the people he has worked with as well. People like Cher, and Bonnie Tyler, are brought to life by Zoe impersonating them and for me personally the vocals on her version of Celine Dion's 'It's All Coming Back To Me Now' were quite simply stunning.

Watching Zoe perform is certainly an experience- She is completely opposite to Steve's slow, dramatic, emotional, passionate performance, she is wild and energetic, and brings a bit of cool vibrancy to the show. Zoe was centre stage at every guitar solo, doing all sorts of pulsating contortions with her body, which surely must be painful when she wakes up the next morning after a show.

Vocals aside, the rest of the live band are also superbly talented and at times they each have a little solo part, Keeping the thunderous volcanic drum beat was Tommy Parratt. On guitars and vocals are Mary Garner and Ritchie Barlow. Mary is one hell of a guitarist and she would easily put 99% of men to shame when it comes to playing guitar. Ritchie is another expert guitar player in a league of his own- very passionate and enthusiastic.

After two hours of great music- all of the classic Meat Loaf tracks had been covered, which left room for just one- the granddaddy of them all- 'Bat Out Of Hell' with blistering guitar solos and smoking motorbikes, this immortal classic brought the show to a close.

The Meat Loaf Story is an expertly crafted show, and is one of those shows that you could easily sit through over and over again- provided that you like Meat Loaf of course!