Shamedly, it's easy to find negative comment or damning with faint praise from members of the UK press, no doubt chortling at their self-perceived cleverness, some of whom clearly did not even bother to get themselves to the show they "reviewed" as they included songs which Meat didn't perform .. However this collection does include my favourite bizarre offering which included "The joke's still on him".
That after more than 30 years Meat continues to sell out 12-20K arenas whenever he tours, not just with baby boomers but with an audience of all ages ... who it's true laugh with him at the character he creates in Paradise, but are moved, excited, transported by every song he performs, and stand to cheer and whistle and beg him to return for more at the end of the show .. is I guess a phenomenon that our journalist critics find hard to understand; but any "joke" is on them as he lights another, now metaphorical, cigar.
So much easier to criticise than create .. but thankfully Meat still creates, still entertains magnificently, still enthralls with his performance. That's his enduring magic, and there's nothing "sad" about it at all. Many critics would be delighted, and lucky, to have his "predicament" of being a superstar, "still on the scene", and so enduringly successful and popular after so many years. Few people don't recognise his name .. how many know the names of the various critics who tear him down?
Caryl
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