By Peter Maddern
While Meatloaf, no stranger to a stumble or two on stage it seems, is the name every one associates with Bat out of Hell, neither he (before and after) nor the album were anything without the songs penned by Jim Steinman. In Love and Death, Toby Francis takes us back to the days before and immediately after when Steinman’s take on the Peter Pan story, as a rock opera, founded and then so did the various relationships between the artists and the producers involved in the album. (It will surprise no one who follows the machinations of the record industry that the record companies are seen as the villains in all this.)
As such, the narrative of the show gets a little confusing as it alternates between versions of that stage production and the separate recorded music which included Rock and Roll Dreams from his solo album Bad for Good. Reading up on the history before the show starts would be time well spent.
Whether by intention or by accident, Francis’ voice very much mimics the slightly weedy, strained voice of Steinman and thus not a patch on the great man’s (but he is no orphan there) and some of the higher notes seemed to be a bit beyond him. Yet, pared back to just a guitar and piano, there was no mistaking the power of Steinman’s song writing – perhaps rightly seen as ‘the lost genius of pop’.
For fans of the album, the writer, and Mr Loaf, Love and Death is an enjoyable trip down memory lane.
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