One of the biggest names in international rock will perform at the new TECT Arena tomorrow night. Jo-Marie Baker finds out how Meat Loaf was lured to the Bay of Plenty and what's in store for fans
Rock legends don't normally list Tauranga on their international touring schedule.
Which is why Meat Loaf's one-off show at the TECT Arena tomorrow night sold out months ago.
At last we have a venue big enough to attract some big-name performers - and they don't come any bigger than Meat Loaf.
He's lost 45kg since his heaviest point in the early 1980s but still stands 6ft (1.8m) tall and has colossal stage presence.
His powerful voice has belted out hits such as Bat Out Of Hell, Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad and Paradise By The Dashboard Light for more than three decades.
In fact, he's enjoyed such longevity that tomorrow's night audience will no doubt span several generations, from teenagers through to those old enough to claim the pension.
Tauranga has scored one of Meat Loaf's three coveted New Zealand concerts (the others being staged at Wellington's TSB Bank Arena and Auckland's Vector Arena).
Promoter Brent Eccles says the Frontier Touring Company NZ has been looking for an opportunity to bring the right show to the Bay Of Plenty.
"We know there is a lot of local demand for international acts and finally you have a venue we feel that we can use," he says.
"The timing just worked out perfectly to bring Meat Loaf to Tauranga."
The 4600 people who will pack into Baypark's TECT Arena tomorrow will take in a concert they're not likely to forget.
Meat Loaf's Australian and New Zealand Guilty Pleasure tour promises a stellar line-up of Meat Loaf's past and present hits - although many reviewers have slammed the Australian leg of his tour.
He was widely criticised for his "horrendous" vocal performance at the AFL Grand Final earlier this month, and failed to hit the high notes during his subsequent arena concerts.
His ardent fans, however, didn't seem to mind one bit and were enthralled by his showmanship and theatrical stage set.
Meat Loaf's 1977 album Bat Out Of Hell has sold more than 43 million copies worldwide and remains one of the biggest selling records of all time. It also spawned a music trilogy - Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell was released in 1993 and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose was another huge success in 2006.
His current tour Downunder is to promote his latest offering, Hell in a Handbasket. It has only been released in Australia and New Zealand so far, and will be on sale to the rest of the world from February.
The album features songs called All of Me, Blue Sky, The Giving Tree, and a track with his long-time duet partner Patti Russo called Our Love And Our Souls .
In a recent video interview posted on his YouTube account, Meat Loaf talks about having just finished recording Hell in a Handbasket.
"We tried to put hell in the title because we did Hang Cool Teddy Bear and they tried to get me to call it Bat Out Of Hell IV and I said 'no'. And so I finally figured out that if it doesn't have hell in its title no one wants to know about it.
"So from now on every album is going to have hell in the title except for the Christmas record. We couldn't put hell in the title so we're calling it Hot Holidays."
Meat Loaf's performance at the Sydney Entertainment Centre 2 weeks ago was filmed, and will no doubt be ready for sale as a stocking filler this Christmas.
Not that Meat Loaf appears to be that interested in making money these days.
"I have never done anything for the money in my life and I never will," he says.
"The most important thing to me is the artistic integrity of the moment. Not the money. I just turned down a show in Australia for a ridiculous amount of money because we're shooting a DVD in Sydney and the most important thing to me is that in Australia Hell in a Handbasket is coming out first there so the DVD's much more important."
The singer, who was 64 last month, admitted he is starting to feel his age, telling the UK's Guardian newspaper last October: "Just ask anybody who is getting old - everything starts hurting. For me, it's my shoulders, thumbs, knees and feet." But come tomorrow night, there's no doubt this rock star will do his best to raise the roof of the TECT Arena and enthral local fans with his high-energy, powerhouse performance.
It will be one hell of a show.