Ms Gemmell said the majority of fans were understanding about the last-minute cancellation.
"Everyone's been pretty good. Definitely out of 4500 people we were going to get those people that were really looking forward to it."
Frontier Touring national publicist Maria Robinson said the postponement was unavoidable. "We planned to go ahead as best we could but it got to the point where he couldn't go on."
More than 4600 tickets were sold and all would remain valid for the new date, but those people unable to attend the rescheduled show would be refunded, she said.
Ms Robinson said the ageing rocker wished to extend his sincere apologies to his Bay of Plenty fans and insisted he intended to honour his concert commitments in Auckland tomorrow night, before returning to the Bay on Tuesday.
"At this stage the Auckland show is planned to go ahead as scheduled."
An upset Katikati fan, who wished to be known only as Debbie, and friend Christine Warrander, who had travelled from Gisborne, were both given tickets to Meat Loaf for their 40th birthdays in August. The pair were disappointed by the postponement and frustrated they weren't told earlier.
"He must have known earlier than now that he was really unwell," Ms Warrander said.
"We're high school buddies reliving our teenage years ... well we hoped to," Debbie said.
She said getting to the concert had involved scheduling four children.
"This was going to be our big stress relief.
"It's lucky there wasn't a riot."
Friends Annie Williams, Chris Brownlie and Anne Hewetson had travelled from Ruatoria to attend the concert while Jo Bauckham had joined the group from Hick's Bay.
Ms Williams was given the ticket to her first concert as a 50th birthday present. "We actually feel sorry for Meat Loaf. We're all disappointed but our thoughts are with him. Compared to the Rena it's not a big deal," she said.
Ms Hewetson said she thought fans could have been given more warning the show would not go ahead.
"Most of us left our work and just dashed over. We got our tickets two months ago and we were really looking forward to it. It's lucky they weren't a hostile young crowd."
Papamoa couple John and Jacqui Middleton only took up the offer of spare tickets from Pukekohe couple Rob and Maree Craig yesterday morning.
"Papamoa's had a bad day today (with the whale stranding and concert cancellation). We're looking forward to Tuesday," Mrs Middleton said.
It is not the first time Meat Loaf's health has affected his performances. The Stuff website reported that the singer told the audience at his Wellington concert on Wednesday that he had visited hospital earlier in the day and had been told not to go ahead with the performance.
In August Meat Loaf shocked fans when he collapsed twice during concerts in one week. There were reports that he then cancelled a scheduled performance at the Great American Ball Park due to ill heath.
The singer later posted on his Twitter account: "Thank you everybody for the outpouring of concern and well wishes.
"I'm okay!"
But days later the singer passed out backstage at the New Jersey Balloon Festival and had to be given oxygen.
Online magazine TMZ published photographs of Meat Loaf sprawled out on the ground and holding an oxygen mask to his face.
The singer, who was 64 last month, admitted he is starting to feel his age, telling the UK's Guardian newspaper last year: "Just ask anybody who is getting old everything starts hurting. For me, it's my shoulders, thumbs, knees and feet."
