WHILE MOST people breeze into a room, Meat Loaf positively hurricanes in with everyone in his wake wondering what the fuck's just hit them.

The larger-than-life singer is in Dublin today as part of a madcap promotional dash which will take him to six countries in a week. This involves pressing flesh, meeting the media and generally ensuring that no man, woman, child or furry animal is unaware that 16 years after the original stormed its way into the charts, Bat Out Of Hell II is on the loose and heading straight for the jugular.

The nice guy act slips momentarily when he snarls, "You're not from The Sun or News Of The World, are you?" but returns when I assure him that at no time have I worked in or near Wapping.