He would do anything for love, but he won’t do Tyneside. Standing on a stage there on Wednesday evening, it seemed that he might not, in fact, do anywhere, ever again.

Meat Loaf, the rock singer known for his larynx-trembling marathon performances, was less than halfway through his concert at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle upon Tyne. The opening bars of Paradise by the Dashboard Light were sounding when he came to an abrupt halt. “I can no longer continue,” he said. “This is the last show I may ever do in my life.” The man who has sung for decades that he would “run right into hell and back” appeared unable to contemplate a visit to Birmingham this evening. Newcastle appeared to have finished him off.

Thousands of despondent fans carried the news out of the arena. Phil Cammish, 23, from Newcastle, said that the singer had “started saying ‘This is my last ever gig, this is my last ever song. Thanks for 30 years, I can’t do this anymore’. From where we were sitting we could see him walk off stage and then a St John Ambulance crew ushered him away.”

It was then announced that the concert had been cancelled because of “an illness”.

Mr Cammish recalled that Meat Loaf had just sung Not a Dry Eye in the House, which includes the lines: “The ending’s just too sad to take . . . Listen and you’ll hear the sound . . . Hear the sound of a heart breaking.”

It now appeared that this might be the last song that Marvin Lee Aday, 60, the artist known as Meat Loaf, would sing on stage.

Outside the venue, Mr Cammish thought that he could hear the sound of a heart breaking. “I saw a man dressed up as Meat Loaf weeping on the steps,” he said. “Everyone during the gig was commenting that they thought he was plastered. He kept having emotional talks during the gig and telling stories about his children and slurring his words. He was saying things that had nothing to do with the gig.”

Mr Cammish said that he thought the star sounded awful. “His backing singers had to carry him through most of the songs. He couldn’t finish some of his hits.”

Another fan, reviewing the concert on the website last.fm, wrote that he thought Meat Loaf had looked tired and that his voice had sounded weaker than usual. A spokeswoman for the NEC Arena in Birmingham said that she was waiting to hear whether he would be continuing with his scheduled performance tonight.

Meat Loaf’s publicist said that she was hoping for the best. “He does occasionally have these blow-outs,” she said. “He collapsed on stage at Wembley a few years back with a heart problem.”

He is said to require a mask and a small tank of oxygen to be charged up beside the stage. The publicist said: “I think he just had a Meat Loaf moment. He’s not 25 anymore.”

Andrew Miller, Meat Loaf’s promoter, said: “I’ve just spoken to his doctor and it’s clear that it’s just exhaustion and stress. He’ll be fine and hopefully on stage in Birmingham.

“We hope that a 24-hour rest will get him better.”

All revved up with no place to go

— In 1978 Meat Loaf fell off a stage in Toronto and broke his leg. The rest of his tour had to be cancelled. Unable to work, he turned to cocaine and then had a nervous breakdown

— He claims he was hit on the head by a 12lb (5.4kg) athletics shot at high school. “I was 62ft away and there was no way anyone thought it would be tossed that far. But the guy was the champion of Dallas”

— After collapsing on stage in 2003 he was treated for Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, in which there is an extra pathway carrying electrical signals through the heart

— Last October his private jet almost had to crash-land at Stansted airport after the landing gear failed

Source: Times database

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