Walking Leaf

Two years ago, I attended a charity gig to see Goldfrapp performing at the majestic Royal Albert Hall and it was a stunning night. Fast-forward to this year and with the group’s latest album Seventh Tree doing well in the music charts, it was a great pleasure to experience the wonderful and cool sounds from the talented Alison Goldfrapp live in the Southbank.

Even though there was a problem with bad sound at the Royal Festival Hall, it was a fantastic night out to see Goldfrapp performing a range of great tracks close up - I had a great seat at the front row.

From the crowd favourite and clubbed-up powerhouse that is ‘Strict Machine’ to the sublime and provocative ‘Paper Bag’, Alison was on fine form entertaining the crowd with great enthusiasm. The highlight was of course ‘Happiness’ and each member of the audience was given a kazoo to play along!

A new year means another visit to the Birmingham’s NEC for the annual trip to the biggest motor racing show, the Autosport International.

The main highlight was the 50th anniversary of the British Touring Car Championship. Seeing the many ‘tin top’ racing cars up close was a real treat, especially the dominate Vauxhalls of the late 90s but I was slightly disappointed not to see the sinister black Ford Sierra that dominate the series in the mid 80s.

Another high point was the Colin McRae tribute stand, featuring an impressive collection of rally cars. Observing all these vehicles that the 1995 World Rally Champion drove throughout his career was highly emotional and it is still a shock that the popular Scot is no longer with us.

The Live Action Arena was extended with more racing action from the likes of Formula Palmer Audis, stockcars and new to the show, dragsters. These straight-line accelerating monsters sounded great in particular the 1953 Studebaker. I was amazed how much tire smoke it produces as the whole arena vibrated to its powerful engine (not to mention going deaf)!

As for the Formula One grid, it was fascinating to see the 2007 single-seater cars up close and personal. The chrome McLaren is simply gorgeous while the ‘earth’ theme Honda didn’t… This year’s Autosport International also included an extra feature, the Pistol Head performance car show and to be honest, I wasn’t a fan, Sure it was nice to see exotic supercars from the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche, but it felt like I stepped into Max Power world… And it didn’t help that the promo girls were wearing less (on second thoughts, that’s a good thing!).

At the end of an exhausting and long day, we left with a range of photographs stored on our digital cameras and fantastic memories of racing cars and stars.

After hosting the traditional end-of-season motor sport event in Paris at the State de France for three years, the organisers of the Race of Champions (Michèle Mouton and Fredrik Johnson) decided to change venue for 2007.

It may have been years behind schedule and cost a huge amount of resources to construct, but the new Wembley Stadium in North London was a truly impressive sight when racing cars took central stage.

Back in 2004, when I went to Paris to attend my first Race of Champions I was amazed by the quality of racing from the best drivers from the world of Formula One, rallying, touring cars and single-seaters. The atmosphere – with the fans cheering on their favourite drivers as they tear around the figure-of-eight circuit with tyre smoke – was electric! And when the news came through regarding the event coming to London, I wanted my friends to come along and experience it themselves!

I invited some good friends from the TokyoToys forum who are interested in motor racing. Even though Ashlea, Chris and Michael couldn’t afford the tickets (and to be honest, it was expensive) I was more than happy to pair for them. In fact, it was my special Christmas treat to make them attend the event!

On the day, I meet up with Yas at Baker Street tube station to have a spot of lunch with other TT members. We had a nice Italian meal in a nearby restaurant and it was quite amusing to see the waitress cutting some slices into Amy’s pizza, as she was having trouble with her blunt knife!

After eating, we made our way to Wembley by taking a direct (and very fast) route on the Metropolitan line. After stepping out of the tube station, the first sight you see is the impressive spanning archway over Wembley Stadium.

Chris was running late at this point so we agree to meet him at the entrance point. He finally arrived some time later and we our way in and towards our stand. Initially, I was worried that the seating arrangement at the far end of the stadium wouldn’t offer any good views but when we got to our seats, we had a spectacular vantage point overlooking the figure-of-eight race track!

The event was highly entertaining despite the harsh winter winds! We were absolutely freezing our arses off but the track activities kept our spirits warm.

Double DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom won the main Race of Champions after beating the seven-times Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher in a series of tense heats. But Michael had the last laugh as Team Germany won the Nations Cup with fellow colleague Sebastian Vettel.

The most amusing moment in the Race of Champions was when Schumacher stalled on the start and finish line! Michael was even overtaken on the track by new McLaren signing Heikki Kovalainen. This was the high point for the Finn as he would later crashed out in spectacular fashion in a dramatic race with Andy Priaulx.

After the fun day out, we all made our own way home and once back, I was happy to see the many photographs and videos posted on Facebook by the others! Reading the various comments on that popular socialising website, everyone was ecstatic about the event and Yas in particular was looking forward to attending the event next year. For Michael, he was fond to see his idol Schumacher racing while Ashlea and Chris enjoyed the whole experience. Same time next year everyone?

Last weekend, I went aboard with a group of mates to attend the Belgian Grand Prix at the wonderful Spa-Francorchamps circuit. We always wanted to go to this Formula One race as its picturesque – set in the Ardennes forest region of Belgium – and it was reasonably cheap to travel.

I’ve managed to persuasive two of my best friends to travel with me. Both have been following the sport with much interest this year thanks to competitive racing and the rising talent of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton. Neither has been to a real Grand Prix before, so I thought it would be a nice treat to let them experience the raw speed of these racing cars at a fantastic race track at Spa.

Initially there was a slight problem when purchasing the grandstand tickets before the trip – as I wanted them to see the Grand Prix at Eau Rouge with me – but in the end, they had a better view of the race track!

We first meet up in London’s Victoria coach station on Thursday. This was also the day when the World Motor Sport Council decided the fate of McLaren over new evidence in the latest series of the spy scandal that has rocked Formula One this year. I didn’t get the news until later that day, but I managed to get constant text updates from my friends regarding the final verdict.

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Last weekend, I attended a comic and film convention at Earls Court with a friend. I’ve managed to persuade him to go to the show when I mention that Bumblebee will be there! Not the actual Transformer mind but the 1976 Chevrolet Camaro as featured in the Michael Bay movie.

When we got there, he noticed the American car immediately and started taking photos! I was more interested in meeting the stars from hit television show Heroes. In fact, four of the cast members (Hayden Panettiere, Jack Coleman, Milo Ventimiglia and Adrian Pasdar) were available and I was determined to see the cheerleader!

I didn’t get to see Hayden Panettiere until later that day, as you had to take a so-called ‘virtual ticket’ when queuing up to get her autograph. Obviously, she was one of the most popular guests at the expo and with this virtual ticket - you can wander around the show looking at the many different stands until your number comes up. When this happens, you go to the signing area, flash your ticket number and then queue up again(!) to meet your stars.

And you can guess that this method backfired immediately as the virtual tickets were oversold to meet Hayden. It didn’t help that there was a simple wipe board in front of the queuing line displaying the numbers in order to meet her. My virtual ticket was in the high eight hundreds and by mid-day she had met around 200 show visitors…

I’ve lost the number of times I had to visit the signing area to see how far she has signed up to but luckily, I got there in the end! When my number flashed up I was there instantly and that was when I meet Claire Bennet, the cheerleader.

Hayden Panettiere looked absolutely gorgeous in the flesh (so to speak!) and it was nice of her to meet the many fans here in the UK. She was signing away and it was at that moment I was struck by her beauty. I said ‘Hello’ and she looked up and gave me a warm smile. That certainly made my day!

She managed to sign some photos and you can see the result in this post. After signing, she said ‘Thank you’ and gave me another smile. After that, I checked my other virtual tickets to see if I had the opportunity to meet the other Heroes. I had two for Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli) and Adrian Pasdar (Nathan Petrelli) but it was coming to the end of the day and I had to make a choice on whom to get next.

So it was a case of checking the boards again and praying that your numbers come up! This method reminds me of Argos. You made your purchase. Got given a ticket. Wait for your item to be processed and collect it when your number flashes up!

And this Argos-style system was used at the expo to mixed affect, as people who had higher numbers didn’t get to meet the starts. Luckily for me, I got to meet Claire and also Nathan Petrelli.

So overall, did I enjoy my time at Earls Court? I say 60/40 with more negativity than positive as I found the venue horrible. It was dark, overcrowded and expensive. Yes, meeting the stars from your favourite television show and films are the highlights but I was become more stressed out as the hours went by…

Still the opportunity to meet the cheerleader made me feel all happy inside and I left Earls Court with a big smile on my face (plus some cool gifts I purchased at the stands including a DVD-box set to the whole of season one of Heroes and Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof).

Right, I have uploaded four video clips onto YouTube and you can now marvel how fantastic the Wembley gig was last Sunday (June 17th).

See the beautiful light show and balloons as Muse rock out to 90,000 passionate fans. Awesome!

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The crowd singing to Black Holes and Revelations.

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The aerial artists move into position. Look at the camera flashes!

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More of the wonderful trapeze/aerial artists suspended high above in balloons.

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The full track list that the band played during the two-hour live show:

Close Encounters Riff + Knights of Cydonia
Hysteria
Supermassive Black Hole
Map of the Problematique
Forced In
Sing for Absolution
Butterflies & Hurricanes
Hoodoo
Apocalypse Please
Feeling Good
Piano interlude + Sunburn (piano)
Invincible
Starlight
Blues Jam + Time Is Running Out
New Born + Microphone Fiend riff + Ashamed outro

Encore 1:
Soldier’s Poem (acoustic guitar)
Unintended
Blackout
Bliss

Encore 2:
Plug In Baby
Stockholm Syndrome + riffs
Take a Bow

Last night at London’s impressive Wembley Stadium, I witness a truly spectacular show by Muse.

They are considered to be the most amazing rock band when performing live and the sell-out gig certainly lived up to its expectation with fantastic set pieces and lighting displays.

Matthew Bellamy, the lead guitarist who also provided the vocals, was incredible. He was certainly enjoying himself as he rocked with his band members – Chris Wolstenholme (bass guitar) and Dominic Howard (drums) – in front of an enthusiastic 90,000 capacity crowd.

The highlights include the opening song to kick-start the fantastic two-hour live show with Knights of Cydonia. The crowd in the ‘mash pit’ went crazy with the guitar riffs in this awesome track from the band’s fourth album, Black Holes and Revelations. In addition, the magical trapeze artists suspended from large balloons when Muse performed during Blackout.

I certainly had a great time out at Wembley and would love to see the best British band playing live again. Will upload a collection of images and video clips onto Facebook and YouTube soon.

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to see the first round of the new-look British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch. This year’s the BTCC are running the FIA’s Super 2000 specification regulations, in a way of cutting cost (to attract more manufacturers) and hopefully providing more on-track racing action.

There was certainly a lot of it as we watched from the trackside at Druids hairpin and Clearways (the penultimate corner on the short ‘Indy’ circuit). I was impressed with the quality of photos taken by my friends, as their photographed the racing cars in action.

The best part of the day was wandering around the Paddock area and seeing the cars, drivers, mechanics and engineers up-close. I even took some nice pictures of famous motor racing star such as 1964 Formula One World Champion John Surtees and the 1989 and 1995 BTCC champion John Cleland (both of whom were at Brands Hatch watching their son taking part in the supporting races).

As for the main event, Jason Plato won two races that day in the SEAT, with the defending champion Matt Neal scoring a fantastic win in his new Honda Civic in race three.

I certainly enjoyed my time out at Brands Hatch and I look forward to seeing some more racing action soon.

Wow! What a fantastic event with a huge range of gorgeous models on display – racing cars and promotional girls including! This year’s Autosport International show at Birmingham’s NEC was truly spectacular and the obvious highlight was the 75th anniversary of the Le Mans 24-Hour race. The cars that took part in the legendary endurance race was on display and to see the likes of the Ford GT40 alongside a Jaguar D-Type, McLaren F1 GTR and the Audi R8 was breathtaking.

It was also nice to meet up with my friends, in particular Mike and Yas. I have managed to convince them both to see this show the last time we met (back in October for the anime show in London’s Docklands). Both said it was a wonderful experience to see racing cars up close, especially the Live Action Arena.

The Live Action Arena is a 45-minute performance featuring stock cars, rally cars and the awesome Aston Martin DBR9. These massively powerful racing cars sounded great and despite suffering a lack of grip on the slippery surface, each driver drove these cars with great care not to hit the wall and yet entertaining the crowd.

At the end of a tiring and long day (most of us got up really early to attend the show), we left with a range of photographs stored on our digital cameras and fantastic memories of racing cars in action.

This weekend is the Autosport International held annually at Birmingham’s NEC. It’s the place to go and see the best of motor racing.

I have been to the Autosport show several times over the past few years and even though it can get quite busy during the public days, it’s worth the trip alone to see the range of racing cars on display.

The opportunity to meet the drivers from the world of Formula One, Touring Cars and Sportcars is also great, especially as it is becoming more difficult to meet face-to-face with your racing heroes.

The best part is the Live Action Arena, where the sound and sights of these awesome racing machines are put to test right in front of you! Seeing the Subaru World Rally Car performing some ‘donuts’ is truly spectacular and the noise is simply unbelievable!

This year, I will be meeting up with my old University friends as well as Mike and Yas (I have managed to convince them to come). It should be a fun day out and I look forward to seeing the special Le Mans 24-Hour display arranged for this year.