Walking Leaf

I went to see one of the most famous metal rock band in the world, Metallica, at the former home of the Millennium Dome this month. The gig itself was simply spectacular with impressive fireworks, lighting effects and of course, the epic guitar solos from the band.

The O2 Arena itself was also amazing as I’ve never been to the Millennium Dome before. The sheer number of bars, shops and restaurants at the venue heavily distracted me. So much in fact, I’ve missed one of the support bands on stage! Not to worry of course, as I had a seat allocated for me.

In one particular bar, a special tournament was being held offering the chance to play the new Guitar Hero: Metallica video game. I didn’t have the opportunity to play the music rhythm game, as it was more fun watching the other people performing on stage to the ultra tricky Metallica songs!

As for the real deal, it was fantastic to see Metallica performing their greatest hits in front of thousands of enthusiastic Metallica fans. The atmosphere was electric and I loved every moment of it!

The highlight was Cyanide, The End of The Line, One, Master of Puppets and of course, the epic Enter Sandman.

After the two-hour performance, I was left feeling more. And thanks to this ace link on the official website, you can now download the complete set list. I would recommend the FLAC format for the true sounding experience!

My annual visit to Birmingham’s NEC to attend the Autosport International Show is often the highlight of the new year. As this is my opportunity to meet up with my good friends and see some racing cars/stars up close and personal.

The high point was of course was the F1 Racing stand and unique for this year, a special car display celebrating the past British Formula One world champions. From the likes of Jackie Stewart’s Tyrrell, James Hunt’s McLaren, to Nigel Mansell’s Williams and Lewis Hamilton’s 2008-spec McLaren. It’s amazing to see these cars all in the same area and it is fascinating how the advancement in technology and aerodynamics has changed the shape and look of the cars over the past five decades.

Another highlight was the David Coulthard stand, featuring a collection of the Scotsman race cars. Seeing DC’s little go-kart alongside his Formula Vauxhall and Williams-Renault is amazing and you have to wonder how much all these cars, race suits and helmets cost… I wasn’t surprised by the amount of extra security protecting the DC collection from the public.

Unlike my last visits, I wasn’t able to attend the Live Action Arena, as there was a mishap in purchasing the tickets. It didn’t matter anyway, as I spent this free time wandering around, taking photographs and asking for autographs from the racing stars.

This year’s Pistol Head performance car show was quite low-key. Instead of a large collection of exotic supercars, this year it was all about the BMW M3 and Porsche 911.

In fact, the whole Autosport show felt downscaled. The new layout didn’t help and after visiting the main attractions, you are left with little else to see… Which is a shame, as past events made this annual trip to the NEC worthwhile.

Still, at least I came away with some free stuff given out by those promo girls. So I shouldn’t complain too much!

Back in 2007, I went with a group of friends to see the Race of Champions at Wembley Stadium. The event was really entertaining as seeing the world’s best drivers from different disciplines of motor racing, competing in evenly matched cars, around a figure-of-eight circuit was a real highlight to the end of the year.

So for 2008, I invited some more friends who have yet to experience this sporting event and even though I purchased cheaper tickets online, the view from our seats was better than the year before!

From our seating position, you can see all of the track and with the competition so close, the atmosphere made the event felt more like a football match than a racing contest.

Just like last year, Team Germany won the Nations Cup thanks to the driving talent of seven times Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher and Grand Prix sensational Sebastian Vettel. In the main event, it was world rally champion Sebastien Loeb who took the honours, but the Frenchman had to fight hard against David Coulthard in the final.

The recently retiree Formula One racer was in a real competitive mood and it was quite surreal to see DC challenging the likes of Loeb, Schumacher and (Carl) Edwards, as previous years Coulthard would have been knocked out in the very first round…

In addition, DC managed to damage his race car throughout the night, including his Red Bull Racing Formula One car! During his demo run, the Scotsman performed a  ‘doughnut’ but as he was spinning around creating lots of smoke and noise for his fans, the car was slowly edging closer towards the wall…The inevitable happened and I still remember the crowd reaction when the front wing got knocked off against the barriers!

Speaking of demonstrations, the pre-event promotional was the ‘man versus machine’ challenge with British Olympic winner Chris Hoy racing his bike around the track against British Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren. Unfortunately, due to the icy track conditions the organisers decided to cancel the event and instead put Chris and Lewis in an open-top Mercedes and perform a parade lap in front of home crowd. It was a real shame, as I wanted to see this duel but Chris had the last laugh as later that evening, the Olympic hero was made BBC Sports Personality of the Year, beating his rival Hamilton!

So a great day out at Wembley and I was pleased to hear that my friends loved every moment of it. The on-track entertainment certainly kept our enthusiasm up despite the winter cold and we look forward to attend the next Race of Champions.

My recent trip to Germany was a real eye-opener. I never seen so many fascinating places of interest, with its rich history and heritage, plus the difference in culture between the British and German was deeply interesting. I’ve managed to get by the language barrier as many Germans can speak English, so that was particular useful when ordering food!

I always wanted to visit the country since my sister lives and work there. My parents went earlier this year but I was unable to go due to the amount of work I had to do… I have made amends by suggesting to my mates to tag along by visiting Berlin (the capital city of Germany), Aschaffenburg (my sister’s home town) and Munich (for the Oktoberfest).

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Picture: Andy Willsher

Last weekend, I went to Chelmsford (Essex) to attend the V Festival. I was feeling quite nervous that the wet British weather might spoil the event but in the end, it stayed dry with the sun just breaking out from the clouds.

The highlight of course was Muse. I still remember fondly the sell-out gig at Wembley last year and I was feeling pretty devastated when I missed out on the opportunity to see this fantastic band performing live at the Royal Albert Hall in London recently. (All the tickets were sold out within minutes!)

So I made amends by grabbing hold of those elusive V Festival tickets post-haste. I went for the Saturday only ticket but in hindsight, I should’ve gone for the weekend. That way, I get to see Muse performing twice!

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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).