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.

If you haven’t heard Alison Goldfrapp’s sensational singing voice, then here’s your opportunity to listen and download classic anthems for free – all thanks to The Guardian website.

The leading news website will feature a new track everyday for only this week to celebrate the release of the Seventh Tree Special Edition album, out on November 3rd.

I am a big fan of Goldfrapp. I’ve been to two live shows earlier this year and it was fantastic, in particular at the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank.

Why do I like Goldfrapp? I just love the different music styles. From the ambient sound in Felt Mountain (Alison’s distinctive breathy, soft vocals and Will Gregory’s multi-layered synthesizer and string arrangements is simply spellbinding!), through to electronic music in Black Cherry to a more glam rock sound in Supernature, and most recently to a blend of ambient, folk, and electronic in Seventh Tree.

I was quite jealous of my work colleagues last week as they had tickets to see a one-off performance at Cecil Sharp House in Camden. The show was recorded as part of the BBC Electric Proms and you can see why I was envious by watching the video and observing the many photographs with this dedicate website.

Feeling left out in missing the event, I immediately booked some tickets after an email dropped into my Google inbox with the news that the band will be playing in Brixton Academy next month. I’ve never been to Brixton Academy before and have heard that this venue is the best place to see live acts.

Funny enough as I write this post, I just received my tickets for the show in the mail today (October 29th). And with that note, it’s time to celebrate with this awesome theme tune!

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).

My mates stayed at my house on Friday night, as we had to catch a really early flight from London’s Luton Airport the very next day. We didn’t get that much sleep as we were all excited in going on holiday, plus the fact we were playing Rock Band quite late!

The flight to Berlin was surprisingly short, just over an hour, and as soon as we collected our luggage we were faced with a situation of finding our apartment. We had no idea how to get there or where it was, so instead of opting for public transport such as the buses and the Berlin metro, we decided to take the taxi.

Luckily, the taxi driver knew the way though he had to cross-reference the address with his road map from time to time. We arrived in a short space of time and were greeted by a woman who spoke only German! Fortunately her husband was on hand to help us as he spoke very good English. He showed around the place. It was a very nice apartment and my mate was quite pleased, as he was the one who found this accommodation after doing some research on the Interweb.

After the brief tour around the different rooms, we dropped off our bags and decided to venture into the city centre. The previous day, I went to my local bookshop to find a guidebook on Berlin and came across this gem. This book was my bible and it became very handy for us to explore the different part of the city. It came with not one, but four maps! So getting around was very easy.

The Brandenburg Gate

The gorgeous Bugatti Veyron. I want it!

A city scene with the Fernsehturm in the background

On the first day in Berlin, we headed to Brandenburg Gate. This place was the ideal start to our holiday as the Brandenburg Gate marked the iconic landmark to the city and country. We took many photos of the gate and made our way down the famous Unter den Linden. Along the way, we visited some high-end shops, car showrooms (including the Bugatti Veyron) and museums. In the distance, we could see TV tower (the Fernsehturm) overlooking the city. We decided to go up the tower but were quite surprised by the queuing system.

The view from the Fernsehturm overlooking Berlin

In fact, it was quite frustrating to wait for your turn as each ticket had a time stamp on when it was the right opportunity to go up… After a one-hour wait (we wasted that period by having some drinks) we took the lift up towards the observation deck. The view from the top was quite spectacular but after the initial “wow” factor of seeing the tower from the ground, observing the view from the top and that long waiting period made it a bit underwhelming… My mate was quite disappointed to be honest but we made up for it when we hit the bars for food and drinks later that evening!

The next day was a Sunday and it was unusual as everything was closed! No shops, restaurants or bars were opened so instead of lounging around in our apartment with hundreds of satellite channels that offer nothing worthwhile to watch, we decided to walk around our local area. We found a nice open-air market selling little household items. My friend even managed to pick-up a good quality wristwatch from one of the stands for a bargain price! After this we headed to bar to drink more beer and planned our next move when Berlin ‘reopened’ on Monday.

The impressive dome at the Reichstag building.

A stylish shot of me from the dome’s reflections

More artistic shots of the Norman Foster-designed dome

We decided to go to the Reichstag building on the first day of the week. The Norman Foster-designed dome was the main highlight and the view from the parliament building was amazing. The dome itself was breathtaking and I can’t help but take stylish photographs in the reflective surfaces!

The impressive Sony Center

After visiting the Reichstag, we went for a brief walkabout taking more scenic photos before heading off to the Sony Center near Potsdamer Platz. This place was incredible! The Sony-sponsored building complex featured another magnificent dome and at night, it lit up in different colours! We had dinner there at an Australian bar/restaurant and that kangaroo steak I had was simply delicious!

The following day, the weather turned quite foul so we decided to spend most of the time indoors visiting the main museum in Berlin – the Pergamonmuseum. The exhibits on display were striking in particular the Babylon collection. Unfortunately I couldn’t take any photographs but believe me, this was one exhibition I would like to go again!

We brought a special day-pass to visit all the museums and it was really worthwhile as there was so much to see. From paintings, sculptures to ancient artefacts.

The astonishing Olympic Stadium

The weather cleared up the next day and my mate suggested that we should visit the Olympic Stadium. It was quite far to get there, but thanks to Berlin’s excellent public transport in particular the metro system (the U-Bahn), getting around the city was straightforward. The stadium itself was incredible. The architecture and the size of the venue were astonishing.

The beautiful palace of Schloss Charlottenburg

After taking more cinematic photographs overlooking the running track and football pitch, we made our way to Schloss Charlottenburg. The Charlottenburg Palace is the largest palace in Berlin and the only building in the city dating back to the time of the Hohenzollern family. Each room have been faithfully restored in the style of baroque and rococo. It looked impressive and the large formal garden behind the palace made it even more picturesque.

The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche

Later that evening, we made our trip to Kurfürstendamm and the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche. The Kaiser William Memorial Church had an eerie feel to it, as it was badly damaged during a bombing raid in World War II. The site stills stands to this day but with the broken part of the spire, it reveals the devastating effects of the war and Berlin’s dark history…

As for the location, the Kurfürstendamm is one of the most famous avenues for top-end fashion labels. This very broad, long boulevard can be considered as Berlin’s version of Champs-Élysées (in Paris) with designer shops, expensive hotels, houses and restaurants. We managed to find a nice bar serving food for a reasonable price and after that we decided to walk down the long avenue (stopping by a cool Porsche Design shop and a modern art gallery), before grabbing some donuts and heading back home!

More shots from the city including me standing next to the Berlin Wall

The last few remaining days in Berlin, we visited the other top locations suggested by the guidebook such as the Alexanderplatz, the Berliner Funkturm, the Berlin Wall and even more museums/art galleries that the city had to offer. It had been an exhilarating experience and we very much enjoyed our time in Berlin. Our next stop was to Aschaffenburg via Frankfurt.

The train journey to Aschaffenburg was very long. It took four hours for the high-speed intercity train to make its journey from one of Germany’s state (Berlin) to Hesse (Frankfurt). By the time we reached the main train station in Germany’s fifth-largest city, I was feeling the strain… My sister called me on my mobile and she told me to buy a single train ticket to her hometown. Problem was, the station was jammed-packed with hundreds of people and me plus the others were carrying heavy luggage… We managed to find a ticket office and purchased the right fare. The train journey to my sister’s place was around half-an-hour away and by the time we got there, I was ready to sleep!

My sister and my good friend Simon was there to greet us at Aschaffenburg and after dropping off our luggage at her apartment, we made our way to Elena’s house for dinner. Elena is Kitty’s best friend and we felt really welcome in her cosy home. We had a nice meal and spent most the rest of the evening talking about life compare to the UK and Germany over a glass of red wine (with a added bit of Coke-Cola!).

The next day we headed to Munich and it was a very early start as the train journey was another long trip (around two and a half hours). We managed to get some rest but being the Oktoberfest, there were many people already drunk and starting to sing! (I ignored the half-deaf chanting by listening to my music on my iPhone)

Some picturesque shots of Munich

The stunning architecture of Munich’s Olympic Stadium

Inside the impressive BMW museum

Ah, Munich. What a nice place to visit. It’s the capital city of Bavaria, Germany and for this particular time of year, it is the Oktoberfest! We opted not to go to the beer drinking area until later that day, instead we went into sightseeing mode taking in the beautiful surroundings including the city’s impressive Olympic stadium and the BMW factory/museum.

After taking yet more photographs, we headed to the madness that is the Oktoberfest… It was a fun but scary place. So many people were there, enjoying the good times of getting pissed! We managed to get a table after moving from one area to another hoping for some rewarding alcohol! The atmosphere was something to behold. Everyone was laughing, shouting and sharing the love of beer! Coming in at one litre, the beer itself was so refreshing. It was very easy to get merry with a couple of Steins and believe me – the state that we were going through as we drank into the early evening was so funny!

We headed back home in our silly condition and fell promptly asleep on the night train. By the time we got back at Kitty’s place we were all sober!

The last day we decided to take it easy by settling in to watch the Singapore Grand Prix, the first-ever night race for Formula One. Originally, Kitty wanted to take us to a sports bar to watch the race live. But being a Sunday, everything was closed! Despite going from one sports bar to another via taxi, we went back to her apartment and watched the event with the help of her laptop and video projector.

A nice group photograph of everyone including Kitty’s cool Nintendo friends

Following on from the highly eventful race won by my favourite Formula One driver Fernando Alonso (yes!), we met up with my sister’s close friends (who all work for Nintendo) for some drinks. We went to beautiful part of Aschaffenburg (the forest region) for a spot of refreshing beverage in a nice beer garden.

And after that, it was time to head home. Not to Kitty’s relaxing apartment, but off home to the UK… It had been a wonderful past couple of days in Germany and I was delighted that my close mates were able to experience it. It was great to see my sister again as we are really close and it was especially cool to meet her Nintendo buddies.

If we had more time, we would have gone to Frankfurt. But we can save that for later.

Overall, our holiday in Germany has been a rewarding and captivating experience. As I end this blog post, I am already missing it (in particular the beer and food). I vowed to return as Berlin offered so much to see and do. Perhaps next time, we can spend more days seeing the many parts of the country.

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!

Light fantastic! Muse performing on the main V Stage on Saturday night.

And what a show it was on Saturday night! From the spectacular lighting effects and amazing guitar riffs from Matt Bellamy and Chris Wolstenholme – not forgetting the awesome drumming from Dom Howard – it was a breathtaking experience. Check out the video clips below.

Starlight

Stockholm Syndrome

Knights of Cydonia

As for the other bands, I was very impressed by Tokyo Police Club. I’ve never heard of them before but it didn’t stop the Canadian band rocking in front of an enthusiastic audience! I was a little disappointed by Lost Prophets and Shed Seven (remember them?) as the sound was frankly appalling…

Shed Seven performing on the 4 Music stage. I can’t hear you mate!

Other highlights at the V Festival? Well, how about my grand performance in front of a captive crowd while playing the drums on Rock Band? That’s right. Thanks to the excellent music rhythm game on the Xbox 360, I was able to show off my drumming skills! Our band even played an encore because we were brilliant!

Seeing the Stereophonics playing some classic hits was really cool and the music from Julian Velard and the Lost Boys was surprisingly good.

A nice photo of the crowd listening to the Stereophonics

Is that Jacques Villeneuve? No, it’s Julian Velard. Very funny bloke and even the music sounded fab!

Not to be confused by the 1980s film with the same name… Here are the Lost Boys.

So a great weekend overall. I was little annoyed by the queues to get food and beer (not to mention the prices). Plus the clashing of Ian Brown and The Prodigy on different stages when Muse was on was a bit silly in my opinion – I really wanted to see Ian Brown, damn you organisers! Still, at least it wasn’t muddy unlike in Staffordshire.

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!

Back in March 2007, I posted on my blog that I wasn’t that interested in the PlayStation 3 as it was too expensive and didn’t have that many games. Well, after a year of waiting for the price cut and a certain “real driving simulation”, I have finally purchased the new Sony game console.

Sure, it doesn’t support the backwards compatibility to play PlayStation 2 games like Okami, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, but at least I didn’t have to pay over £400 to buy this advance machine. Okay, it has a smaller hard drive than the 60GB model – that can also play PS2 games – but I feel I made a wise choice in buying one as there are some decent quality titles coming out on this system in 2008.

The first of which is Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. It maybe a demo offering a slight glimpse of what the real game will be like with hundreds of car manufacturers, real race tracks from around the world and at last, damage mode – but the fact that this game showcase the potential of the PS3 with high definition visuals and sound means I am genuinely excited by this next gen video game console.

The PlayStation 3 uses the Blu-ray disc media that is now the definitive choice for high definition viewing – though I won’t be spending my cash on purchasing the same films to have a rich and nice display.

I believe Konami’s tactical espionage action game that is Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of Patriots will be the biggest hit for the PS3. From scanning those stunning screenshots and digesting every bit of information about Hideo Kojima’s stealth-based video game, I am genuine excited to play it.

For the time being, I will make do with the racing games I got for the system with the likes of Formula One Championship Edition and MotorStorm to fulfil my need for speed.

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 playing both version of Guitar Hero II on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 to death, it’s nice to experience a new set list of rockin’ tracks with the latest instalment of the popular music rhythm game.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has been developed by Neversoft after Activision decided to focus its attention on creating a brand new music game – the quite superb Rock Band (which is currently available in the States). Even though the game play to Guitar Hero III is identical to the previous titles, it some how feels different…

Yes, you still need to play through the different tracks by pressing the five colour fret buttons with the unique guitar controller but new to Guitar Hero III is the boss battle mode. To be honest, I really despise this new game play element as the balance between winning and losing is so random…

Okay its great to face-off legendary guitarists like Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave), Slash (of Guns N’ Roses/Slash’s Snakepit/Velvet Revolver) and Bret Michaels (of Poison) but you have to rely on sheer good fortune to take victory.

To defeat your opponent, you will need to pick up Battle Power (which replaces Star Power) to earn attacks. By using this special ability, you can strike against your fellow competitor just by tilting the guitar upwards. It may seem fun to keep on attacking but they can fight back – causing missed notes, increase in difficulty and even amp overload!

As for the visuals, the set designs and animation of the band members feels more realistic. In fact the lip sync on the singer matches the voices coming out of his mouth!

The track listing is now full of master recording from the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Smashing Pumpkins, Muse, Metallica and The Sex Pistols. It all sounds fantastic, a massive improvement over the cover versions that were featured in the previous Guitar Heroes.

And with the new wireless guitar – based on a real Gibson Les Paul model – playing the tracks is a more rewarding experience. What a shame that the boss battle seems misplace after all the fun playing encores… At least the new controller has a better responding whammy bar and is a lot more comfortable compare to X-plorer…