Kaiser Chiefs, Captain - Brixton Academy, London - Friday 28th April 2006

This was the first gig of Carling Live 24, a gig extravanagza which I attended much more thoroughly last year. But, a wedding the day after put paid to to many legs of the show this time around. Last year, this ran from 7am to 7am, meaning that the start and end were somewhat low key - all the action was in the middle. This time, more TV coverage meant that it was a 7pm to 7pm run, giving the opportunity for 2 big headliners to start and end the show. Kaiser Chiefs were the first of these, back at Brixton, and fresh from their biggest ever UK tour, which stopped in at Alexandra Palace the previous weekend.

It was a celebrity filled day all round, starting in Berlin with sightings of the Bayern Munich team. Arriving back at Heathrow, I saw a leathery-looking Cliff Richard in the baggage hall. Then, on entry to Brixton Academy, I was searched next to Graeme Le Saux. Shorter than expected, I was briefly impressed that he was going in the main door with the normal punters, and standing downstairs. Then I realised that his celebrity status was unlikely to have impressed the promoters to give him too much else!

All the Carling Live 24 gigs this time featured a coupon on the tickets to get a free pint of Carling, and this was quickly used. The free pint was consumed whilst watching Captain - I arrived mid-way through their set, so didn't have the opportunity to get completely involved in what they were doing. But, they sounded good - the last 2 songs in particular (including their single) were very promising indeed. They seem to be supporting lots of bands lately, so I will aim to arrive earlier next time I see them on the bill - I'd definitely like to see a longer set by them.

Kaiser Chiefs seem to have acquired a large set of stage curtains since their last big tours, behind which they set up, come on stage, and start playing Every Day I Love You Less and Less from behind them. The crowd goes mad, the curtains draw back, and the song starts again properly - very good.

Much of the set tonight was familiar, but with some new twists and turns to keep it interesting. Ricky's traditional venture into the crowd was here, but this time, instead of just appearing on the mixing desk, he actually sang the vocal to a whole song from the back of the room - great for those of us that weren't too far forward. In fact, had I been where I was last time I saw the band here, I would have been in the front row for one song - still, can't win them all.

There were also 3 new songs played, all of which sounded like they are from similar beginnings to the debut album. For a first listen, each sounded good, so it seems that there are some more tunes on the way, to build on an excellent first album.

The gig ended early for a Friday night, to be followed by gigs elsewhere by Ian Brown, Goldie Lookin' Chain, Larrikin Love, Dirty Pretty Things, Boy Kill Boy, Ordinary Boys and Razorlight. Next year, I'll try to do the whole 24 hours....

Work trip to Berlin, Germany - 26th to 28th April 2006

Three days in Berlin for a work conference, and a great chance to see Berlin in preparation to host the World Cup Final, as well as the normal interest in going there. There probably isn't anywhere else in the world with as much 20th Century history as Berlin - it is rammed full of places that are either iconic in history, or that commemorate important events, so a good chance to see them.

On the opening night of my stay, I had the chance to go to a drinks reception in the DZ Bank building. This has recently been redeveloped inside by Frank Gehry, and although quite an unspectacular building from the outside, the interior is amazing. A huge glass pyramid, under which lies a large floor where we were served food and drinks. Few people get to go into this place, so a special evening indeed (even if the place emptied when the Barcelona vs Milan game kicked off)!!

My hotel was in East Berlin (just), very close to the Brandenburg Gate, and Checkpoint Charlie. In between working, I had a good chance to walk around Berlin and check out some of the more interesting sights. Checkpoint Charlie in particular, and the former site of the Berlin Wall, was a great reminder that this has been one city, then two cities, then one city again, all in the not-too-distant past.


Close to the Brandenburg Gate is the holocaust memorial, a huge collection of concrete columns, of various heights, and with narrow "corridors" in between them. Close to my hotel was a memorial in the square where the Nazis burnt books they didn't agree with. There is a metal sculpture which is a huge stack of books; and, in the middle of the pedestrian square, is a hole in the ground, covered with a piece of glass. Underneath is a room, painted brilliant white, with just empty bookshelves.

Berlin has witnessed a number of horrific events, that one might expect memorials to be built for - but the imagination of these memorials, and the amount of thought they provoke in people visiting them, was the real surprise for me. Many of the places where the most horrific things happened have been removed, and the places that can serve as a lesson from history have been kept and commemorated. To me, they have the balance just right.

One final memory from the trip - the Bayern Munich football team were staying in my hotel, in preparation for the German Cup Final, the day after I left. I bumped into Michael Ballack, Owen Hargreaves, Oliver Kahn and Bixente Lizarazu whilst wandering around the hotel, as well as a bunch of others I didn't recognise. Lots of fans and press were therefore camped outside the hotel, a most amusing sight. If only I'd found myself in a hotel with the Arsenal team, but even then I doubt I'd have been able to get anywhere near as close....

Villarreal vs Arsenal - El Madrigal, Villarreal, Spain - Tuesday 25th April 2006

Having missed the home leg last week by working in Gent, I had to content myself with just one of the semi final games. This is the furthest Arsenal have ever got in the European Cup, so by default, this second leg is very high up on the list of "most important Arsenal games - ever". Only 1,100 tickets in the away end also made for a potentially special evening - for those lucky enough to get into the Arsenal section.

As with the Juventus away game earlier in the month, defending a tight lead, against a team with a great home record, wasn't going to be easy. The "Yellow Submarine" promised us a trip to "yellow hell", and looking at the home fans before the game, there did seem to be an awful lot of yellow in evidence. Villarreal is an absolutely tiny town, no more than a large village really. Walking for 5-10 minutes from the "centre", you are fully in the countryside. And, the ground is in a very tightly packed residential neighbourhood, with very narrow streets all around it - practically just 4 alleyways in fact.

The stadium itself was accessed very easily (for these kinds of games, you always expect difficulty on the way in), in fact there was a great bar, no more than 10 yards from the away entrance, and the locals were extremely friendly all over town. A small stadium, holding 22,000 people, and it just seemed incredible that a Champions League semi final was being held in such a small place. From the stadium, you could see mountains not far into the distance, and the warm, clear night seemed just perfect for a European away game.

The game itself, much like the Juventus away game, was awful to watch. With such a slim lead, and in all honesty a weak, disinterested performance from Arsenal, it was tense all the way through. Villarreal had 2 or 3 real chances to score, and Arsenal rode their luck far more than I would have wanted them to, throughout the game. It took 60 minutes for Arsenal to get a corner, and we really didn't seem interested in attacking. At the start of the second half, a pitch invader came along, and threw a Barcelona shirt at Thierry Henry - which hopefully will help persuade him to stay with Arsenal!

Then, with 89 minutes on the clock, disaster. Sorin burst into the penalty area, waited to feel the slightest brush from Clichy, and hit the ground. The referee gave the softest penalty in the world, and the whole away section gasped, then sank to their seats en masse. That was it - with so little on show up front, if Villarreal equalised, they would certainly go onto win in extra time.

But, it didn't matter in the end. A weak penalty, a good save by mad Jens Lehmann, and the away end erupted again. I went crazy when Lehmann saved, before realising that the ball was still loose in the danger area - when it went clear, I went mad all over again. Three minutes of injury time later (which strangely were less tense than the previous 20 minutes), the final whistle blew, and all hell broke loose. Many, many people around me in the back row were crying - unable to believe that Arsenal had just qualified for the Champions League Final. I have to type that again to believe it - Arsenal have qualified for the Champions League Final.

9 hours later, I reached home, after a nightmare trip back to London. I really didn't care. Que sera sera, whatever may be may be, we're going to Gay Paree, que sera sera.

Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur - Highbury, London - Saturday 22nd April 2006

As North London derbies go, this was the biggest I remember for a while. Penultimate game at Highbury, and practically a play off for that 4th Champions League place too - all made more interesting by the presence of the best Spurs side for a long, long time. This was a big one, and all involved (at least amongst the fans) knew it.

The away fans were typically obnoxious when walking the 100 yards from the station to away entrance - how brave they are, whilst surrounded by the pensioners in the West Upper, and dozens of police in riot gear (far more, incidentally, that I have seen at Highbury recently).

As if Spurs really needed a boost going into the game, Wenger's decision to rest Henry and Fabregas must have provided it - surely NOT seeing Henry's name on the team sheet must have given them a huge lift in confidence. Add that to a decent Spurs side now, and one that was significantly more rested than Arsenal, and this was always going to be very difficult.

The first half was very nervy indeed, a number of Arsenal players seemed pretty disinterested, either that or they were just having a bad game at the least useful time imaginable! Spurs had by far the better of the first half, created some good chances. and if anybody deserved a goal in the first half, it was them.

The second half started with a boost for Arsenal - Thierry Henry started warming up along the touchline. After a while, he ran back towards the bench, ripped his training shirt off, and threw it on the floor. The cheer that greeted that moment is something I will remember for a long time indeed. He and Fabregas came on for the last half hour, to see what they could do.

Spurs goal will be described as controversial by everybody. 2 Arsenal players were down injured, and Spurs played on - in particular exploiting the fact that Arsenal had no right back, to score. My view was that, although the ball should probably have been put out of play, in fact 2/3 of the time it wouldn't have been in that situation, by any team. So, yes, controversial, but these things happen.

The first goal did at least fire the crowd up, and our captain. I spent a good 15 minutes fearing that the day might end up as a complete, unmitigated disaster - losing to Spurs by that goal. So, when Adebayor put Henry through with not long left, and Henry finished very well, the whole place erupted. In fact, the person that went maddest was Thierry himself, who needed physically restraining by 2 team mates, from running all the way over to the Spurs fans. A true Gooner, he really does hate them as much as we do.

Although getting a point all but secured Spurs 4th place, on the game today they probably deserved it, and if any team deserved to get a result from the game, it was Spurs more than Arsenal. But, that was undoubtedly because of the number of extra, tough games that Arsenal are playing at the moment - and if all goes well, we may still be in the Champions League yet.

Work trip to Gent, Belgium - 19th to 20th April 2006

A meeting in Gent, which I remember from previous (brief) visits as a very nice looking town indeed. Part of the trip included a boat trip, around Gent's 2 rivers and a canal - similar to a mini Amsterdam, and a great way to see the city. In the centre of town, the place is blessed with a good lack of cars - just pedestrians and cyclists competing for space, in lots of nice squares and narrow streets.

Gent seems similar to Lille as a weekend destination - not too far away, a bit to do and see, but not too much to really tax you for a weekend. Which of course leaves plenty of time to retire to a bar or cafe, to sample the headache-inducingly-strong Belgian beer.

Rick Witter and the Dukes - Garage, London - Tuesday 18th April 2006

Rick Witter, of course, used to be in a band called Shed Seven, the band responsible for some of the indie classics of the 90s - a band that had a surprising number of top 40 hits during that decade. Shed Seven split up a few years ago, and since then, Rick Witter has been quiet. Now back on tour with his band The Dukes, the tour flyer promised a mixture of new songs and old Shed Seven classics.

Getting into the Garage to catch the last 10 minutes of the support band, it was striking how empty the place was - main act due on inside 40 minutes, and there cannot have been more than 50-60 people inside. I did start to feel a bit sorry for Rick Witter - who is far more likely to make his money by playing live than selling records these days - but then a £12.50 ticket for a gig wasn't exactly cheap in a place this size.

By the time the band came on, the crowd was looking a lot more respectable - not completely packed, but a healthy audience. The band came on and ploughed straight into Shed Seven classic Getting Better, which went down an absolute storm. The number of Shed Seven t-shirts towards the front of the crowd quickly increased.

In all during the set, the band played 5 Shed Seven songs - Getting Better, Where Have You Been Tonight?, On Standby, Going For Gold, and Chasing Rainbows. Five well-chosen songs, drawn mainly from Shed's second album - probably their best all in all. But, also of huge interest were the new songs, by Rick Witter and the Dukes. They were pleasingly good, and comprised most of the set. Obviously sounding quite like Shed Seven, but with shades of Embrace I thought, there were some great songs tucked away in this set.

Rick Witter can obviously write decent guitar songs, and can clearly also play them live very well - whether he will be successful with The Dukes, or whether his past career will hold him back, time will tell. I think The Dukes deserve success. I'll be going to see them again.

Arsenal vs West Bromwich Albion - Highbury, London - Saturday 15th April 2006

It was Dennis Bergkamp Day at Highbury today, as the last real opportunity to dedicate a game to the great man, before he retires. The message was, wear orange in tribute, and from early in the day, there were dozens of orange-shirted people milling around in the streets outside - quite a few crazy Dutchmen amongst them. 10,000 free t-shirts given away to fans added to the strange colouring inside the ground.

Of the 4 remaining games at Highbury, this was by far the least important in a football sense, so maybe it did need an added diversion to keep the interest going. Towards the end of Highbury, there have been many attempts to make each game a real event, but enough of them recently (Madrid, Juventus), and in the near future (Spurs, Villarreal, Wigan) are looking like very big events, even without anything happening off the pitch.

With West Brom struggling for points, and Arsenal's eye on the Champions League semi final in midweek, this was never going to be a classic. A first half where Arsenal huffed and puffed, ended with an eventual breakthrough when Alexander Hleb scored a well-worked goal.

The second half started with Dennis Bergkamp coming to warm up on the touchline, to a standing ovation from the whole ground. The amount of orange was very impressive, probably helped by the warm weather, which encouraged people to bare their colours. Eventually, with about 20 minutes to go, he came on as a sub. Less than 30 seconds later, West Brom equalised. Not the fairytale that was expected.

Dennis wasn't going to let such a bad team (albeit one that did beat us at their place earlier in the season) ruin his day though. Good work to set up Pires for Arsenal's second, and then the icing on the cake - a beautiful 25-yard shot from the man himself, to seal victory. A classic Bergkamp goal, to provide perfect finish to Bergkamp day.

We Are Scientists, The Feeling, Towers of London - XFM's Big Night Out, Brixton Academy, London - Thursday 13th April 2006

An XFM indie disco night, and a chance to see the amazing We Are Scientists, fresh from playing a headline gig at Shepherds Bush earlier in the evening. Also on the bill were countless assorted DJs, playing across 6 different rooms of music. How that would all be possible in Brixton Academy was not 100% clear though!

On arrival, it became obvious - a huge DJ stage in the foyer of the venue, staffed by Alex Zane, XFM's main pretty boy DJ. Unfortunately, this stage seemed to just get in the way, and stop people moving around the venue very easily at all - most annoying. I found myself wishing for a huge bar in the foyer, instead of a DJ.

As an indie disco, it all worked OK, even though there was a little too much repetition of music between DJs, and a bit too much Guns N' Roses being played - you just got the feeling that the DJs were trying a little too hard to appear cool.

We Are Scientists came onto the main stage at around 12:30, and ripped through most of their album. Often launching straight from one song into another with no gaps, the energy and intensity of their set was great. And, given that the venue was "free flow" for the night, the main hall was not too packed at all. This in fact slightly dampened the gig atmosphere, as it was possible to actually watch the band, without being in the middle of a sweaty mass of people like a normal gig. Still, you can't have it all!

After their excellent set, the DJs resumed. Having 6 different music points in Brixton Academy made the venue quite difficult to move around, as there were crowds of people forming in unhelpful places. As an indie disco, this was far too big for my liking, and rather too well-lit - there were proper lights on in much of the venue, that is not what you expect!

I have been to XFM events before where the event itself has been not as good as it could have been, mainly because XFM overdid things on the self promotion front. I suspect that XFM runs some of these events more to give its DJs another chance to show off, and indulge their own vanity - rather than just to put on a great gig or club night. That is a shame, because they have the clout to pull in great artists, but just seem to not get it quite right.

Portsmouth vs Arsenal - Fratton Park, Portsmouth - Wednesday 12th April 2006

Fratton Park is the worst ground in the Premiership, and that is a fact. No roof on the away end, in fact it is just some seats bolted to an open terrace, which has weeds growing out of it. One refreshment place, with one person serving. Queues for that and the loos which basically block the path of anybody trying to get into the ground, bringing everything to a grinding halt. The locals are classic products of a small town, cut off from the rest of the country, and can tend towards the psychopathically violent. It is outrageously windswept, and it almost always rains.

Strangely, despite all this, Portsmouth away is one of my favourite games. Not too far to travel, and the whole experience of their "stadium" takes you back to what it was like to watch football before everything became all-seater. Good to know that a place only an hour and a half from London can still recreate an authentic 1980s experience.

Arsenal rested lots of players today, which seemed a strange thing to do against a team fighting for their lives, on their own ground, and when Arsenal really need the points to push for 4th place (how strange that would have sounded a year ago - "push for 4th place"). Many thought it would have been more sensible to rest players against West Brom at home, rather than Pompey away, and its hard to disagree with that.

Portsmouth showed exactly why they are in relegation trouble, because they really aren't a particularly good football team. They also showed why they may well stay up anyway, because all of their players really seem to want to. They all put in maximum effort (more than that in some cases), and despite not being very good, they just seemed to want the result more than Arsenal on the day.

Arsenal could and should have been 4 goals up by the time Portsmouth equalised - and probably would have been were it not for Adebayor's awful finishing. A fairly miserable night finished when Sol Campbell walked off with a broken nose - still, at least that means we get our first choice defenders back now!!

Qualifying for next season's Champions League is going to be difficult, if we continue to need to juggle priorities, rest players, and pick up injuries. Here's hoping that, one way or another (or maybe both ways!) we manage to do it.

Visit to Arsenal Training Ground - Friday 7th April 2006

A rare opportunity to visit the Arsenal training ground, on the edge of London. The reason was to present an award to Dennis Bergkamp, thanking him on behalf of Arsenal fans for 11 years with the club. We were ushered into the visitors centre in the training ground, right by the main entrance, so we didn't get to see any players or even football pitches. The one thing we did get to see, through trees, was the players' car park, containing several hundred grand's worth of cars.

Whilst waiting for the man to arrive, we saw some people come and go - Thierry Henry in his Aston Martin (registration T14HEN); Arsene Wenger walking to our building for press conferences; and Kolo Toure and Matt Flamini going to do press interviews also.

After what seemed like an eternity, Dennis Bergkamp walked into the room, and we all shook hands like we'd known each other for ages. The award that we were due to present him with was a big block of glass, with his picture engraved into it. Trying to get it out of the box, nobody wanted to be the one to break it. We were told that Tony Adams had dropped a player of the year award after being presented with it - Dennis asked if that was in his "other days", but apparently not.

A 2-minute presentation, with photos and some autographs later, and he was whisked away by the Arsenal press people. It is a real rarity these days, getting to meet an Arsenal player, as they are usually so well shielded from fans. That is a shame, because more opportunities like this may stop Premiership fans feeling so distanced from the players at their clubs.

Juventus vs Arsenal - Stadio Delle Alpi, Turin, Italy - Wednesday 5th April 2006

After the work in Milan, came the play in Turin. An Italian train strike meant that hiring a car was necessary, but luckily I had somebody with experience of driving on the wrong side of the road to take care of that part!

Checking into a hotel on the outskirts of Turin (because all the hotels in town were full), we bumped into some fellow Gooners to share a cab into the city with. There really is very little for a travelling football fan to do in Turin - only one pub of any note, not a great deal to see, so not one of the best Euro destinations all in all.

On the way to the ground (which takes a while as it is miles out of town), we wondered how many home fans would show up. Juventus don't have the best crowds most of the time, and given a 2-0 lead for Arsenal going into the game, it was possible that they would either all expect defeat and stay away, or be up for a great turnaround and all come out in force. In the end, it was the latter, with much of the stadium (except for the very front) full up.

Getting into the ground was an adventure, as new ridiculous Italian laws mean that everybody must have their name on their ticket, and show their passport to get in. The Italians have great problems with crowd trouble, but that seems like a stupid way to try to crack it. Some people had stringent passport checks and searches, others were just waved in without even having their tickets looked at. Italian bureaucracy and heavy handedness, mixed with Italian disorganisation and incompetence!!



As the stadium started to fill up, the Italians' flags, banners and flares came out on show - this is something they really do much better in Italy than in England - a real spectacular as the teams came onto the pitch.

In the game itself, the Arsenal 2-0 lead was successfully protected. Despite Fabio Capello's claims beforehand that Juve would attack Arsenal "like a hurricane" from the start, it didn't really happen like that. Arsenal had the better chances in the first half, but missed them all, much to the frustration of the away section - hoping that we wouldn't pay for not getting an away goal. Juve were as physical as they were at Highbury, and Nedved deservedly got a red card with about 15 minutes to go.

I forgot to check my watch as the second half started, so had no idea how long was left - and I was perpetually in fear of a Juventus goal, because I knew it would be followed by Juve throwing everything forward in search of a second - the dive in the box for a dodgy penalty was just waiting to happen. But, it never came, and when the board for 2 minutes injury time came up, I started to relax. The final whistle was celebrated wildly, as Arsenal broke the record for not conceding goals in the European Cup - now 8 games in a row. And all that with a young defence, 3/4 of whom were not first choice in their positions 6 months ago.

After the game, we were predictably locked in for 45 minutes, then released - only to be kept in the car park for another 45 minutes as the police organised enough buses to get everybody back into the city. Nobody cared though, they were all talking about Villarreal in the semi finals. Report of some trouble before the game, with Arsenal fans being jumped by Juventus fans and attacked by the police, drew much sympathy - it seems the Italian fans are 20 years behind us in many respects, and of course their police officers are no better when it comes to crowd control.

Anyway, into the the semi finals of the Champions League, for Arsenal's first time ever. After a night in Turin, and a drive back to Milan, I was upgraded to Business Class on the flight home. A nice end to a successful trip.

Work trip to Milan, Italy - 3rd to 5th April 2006

A trip to Milan (for a couple of days work), and Turin (for the Arsenal game), was a good opportunity to eat some nice Italian food, and marvel at their complete chaos! Arriving at Linate airport in Milan, I was plunged straight into the chaos part! Not a modern airport by any means, the outside is more like a railway station than a modern transport facility.

A good few days work, punctuated by much excellent food. On one evening, going out for dinner, the restaurant deluged us with more ham, salami and mortadella than anybody could possibly have eaten - then piled lots of pasta in afterwards. Very fat indeed, and when I wasn't eating ham, pasta and salami, it was steak, pizza and pannacotta instead. Some very good food all round.

Walking around Milan, some of the architecture there is incredible - when I went before (to see Arsenal play Inter), I was distincly unimpressed by the city in general - although the pouring rain and the preoccupation with other things may have contributed to that.

My office in Milan is next to an absolutely amazing building, what it is I have no idea, but there are many very ornate buildings all around the city. The old city centre is full of squares with what look like Roman remains - I had a guide this time to help find them. To the casual visitor, Milan looks like an unremarkable city, but if you know where to look, there appear to be excellent shops and restaurants, and some amazing architecture.

Trip to Dublin, Ireland - 31st March to 2nd April 2006

A drinking weekend in Dublin, a city I have been led to believe is a party magnet. A very early arrival, too early to check into a hotel, meant that we had about 3 hours spare in the morning - during which we pretty much managed to walk around the entire city, and see most of what is there. So, for the rest of the weekend, we retired to various pubs to eat and drink.

Dublin has done very well to create the impression that there is lots to do there, apart from drinking and the odd meal. Other than the Guinness Brewery (which is basically just drinking and learning about drinking), there is little in the way of tourist attraction. Of course, there are shops there, but nothing you couldn't find in any town in England.

The most amazing thing about the city is the eye-watering expense of pretty much everything. One round that we bought averaged at 6 Euro per drink. The rest weren't much cheaper. Much of the food is London prices, but with a fraction of the quality or service. Living in London, I thought that nowhere had the power to shock me with its high prices - Dublin proved that wrong.

Finding ourselves in Temple Bar on Saturday night, there were countless people worth avoiding - Scousers on hen weekends, and various assorted chavs on stag and football tours. Avoid all that, and there are some great places to go drinking, and the Irish music that is pretty much everywhere was also of a generally excellent standard.

If you ignore the cost, avoid the chavs, and concentrate on drinking in nice places, it is an excellent place for a weekend out. I probably wouldn't go back too soon though.