Paul Duckett's Recent Blog Posts

As the connoisseur of music you will all know me as, you may not know that I am an active England football supporter. So I thought I would give you the run-down on my latest jaunt to Berlin for Germany v England.

We flew out on the Monday evening with Ryanair from Manchester. Now I have to give credit to the ‘Check n Go’ online check-in system. Very quick and easy, and saving money when booking!

We flew to Dusseldorf (Weeze) airport, now I’ll advise you that this is nowhere near Dusseldorf. The Weeze is very important as that is where it is. My mate and I nipped into the town to have a few beers and then hopped on back to the airport to get a few hours sleep on the floor, before our early Tuesday flight to Berlin.

After we got to Berlin we got the train to the city centre. Anyone who visits Germany I’m sure will be very impressed with the train system, brilliantly good.

After some sleep in the hotel we went for a meal at an Argentinean restaurant (the worlds best steak) and then on to a few pubs for some real German beer. I don’t know what you know about German lager but I love it and will fill you in on some things. There are laws governing the production of the beer so it can only include certain ingredients to be called a German beer. Now this lack of chemicals also ensures a clear head in the morning. Thumbs up all round!

We hit the obligatory Irish Pub which was full of England fans. We watched the All Blacks just beat Munster in the rugby and then proceeded to drink the night away talking football with mainly Spurs and Luton fans.

On the day of the game we went to ‘Checkpoint Charlie’ which was very significant in the Soviet rule of East Berlin, distressing in parts but so interesting. We also hit another important German establishment, the Adidas shop. And I must say the retro tracksuit I bought in brown and neon green is lovely.

Before the game we hit one of the many pubs in the Mitte area that was full of thirsty England fans. The local beer is called ‘Berliner’ (imaginative I know) and is lovely. After being fully lubricated we hit the Olympic Stadium.

The ground was very impressive but as with all England games a lot of pushing and poking to get through to the stands. I won’t review the game but Michael Carrick was excellent in my opinion.

We headed back afterwards for more celebratory beers and a pizza!

We had to get a 6 hour train journey back to the airport with two changes, and every train was on time to the minute! Why can’t we do this!

We then flew back to Manchester for our third on-time flight with Ryanair, impressive.
The British love complaining. It’s true, all we do is moan. Look at the weather, when we’re here it’s ‘too cold’ or ‘too wet’ but then we go on our holidays and would you believe it’s ‘too hot’ and ‘too humid’ and ‘a little bit close’, we proceed then to sit in the shade.

It’s the same in everything, you go to Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant and you’ve never got enough food never mind it tastes glorious. Wagon Wheels, now don’t mention them to anyone of a certain age.

Now I am going somewhere with this. Russell Brand and Jonathon Ross, no stay back! They’re not here, put those weapons away! They did a radio show recently, you may have heard about it. I’m not going to go into the rights and wrongs of the incident but what has interested me is the complaints.

It was broadcast on 18th October and after it was broadcast there were 2 complaints, both of which were for the use of the f-word by Mr Ross. So nothing for the content of the show.

Now Mr Sachs is not happy, rightly so, and has a word with the BBC. This is announced and after it being shown on the news and stuff there are around 5,000 complaints, the British public make their point.

Here is my problem. The next day the complaint count is up to 10,000. So even though it’s a national news story, every Tom, Dick and ‘Arry know about it, another 5,000 people deem it a necessity that they also have to complain! Have you nothing better to do with your time?! Do some gardening, ask for a loan for no reason to get the economy going, cook an adventurous dinner, anything but do something which meant absolutely nothing to anyone!!

So proof if any was needed that we are a bunch of moaners. Rant over.

As its Halloween this weekend, here is my track for the weekend Ghostbusters (Super Villains Remix) find it and enjoy!
This is to me like a bowling ball to the goolies - Kings Of Leon are number one in the singles chart on downloads alone!

Just when you had accepted that this country is full of tone-deaf imbeciles downloading the latest rubbish from an over-hyped talent show act, the British public restore my faith by putting the best band in the world at No.1. About time too!

The song is great. Dirty, Sexy, Seductive, in fact my hips sway in a celeb way everytime I hear it, but could this be the start of a world-changing experience?

We are hearing from across the pond that Sir King Barack of the Manor Obama is now falling behind in the polls to Mr McCain who can hardly walk he's that old.

You will all know that McCain's 'running mate' is Sarah Palin, the gun-slinging, force daughter-to-marrying, 'climate change has nothing to do with us' Alaskan hot-shot. And her speeches have changed the course of the election.

Now if the Republicans get in, it is likely that the world will end due to their ignorance on issues like climate change and birth control. However I have a plan. If they get in we should send some of our crack commandos with a copy of 'Sex On Fire'. We then kidnap Palin and force her to listen to the track until her hips gyrate like a hula-hoop specialist from the 70s.

She'll return to the White House open-minded, ready for action and will change all her policies in a moment. It's guaranteed to work. We're deep in the summer now and festivals are coming and going faster than than countries in Pres. Obama's world tour. I love festival season, I've been attending for 10 years now. So for my first blog on dailymusicguide.com i thought I'd share my thoughts on the one I've been to so far - T In The Park.

Firstly, I would like to say how easy it was to get there and get in. We drove straight next to the site parked up and in we went. A short walk to the campsite and a can of beer was opened in double quick time, lovely.

I'll get the bad points out of the way first. Not enough toilets in the campsite, too many drunken yobs (as opposed to drunken, happy, dancing people like me!) but all in all not too many problems!

Highlights then for Friday, Stereophonics doing a greatest hits set was brilliant. I intended to watch The Music instead but nobody would go with me so stayed for the Welsh wonders. I only really like the first two albums and they played plenty. The Chemical Brothers were great too, playing late on due to a license extension their screen vids were really cool. Especially the sick clown who was spouting words at you, I was checking over my shoulder all night for a similar looking weirdo.

Saturday was ace starting with The Subways who are just a brilliant live act. Their playing of the crowd is excellent and Billy Lunn is a magnificent frontman, every time I see them at a fest I reckon loads of the crowd go and buy their records. I enjoyed MGMT, although they went very prog at times banging out the long-winded outros. The Pogues had the tent singing, even with Shane looking like he'd had a couple. The evening dwindled out with a strum-a-long with Rage Against The Machine and their folky tones. Not quite. I can't say much other than if you ever get the chance to see them, you must. Sell your house, your body, your grandmother but see them.

Sunday had an unexpected highlight in My Morning Jacket, who I stumbled across as the tent for the Ting Tings was full. Great bluesy rock. The Enemy were good, Vampire Weekend were excellent, A-Punk was the song of the weekend. Kings of Leon were, as always, awesome. I never tire of watching them, so tight and confident in the songs. And each song always has you wrapped around their fingers. Watched half-REM half-Prodigy to finish, which was cool.

One other mention for Thursday night in the Duracell Tent in the campsite the atmosphere for Loose Cannons DJing was immense so if you can see them do it, you'll have a great night.

So there you are T In The Park. This weekend I'm hitting Kendal Calling, so if you hear the word Duckett said you are probably near me. Lucky you!