Wembley, Sunday 2 March. The League Cup final. Man City 3 Sunderland 1. Sunderland put up a great fight, but City’s class told in the end. Jon G (big City fan) and I were there courtesy of late tickets from a work colleague. Wembley is a magnificent venue, though the transport, catering, etc, leaves much to be desired. Best just to love the football and the architecture.
If you’d like to see more of the architecture click here. A blog I did a while back.
The Brandenburg Gate, originally built in 1788-91, in the reign of Friedrich Wilhelm II. At one end of the Unter den Linden boulevard and on the edge of the Tiergarten, Berlin’s central park. It has been the scene of huge moments in history. Napoleon, conquering Berlin, took the Quadriga, the chariot atop the arch, back to Paris in 1806. The Prussians got it back in 1814 when they occupied Paris. Hitler’s torchlight march, on taking power in 1933, took in the Brandenburg Gate. The gate was damaged but not destroyed in the Second World War. When the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 it cut off the Gate from the West and left it in no-man’s land. But JFK made his Ich bin ein Berliner speech in 1963, just the other side of the Wall from the Gate. Ronald Reagan did his own thing there in 1987.
And today it’s just as it should be. A happy tourist destination. Open to everyone. Boringly normal, a reminder of the grand political gestures we are better off without.
I had to go and see the “Zoo Station” while in Berlin. It was the opening track of U2’s brilliant album “Achtung Baby”, which was partly recorded in the Hansa studios. I wasn’t expecting much, just maybe some iconic scenes. The Kurfurstendamm was nearby – West Berlin’s Champs Elysees apparently…
Good job expectations weren’t too high. It was a pretty run down area – seen better days. The station, Zoologischer Garten, was surrounded by fast food joints and a few dubious establishments. What it suggested was that all the money has gone in to revitalising East Berlin. Time, in the future, to give the West a bit of a refresh?
It still felt iconic though. Just the names, if nothing else. And an unusual church with most of its spire missing.
The church is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. It was destroyed by a bombing raid in 1943. It was rebuilt, but the half-gone spire was retained. It is an eerie reminder of a grim era.
It had to be right that the U2 line goes through the Zoologischer Garten station.
And in a restaurant/bar on the Kurfurstendamm I finally got my taste of the Berlin speciality, Currywurst!
It was OK!
I’ve just been writing about Lenny Kravitz for my book on music. His early days. A retro sixties sound but fresh and individual. I first heard him when I was living in Paris in 1989-90 on a fantastic radio station called Radio Nova. The song sounded to me like a Beatles track, maybe a White Album song, with John Lennon singing. That and a bit of Prince for good measure. I was intrigued, but for a while I didn’t know what the song was or who was singing it. Eventually I figured it out”. “Let Love Rule” by Lenny Kravitz. 1989.
Lenny’s first album was also called “Let Love Rule”. It’s a great album. Songs like “Freedom Train” and “Sittin’ On Top Of The World” add to the brilliance of “Let Love Rule”.
The second album, “Mama Said”, from 1991, feels like early seventies compared with the sixties “Let Love Rule”. It’s funky and soulful in places. “What Goes Around Comes Around” exemplifies that. Curtis Mayfield meets Stevie Wonder, circa “Innervisions”. Love the sax workout at the end too.
Lenny is a man of many talents, including acting. In recent times he’s been Cinna, the costume designer for Katniss and Peeta in “The Hunger Games”.
But I love those early songs.
Alexanderplatz is the heart of the old East Berlin and still a major transport hub. It is showing its age – the transformation hasn’t reached it yet. The square is pretty bleak. The TV tower lurks nearby. That is one of the fascinations of Berlin – the old is but a step away from the exciting new. And Alexanderplatz still has a kind of retro splendour.
Forlorn fountain.
Can’t escape the modern though…
The Reichstag, first opened in 1894, and the scene of some momentous occasions in its history, is today again the home of Germany’s national assembly, the Bundestag.
In 1991, the Bundestag in Bonn voted – only by 338 to 320 votes – to return to the Reichstag in Berlin. Sir Norman Foster was commissioned to reconstruct the building and the Bundestag moved back there in 1999. The most exciting new feature of the building is the Dome. It is truly a marvel. If you are in Berlin, you must visit it, but be aware that you have to book a couple of days in advance and supply details of everyone who is visiting. Here are a few photos. It is endlessly fascinating.
And a reminder that Berlin is still under construction…
Last year at Latititude my friend Jon caught a band called Catfish and the Bottlemen in the late afternoon. I was somewhere else at the time. He came back saying they were brilliant – really rocked.
So tonight we went to see them at the Borderline in Soho. A sell out. Fair to say Jon and I were some of the older members of the audience – IDs were being checked at the bar. But that is good if you are building a following!
And they rocked again. Not out and out riffery. Good melodies and choruses too. The spirit of Britpop was there, for an oldie like me. And some of the great 2000s indie. I was hearing – because I can’t help but compare with what has gone before – The Manic Street Preachers, The View, Razorlight, Arctic Monkeys. This is all good!
There was a real rock’n’roll energy about the band. And the kind of melodies that will win an audience today. Their following is building. Front man, Van McCann, is a real asset. Had the gift of the gab and really came across as loving what he was doing. Infectious.
So watch out for Catfish and the Bottlemen. When they release an album, I think it could be big….
Had to take the train from Potsdamer Platz…
So sang David Bowie on “Where Are we Now?”, his wistful look back at his time in Berlin, on his album “The Next Day”, last year.
So, clearly, we had to visit the scene, and take a look nearby at Hansa Studios, the place where he made “Low” and “Heroes”, two of the greatest albums of all time, in the late seventies. And the place where U2 made part of their great album, “Achtung Baby”, too.
There has been a huge investment in this area since unification. Looking at the maps, Potsdamer Platz was cut in half by the Wall. The traffic space in the East, today’s major developments just in the West.
So this is West…
The station from the other side. Darkness was falling.
The Sony Centre is the big feature of the new Potsdamer Platz. It’s inside where it reveals its majesty.
We did check out the Hansa studios on Kothener Strasse (umlaut on that o) but it was locked up with no sign of activity. Oh well, I had to have my photo taken in front of one of the most important music studios ever….
Well, maybe, just maybe, my predictions are going to turn out right after all! Four teams all on four points after three games, and after yesterday England might be on a roll.
13-10 doesn’t sound like an exciting score. But it was a genuinely enthralling game, with two excellent teams slugging it out for supremacy. Both going for it throughout, with a good mix of kicking and running. Two packs of forwards evenly matched and two awesome defences.
At half time it was only 3-0 to England (courtesy of a huge penalty kick from Owen Farrell), but it had been forty minutes of end-to-end action, with both sides failing to capitalise on their overlap opportunities. England came closest to a try, when Jonny May got over the line, but let the ball slip from his hand at the last moment. It felt like a costly error, if error is the right word. He did have two Irishmen descending on him…
Ireland came out in the second half on fire and scored a brilliant try. A crafty offload to full back Rob Kearney allowed him to find gap in the English defence and he scorched through it. They’d scored a penalty too, so suddenly it was 10-3 to Ireland. At this moment I thought back to how Ireland had trounced Wales two weeks ago and was on the verge of accepting that this might just be a valiant defeat for a young English team against the hardened veterans of Ireland. A learning experience.
But I was wrong. England now have a never-say-die spirit. Farrell scored a penalty and then, after Jonny Sexton inexplicably kicked out of touch from the restart, England fashioned a try similar to, but even better than Ireland’s. A try made at Harlequins, I’m pleased to say. From the scrum, Chris Robshaw played link man and offloaded to Mike Brown, who exploited a gap in the Irish defence. Off he went and just as he was tackled he spun a pass to Danny Care who had gone with him. No-one was going to catch Danny and he scored between the posts. Farrell converted and it was 13-10.
There was still a quarter of the game to go, but no more scores. From an English perspective this was encouraging, because it showed they could close down a game, after failing to do just that against the French. From an Irish point of view it must have been frustrating because they were on top at the end.
Naturally I’m looking from the England angle, and this was a very important win. Ireland looked really good against Wales, the champions from the previous two years, and England beat them in a real head-to-head struggle. Afterwards, coach Stuart Lancaster, deemed it the most important win under his charge.
Mike Brown was again man of the match. Thoroughly deserved. His catching under pressure was impeccable, his breaks out of defence uplifting for the team and the crowd, and decisive that one time. His commitment and tackling exceptional. But he was not alone. The other full back, Rob Kearney, also had an outstanding game. For England, it’s unfair really to single out players, but the two second rowers, Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes were immense. If ever England secured a turnover, you would see the baby-face of Launchbury looking up from the bottom of the pile. And Lawes, having cut out the element of recklessness from his tackling (which hurt him as much as the opposition) is the ultimate marauder. Launchbury even managed to turn himself into a flanker towards the end when Tom Wood limped off.
So, the bookies have England 6-4 to win the championship now, with Ireland 2-1 and Wales and France 6-1. (Wales gave a disappointing France a bit of a hammering at the Millenium stadium on Friday). I suspect this is just the weight of English money. Wales remain the team that supplied the backbone and more of the Lions in Australia, and will be up for it when they clash with England in the next game. Anything could happen, but I’ll keep my money on England for now!
(Photos from Google Images)
OK, let’s give it up for the Ramones Museum! @ramonesmuseum
Situated in the Mitte district, not far from the River Spree, on Krausnickstrasse, just off Oranienburger Strasse (love these street names!). Started by a fan, Flo Hayler, who, it is said, had accumulated so much Ramones memorabilia in his home that his girlfriend said it had to go. The current location,, which has a bar at the front, and a few rooms for the memorabilia and some videos at the back, was established in 2008.
It’s a great spot. I love the fact that there is a Ramones museum in Berlin. Entirely random, but somehow fitting in the new Berlin. You go in and get a beer and view of the place for 5 euros. And a little badge that gives you lifetime membership. Bargain!
We spent an hour or so looking around, watching the videos, and just lingering. Enjoying the memories, a beer, and the vibe. The Berlin vibe.
Er, yours truly. Not very punk. But there in spirit!
Thoughtsfromwestfive 