Why I snubbed David Beckham and Led Zeppelin

By Luke Wilkins on Aug 27, 08 09:59 AM in

What a difference a weekend makes!

This was my first weekend off all year, and I spent it down in London with friends and family, firstly at one of my best mate's weddings, then my normal sporting routine took over with a day of golf on the Saturday and a 6-a-side cricket tournament at my old club on the Sunday.

Does it get any better? Well it did mean, unfortunately, while visiting my mother and staying in the land of no Sky sports and internet that for once I wasn't glued to the weekend's sporting activities, missing pretty much all of the football, cricket, tri nations and even the Olympic Closing ceremony.

(Although, from what I understand, the one little part that we were involved in organising - the double decker with Beckham and Led Zeppelin - was so cringe-inducing that it set the scene beautifully for our Chas & Dave and jellied eels Opening ceremony in 2012)

So instead of giving you my nonsensical impressions of the weekend of sport, I will let you know what I got up to, and how it was the perfect weekend!

Read on ...

First up the wedding, it had everything you needed. It involved one of my best and oldest friends, so there were loads of people there I hadn't seen for ages (cue lots of bad old dodgy stories!), and plenty of exciting new faces who I have wanted to meet for a while.

The setting was beautiful, too, and of course it goes without saying that the Bride, groom, and all of the bridesmaids looked amazing.

There was plenty of alcohol (did I mention it was an Irish wedding?), emotional moments during the ceremony (a fly got in my eye, alright), more dodgy stories, and one of the coolest things I have ever seen - the first dance to Morrissey track Genius.

Cue even more old friends turning up, dodgy dancing like your dad and I even think I managed to bust out some A-list breakdancing manoeuvres like the Worm and the Head spin.

Well, that's what I am sticking to anyway, but it was probably more the case that I was actually just lying on the floor in a pile of my own dribble.

I even got to see my brother and his wife, and he had the pleasure of - as my mum described it - pouring me through the door on my return home, obviously after me having told him at least 400 times how much I loved him!

So with that out of the way, my buddy Stappers decided that on the Saturday I needed to get rid of my broken-ness by having a nice walk, which would have been great but some eejit decided to do it at a golf course!

To be fair,I love golf. The last and only time I played I beat my friends by about eight shots, and seemed a natural. So imagine my joy off the first tee as I drove my first shot out of bounds, down a road and into a corner shop. This was going to be a long day!

Needless to say, lots of swearing, cold sweating and searching for my ball in scary rough (I was convinced there snakes in there - big ones) I finally lost the game, and it was safe to retire to the clubhouse for a quiet couple of drinks.

Honest ...

At no point was I in a Mexican cocktail bar making up new and exciting cocktails and wearing a big sombrero.

Yeah, right.

Then onto Sunday with my home cricket club the Old Wimbledonians Six a Side tournament - one of the best days of the year, where the cricket is a good standard, but more importantly a laugh, the ale flows and the banter is second to none, especially when you haven't seen some of the guys there for a couple of years.

I was shouting so much abuse (banter, I mean) at my friends that I pretty much lost my voice. Not so good when you're paid to talk for a living, but luckily enough, it returned in time for work on Monday!

The sixes are probably the most fun day in the year. Even if I have never even come close to winning with my team, we make sure we always leave our mark, and of course it was nice to show the guys that I can bowl at 82 mph.

Yeah, right, again.

This week I'm on the evening show from 7pm to 10pm while the legends that are Christian & Loz cover the breakfast show in the morning. It's worth checking them out, and don't miss my interview with Biffy Clyro who are coming in on Wednesday.

They might be the only people in the world hairier than me.

I'm also loving the new Slipknot album All Hope Is Gone. It's savage, and exactly what a metal record should be - full of aggression and some of the best riffs and drumming ever!

Another album you might want to check out is the return of The Verve with their fourth album called, erm, Forth. It's a lovely slice of mellow pop rock, and while it's more like their earlier album Northern Soul instead of Urban Hymns, to me that's a good thing.

Listen to The Automatics' sophomore effort too. This is A Fix is one of the most surprising albums of the year, and delivers a hell of a lot more than their debut effort Not Accepted Anywhere, mainly because after they got rid of their keyboardist, they brought in Paul Mullen from yourcodenameis:milo, and his experimental rock edge has given their sound exactly what they needed.

Not bad lads!

Check me out on the evening show this week, and I return to Offside on Saturday from 2pm to 6pm to plug back into the world of sport!