By Khilen Mehta

Put a bunch of fireworks in front of a few mad Englishman and you have a riot on your hands, offer the Spaniards the same and you have Las Fallas 2008! We love Spain for its fiestas, its botellons, and its sangria soaked celebrations. However of everything I have experienced so far, none light up the place quite so literally as Las Fallas. I had all read about the Fallas, and in my head I had dreamed of what I would see but nothing could have prepared me for such a spectacle. The 4 hour coach journey down to Valencia gave me an opportunity to relax and gather my thoughts before what was guaranteed to be a frenetic night. As we passed through the mountains, my head was filled with thoughts of streets full of light, full of people, and full of noise. Boy, I wasn’t disappointed!! We descended the coach to the scenes of little children with their families throwing fire crackers around and I began to grow worried that the longer the night went on, the more alcohol consumed, that these scenes could grow dangerous. But as the night grew old, I was amazed by the respect that the Spaniards had for the festival. The immediate skyline was filled up with massive models or ninots in Spanish. These depicted satirical scenes, and current events with some lampooning current politicians and some even pretending to hang the entire Valencia football team!! The effort gone into these models was what impressed me the most. Many of the models loomed high over the buildings, and even though they would be burnt at the end of the night, the organizations had obviously vested time and interest into impressing those from out of town. We wandered around the centre of the town, and were hit with a parade to rival even the most extreme. Camels, fire eaters and belly dancers were just some of the exhibitions on show as crowds of people lined the streets to experience just what was causing this immense noise. These valencians certainly didn’t do things by half!! Around 10pm, the first fallas infantiles began to be lit. Although these models were a lot smaller, the explosions created were something that just had to be seen to be believed. The heat given off was felt by all around, and the light was blinding. This built up our expectations for the bigger models and as the clock approached midnight crowds of people headed towards the centre ready to witness La Crema, which is the climax of the whole event. The crowds began to chant, the streetlights were turned off, and all of the ninots were set on fire at exactly the stroke of midnight. Incredible…the only word I could use to describe what was seen. Spontaneous fireworks aroused the crowds excitement and when the huge firecrackers were lit, the ground literally shook for minutes as the fallas burned and the pyromaniacs celebrated.

Overall this was an opportunity that needs to be experienced. Words can only describe what I saw that night, but these scenes will live with me forever. Light, color, fire, gunpowder, noise…Las Fallas 2008!

By Khilen Mehta

A fiery encounter between fierce rivals Manchester United and Liverpool was shrouded in controversy as referee Steve Bennett sent off Javier Mascherano for dissent both to the fury of the player and his manager, Rafael Benitez. An incident midweek involving the referee and Chelsea defender Ashley Cole meant any incidents in this match were likely to be stamped down early and the referee had no hesitation in showing the player a second yellow card for apparent dissent following a booking for fellow team-mate Fernando Torres. Some may have thought that the referee bottled this decision and missed an opportunity to stamp his authority on the game, but others will also frown up Mascherano´s stupidity in running halfway across the pitch to argue with a referee who had already shown that he wasn’t willing to listen to the players rants. In footballing matters, United reigned supreme. The game started at a fast pace, and both teams had opportunities to take the lead early on. However it was Manchester United who seized the opportunity with a baked bean the surprise goal scorer, gifted by some poor defending by the Liverpool goalkeeper. In the second half, not aided by only having 10 men, Liverpool huffed and puffed but to no avail and in the 80^th minute, United eventually scored the goals that sealed the game, firstly through Ronaldo and then followed up with a great finish and celebration by substitute Nani.

The second game of the day was between Chelsea and Arsenal, with both sides knowing that they couldn’t afford to drop points following Manchester United’s victory earlier on in the day. The games was marred by the constant booing of Arsenal skipper William Gallas, who commented before the game that Chelsea fans were naïve about their lack of understanding about why he left the club to join Arsenal. The fight to stay in the title race was shown by the passion of the players resulting in reckless tackles, but also chances for both sides. The deadlock was broken in the second half, and Chelsea’s vulnerability from set pieces was once again exposed. Without the presence of Petr Cech in goal, no Chelsea player imposed themselves in the penalty box and Bacary Sagna stole in to head Arsenal into the lead. But Chelsea, unwilling to let their 77 game unbeaten record at Stamford Bridge be lost, rallied as a team and it was their main goalscorer Didier Drogba who rescued them with a couple of cool finishes.

So after another eventful Super Sunday it was Manchester United who came away the happiest. A five point lead at the top of the table, goals flowing from all sides of the pitch, and the meanest defence in the league it will take a brave man to bet against United retaining the title.

by Khilen Mehta

The draw for the quarter final and the semi final stages of the Champions League took place last Friday in Nyon, Switzerland amid rumours that the draw had been rigged. An anonymous post on a football forum correctly predicted the outcome two hours before the live draw and UEFA was forced to react quickly to claims of fixing the ties. After the dress rehearsal of the draw in the morning kept apart all the English clubs, it seemed almost inevitable that the official draw in the afternoon would bring together two English teams in the quarter final stage for the first time. And it was Arsenal who would meet Liverpool in the quarter final stages of the competition. Arsene Wenger’s side will play the first leg at home on 2 April, with the return leg at Anfield on 8 April. With a league game between the two sides sandwiched in between these two fixtures, it could well prove to be a make or break week for both clubs aspirations of silverware this season.. The winners of the Arsenal-Liverpool showdown - the first time those two clubs will have met in European competition - will then take on Chelsea or Fenerbahce in the semi-finals, while Manchester United or Roma face Barcelona or Schalke 04.

With Fenerbache and Schalke 04 appearing in the quarter final stages for the first time, few would bet against Chelsea and Barcelona proceeding to the later stages. However, the atmosphere may prove more intimidating than expected for the Chelsea players, with Istanbul a notoriously loud and daunting theatre of football, where few teams come away with a positive result. Barcelona are also currently struggling with injuries and boardroom unrest, giving Schalke 04 a slim chance of pulling off a massive upset.
Manchester United fans have good reason to be more nervous than the players for their tie against Roma. Roma are familiar opponents for United and their meeting on April 8/9th will the sixth between the two clubs in a year having clashed in the group stages in the autumn and in the quarter-finals twelve months ago. However, these ties were marred by fighting between the two sets of fans and the tie will be played with one eye on both sets of fans.
According to the bookmakers, English sides make up four of the top five favourites to lift the trophy. If Chelsea can overcome Fenerbahce in their quarter-final, not only could they face their semi-final conquerors of 2005 and 2007 in Liverpool, but also that England would be guaranteed a presence in the final. At this stage few would bet against an English side lifting the trophy in Moscow on 21 May.

by Luc Ciotkowski

It’s almost five months now since I got my leg tattooed with a lion rampant at Madrid’s Dark Tattoo studio. After some minimal retouching (due to me bumping my leg against chairs while it was healing), the tattoo looks fantastic (in my humble opinion).

The original article appeared in the December edition of European Vibe Magazine and, at the time, many people were shocked that I had tattooed myself in the name of journalism.

In case you missed the article or were interested by it, I’ve attached my ‘writer’s cut’ longer version, chronicling my very first ‘trip to the needle’:

The Edinburgh Royal Tattoo Piercing 

The last time I walked into a tattoo parlour was the summer of 2003. I woke up one morning and decided I would like to get my foreskin pierced. I made the trip to an establishment called ‘Dragon’s Lair’, a place with a name, look and feel that screamed everything I believed typical of a tattoo parlour. As I walked in the weakened-by-fighting-clouds Scottish sunshine, I clearly remember feeling more apprehensive about going into that place than at the prospect of a five-inch needle going through my genitalia. The cameo appearance of a day with temperatures above 20°C had the natives of Edinburgh taking their chance to flash their flesh and, with an array of tattoos and pierced navels on display, I was wondering if other people were more worried by the tattoo parlour than by the tattoo or piercing itself.  

So, hang on a minute, why was I going to a place that gave me the creeps to make a hole in my mole? Well, I’d been there five years before to get my nipple pierced. The idea had occurred to me while drinking in a bar with some friends and, when someone had bet me I wouldn’t dare, my mind was made up. Despite my bravado, I was very relieved when a friend decided to accompany me the following day. The tattoo parlour was a bit scary, as were some of the punters, but the tattooist turned out to be nice and the needle was a clean, new one. Also, the pain was no more than an injection as my fortunately not-very-sensitive nipple was skewered. 

Jumping forward again to 2003, I marched back into the same tattoo parlour and declared to the tattooist what I wanted to have pierced. It was a different guy this time and he looked surprised when I enquired about the ‘Prince Albert’ piercing. He said he didn’t do piercing and so I asked about the man who had done my nipple. He told me that the other guy had died two weeks previously of a heart attack. I took it as a sign that I wasn’t meant to get my foreskin pierced that day. Maybe one day I would get a tattoo instead… When the editor of EV gave me the assignment of an article about the tattooing culture in Madrid and Spain, it seemed obvious to me that I should get a tattoo. There’s no risk involved. At least, the only the real risk I see is if got a tattoo which I didn’t like. You see, tattoos are cool. It’s cool to have a tattoo. When I was a little boy, if I thought about tattoos, I thought about Popeye the sailor man. Today little kids think about tattoos and they think about David Beckham, Angelina Jolie and many other celebrities they consider fashionable. A fun temporary tattoo kit for children has been in the top five sales list for the last five years. Sure, we had transfers in packets of bubble gum when I was a kid and quite a lot of working class people in the UK had tattoos. But now it’s a much bigger feature of pop culture and it doesn’t matter what class, sex or social tribe you belong to; tattoos are appearing in all of them. If the leader of the British Conservative Party’s wife can have a tattoo (and she does), then we can safely say that general attitudes to tattooing are far more accepting and positive than in the past. If I hadn’t decided to get a tattoo, I would have spent a lot more of this article explaining the history and significance of tattoos. I would have talked about the fact that tattooing goes as far back as 12,000 years ago in Japan and looked more closely at Europe’s oldest natural mummy, Ötzi the Iceman, and his 57 rites-of-passage tattoos (or maybe they represented Heinz varieties?), who died around 3300 B.C. The truth is that tattoos have had a very up and down history and they have been used for almost every purpose imaginable. From marking slaves and criminals to symbolizing spiritual devotion, tattooing for decoration or just to look scary, what were considered essentially pagan traditions were all but driven out by Christianization. It was sailors who brought tattoos back to the Western world, especially from Polynesia. What about Spain then? I found out that the last king, Alfonso XIII had a tattoo, as did his son Don Juan, Count of Barcelona (King Juan Carlos’ father). However, you probably won’t find many Spaniards over 50 with a tattoo; they only really came into Spain after the end of the dictatorship, but, like with so many other things, the Spanish have been determined to catch up. 

Thursday – Talking Tattoos 

As I walk the 20 metres or so from Opera metro to Dark Tattoo’s premises in a 300-year-old classic Madrid de los Austrias building on Calle Escalinata, I’m feeling reassured that it’s not going to be a ‘lair’ of any sort after the EV staff’s description of it as, “A nice, clean place”.Eduardo, Dark Tattoo’s owner, gives me a friendly greeting and escorts me into the tattoo studio. I say ‘studio’ because that’s what it is, I can’t bring myself to use the word ‘parlour’; this is nothing like any tattoo parlour I’ve seen before, I think as I sit down and have a look around (a customer is having a consultation with Eduardo about extending a tattoo from his upper arm onto his lower arm). It’s sort of sparkly clean, but not in an operating theatre way, the decoration is minimalist and I keep thinking of a mix between a designer jewellery shop and a fashionable new Malasaña bar. Maybe cool without being cold would be a good way to describe it.

From the red couch I’m sitting on I can see five doors in the studio with big stylized writing: ‘piercing’; ‘tattoo’; ‘esterilización’ and the men’s and women’s bathrooms. Eduardo finishes with his customer and sits down for a chat. He tells me the customer came in wanting to add flames on his forearm and that he explained to the guy how it would match the more intricate design on his upper arm badly. He says spending time advising, making suggestions and working through designs is a key part of customer service and, for him, that’s what makes all the difference. “I want to give the customers the kind of attention I like to receive. This isn’t a tattoo studio like a cheap supermarket, where you walk in, look at the book and say, ‘I’ll have a 372…B’. We spend time with customers preparing the design and making sure it’s just right.” Eduardo takes customer care very seriously, before, during and after the tattoo, “We ask everyone to come back a week after having the tattoo done so we can explain all they need to know about the aftercare. When customers have paid their money and the tattooists have spent hours of work, I don’t want someone’s tattoo to turn out less than the best it can because of not being looked after properly. All of this takes time of course, and that’s what some studios economize on.” 

I get the guided tour and the tattoo and piercing rooms are extremely clean, but a couple of little touches like the restored original beams on the ceiling and the coat pegs in the shape of darts stop them feeling like an operating theatre. On the other hand, the sterilization room looks exactly like something out of a hospital. There’s a peddle-operated wash basin, a machine for hermetically sealing body jewellery and needles, containers filled with sterilizing fluid and a biohazard bin for everything that has come into direct contact with the skin. In the corner, there is what looks like a futuristic microwave. Eduardo is very proud of the machine and he informs me this machine is what leaves everything 100% clean by steam-heating everything to 134°C. Good stuff, this sounds more stringent than a dentist’s. The moment that definitively separates Dark Tattoo from what I associate with a tattoo parlour comes when we go to sit back down. Eduardo goes to put some music on and offers me the choice, “Do you prefer Frank Sinatra or Buddha Bar?” I’m thinking that the greasy biker guy I met in Dragon’s Lair nine years ago, moshing to some very loud heavy metal while he waited, would hate this place. So, as the chilled out sounds of Buddha Bar fade in, I ask what kind of people come to the studio.

Eduardo says the majority of customers are between 25 and 40, but there can be anyone, really. “A few weeks ago, a 70-year-old woman came in to get a butterfly tattoo on her back. She said, ‘I’ve still got a lovely back, you know’.” Two thirds of his customers are women: “Girls are far more adventurous than guys in the designs and parts of the body they get tattooed and they make up between 65 and 70% of my overall customers.”What about nationalities, then? It must help that Eduardo speaks fluent English after working as an executive in multinationals in London for years: “Of course, but it’s really our central location that means we get quite a lot of foreigners”. It seems that a lot of young Americans in Madrid are getting their first tattoo and piercing experiences here, too, and I asked him about this.“Americans come over here, see people with piercings and think, ‘I want one’. They often get a piercing as soon as they arrive, knowing they can always take it out before they go back. Some come from places where getting tattoos or piercings is considered really bad and the atmosphere here is much more open to it.”I show Eduardo the design for my tattoo and he’s surprised by my decision to cut off the head off the lion (which does sound odd when you say it like that), but I’ve got a modification plan and we make an appointment for tomorrow. 

Friday – Getting Tattooed 

I meet the tattoo artist, Gonzo, who is going to be my best friend today. I will let him say anything he wants to me except, “Whoops”, “Oh shit” or “I’ve gone wrong”.He makes alterations to my tattoo design on Photoshop, then on paper and finally I end up with a traced transfer of the outline on my right calf. Now is my last chance to run away… No, it looks great and it’s what I want, just please don’t let it be too painful. Here we go.The needle makes first contact and, yes, that’s sore. But it’s not that bad. Feels a bit like a friction burn. I decide I’m going to shut up until he finishes the outline. I hope he doesn’t go wrong. The pain gets better and soon the outline is finished. The filling in is going to take some time, but I’m relaxed now and we’re chatting away. “People make it difficult to be a tattooist. They don’t consider it a proper job. Friends and family tend to think of it as a hobby. My dad would much prefer me to work in a stable office job from nine to six and not be finishing work on a Saturday at midnight.”

I’m feeling quite good now. Apparently, endorphins are rushing around my head and numbing the pain, maybe that’s why some people claim they enjoy the pain of getting a tattoo and keep going back for more.“I remember the dates of every single tattoo I‘ve got and I’ve got a lot of them”, says Gonzo. “Exactly how many I’ve got is a difficult question to answer. I’m working on my pyjamas.” He goes on to explain the Japanese tradition of progressively tattooing the entire body from neck to ankle, also known as ‘pyjamas’. Although I don’t want to throw a word like ‘infectious’ around with a guy who is poking me with a needle, that’s exactly what his passion and enthusiasm are. 

As we wind up after a very quick, though not strictly painless two hours, Gonzo explains his opinion about tattoos: “A tattoo isn’t a drawing, that’s just what other people can see. For the person who gets it done, it’s a moment of your life; an association with experiences, memories and emotions”. Well, I’ve got my tattoo now. Gonzo wraps it up in cling film, talks me through aftercare and shows me how they clean up. He tells me what inspired him to get his first tattoo was seeing a dragon on someone’s back at the beach when he was fourteen. I don’t know if my headless lion rampant will inspire anybody, but I’m certainly very happy with it. 

You can find DARK TATTOO piercing and tattoo studio at Calle Escalinata, 15, slap-bang in the centre of Madrid, a matter of metres from Ópera metro.

By Helen Macrae

If, like me, you live in Lavapiés (or “the ‘piés” as my mate H elegantly refers to it) you’ll know that it is undoubtedly the best barrio in the city. Ok, so there might be the odd kerfuffle in the street amongst some of the more eccentric members of the community, every now and again you’ll catch a faint odour in the air strangely reminiscent of urine and hash, and some might find the 24-hour police presence in the plaza slightly off-putting, but where else in the city can you find a place with such a vibrant and varied community?

The barrio has now gone one step better and created “The Lavapiés Olympics” in honour of Madrid’s bid to host the games in 2016. Events range from Bag Snatching to Urban Fencing, from Synchronised Eviction to Relay Wheeler-Dealing, taking in the 100m Hugging and Freestyle Pissing along the way. For full details check out the poster above, go to http://www.lavapiesolimpico.blogspot.com/ to vote for your favourite sport. Or perhaps, on a lazy Sunday afternoon when you’ve got nothing better to do, take a stroll down to Lavapiés and see how many activites you can spot!

by Maja Gojkovic

Comedian Andrew Maxwell is bringing his show WAXIN’ to the Giggling Guiri in Madrid. He was nominated for the prestigious if.com Intelligent Finance Comedy Award for his one man show WAXIN’ at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His show was a sell-out success and his popular late-night ensemble comedy show MAXWELL’S FULLMOONERS, received five star reviews.

At this time of year the Giggling Guiri and Barcelona’s Irish festival “El Feile” come together to present stand up in a English language comedy show in Spain, called the ‘Best of Irish comedy special’. Every year the two team together a new and up and coming star with one of ireland’s more established acts to create a special show. Due to the amazing success and popularity of Maxwell, the Giggling Guiri have decided to feature only Maxwell and his show this month.

The comedian has quickly gained success and is one of the most important comedians in the world today. His comedy style is the most impish and cunning of all the Irish comics. He has gained a reputation as something of a cult comic thanks to his late night Maxwell’s Fullmooners shows, which take place in the early hours in a disused theatre in London.

In his hit show ‘Waxin’, he takes his audiance on a journey through the idiosyncracies of the Irish race that drove Sigmund Freud to declare that they were immune to pyschoanalysis; something he comes very close to doing in his shows, with his stories that include things from drinking sessions with the IRA, to the essence of the Corkonian .

The Comedian has recieved impressive reviews, and these are just some of them:

“One of the most significant comedians working in the country today” THE INDEPENDENT

“Andrew’s on particularly fantastic form. He’s without doubt the strongest comedian on the circuit right now” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

“If you see one thing at this year’s Fringe please, please, please take time to see Andrew Maxwell” Five Stars, THE LIST

“A bright young comic, who will offer the fringe so much in the years to come” Four Stars, SUNDAY EXPRESS

If you are interested in seeing Andrew Maxwell perform in Madrid, you can buy tickets at FAT TONY’S restaurant C/de la Cruz 11 (metro: Sol).

Venue: Sala Clamores, C/ Albuquerque,14 Metro: Bilba on Saturday March 15 at 10 pm (Box Office 9.30 pm)

Ticket prices are 17€ presale and 20€ at the Box Office.

www.comedyinspain.com

by Peter Moore

Following on the from the previous post, I’d like just to add my thoughts about busking in Madrid.

Basically in London the buskers are much more competent. They stand in a little circle, painted on the floor and play a fantastic range of styles and genres as 6 million people try to ignore them as much as they possibly can. In New York they are cool: they wear sunglasses and light up a cigarette as soon as they finish their song. In the north of England they are poor and intimidating and sing songs about packets of cards and in Ireland they tap their feet to a thousand U2 songs and end up with a modest smile. (I might be slipping in the caricature here, goodness me I hope so…)

But in Madrid, it is probably the best of all. No one could predict who is going to be the next person to clamber on to your metro carriage: the Peruvian horn blower(s), Camarón de la Isla, an ensemble of Cubans, the Moroccan Blues Band, a mini Shakira with a taped up mini disk player and wheely amp, Carlos Santana’s cousin or even Elvis Presley himself (once).

God knows why anybody goes to Glastonbury. Tank yourself up with whatever your poison is and buy yourself a 10 trip pass. ¡Hala Madrid!

by Luc Ciotkowski

All of this news about Jackson’s Neverland ranch threw my mind back to something I saw a year ago in Madrid. I was sitting on a concrete block in central Madrid’s Plaza Santa Ana enjoying a big tomato and chorizo sandwich and a bottle of juice. All of a sudden, a man about the age of 40 appeared, wearing a shirt, dress trousers and a tie. The only thing differentiating him from the average office worker in Madrid was the portable stereo he was carrying.
But then the surrealism began.
He set down his stereo and clicked the ‘play’ button next to the bustling terrace-cafés of Santa Ana. No sooner had Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal kicked in, than he launched into 80s-style Michael Jackson dance routine. I think a lump of half chewed bread fell out of my mouth as my jaw dropped, quickly to be devoured by a lurking pigeon, while I tried to take in the implausible sight. But real it was, and onlookers, at first dumbstruck, looked around for TV cameras filming what they thought must surely be some kind of TV wind-up sketch.
As it went on, people started getting into it and dropping coins at the feet of this oddball, who, like his idol, was clearly a few burgers short of a barbecue.
Good fun, though. I remember desperately hoping someone had caught him on film, so I checked it out on youtube. Sure enough, here he is, the wonderfully ridiculous freak of nature. God bless him, and the internet… Enjoy the video.

by Maja Gojkovic

Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch was originally designed to be a children’s paradise, but has recently been reduced to an abandoned wasteland, with the fairground rides left in the open air to rust. Other pictures show empty enclosures where exotic animals used to parade for visitors. The main house, that was built in the style of the Disney mansion, now has broken windows and peeling paintwork and looks more like a haunted castle. The beautifuly sculptured gardens that surrounded the ranch are now wild and overgrown.

Jacko used to employ 50 full-time workers at the ranch and had a zoo packed with elephants, giraffes, lions and monkeys. Nowadays, all the staff have gone and the animals have followed, too, after Jacko ran up debts of £12.5million in the day-to-day running of the lavish estate.

 The ranch has been empty since Jackson’s 2005 acquittal on child molestation charges. He originally bought the ranch in 1987 for £11.3 million because he wanted to create the wonderland for children. He named the ranch Neverland as a tribute to the fantastical island in the story of Peter Pan, where children never grow up.  

Although his original plan was to make the ranch a fantasy, it has now been closed. Unless Jacko can pay off the debt, his dream will be shattered, and the Neverland ranch will be sold at auction by Santa Barbara County courthouse.

Currently, the crumbling ranch, buildings and few animals that are left are looked after by loyal friends and relatives. During Jackson’s four-month child molestation trial, he barricaded himself inside the ranch. His fans kept vigils outside and plastered banners of support across the giant gates, and when he was eventually cleared of all charges, his fans hoped the doors of the ranch would be reopened: but they never were.

Jackson fled his ranch to Bahrain and, after continuously failing to pay his staff and insurance debts, the authorities closed down the ranch.  Jacko has estimated debts of £160million, which have arisen from legal costs and various failed business ventures. He has attempted to generate funds by the recent release of  a 25th anniversary edition of his Thriller album, but sales have been poor.

Two British tycoons have come to Jacko’s rescue as they launched a bid to buy the ranch, with the intention of offering Jackson the chance to rent it back from them. Liam Collins and David Bone say they will shell out £15million just to make sure Jacko doesn’t lose his fantasy home.

The tycoon pair from Newcastle say they started their own property fortune by busking to his music and doing his dances. They said: “If it wasn’t for Michael’s music and his fantastic dance routines, it is possible we wouldn’t be where we are today.” We want to see Jacko back on his feet. He’s had a real hard time of it.”

The 2,800-acre ranch in Santa Barbara will go on auction on 19 March unless the singer can raise the cash to keep it.

by Maja Gojkovic

Marks and Spencer are being sued for £300,000 by a man who slipped on a grape at one of thier stores in Finchley Road, London. Alexander Martin-Sklan, 55, of Barnet, Herts, is claiming damages over the incident that occurred in June 2004.

The man has taken action by presenting the high court with his damages case against the supermarket giant, after claiming the torn tendon in his right leg was due to stepping on the grape at the supermarket.

Mr Martin-Sklan who is representing himself at the hearing, says a piece of squashed fruit was found on his right shoe after the fall and could have been picked up inside the shop or in the car park. He is saying that, besides a ruptured quadricep tendon, he has also suffered, “Adverse psychological effects and depression”, from the injury.

I believe he could have picked up the grape at any point during that day, in the street or anywhere, and slipped only due to the fact the grape residue may have been left on his shoe - and slipped on the tiled supermarket floor, which with grape on his shoe, would have made his shoes extra slippery. Could this case just be an open opportunity for a compensation claim or is it a genuine claim for supermarket incompetence?