Despite still suffering from jetlag Mat and I got out of bed early this morning to drive to the NEC in Birmingham for Gadget Show Live. We are both fans of the show and of gadgets in general so we were looking forward to finding out what was on offer. What it turned out to be was, perhaps, more a collection of hi-tech retailers gathered together rather than a showing of gadgets. it seemed particularly heavy on gaming, an area I have no interest in, and light on up-and-coming gadgets.

It did offer Mat the opportunity to play on a number of games, including Guitar Hero and Rock band, as well as seeing the Guitar Hero World Champion in action. He must have been about 16 and while quite impressive you can’t help but think that his parents would probably have been more pleased if he put in the same amount of effort on revising for his GCSEs than the enormous amount of practice he must have put in on Guitar Hero!

As you can see from the photo we did get to meet presenter Jason Bradbury who was signing copies of his new book aimed at teenage gadget lovers. Jason was just as you would imagine him to be, friendly in a cheeky-chappy sort of way and Mat was made up to meet him.

I got to play with Sony’s answer to the Netbook the snappily titled VAIO P VGN. I was a fantastic looking unit and, as you would expect from Sony, beautifully put together but completely impractical and, at a shade under £1000, too expensive.

So we had fun. Would I go again? Probably but not less than 24 hours after stepping off a long flight!

Click here to see all pictures from Gadget Show Live

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