Mar 11, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: IT’S LIVE, JIM
Today’s Fifty3 Fridays focuses on live music which, after two years of Covid interruptions, is back like it never went away. Venue...
Mar 5, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: CALLING OUT DISINFORMATION
For the second week I have found it difficult to know where to start. This column should be a celebration of new music frequently made by...
Feb 25, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: STAND WITH UKRAINE
It is difficult to summon up anything other than a feeling of despair about the events unfolding in Ukraine. The situation reminds you...
Feb 18, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: TALL STORIES?
Having devoted last week’s column to a live review, I find there are plenty of new or recent releases stacking up that I would like to...
Feb 11, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: LIVE AT THE BEDFORD
Last Thursday found me in the comfortably familiar surroundings of that fine hub of new live music in London, The Bedford at Balham. With...
Feb 4, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: SPOTIFY AGAIN
OK, the last thing I had in mind this week was to prolong the debate, if that’s quite the word, about the rights and wrongs of Spotify....
Jan 28, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: A CONSCIOUS DECISION
“They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” With his admirable record of political activism, it was probably no surprise that Neil Young...
Jan 24, 2022
GLASTONBURY 2022 EMERGING TALENT COMPETITION ANNOUNCED
Glastonbury Festival has revealed that its 2022 Emerging Talent Competition, once more with the generous backing of PRS for Music and PRS...
Jan 21, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: EN ROUTE TO PARADISE
“And if life is just a highway, then the soul is just a car” is a line from Meat Loaf’s grandiloquently titled “Objects In The Rear View...
Jan 14, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: 2022 AND ALL THAT
So, 2022 two weeks in. Will anything ever change? People seem as divided as ever and opinions become entrenched arguably before they even...
Jan 7, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
So, the decorations came down on Wednesday and it’s all over for another year. Time will tell whether we all caught Omicron and whether...
Jan 1, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: BYE, BYE 2021
Merlin is of course less troubled by the passing of another year than we humans. He doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene. He's got a...