FIFTY3FRIDAYS: JOLLY ROGERS
Since moving from South West London to rural Surrey, I am starting to explore opportunities to hear live music within Surrey/Sussex/Hants rather than schlepping up to town to familiar venues across the city. Last Thursday evening found us in Havant at the Spring Arts & Heritage Centre, a creative hub hosting music, comedy, art, workshops, a museum and theatre all under one roof. We were here to see singer, songwriter and guitarist Hollie Rogers, decked out in orange, perform
5 hours ago
FIFTY3FRIDAYS: CELEBRATING THE PROG PROMS
It’s the summer break so from time to time I may post something a wee bit different to the familiar Fifty3 Fridays new music format. This week, inspired by the inclusion of one of its three tracks in the recent Prog Proms held at London’s Albert Hall, yes, I’m dusting off a classic album from 1972. Sadly, I wasn’t there to witness some glorious music performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra under conductor Robert Ames from the likes of Yes, Genesis, ELP, Mike Oldfield and many
Jul 31
FIFTY3FRIDAYS: BEYOND THE FRINGE
Moving away from South West London to rural Surrey means that there are not quite as many live music venues within reasonable reach so it was a great pleasure to discover the Haslemere Fringe Festival on our doorstep here. I wrote a bit about this bi-annual event two weeks ago and today’s music selection will begin with acts I saw for the first time at the festival. It is a family-friendly, not-for-profit enterprise led by volunteers, with any monies raised going to support H
Jul 24
FIFTY3FRIDAYS: ALL OF A SUDDEN BY PARK HILLS CIRCLE
A change of format this week as we focus on the new album by the recent Fifty3Fridays favourite, Park Hills Circle. Hopefully you will already recognise the name as the project of multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter Maris O'Tierney. With distinctive Alaskan-Irish heritage and a background as a classical guitarist and soprano, Maris previously worked with her twin sister, violinist and poet Bryce, in the duo Maeve & Quinn. Now based in Chicago as a solo artist, she brings
Jul 17
FIFTY3FRIDAYS: FRESH FAVES, FOOTIE & FESTIVALS
All the F’s this week and we won’t include Farage in that. It was a busy start with Sunday at Haslemere Fringe Festival and then my turn to write the reviews for the latest Fresh On The Net Fresh Faves the next day. In between the two, there was Mexico v England. I decided to stay up for it, started to do a bit of research on the Faves to avoid wall-to-wall punditry and finally switched the TV on just before 1am to find a relaxed Thomas Tuchel being interviewed. Once I twigge
Jul 10
FIFTY3FRIDAYS: BACK FROM THE BREAK
So, after a two week break in beautiful Croatia, we are back ready to re-engage your synaesthesia with a tuneful selection of songs that otherwise I might have featured in the past fortnight. I have also picked 12 bonus tracks representing some of my favourites from recent Fresh On The Net submissions to add to the monthly F3F Spotify Playlist and compensate for missing two weeks in June. You’ll find that at the end of today’s issue. Warning: I am not mentioning the football
Jul 3
