- Sep 27, 2020
YES: CLOSE TO THE EDGE 48 YEARS ON
Taking a break from regular Fifty3 Fridays, new music and three-minutes singles, this week we revisit an album from the glory days of Prog Rock; 48 years old this month and just as majestic as it ever was. This 1972 opus immaculately conceived and delivered by the Progfathers of Yes is often considered to be the pinnacle of progressive rock. Revisiting it 48 years on, it’s not hard to see why. Close To The Edge was the fifth studio album by the seminal British band and one wh
- Sep 18, 2020
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: AND THEN THERE WERE SIX
Isn’t it ironic, Alanis? The new limit of six people able to meet socially – at least in England; don’t get me started on Scotland, Wales an
- Sep 11, 2020
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: A FILM ABOUT A BAND
From Amadeus to Walk the Line, Bohemian Rhapsody to Sid & Nancy, musician biopics tend to go in and out of vogue; a big one comes along and spawns a whole bunch more and then the film industry moves on to a new theme, like sport or fashion. A common thread is that the subjects of such movies are invariably household names. Of course, in a parallel universe, seasoned London-cum-Madrid outfit, Morton Valence, is up there with Mozart, Johnny Cash, Freddie Mercury and, quite poss
- Sep 4, 2020
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES
With apologies to The Fast Show’s Jesse, this week I have been mostly pondering collective nouns for birds. Our winged friends do have some weird phrases applied to them; names that are commonly archaic and oddly sinister. An asylum of cuckoos. A conspiracy of ravens. A murder of crows. An invisibleness of ptarmigans. The title of today’s piece could be a cryptic judgement on the present government’s handling of just about everything but instead cites the original spelling of