- May 28, 2021
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: MAKING UP THE NUMBERS
Happy anniversary! Recalling that I started Fifty3 Fridays exactly one year ago this day, it makes today the Fifty3rd Friday. At this point you may wish to mumble something weird about Hurley’s numbers and get that Lost box set out again before next playing the lottery. Much water has passed under the proverbial bridge in the past twelve months, most of it in this unseasonably wet month, while over 300 acts have graced this column. Although in itself, that seems like a decent
- May 21, 2021
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: IN ALICE’S FOOTSTEPS
The character of Alice has endured since her story first began in 1862 by an Oxford mathematician entertaining a friend’s children on a boat trip with a tale of her adventures in an imaginary world. The Don in question, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, went on to publish “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” under the aegis of Lewis Carroll three years later. Since then, Alice has inspired countless interpretations, been imbued with meanings from the rational to the seriously loopy and
- May 14, 2021
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: AND THE WINNER IS
Confession time. Just as I tend to lap up successive TV talent shows and even the dear old Eurovision Song Contest, I also follow The BRIT Awards most years. OK, it’s usually to rail at nominee stitch-ups and the narrow vision of what constitutes success in popular music. Other than the year when Ben Howard and Laura Marling won, I can’t say I’ve been that nicely surprised by who gets the gongs either. In 2018 though, I did get to talk about The Brits on Turkish TV but after
- May 7, 2021
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: THE 8TH OF MAY
A friendly PR tells me that tomorrow is the 8th of May, a day when we celebrate the loudest day of the year, MOTÖRHEAD DAY! Just shout ‘The 8th of May…The 8th of May’ and you’ll get it. Before receipt of this news, I had lined up a few words about the final episode of Series 6 of the British police drama Line of Duty which had 12.8 million viewers on tenterhooks when it aired on Sunday night. That’s a huge figure for a live transmission these days given competition from strea