- Apr 29, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: TWITTER OUTRAGE
This week’s Fifty3 Fridays includes some names that will be familiar to any who happen by this column on a regular basis. If that’s you, I say thank you and please follow me on Twitter @TonyHardy53 as I am only 9 short of 1,000 followers. I’ve just got off the phone to Elon Musk and he says it’s outrageous how few followers I have. I said I have to admire how he manages to read the feeds of all of his 80m followers and does it have anything to do with time travel. Anyhow we s
- Apr 22, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: I LOVE LUCY
I’ll resist the temptation to rant again this week despite more nonsense from our government, Tottenham’s 1-0 defeat at the weekend and several calls from John from Microsoft telling me my computer isn’t working. Instead let us focus on something life affirming for a change. It was a great pleasure finally to get to see Lucy Dacus perform live, with the bonus that the venue was less than 100 yards from where I live. This particular show, arranged by the redoubtable Banquet Re
- Apr 15, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: VISIT RWANDA
I had to double check that the clock hadn’t reverted to April 1st after the Government’s announcement of a £120m ‘trial’ to send cross channel boat migrants 4,000 miles away to Rwanda for ‘processing’. The outsourcers must be gleefully WhatsApp-ing their mates to see if they can get in on the action. Subsequently I spent much of the day trying to avoid the clueless efforts of politicians and idiots on Twitter seeking to justify this policy as potentially life-saving and a mea
- Apr 8, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: GLASTONBURY EMERGING TALENT FINALISTS
From the thousands who applied and the ninety that made it onto the longlist, eight acts woke up to some good news this week as the finalists for the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition 2022 were revealed. The competition, supported by PRS for Music and PRS Foundation, is initially judged by 30 UK-based music writers, including me, who each choose just 3 acts to progress to stage two. A second judging panel then pared the ninety down to a great eight who go on to compete
- Apr 1, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: I HEARD 'EM FIRST HERE
Fresh on the Net, the music site hosted by Tom Robinson with the support of a dedicated team of moderators, has been around now in its current format for over ten years. It seeks to offer independent acts ‘an open door and a level playing field for their music’ and makes a pretty good fist of just that. Songs submitted to the FOTN Inbox are then heard by every member of the moderation team, including Tom himself, who collectively choose 25 from a maximum 200 entries to form t