- Nov 25, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: A BLESSED SPACE
Next time you find yourself in a matt black painted brick box room with the PA straining to hit 11 and the sound engineer being harangued to turn up the vocals, consider the alternative of how grand live music can sound in a church. Which is where I found myself on Monday evening; indeed, at the Grade II listed Union Chapel in Compton Terrace on the east side of Islington’s Upper Street. The chapel was designed in part to amplify the human voice and this makes it exceptionall
- Nov 18, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: BETTER LATE
There are weeks when it all runs like clockwork – actually, not that many of those – and weeks when the wheels fall off. This has been one of them so without any further ado here is today’s Fifty3 Fridays, even if you have to turn your clock back 48 hours. Let’s open today with Blue Lupin, a new name on the UK indie scene but one who made a big impression on Fresh on the Net listeners last week when her new single attracted the most votes in the Listening Post, thus joining t
- Nov 11, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: TO TWEET OR NOT TO TWEET
There are times when not being on Facebook or Instagram presents a bit of a problem. It is when those sites are the only way of possibly connecting with artistes I wish to write about. Back in the day, rather than struggle to maintain three or four different platforms, I nailed my mast to Twitter both to connect with acts and share these weekly digests. It has proved to be a good way to promote the music featured on Fifty3 Fridays with the benefit that there is an active comm
- Nov 4, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: A BRIEF LOOK BACK IN TIME
To paraphrase Jesse from The Fast Show, this week I ‘are mostly been playing detective. So, the story so far: I was thinking about maybe doing a ‘Where are they now’ feature now and again and began making a list of people I had not heard from in a very long time. One such name is Martin Carter & Graham Jones, a contemporary folk duo who I first met at Poynton Folk Club when a callow sixth former. I followed them for several years, through university and my first job in London