- Dec 23, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: MORE ADVENT CALENDAR
Time to dust off the seasonal ‘I Love Kingston’ image once more as we drift on towards Christmas Day. Last week we highlighted a selection of the songs included in this year’s Fifty3 Fridays Advent Calendar. You can follow this each day on Twitter via @TonyHardy53 as I reveal a song a day leading up to Christmas. The songs are chosen from some of my favourites over the years; some you’ll know, some you won’t and mostly they are not that new. We have posted 23 songs to date an
- Dec 16, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: THE ADVENT CALENDAR RETURNS
Fifty3 Fridays breaks with tradition in the run up to Christmas. Most weeks I write about new music emanating from emerging, largely independent artistes; a creature of habit I guess which may also explain why I always add an ‘e’ to artist. Using, in this case, the good offices of Twitter and YouTube I post a song a day each day up to Christmas Eve. You will find them at @TonyHardy53. The songs are drawn from some of my favourites over the years; some you’ll know, some you wo
- Dec 9, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: TWO SIDES OF LIVE
The past seven days saw contrasting aspects to two live music experiences, though both had plenty to recommend them. Firstly, our local church of St John’s was blessed with two consecutive shows by Essex pop star and 2009 X-Factor runner-up, Olly Murs, here to promote his comeback album, Marry Me. I was there on Friday evening while on Wednesday night I ventured to deepest Shoreditch to see some blossoming independent acts. Photos of Olly Murs by Kevin England Home territory
- Dec 2, 2022
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: DECEMBER ONCE MORE
So, 2 December. It’s three weeks to Christmas and I find myself working to a backwards clock again. This was going to be the Christmas songs issue but I find I only have two of them. Never fear, they are both great ones. So here is a slightly truncated issue of Fifty3 Fridays with the further imposition of a deadline in that I am going to see Olly Murs in concert at St John’s Church at the top of our road and people have been queueing since lunchtime. They are only marginally