Rebellion, madness and masses of music

With local elections coming up, everyone in Frome is probably aware that community issues are high on the town's agenda, so it will surprise no-one that Extinction Rebellion riders en route for London came through our town to rest overnight and swell their numbers for the cycle ride ahead. Here they are on Saturday morning, about to set off.
Excitement continued to ripple around town as Raves from the Grave celebrated Record Store Day with new releases, DJ sets, and in-store visit from Ethan Johns, legendary songwriter & performer. His short and much appreciated song set included Ruskin's Farthing, a tale of the 1878 libel case brought by Whistler against critic John Ruskin for referring to his night painting as 'flinging a pot of paint in the public's face.'  At a time when aesthetics were shifting away from Victorian representationalism, the court case aroused massive interest - as did the verdict, which went in favour of Ruskin but with no costs and only one farthing damages awarded. Basically, they thought Whistler's painting a mess but Ruskin was just being spiteful. It's a great song, I wish I could find it online to share with you. Ethan's new album is Revelator with Black Eyed Dogs - you can hear it in new-location Raves' great new listening booth!
Another Record Store Day feature, Frome's hard-core punks Sick Ones introduced their new singer with an intimate and rowdily popular session at Ramshack Barbers- here's Kristie Easterbrook with Charlie & Andy launching the new look.

The Cornerhouse gave us a diversely musical weekend, with Nasty Habits playing classic rock numbers on Saturday and next night a fabulous Frome Jazz Club event - Keith Harrison-Broninski with Al Swainger on double bass and Billy Weir drums with John Martin guest saxophonist, in a session of the 'infectious and irresistible grooves, with catchy riffs' of Cape Jazz.

Sunday afternoon brought the monthly Nunney Acoustic Cafe, always varied and this time with an interesting mix including traditional folk songs and original material, also with a satisfying waft of protest music - I particularly enjoyed Francis Hayden playing Blowing in the Wind (pictured) and Nathan Lewis-Williams' version of the Reg Meuross song England Green and England Grey.  Here's Francis, and Al Cosnett with Jo Munroe from Desmonds Dawn, with lively original songs in style they 'like to call flunk.'  Young singer-songwriters were also well represented - look out for Dan Williams and guest of the day Danny McMahon.

Concluding this panoply of performances, Kevin Brown brought his Shackdusters and his personal magnetism to this week's Grain Bar Roots Session. Not only brilliant on slide guitar, Kevin is a witty raconteur and brought us tales from Goa to Texas, via Lancashire, with a song about two Preston lads who died at the Battle of the Alamo, then back to earth with a pollution protest. A great night.

Book corner: A visit with Frome writer friends Alison Clink and Frances Liardet - whose own recent novel We Must Be Brave is making big enthusiastic waves from America to Australia - to Bath's lovely venue Burdalls Yard for Novel Nights last Friday. This great initiative of Grace Palmer follows an excellent model: there's a chosen theme for short interviews & readings with local writers first, followed after a break by a more extensive interview by Colette Hill of a guest writer - on this occasion Maggie Gee whose new book is a black comedy entitled Blood.  'Britain is in a very farcical state'  says Maggie, 'and the way I let off steam is in writing humour.' As a bonus for me, my co-writing-group friend Debby Holt (first picture) was one of the local writers also demonstrating fluent use of humour for characterisation as she shared a scene  from her upcoming novel The Perfect Couple.

Bedlam was the name chosen by Stina Falle for her exhibition at the Silk Mill last weekend of her lifetime's artworks - sketches, collages, portraits, and personal artefacts. Stina was selling all and any of the artefacts for charity (though sadly her cardboard-replica-Duchamp's-loo collection- box was nicked from the front door along with its donations) and this 'celebration of spring madness' is another fascinating example of the diversity of creativity in Frome.

The intrinsic insanity of human nature brings me nicely to the current production of Equus from English Touring Theatre & Theatre Royal Stratford East at Bristol Old Vic till 20 April - it's been touring since mid-February but there's no flagging in this 'electric re-imagining' of Peter Shaffer's award-winning play. Written in 1973 and redolent of the the psychological interests of that era, the play is long and very wordy but complex beyond the apparent characterisations and with a strong unexpressed homo-erotic element. The central character is a teenage boy with an obsession to worship which has through childhood events become subverted into a passion for horses: ‘he’s trying to become a centaur’ laments his psychiatrist, enviously, seeing this burning desire for something both physical and spiritual as an element missing in his own life. This is an impressive production. The set is nowhere, literally, just a stage. A few props come on sometimes and the lighting is atmospheric, but you are basically left in your own imagination, listening fascinated to the complex internal and external conflicts evoked by voices and the interaction between Alan and his equine alter-ego and god, Nugget, unforgettably portrayed by Ira Mandela Siobhan. (Image: The Other Richard)

Feminist drama, feral parades, festive glitz

A new performance of Pygmalion is always a delight, partly to see if the ending has been tweaked - against the playwright's expressed intention - to make the play an unlikely romance rather than the social critique that George Bernard Shaw intended. In this, as in many other aspects, Frome Drama Club at Merlin Theatre succeeded admirably. In director Simon Blacksell's production, David Holt's eccentric linguistic professor and Annabella Fairgrieve's utterly wonderful flower-girl do not seem likely to settle into future domesticity, even if charming Colonel Pickering (Philip de Glanville) remains to referee and she stops throwing his slippers at him. Much of the humour of the play is created by the absurdities of the concept of class status, and strong performances by the women in the team highlight this: Lynne McCaffrey is excellent as  practical, caring, housekeeper Mrs Pearce, in contrast to the silliness of snobby Mrs Eynsford-Hill - superbly played by Suzy Howlett. The men are good too, though it would be good to see more of Freddy in the first scene (he gets somewhat lost behind the umbrellas) and Alfred Doolittle, the usually rumbustious dustman, seems a bit subdued even before his unwanted status elevation. Gillie Richardson's costumes and Judy Simmons' hair design, plus simple but effective sets, ensure that this resoundingly successful production looks beautiful on stage though I can't find a promotional image which shows that, so instead here's a poster from Montreal and GBS in 1914 directing the contentious first London production.

From Shavian socialism to the current plight of the planet, or one of them: Extinction Rebellion has a strong contingent in Frome, participating visibly on the London Bridge demonstration, and on Saturday in Frome they showed there's big local support for their determination to change policies steadily, and increasingly speedily, destroying our world. A dramatic Funeral for Extinct Species set off from Rook Lane with a couple of hundred people following the hearse downhill to the precinct, where we gathered in the precinct around the coffin - respectfully carried by a bear, a wolf, an eagle and a (sort of) ram - to hear a poem listing and lamenting the species killed and threatened by mankind's activities. 60% have disappeared in the last 70 years.

The slow march continued, escorted by the Frome Street Bandits (dressed in mourning without their distinctive red), to the market place where Green Party's Theo Simon ended the event with a note of hope that while we have to accept the world is changing, we may be able to stop this mass extinction if we have the courage to continue speaking out. And then we had a song from his band Seize the Day, a bit of drum'n'dance to warm up, and hot chi, free from Mahesh on the Loop-de-Loop stall.


Extinct animals seems an unlikely segue but it actually works perfectly for Longleat festival of light this year, which the Sustrans cycle path has happily made available again to non-car users. There's a kind of Tintin theme here, plucky kids with a little white terrier, dashing around places and eras having adventures, one of them being the time Longleat House was assailed by prehistoric creatures.
Possibly that's a camptosaurus lurking by the bedroom windows, though it could be an iguanodon with a small head. I've no idea what the one with green wings is, but they all looked great in the dark as the full moon rose.

We're now at the start of the annual Gift-Anxiety festival, though fortunately - to my unreconstructed-Scrooge mind - there's been a slackening of the grip of that particular fever, and Frome anyway seems to focus on the opportunity to support its many local craftsfolk rather than tax-avoiding internationals. So we've already had two christmas markets - Black Swan hosted a lovely evening event throughout its cafe for its artisan traders, and Kate Cooke - pictured here at the Black Swan event - opened up her house for two days as well. There will be more to come!

Music this week once again shows how high the bar is set in Frome: the Wednesday Roots Session featured Keith James' skilful performance of a great repertoire which included Nick Drake & Leonard Cohn songs and poems of Lorca and Neruda. The fabulous Critters at the Cornerhouse on Friday opened with Cohn too, then ranged from country music to reggae as dancers filled the floor at this massively popular gig - 8 great performers superbly hosted by singer Nicola Mascall.

Sunday is jazz night at the Cornerhouse, always good and sometimes incredible: Frome often punches above its weight musically and this was one of those times - a  concert of capital-city quality as John Law on piano with Riann Vosloo bass, Sam Crockatt sax, and the incredible Dave Smith on drums gave us the music of  John Coltrane. I'm still quivering....