Another post with one eye on my project... a parkour ride round Frome past and present, and with time-pressure still set firmly on
Silly - that's above
High but just below
Manic - what's had to give is again music: sadly I heard neither foot-stomping blue-grass Old Boston Tea Party at
Grain Bar, nor Don Kipper's Balkan Beats at
23 Bath St. I couldn't resist Emma Harris' scratch band at
The Cornerhouse party though, with- great music, great dancing.
And I did get to hear some terrific poetry, at a crammed Frome Poetry Cafe with a February theme ~ 💖love, naturally ~ twenty poets from the floor and a great atmosphere, with guests
Josephine Corcoran and
Rosie Jackson both much enjoyed. I haven't heard Josephine before, and really enjoyed her memories of people and places, especially
Winter in Trowbridge, the town of three smells: beer, meat pies, and sewage. This and other great poems in her new collection
The Misplaced House.
Another evening of poetry too as eco-poet
Helen Moore paid a flying visit back to Frome to launch two new books:
Intatto/Intact, an innovative Italian/English collection (The Italian poems beautifully read by Annie Lionnet) and
The Disinherited, her sad & angry poems about British treatment of the natives and the transportees in Australia. Again a full audience and a great atmosphere, as Helen's readings were further enhanced by readings from two Frome poets ~ Rosie Jackson and B Anne Adriaens ~ and a story-telling by Bard of Bath
Kirsten Bolwig.
Most of my time though is still absorbed in interviewing, transcribing, and struggling to wrestle big balloons of information into a shape that, if not logical, is at least coherent. I've learned an unbelievable amount, not just about the past & present of Frome but unexpected things like the tragic life of the queen bee and the lexicon of graffiti. I've met a neighbour who was filmed in her punk days, another who was played on John Peel, and many more fascinating people with amazing memories - in fact when this project is finished there's scope for so many spinoffs ~ I definitely want to do something about decorating the fabric of our town too.
So I'll end with a contrasting couple of images: an ancient postcard inscribed with what the publisher considered the sole fact of any interest:
Frome, a town dating from very early times, was surrounded by Selwood Forest which afforded shelter to a body of bandits who were the terror of the neighbourhood - and the newest bar in town,
The Loft at
23 Bath Street, with decor by internationally-renowned street artist
Paris.
And also plea from the wonderful weavers of Frome, who I also met on my investigations, who urgently need a new home. Big enough for 7 floor looms 18 table looms and stacks of other paraphernalia I failed to comprehend, and a lot of yarn in wondrously diverse colours. In Frome or as near as possible. Anyone know anyone contact them on
this link - as soon as you can!
Monday's Frome Poetry Cafe was special for a number of reasons. We had possibly the largest audience ever inside the Garden Cafe, the youngest Open Mic poet ever (Ibni Padagachi aged 4½, with a rousing rant about plastic waste), and immensely impressive readings by eco-poet Helen Moore from her new collection The Mother Country, exploring the concept of dispossession as it has affected peoples throughout history - and also herself, when she was disinherited by her mother. Intimate and compelling, Helen's powerful poems range from Botany Bay's penal settlement to a personal time-travelling journey through Frome Selwood.
Wednesday Roots Session at the Grain Bar gave us two stunning groups both featuring eye-widening glamour and theatricality as well as luscious singing, as the Screaming Harlots were followed on stage by featured Bonne Nouvelle, with virtuoso guitarist John Ruddock accompanying the sultry voice of Coralie Hyde. Special thanks Coralie for concluding with my personal favourite, Nouvelle Vague's delightfully slutty song I go out on Friday night...
And our Friday night saw another Bare to the Bones event at the Cornerhouse, with more musicians than ever as Crossing the Rockies joined the house band and other regulars. This charity-support project initiated by Paul Kirtley is a moveable feast around the pubs of Frome and always a lively event, this time with James Hollingsworth in the guest solo spot - here's Walking After Midnght getting the distinctive HooDoo treatment. A powerful version of Wicked Game from new duo Dan Hall with David Goodman, too. This session was also the initiation of a new sound system in town, available for the various bands and performers in Frome. I'm delighted to be a peripheral supporter of this venture, and hope soon to have mastered the art of coiling a cable...
As so often at weekends, a plethora of live music made for a tricky choice on Saturday night with Frome's ukulele band The Decades at the Granary and The Uncles from Bristol at the Cornerhouse: here. Here's ukulelist Helen Robertson, and I was too busy dancing to take pictures of this fantastic R&B band but you can get the idea of their fantastic sound here.
Also this week: Black Dog Productions' Orphan, inspired by the sinister religious cults of post-war America, came to the Rondo. Russell Eccleston who wrote the play also took on the role of Orphan, a young man seeking closure on his childhood abuse in all the wrong ways.
Initially slow-burning, the story combines gothic horror with biblical and bardic tragic themes. Tiffany Rhodes held the crucial central role of Patience securely as the extremes of masculine ferocity played out an inevitably fatal game around her. Warnings in the foyer of extreme onstage violence were not overstated!
