Time-slips in Bath and a blast of music in Frome

Bath city, noted for elegance and style, has an alternative history that began in mud with Bladud and his pigs in 863BC and continued in muck and dubious morality, and Natural Theatre Company has been exposing scurrilous tales from the long and frequently outrageous history of that not-always-fine city in their sell-out show at the Rondo. Dirty Bath is hilarious. Three delightful women performers with a vast array of costumes and wigs take audience participation to its limits, scouring the steeply raked auditorium to identify lovers, gang members, murderers and more, responding to the resultant unscripted contributions with inventive vigour,  coaxing startled audience members on stage to enact exchanges of unlikely historical exactitude and in one instance to model male genitalia in plasticine..
it's all bonkers, and very funny. We met lovely Eliza Linley, painted by Gainsborough, eloping with Sheridan, inspiring duals among her lovers. We met Chaucer's raunchy Wyfe of Bath,  Hugonot refugee Sally Lunn, the murdered Nymph of Avon Street (enacted by puppets), a bedhopping fake castrato, the absurd duelling suitors of courtesan Fanny Murray, and many more outrageous characters before notorious gangleader Carroty Kate hands out peaky blinders caps and newspaper boulders for a mass street fight finale to the show. Massive appreciation to Alison Campbell, Amy Vickers, and Florence Espeut-Nickless for their titillating tales, to Andy Burdon who directed, and to whoever created the gloriously glamorous costumes.

Roots Sessions at the Grain Bar this week featured a Frome-grown band: Back of the Bus, four feisty women singer-players with backing from three strong musicians, featuring mainly '80s covers - the great ones, like Hazel O'Connor's apocalyptic 'Eighth Day'.

And another fantastic night of music from The Raggedy Men, also a local band with massive talent and a big following, who rocked the Cornerhouse on Saturday with their iconic re-styled punk - with all the best angry classics, from Brixton's guns to burning Babylon and beyond - with awesome riffs and fantastic drumming.

This week's review-round-up of local events is thinner than usual, what with one thing & another - well, mainly one thing - so to bump up the medley here's a reading recommendation: This emerged originally through the Proof Pudding Club started by Tina Gaisford-Waller, enterprising manager of Frome's Hunting Raven book shop. The Future We Choose - Surviving the Climate Crisis by Christiana Figueres & Tom Rivett-Carnac may sound like it will be another gut-wrenching summary of the appalling state of the planet and initially it is, but it goes on to make a convincing case for hope. We actually have, in prototype or possibility, all the means to improve the global situation and survive - in fact to improve our species into a more caring one, with a sense of stewardship of the earth. It's really well explained and well argued, and brings a blast of hope to our blighted world.  Next week's top tip: The Plague, by Camus...

In contrast to last week's rather quieter report, this bulletin seems to be obsessed mainly with music - live, local, and exhilarating!
Roots Sessions at the Grain Bar on Wednesday featured solo singer-songwriter Leander Morales, and six-piece band The Hoodoos, with both acts enjoying appreciation for their intimate audience interaction as well as splendid performances. Hoodoos do a particular good version of the 1973 hit 'Long Train Running' which really suits their hi-energy impact style.

Friday evening brought another exciting double-bill to a crowded house, this time the Bennett Centre where Chesterblade Hills featured The Pagan Gospel Groove Machine aka Ed Green's band, followed by Jaz Delorean with cabaret-style songs on piano. The 4-piece band has a mellow mood reminiscent (for me) of the seventies: I loved the repeated chant ... at the end of the night, the moon fades away and the sun comes up in the sky..... In contrast, Jaz is best known as front man for Tankus the Henge, which is a popular festival dance band.

Another mood change on Saturday for the Frome Punk Festival, an eight-hour fiesta, for anyone staying throughout, of punk bands classic and contemporary on the main stage of the Cheese and Grain.

The main attraction for me was The Raggedy Men who always deliver a brilliant performance and get people up and dancing too. Also very good, though earplugs recommended, were The Lonely Goats who perform their own songs -you can check out Elvis on Mars here.

Saturday's stirring music continued till late not only in Frome but also down the road in Bruton where mutant new wave / post-punk trio Invisible Eyes were featured guest at the Bruton Castle open mic night - you can listen to a sample here.
Sunday also provided an afternoon of excellent live music at The Three Swans as Paul Kirtley's acoustic club provided its usual mix of folk, rock & jazzy pop, though sadly there are no images for this as your reporter had to default due to another winter ailment.. sigh.

End of May celebrations...

Bristol's little Wardrobe Theatre is always a delight to visit. For one thing, the Valentine bridge behind Temple Meads railway station, which takes you to it in ten minutes, is a thing of beauty so you arrive saturated with river views and the image of the Eye against a smoulderingly blue sky...   And the productions in this punching-above-its-weight fringe studio theatre are usually brilliant, as on Tuesday's magic-realistic drama How My Light Is Spent,one of Bristol Old Vic's Director's Cuts to showcase graduate work. Director Nikhil Vyas chose this Bruntwood Prize short-listed story of disaffected lives somehow connecting, and Robin Davis designed the clever abstract arena of their dual narration. Jonathan Oldfield and Eva O'Hara give beautifully nuanced performances as the adult chatline worker, the donut server, and all those with whom their lives collide. It's a confident and clever production, beautifully performed - in fact the last time I saw so delightful and touching a love story was David Grieg's Midsummer, but this was more magical and remained unexpected right to the end.

"You've never seen a production of Macbeth like this before" promised Anubis Productions of their gothic reinterpretation 'set amongst a druid wilderness... dark powerful and blood-thirsty, combining traditional theatre, mult-media, spell-binding, physical theatre, and stage combat.' Georgina Nelson-Troy directed this unusual production on the Merlin stage with an adapted script, backdrop imagery and interpretive dance. Drug-fuelled witches took a high profile role and there was much blood. Six multi-tasking players supported the murderous Macbeths in their tragic downward spiral: congratulations to all especially young Caian Gregory, a heart-breaker as the fated son of Macduff in a powerful scene with Georgina as his mother.

And before moving from drama to music, a sneak preview of the Nevertheless Pub Theatre production for the upcoming Frome Festival: for one night only, Where The Fault Lies,a quartet of quirky short plays by me and Rosie Finnegan, performed by Frome Actors Network in the upstairs room of The Cornerhouse on 10 July (tickets only £5 but essential as the venue is what's technically termed 'intimate'.)

My main music events this week were outside town. On Friday, the Three Horseshoes in Bradford on Avon hosted two terrific Frome bands: Back Of The Bus feisty purveyors of post-punk pop - with attitude, and the incomparable high-energy foursome The Raggedy Men, classic 70s punk with panache. Both bands are massively popular, and there were probably more Fromies there dancing than in the audience for Question Time recorded at the Merlin a couple of nights earlier. The ambience was atmospheric rather than lucent, but you can just about make out the bands.

The end-of-May bank holiday inspired a plethora of terrific free entertainment options locally: deciding which to support was tough but on a day of dazzling sunshine, the Packhorse Fair, all along Bruton's lovely riverside green, turned out to be the perfect choice, with great music at both the acoustic tent and the main stage. Fantastic funky Cut Capers never disappoint, but hiphopera was a novel experience for me, as Josephine and the Artizans blended extraordinary arias with rap to marvellous effect. Local heroes Ditto concluded the afternoon - congratulations Bruton on a day of delights in a fantastic atmosphere.


Meanwhile Frome had been enjoying a Rhythm and Blues Festival with some impressive names - here's Nick Lowe with Los Straitjackets on the final night at the Cheese & Grain.  Festival season starts early in the southwest!

Historical art and drama in a sunshiny Easter week

Armageddon RIP -the death of the final conflict- is a powerful concept appropriate for this era,  and this week especially, as Barry Cooper's exhibition at Silk Mill tracks the sombre years of media controlled explosions since the Twin Towers fell, using newspaper front pages overlaid with symbolic imagery (mostly a Gaia figure or a bird) - right up to last week's news of Julian Assange's sacrificial expulsion. Barry is mainly known for his stone carvings - the 'woman howling at the moon' in Longleat is his - but he also has hundreds of superb, quiet, line drawings in the cabinet drawers.

Over in Bristol, the exhibition in College Green Vestibule is all about the Witch, her importance, history, and accessories. Thea Caimbeul along with Rachael Fountain (forager, scyther, archer, taxidermist) have researched enough for a fascinating book, and these museum-style presented items, beside the shadow of the cathedral, are an impressive celebration of women's presence throughout the ages, as a power and a threat. (The 'wings for smudging' are collected from roadkill, if you're anxious!)

Once again, a fat & enthusiastic report on music this week. 'Bare to the Bones' which began as Paul Kirtley organising a few charity jam nights, has become a fixture in the Frome musical diary, with various pubs now hosting these events, and a roughly regular house band. There's always a party atmosphere as well as great music: Friday's event was another 'special' with added energy from the uke-maestro Decades and the marvellous Hoodoos and Paul's mash-up medleys of rock classics all the way down the Root 66 timeline. Here's (most of) the line-up at the end of the night:

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The sun-soaked Bank Holiday weekend was perfect for a walk along the river from Lansdown into Bath for a Sunday afternoon session at the Bell Inn, a great bohemian pub - walls crammed with posters promoting music events and Extinction Rebellion, and stage filled, on this occasion, with Kevin Brown and the Shackdusters including guest guitar wizard Mark Goudswaard. Dancing ensued!
Jazz Jam at the Cornerhouse was suitably mellow for a warm evening, with the sultry sounds of Caroline Waterhouse and John Plaxton, as guest singer & clarinetist respectively, and Graham Dent's popular trio.
Music too at Mells Daffodil Day as the blazing sunshine continued and the 3 mile path along Vallis Vale beside the river, unusually un-muddy, was thronged with walkers from Frome in holiday mood. No daffodils left, but there's always a great fairground atmosphere with food stalls, funfair, and vintage engines on display, and a beer tent big enough to stage several bands throughout the day. Here's the terrific Raggedy Men, punk revivalists with unflagging style & amazing energy, rocking the all-age crowd.

Time to move to drama, and Bristol's Tobacco Factory Theatres has a new production: Our Country's Good was written in 1988 by Timberlake Wertenbaker and inspired by his discovery that in 1788, due to the visionary beliefs of an influential officer in charge of the penal colony in Botany Bay, a group of prisoners were cajoled into putting on a play. The behind-the-scene struggles of a group of antagonistic misfits in rehearsal is not a new device (Shakespeare used it for his mechanicals in Midsummer Night's Dream) but the fact that this is based on actual data recorded in diaries makes this play-about-a-play more intriguing. Dramatic structure is complex, moving between discussions about the purpose of drama to the drama itself which means character differentiation is crucial, and as twenty roles were undertaken by nine actors, the director and designer had a big responsibility. Life in such grim confines equalises everyone to some extent and it may help this sense of fusion to have most of the cast in grey sweat-pants but it does nothing to create the essential hierarchy dominating this micro world.  I thought initially the press images were rehearsal outfits but sadly, they're not. Good performances from the actors, with Heather Williams and Kim Heron outstanding among the women, and Dan Wheeler outstanding among the all-excellent male cast. Images: Mark Dawson Photography

Final footnote: Where the fault lies, the Frome Festival production from Nevertheless Pub Theatre, has begun fine-tuning in rehearsals: Here's Harry and Hal getting into the rather strange zone of Your Time Starts Now. Wednesday July 10th is the date for your diaries - upstairs at the Cornerhouse.

Arty start to 2019 and other January tidings

The arty start to the new year begins at Bath's Holburne Museum (specialism: knowledgeable & chatty volunteers) which has several temporary temptations enhancing its Georgian splendour this month: That marvellous study of '60s iconography and human nature Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy has been shoehorned into the long gallery with the silverware, where it succeeds in looking utterly stunning, glimmering beyond the teapots as you enter. Ossie Clark influenced so many of us in those ruffled chiffonny days of spliffs and parties, and David Hockney's disarming simplicity of style has mirror-like clarity. Simply staring was one of those epiphany moments, spilling over with nostalgia, and our small group of visitors, strangers on entry, began confiding in hushed voices, awed like pilgrims in Chartres when the sunlight shines through the stained glass rose windows. More treats upstairs too, with an on-loan exhibition of Gainsborough's portraits of his theatrical chums - Mrs Siddons of course, Thomas Linley, John Henderson, and others who trod the boards of Drury Lane and the Haymarket - and also the boards of Bath's own Theatre Royal, which acquired its licence through the influence of Gainsborough's friend, the architect John Palmer. No photography is allowed in this gallery but this National Portrait Gallery image of the painting of David Garrick, 18th century equivalent of Hugh Grant, shows how much more fluent Gainsborough's portraiture becomes with friends, when there was no need to give enhanced evidence of status, wealth, or lapdogs.
Bath in winter sunshine, with Wedgwood blue sky and gilded buildings, is an artwork in itself of course so with visuals very much the theme of the day, my next drop-in was the Victoria Art Gallery by Pulteney Bridge. The current visiting exhibition is On Paper: from the Arts Council Collection. The connecting notion of this small collection is that all use paper 'as a material in its own right rather than just a surface to be painted or drawn upon.' Collage seems an obvious process, and there are some examples (including a reconstruction of Wittgenstein's thought processes by Eduardo Paolozzi) as well as other more esoteric interpretations of the theme. I quite like this portrait of Sid Vicious in paper, board and glitter by Jim Lambie - the extra glow is reflected room lighting - not sure whether or not it's enhanced...

A fascinating & provocative new exhibition opened on the first Friday of the new year at Frome's Black Swan Arts: Eleanor Bartlett's paintings on the theme of Matter - challenging in that the artist (here pictured) demands 'does art have to mean anything?' and fascinating in that this seems contradicted by her premise - that 'matter describes form and form resolves matter in a continuing and unstable exchange...  the chosen vehicle of realisation, literally the stuff of imagination...'  The Words at the Black Swan workshop on Monday led by poet Louise Green found much to engage with in these impressive black blocks created by tar and wax.
Other than visual imagery, the first week of the new year has been a time for favourite local walks, well wrapped up and within striking distance of a warm inn: here's Stourhead lake early on a frosty morning.



And now as the new year limbers up for its second week, normal service is resuming in the creative corridors of Frome. Our Nevertheless Fringe Theatre Frome Festival co-production with Frome Actors Network ~ provisionally entitled The Sex and Death Quartet ~ is back in rehearsal, and Roots Sessions at the Grain Bar have restarted (hurrah!) with the fabulous Raggedy Men, on absolute peak form with our favourite punk classics and outrageously riffing up some new ones.


Final footnote for the first post of 2019: a look back at the week before christmas when Hunting Raven Books sold FIFTY-FOUR copies of Frome Unzipped - fingers crossed book-tokens may keep the roll going a bit longer... Our popular independent bookshop was on ITV West News on Wednesday too, with its manager the lovely Tina Gaisford-Waller rightly extolling her books, her staff, their customer-care, their customers, and our town.

Busy week in Fromesville

Interim report from Frome festival: 200 events in ten days, and sun blistering the sky from before 5a.m, rising tirelessly to high 20°s, simmering us like poached apricots till long after dusk.
I'll begin at the beginning for me, which was the Small Publishers Day on Saturday, joining the Hobnob stall with copies of Frome Unzipped - from Prehistory to Post-punk which had arrived like the cavalry in the nick of time. First copy went to writer Nikki Copelstone (who took this picture of me all excited with publisher John Chandler) and second to Barry Cunningham, MD of Chicken House. Sales started well, and Hunting Raven has already re-ordered so I'm hopeful.
Early evening saw a lot of happy football fans at the traditional Food Feast in the market yard, gloriously entertained by the Street Bandits and exotic dancers, with further free music inside the Cheese & Grain as dusk descended - here's awesome Raggedy Men reliving their teenage kicks.
Open Studios this year has 21 venues presenting the art of 65 artists: I only managed to scamper round a few of these on Sunday before heading for the Children's Festival in Victoria Park, where my 'First Cut' colleague Annabelle Macfadyen was enchanting an audience of little ones in The Quest for the Red Herring with Simon Blakeman. Here she is looking menacing but not as scary as the extraordinary creations of Ik'sentric and Mutartis at Freakshow Boogaloo (venue 8). The long hot day ended at the Cornerhouse, dancing not-really-tango at the 'Music of the Soul' jazz session from Keith Harrison-Broninski trio with Karen Street.

Monday now, and a sultry night for the Festival Poetry Cafe with Rob Barratt guesting and a monster Open Mic as 15 poets offered their words on the theme of Frankenstein, which is the theme of this year's festival. Interpretations ranged from Rosie Jackson's superb & visceral glimpse of an aged Mary Shelley reflecting 'This is how it is when the world has no mother' - to Liv Torc's heartfelt & funny insight into mothering two hot tiny tots, ' a tiny prison riot in a nappy'. Rob had the tough job of picking out just one of these wonderfully varied poems as most apt and chose Shauna Robertson's powerful poem about monsters made by misjudged political policies. Rob's own 'pithy poems, satirical songs, and provocative prose' were immensely entertaining, with a particularly empathetic response to his rant against The God of Data who in five days created levels & targets, jargon, league tables, the omnipresent Angel OFSTED, and sent Gehova who said 'Suffer the little children' and the little children did suffer... Thanks to all who came and contributed, as audience and readers, and to Garden Cafe's Ellen and Suzy who transformed our space into an open-air theatre and organised everything, and to Bill Aven who came from Frome Wessex Camera Club and sent the picture of Shauna receiving her Frome Festival 2018 Poet Laureate certificate and bubbly donated by Jon Evans. Dave Denyer, I hope you don't mind that I stole this pic from your page to give a glimpse of the busy garden.

A change of mood on Tuesday for The Meddling of Mrs Harris, a performed reading by Peter Clark of Mark Twain's satirical monologue King Leopold's Soliloquy at Rook Lane Chapel.  I came across this online while researching for Frome Unzipped, because the meddlesome missionary's wife who took the photographs - used by the Congo Reform Society to oust Leopold from his murderous regime - came from Frome. Alice Seeley-Harris' great-granddaughter Rebecca was in the audience and joined our post-show Q&A, adding further fascinating detail and very pleased that Alice's work is now more well-known in her home town. This event was supported by Nevertheless Productions with direction from Rosie Finnegan - not one of our usual shows but aiming to present a historical document in a provocative and memorable way. Thanks Mike Grenville for the discussion photo .

Wednesday's big event for me was Homeliness Exile and Longing, a celebration of the poems of Mahmoud Darwish on the tenth anniversary of his death. This was organised by Frome Friends of Palestine in Trinity Hall with a Middle Eastern banquet first and atmospheric music from Chai for Three alongside poems chosen by Mick Randall and read in translation by James Laurenson and me, and in Arabic by Hazem Al Asaad. Peter Clark, now shorn of his Mark Twain moustache and long locks, introduced this with a short account of Mahmoud's exiled life, and the readings concluded with a wall projection of the poet himself, reading his defiant poem 'I am an Arab'. A moving experience for readers & audience alike - thanks Ali Morgan for the photo.

More poetry on Thursday, with the HIP YAK Poetry Shack at the Archangel, compered by fabulous Liv Torc with Chris Redmond and Johnny Fluffypunk delivering strong words strongly spoken. Main feature of the event was of course the Slam, with eight brave poets competing for a place in the Womad Poetry tent - a massive prize and big responsibility for the four audience members who accepted the dreaded judging cards to hold aloft after each poem. Slammers need a tough hide I reckon. The standard was awesomely high and everyone had favourites, but Josie Alford was agreed a worthy winner.

I'm taking a day off now but there's the final days of festival to come, and this excessively self-centric post has barely scratched the surface. This feels a good time to be offering the world my version of the story of Frome, with creativity all around, and another Guardian article affirming the impact of our local government.  I'm deeply appreciative of poet Rosie Jackson for posting this really lovely tribute: ‘Frome’s kind of a funny place, really, it reminds me of a Brueghel painting...’ M.Boswell.  No one could be better placed than living-in-the-heart-of-it Crysse Morrison to take the radical pulse of Frome, town of dissent, creativity, independence, and trace it from being part of Selwood Forest to being a reluctant annexe to Babington House in its recent gentrification and media hype. Crysse unzips it all brilliantly in this fabulous book, published today from Hobnob Press.'

And a final thought from Kahil Gibran, because it's been on my mind.
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself,
You may house their bodies but not their souls, for they dwell in the house of tomorrow,
Which you may not enter.  Not even in your dreams.
This is why we write books and poems and plays and create artefacts and songs. They are the children who will never leave, they stay in our nest in a spinning world.