Mostly music, and some crazy golf, as summer arrives

A mega-musical week, with Frome Busks filling the town centre with young talent, so we'll start there, as eight acts from the College, some soloists and some groups, rotated from 11 till 2 around eight locations. Ages ranged but the sound was superb in each case. Here's Hushwind, a very accomplished duo,  Becca who sang with verve and confidence, and classical music student Ollie, fantastic on guitar. The organisation was impressive too, with routes & changeover times all planned and equipment and power needs all covered. An impressive display of young talent, and a very enjoyable day.

        

Still with local young talent, Monday's  SOUNDCHECK   session on Visual Radio Arts featured Afraid of the Dark,  the band who caused a sensation at the last Nunney Acoustic Cafe. All four members are studying music at Bath College, and as well as playing some of their stunning original songs - lyrics by Gwen Sutterby, pictured - they talked in interview about what each brings to their collaboration. This brilliant session will remain on the VRA site here, (screenshot includes some listeners' comments) 

Rosco Shakes brought their hi-energy jazzy blues to town again on Wednesday as these five performers lit up the night in Bar Lotte. Pictured here are Dom (guitar) Ned (vocals & drums) and Tim (keys & wild leg-dancing) but Josh (base) and Steve (sax) enhanced the band's terrific sound too.

A movie recommendation now: Phantom of the Open, showing at Frome's Westway this week, a delightful true story from the 1970s.  The lure for me was that Mark Rylance plays the central role of Maurice Flitcroft, the Eddy-the-Eagle of the golfing world - appearing in different disguises as he is repeatedly banned from competing in the British Open Golf Championship. Mark is impressive, evoking humble tenacity and care for his family as well as delusion bordering on idiocy. Loyal wife Jean (Sally Hawkins) and his dancing twin sons (Jonah and Christian Lees) are excellent too. 

 Curiously, despite finding similarities to Paddington Bear, none of the reviewers have pointed out that the format is exactly the same as for The Duke, recently reviewed on this blog. Eccentric quirky Northerner takes on the Establishment - golf, this time, not art - to snatch a trophy, with support from his son/s and after struggle that's poignant and funny in equal measures, all ends well and the movie ends with snapshots of the real individual to affirm the truth of the tale... check out the link here - then go see the movie! 

An away-day trip also this week: to Tewkesbury, which - as the town's website reports - is 'an historic riverside town in Gloucestershire with an abbey, medieval streets and a high street full of independent shops', which (apart from the abbey) makes this Cotswold town sound rather like Frome. In fact it has far more shops and is generally less poky than Frome, but the vibe is the same: relaxed and friendly, with quirky pubs and a jazz tea-room.  Here's the splendid interior of the abbey: the stained glass windows are impressive too.

And as the wind drops and days fill with sunshine, a chance once again for long walks around Frome as the banks beside the river paths fill with blue and golden wild flowers. ... and speaking of blue & gold, here's my Mother's Day necklace from son number one - how well he knows me! (smiley-face)

Wishing all readers peace and sunshine as summer time officially arrives.

A blue & yellow week, with a touch of green

With foreign affairs, as they used to be called before we discovered that everything in the world is interconnected, on everyone's mind these days, let's start with the  BIG GIG FOR THE UKRAINE - an evening of soul funk jazz at 23 Bath Street to raise money for Frome's twin town in Poland, Rabka-Zdrój, which has already taken in 500 Ukrainian refugees. Organised at short notice by Emma Harris, this featured the talents of Rivers of England,  Leander Morales, Al O'Kane, Flash Harry, and Emma herself - a brilliant night with great musicians and fantastic sound. The atmospheric red lighting helped create a party atmosphere - this snap of Leander joining Al's set may give a glimpse of the vibe.

Music has been a strong theme of this week, with Paddy's Day celebrations in two venues: At The Sun on Thursday, celtic band Crossing the Rockies cleverly illustrated the division of Ireland by arranging a massive pole to segregate the band members, and this day-late homage to St Patrick was followed next night with another hooley as the Celtic & Transatlantic Music team arrived at the Cornerhouse in force and played throughout the evening. 

Still with an Irish theme: Derry's most widely-known band The Undertones, playing at the Cheese & Grain on Friday, was the subject Eleanor Talbot's Variations on a Theme this week. Mickey Bradley, bassist for the band since its inception & now also a record show presenter on Radio Ulster, is a charming guest with a good memory of the '70s, and is surprisingly modest for a key member of the group responsible for John Peel's favourite track of all time: Teenage Kicks. 

Theatre spot his week is a substitute: Eng-er-land, solo show at the Merlin was sadly cancelled due to illness so instead here's an online production from Original Theatre: The Red, directed by Charlotte Peters. The 'red' is a bottle of wine, which in this two-hander Benedict imagines, as he mourns at his father's funeral, that his dad really wants to watch him drinking. 

The storyline is essentially a list of reasons why an alcoholic should never drink again, and writer Marcus Brigstocke admits the play is basically a summary of his own temptations and truths. It's performed by a genuine father & son combo on a set authentically representing a wine cellar but with constant faint music which is slightly irritating. Bruce Alexander is very good as the probably-also-alchi-but-not-bothered father, but Sam Alexander his son is less convincing as a totally fit non-drinker. Reminiscence replaces story development, as the will-he/won't-he finale is not really in doubt, but my main problem with this as with all online productions is that the cameras don't consistently show the full stage and therefore, to me, it's Not Theatre. It is dramatic, in that people play parts in a rehearsed drama, but the camera-eye rather than the viewers' eye is in control, so it's just a movie that's been shot on one set. 

Moving from drama to poetry: Frome's 'ekphrastic writing' group had a very productive session this month, all creating powerful responses to the Duet of Lines exhibition in the form of pantoums under the excellent tutelage of Jennie Gilling.  Our group's responses can all be seen here, and the exhibition is on until 3 April.

Art with a purpose now, and and Auction for Ukraine at the Silk Mill which opened on Friday evening with wine & live music. The gallery was filled with donations from Frome's creatives - not only wall art, which is wonderful, with artists like Dan Morley contributing, but clothes, earrings, books & toys, and edible goodies.

Finally: at times like these, creativity & entertainment become even more important, which is why Frome is a genuinely awesome place to live: this week's Frome Times includes as well as positive initiatives in response to Ukraine, ongoing aspects of our town's life: volunteer street tidiers, restorative conversations, appreciations for projects like Window Wanderland & the Kindness Festival, green initiatives for children, drama for adults, music for all, and more. And a connection with nature is also vital, so this week's bulletin will conclude with a couple of images from local walks: one of the lakes on the southern side, and the river path from Frome to Mells. Imagine spring flowers & birdsong...    And... breathe.... 

 

 

The what-week-is-it-now? one

A golden-oldie moment to start with: it's six years now since Bristol Old Vic staged their epic 2-part marathon version of Jane Eyre, directed by Sally Cookson who vividly reimagined the story of a girl who went from poor beginnings to richly traumatic endings, adding music, physicality, and humour all of which made definite improvement to the plot. This wonderful production has been abbreviated for the National Theatre Live online performance to under 3 hours of riveting drama, and was available all last week. Well-judged filming maintained the full-stage special effects, from the dramatic fire (see screenshot) to the delightful jogging-coach journeys, and the growing passion of Mr Rochester (Felix Hayes) for Jane (Madeleine Worrall). These free sessions are well worth checking out if you're missing live theatre.

Rainbow Fish Speak Easy is a regular live poetry event that dynamic and mega-talented Liv Torc hosts in various venues, supported by Take Art, and organising this as a Zoom event on Thursday was an undertaking of major complexity but clearly worth it. Fifty spoken word fans enjoyed two hours of word play - including Liv's invention Haiflu (which has now even reached Womans Hour!), concluding with a reflective piece performed with piano by Chris Redmond and a compilation-poem of audience responses.  'We are a community,' Liv says, 'and this has been a very special night.'

By now, most people will have their own selection from the incredible smörgåsbord of online opportunities opening up like wild garlic over the last few weeks.  Here's a small posy:
Time Out Frome has some excellent music options - Soundcheck has been posting regularly: - there's a storming Nirvana cover from Al OKane here, and Phil Cooper is offering regular live streams where you can join in & chat.  Bath Festivals are offering a range of arty options, including an Andy Warhol exhibition tour, while Bristol Old Vic is offering an Open Stage for your own ideas: "your opportunity to share the things that nourish, encourage and amuse you during isolation - a song that cheers you up, a film you’ve made in your kitchen, a photo of your favourite place, a picture you’ve painted, or a poem that reminds you of someone you love, we want you to share anything that feels important to you during these strange and mood-bending times."  And if you're over 70, you might be eligible to submit to the King Lear contest for poetry, art, drama and fiction.

Last week's stunning sunshine was perfect for  solitary exercise  to enjoy the blossom and bluebells abounding Frome and surrounding villages. My best walk was new route of about nine miles, including tangental explorations: over fields to Nunney, along a river path and farmland to Whatley, and footpaths & lanes via Egford back to Frome. If you don't know the terrain you won't be particularly impressed, but for someone with no sense of direction (viz, me) it was thrilling as well as visually and sensually gorgeous.

Finally: My-Blog-in-lockdown's new spot 'Little-known personality' this week is Robert Noonan, who provides the April caption in the Radical Literary Calendar 2020: "Every man who is not helping to bring about a better state of affairs for the future is helping to perpetuate the present misery, and is therefore the enemy of his own children." Of course he's not actually little known, since under the pen name Robert Tressell he was the author of The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, one of the most influential books ever written. Scarlett and Sophie Rickard, graphic novelists, are creating a graphic deconstruction of Trussell's novel, titled, Self-Made Hero, due publication this autumn. Noonan emigrated from Ireland to England as a young man, then moved to South Africa where he made a good living as a sign writer & decorator, but at that time his radical socialism wasn't strongly in evidence: he joined demonstrations against using skilled black labourers and, like other well-off whites then, had his own black servant. But by 1910 he was back in England, living with his sister and daughter Kathleen, hoping to emigrate to Canada. He died the next year disheartened by failing to find a publisher for his novel, never knowing that Kathleen's continued efforts would eventually find success. The first edition was truncated into a much 'safer' version but in 1955 the full text was published (584 pages of small print in my Penguin copy), becoming an inspiration across the world and literally life-changing for many: Ricky Tomlinson's succinct, honest, credit to 'the book that changed my life' - here - is impressive.

Ghost Town Times

This arts blog could of course do what every other creative option - gigs, plays, art-exhibitions, social get-togethers, writers' meetings - has done and go dark,  but it isn't going to. Instead, it will opine and discuss stuff. Like: 
Social history in the Movies:  Misbehaviour was at Frome's Westway but luckily BBC2 also broadcast their version Miss World 1970 - Beauty Queens and Bedlam.  The Miss World, an annual contest to find which of 58 girls in demi-nudity Bob Hope would drool most lasciviously over, was watched by over 100 million viewers at its peak, and successful contestants had all been white, despite this not being the skin colour of the vast majority of the world's population. What was exciting about this contest was that it was unexpectedly won by black Miss Granada, with 2nd place going a contestant from South Africa - not Miss South Africa, who was white, but Africa South - a new name for an entrant who was not. Also exciting was the disruption of the contest by smoke bombs, water pistols and bags of flour hurled from the audience by a small posse of Women's Liberation protesters. Probably the movie is excellent, but what was particularly interesting in the TV documentary were the interviews with the actual women involved -not just survivors of that post-colonial past but fighting founders of a more equitable present.

Books - naturally. Even if you have piles of unread, & shelves of re-readable, titles, it's still a great chance to top up: here's Hunting Raven Books' dynamic manager Tina Gaisford-Waller, for whom no accolade could be too fulsome, whose emporium last week was officially rated Best Independent Bookshop in the entire Southwest of England.
This Aladdin's cavern of luxurious wordage is also doing home deliveries within two miles, & postal beyond - click the link. (You can get cheese from the market delivered too, along with other goodies! A pretty special place, our town - though the market offer is from Dan's Somerset Deli.)
Sadly, local author Andrew Ziminski's talk at Rook Lane about The Stonemason succumbed to the shut-down but the book continues to cause a stir in the review sections. Not only a fascinating account of his unique experience as a master craftsman, this history of Britain through its stone buildings has a stunningly atmospheric authorial voice: Andrew seems to feel about stone as some do about creatures, mourning that sarsen stones have been 'hunted to extinction', and finding Avebury 'a place to be felt rather than analysed.' I took my copy to Mells churchyard to enjoy a new relationship with stones I've often visited in tribute to Siegfried Sassoon who is buried there, while picnicing quietly on a Co-op meal-deal and perching on a low grave nearby.

Which moves us to Walks, and a reminder of the wonderful series of books about trees by Julian Hight, especially his latest: Britain's Ancient Forest, legacy and lore, which has its own (downloadable) soundtrack Coit Mawr. Frome is within the last patches of Selwood forest, and massively tree-conscious: Here's the one at the start of my walk out of town towards Longleat, with Cley Hill in the background, and also another of my favourites in Stourhead, the heart tree. Stourhead has sadly closed its 'elements' - the follies, temples, and grottos within the garden - but the wider space is still available from public footpaths.

Final recommendation in this somewhat-different cultural round-up: 'online' isn't just wiki and kindle and games, it's an endless source of diversion and information on an ongoing basis. You can sign up for a regular Poem of the Day with the Poetry Foundation, and there's also Brain Pickings, a weekly article on a random literary topic (often fascinating) and Good Reads, the online book club, which includes quotes from recommended books, such as for example The Plague, by that great existentialist writer Albert Camus:

“But what does it mean, the plague? It's life, that's all.” 
“They knew now that if there is one thing one can always yearn for, and sometimes attain, it is human love.”