» The List Recommends

Walter Trout

Cheese & Grain, January 21st, 7.20pm, £31.50

Walter Trout’s back story is a page turner you won’t want to put down. Five decades in the making, it is equal parts thriller, romance, suspense and horror. There are musical fireworks, critical acclaim and fists-aloft triumph, offset by wilderness years and brushes with the jaws of narcotic oblivion. There are fêted early stints as gunslinger in bands from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers to Canned Heat, and the solo career that’s still blazing a quarter century later. 14+ (under 16s must be accompanied by an adult)

Slow Time: Somerset Re-acquainted Tour

Black Swan Arts, preview: January 14th, 6-8pm

As part of the final chapter of the Somerset Reacquainted tour, a new exhibition of solargraphs at Black Swan Arts explores the passing of time. ‘Slow Time’ is the result of a project recording the passage of time initiated during the first lockdown. Led by Somerset Solagraphic Society, set up by artists Janette Kerr and John Gammans, and supported by Somerset Art Works, this extraordinary exhibition features long-exposure photographs of the Somerset landscape, using nothing more than recycled drinks cans made into pinhole cameras.

Over 100 participants placed 150 pinhole cameras containing light-sensitive material in locations around Somerset and left them in situ for five or six months. The resulting images have been slowly shaped by landscape and the movement of the sun, slowly creeping higher with the passing of the seasons. The actions of the environment, like rain and other elemental detritus, have also found their way into the images, yet there is an absence of any moving objects, such as people, animals or cars. The sun’s progress is recorded as an accumulation of lines arcing and streaking across the image, leaving a ghostly exposure of the landscape seen in slow time and out of phase with human inhabitants. As the pandemic unfolds, our perception of time is challenged as daily routines, plans and schedules are laid to waste. Suddenly, not having to be anywhere means that we have no option but to be present - present in the eerie stillness of life, we start to reflect and take stock, find new ways to spend our time, and begin to notice those elements that ordinarily pass us by unnoticed.

Part of the Somerset Re-acquainted Tour, the solargraphs are being shown alongside a collaborative book, initial ‘sharings’ and objects from the project contributed by 63 artist members from Somerset Art Works.

For further information, please visit www.blackswanarts.org.uk www.somersetartworks.org.uk.

PRESENTED BY

SOM ER S E T R E A CQ U A I NT ED T OU R S L O W T I M E

BY SOME R SE T SOL A R G R AP HIC SOC I E T Y

CHEESEANDGRAIN.COM MARKET YARD . JUSTICE LANE FROME . BA11 1BE WESSEX MODEL RAILWAY EXHIBITION

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ABSOLUTE BOWIE

FRIDAY 14TH JAN | 8PM DOORS £18.50 ADV (+SERVICE CHARGE)

FROME WEDDING FAIR

SUNDAY 16TH JAN | 10:30AM

WALTER TROUT

FRIDAY 21ST JAN | 7:30PM DOORS £31.50 ADV (+ SERVICE CHARGE)

MARK ‘BILLY’ BILLINGHAM

WEDNESDAY 26TH JAN 7PM DOORS £23.50 ADV (+ SERVICE CHARGE)

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FRIDAY 28TH JAN | 8PM DOORS £21.50 ADV (+ SERVICE CHARGE)

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Mark ‘Billy’ Billingham

Cheese & Grain, January 26th, 7pm, £23.50

An evening with Mark ‘Billy’ Billingham, TV’s most experienced, highest ranking and most decorated SAS leader. Billy is a former SAS Sergeant Major Class 1 and bodyguard to the stars, including Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Russell Crowe. This is a chance to learn more about Billy’s career and life first hand. There will also be a Q & A at the end and a chance to meet Billy. Age requirements: 14+

Sunday Morning Concert: Laefer Quartet

Rook Lane, January 30th, 11.30am

Frome Concert Group presents Laefer Quartet, an outstanding saxophone quartet. In 2017, the Laefer Saxophone Quartet delighted the Rook Lane audience. This time, expect an exciting programme with transcriptions of Farkas and Stravinsky, and original works for saxophone quartet by Guillermo Lago and Joel Love. The Laefer Quartet is widely regarded as one of the most exciting and dynamic saxophone quartets currently performing in the UK. They have been recipients of numerous awards including Park Lane Group Artists, the Elias Fawcett Ensemble Award for an Outstanding Ensemble in the 2017 Royal OverSeas League Competition, and are Making Music Selected Artists. Formed in 2012 at the Royal College of Music, they were awarded the Boconnoc Music Award during their time there, and have since been performing across the UK at numerous venues, including The Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room, St. James’s Piccadilly, and The Forge, Camden.

Leopoldstadt

Merlin Theatre, January 27th, 7pm

Filmed live in front of an audience at the Wyndham’s Theatre in London Regarded as ‘Britain’s greatest living playwright’ (Times), Academy and Tony Awardwinner Tom Stoppard’s critically acclaimed new play Leopoldstadt is a passionate drama of love, family and endurance.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Leopoldstadt was the old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna, Austria. Hermann Merz, a factory owner and baptised Jew, now married to Catholic Gretl, has moved up in the world. We follow his family’s story across half a century, passing through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. A company of 40 actors represents each generation of the family in this epic, but intimate play. Filmed live on stage in London’s West End, ‘Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece is magnificent’ (Independent) and should not be missed.

AUSTRALIAN INFLUENCED CAFE

FREE coffee when you buy a breakfast bowl this January. JUICE CLEANSES available to order - drop in to enquire. superfood smoothies, cold press juices, river roasters coffee, poke bowls, bROTH bowls, acai smoothie bowls, sweet treats.

private catering available nooktheshop.co.uk 01373 471368

14 king st frome ba11 1bh @nooktheshop TUE-sat 8:30-4 A Happy New Year from all at Hunting Raven! Come and enjoy a New Year browse (and buy all those books you hinted about but didn’t receive for Christmas) Still isolating? Call 01373 473111 or email winstonebooks3@gmail.com with your order and we will deliver We accept National Book Tokens

RISE – A Hive of Creative Activity

RISE Frome will be opening their doors to welcome back their wonderful classes and workshops for the new year. There is something for everyone, from pilates and yoga to classes for children and babies, Tai Chi, Soul Flow Systema and Qigong.

The Whittox Gallery continues with its beautiful exhibition by Somerset Printmakers, showcasing the latest work from the professional artists who are members of this renowned group, including Julia Manning, Cath Bloomfield, Gail Mason, Bron Bradshaw, Jenny Graham, Judy Willoughby, Sebastian Chance, Sue Lowe, Tony Martin, Pennie Elfick, Jane Mowat and Stéphanie Max. The new gallery shop, situated in the heart of RISE, is becoming a firm favourite on the Frome shopping scene, and will soon be launching its new online shop in the new year. Unique artwork from the gallery’s latest exhibitions will be on sale, as well as curated pieces from previous artists who have exhibited in the gallery, a stunning collection of gifts from local makers and designers, and carefully chosen books. For further information on classes, upcoming exhibitions, and to see the new online shop, go to: www.risefrome.com

Call to Artists

For Frome Open Art Trail 2022

The Frome Open Art Trail is inviting artists from Frome and the surrounding villages to apply for the 2022 trail, which will run from 2nd - 10th July alongside the ever-popular Frome Festival. Artists, makers and designers from all disciplines are encouraged to find venues, use their house or studio,

Kerchief Theatre and aKa Dance Theatre

Merlin Theatre, January 15th, 7.30pm Two shows in one ticket: Frome’s own Kerchief Theatre and their new friends from Taunton aKa Dance provide an energetic evening of familyfriendly entertainment brimming with hope and joy.

aKa has been whipping up a storm across Somerset with its dance theatre piece A Real Fiction, filled with fun, funk and foam bananas! You can expect the unexpected as you lose yourself in other people’s memories in a hyperactive mix of dance, theatre, mime and pop culture. Loaded with current affairs, childhood nostalgia and one-hit wonders, this work has been co-created with the community, for the community.

Kerchief has also been entertaining audiences across the county with Boxes, a dynamic piece of theatre about the need for, and value of, hope. Two actors use storytelling, TikTok dances and sea shanties to build a world on stage that is sometimes silly, sometimes serious, and which explores our experience of challenging times, along with the role that hope has to play in getting us through.

or join in with others in a shared space, and apply to take part. Over the last few years the Art Trail has grown in both strength and reputation. It attracts a large number of art lovers who appreciate the opportunity of meeting, and buying directly from, the artist.

Online applications will be open from 2nd January - 27th February. For further information about the event and to apply go to www.fromeopenarttrail. co.uk or email info@frome-open-art-trail.co.uk