The Stranglers at the Frome Festival
14th July 2007 8pm Cheese & Grain Code: 1417
Author: Sam Holliday, Standard & Guardian Series
THIS year's excellent Frome Festival has seen many great shows, but surely none of them could have been greeted with the same rapture as Saturday night's sell-out Cheese and Grain event. For that was the night that legendary punk act The Stranglers came, saw and conquered the town.
The band - who formed in 1974 - are going through a fantastically creative period in their varied career and the enthusiastic reaction in Frome bore witness to the respect they now engender, wherever they play.
Much of the praise for this exciting phase in the band's development must go to a man who has made Frome his home - lead guitarist and singer Baz Warne.
Since Baz joined the band, the group have produced their two best albums for more than 20 years and his powerful live performances have given the band a whole new zest.
During the gig, powerhouse bassist JJ Burnel made sure all the audience was aware of Baz's allegiance to Frome and said that as a result of the performance, Baz had earned the right to have free drinks in the town for the next few months. And I will drink to that!
From the opening bars of fans' favourite Toiler On The Sea to the last dramatic finale of the much-loved classic No More Heroes, they never let up for a second.
The band carefully split their set between songs that their fans especially cherish - Relentless, Straighten Out, Thrown Away, for example - and well-known hits such as Always The Sun, Walk On By and Golden Brown to produce a balanced and thrilling set.
The performance was first class from start to finish, but the audience also played their part.
The Stranglers are famed for having a ludicrously loyal travelling fan base - and I speak as someone who has seen them, ahem, 60 times - but even those for whom this was their first ever Stranglers gig clearly got into the swing of things, and by the end of the night most people were sweating and smiling in equal proportions.
The other big winners were Frome and the Cheese and Grain itself. Both were given the big thumbs up from those travelling fans and, as a result, let us hope it won't be the last time this enduringly exciting band tread the boards here.
So, if you do see Baz in Frome, tell him he is very welcome to come and play again - and buy him that free pint while you're at it. He's earned it.
Sam Holliday / Standard & Guardian Series, Editor in Chief
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