The Cheese and Grain is a live music and arts venue, and a community and education centre, in

Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in eastern Somerset, England. The town is built on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, and centres on the River Frome. The town, about south of Bath, is the largest in the Mendip d ...

, England. The main room has a capacity of over 800 people standing or 500 seated. Built in 1874 as a market hall, it has seen a number of changes of use in its history. The venue is the largest music venue in Somerset and has seen artists such as

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...

and

Joan Armatrading Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, (, born 9 December 1950) is a Kittitian-English singer-songwriter and guitarist. A three-time Grammy Award nominee, Armatrading has also been nominated twice for BRIT Awards as Best Female Artist. She received ...

play there, whilst the

Foo Fighters Foo Fighters are an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1994. Foo Fighters was initially formed as a one-man project by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. Following the success of the eponymous debut album, Grohl (lead vocals, guitar) re ...

and

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

have played secret shows there in 2017 and 2022 respectively.

History

The hall was built in 1874 as a market for farm produce, with a secondary use as a community hall. During the Second World War, the hall became a munitions factory, and was then used as a storage depot for tyres, before being purchased by

Mendip District Council Mendip may refer to: *Mendip District, a local government district of Somerset, England *Mendip Hills, a group of hills in Somerset, England **Mendip Way, a footpath across the Mendip Hills **Mendip TV Mast, a transmitter in the Mendips area *Fores ...

. At the time, Frome Town Council was looking for a replacement for the Market Hall in the town centre, which was due to be demolished; the hall was handed to the Town Council for this purpose in 1996, before being refurbished and opening on 12 September 1998. In 2002, the venue was closed for major improvements and to install soundproofing to lessen noise nuisance to the surrounding area; it reopened ten months later in 2003, with ownership being transferred to an independent charitable trust.

Music venue

The main hall of the venue holds 835 people in standing configuration and 500 seated. As the only medium-sized music venue in the area, it is able to attract well-known artists to play there; apart from those mentioned above, others have included

Hawkwind Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including hard ...

Editors Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

Biffy Clyro Biffy Clyro are a Scottish rock band that formed in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, composed of Simon Neil (guitar, lead vocals), James Johnston (bass, vocals), and Ben Johnston (drums, vocals). Currently signed to 14th Floor Records, they have r ...

Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist f ...

Frank Turner Francis Edward Turner (born 28 December 1981), is an English Punk rock, punk and Folk music, folk singer-songwriter from Meonstoke, Hampshire. He began his career as the vocalist of post-hardcore band Million Dead, then embarked upon a primar ...

and

Public Image Limited In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

. On 24 February 2017, the

announced that they would be headlining

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

that year. As part of the announcement, they secretly hired the Cheese and Grain and played a surprise show that night, selecting most of the ticket-holders from people on their mailing list living in a 50-mile radius of Frome. In 2022,

was headlining the Saturday night at Glastonbury, and on the preceding Thursday announced a show at the venue on the following night. Tickets had to be purchased from the venue, causing traffic gridlock in the town.

Other events and facilities

Like its earlier incarnation, the Cheese and Grain held farmer's markets every month, although in 2022 the market relocated to the nearby Boyle Cross after a drop in patronage after the Covid pandemic. Other commercial events, such as flea markets and antiques fairs, are regularly held. The venue can also hold smaller events such as meetings up to 30 people in its mezzanine area. There is a cafe and bar which serves food and drink during the venue's opening times.

References

External links

The Cheese & Grain website
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