Frome Festival Fundraising Gig – Sat 30 Nov 2024

Alberta Cross, along with the up-and-coming local bands Something Moves and BroccoliBoy, performed at a charity gig on Saturday 30th November at 23 Bath St. All part of a new generation of vibrant and talented musicians calling Frome home, they are helping raise funds to support the costs of running the annual Frome Festival in July.

Swedish-born Alberta Cross frontman, Petter Ericson Stakee, played an intimate solo set of his anthemic Americana-tinged songs, hot on the heels of his latest UK tour. Alberta Cross has toured extensively across the globe as a headline act and has supported bands such as Oasis, Mumford & Sons, Johnny Marr and Neil Young. They have also appeared in the USA as musical guests on The Late Show with David Letterman and their tracks have featured on hit TV shows Sons of Anarchy and Californication.

Something Moves, the latest project from Chris Briden and friends Matt Ball and Al McNamara, blends influences reminiscent of Radiohead and Nick Drake, resulting in layered, textural, and introspective music. As a primarily studio-based band, this offered a rare opportunity to catch them live. Chris has been a successful musician for many years, with distribution deals and festival slots. Raised in Dorset and spending most of his career in Manchester, Chris settled in Frome a few years ago, starting Something Moves as a solo lockdown recording project. Matt and Al then became part of the writing and creative process further developing the sound.

And BroccoliBoy are a young indie pop trio known for their heartfelt and infectious melodies. Frontman Ted met bassist Eli when they were both working at the Cheese & Grain Bar, whilst drummer Rob has known Ted since ACM music college in Guildford. They recently supported Entitled Sons on the main stage at the Cheese & Grain and are steadily gaining an enthusiastic following.

BroccoliBoy’s bass player, Eli White, who was born and raised in Frome, shared, “I have such fond memories of the Frome Festival from my childhood – The Food Feast especially. I have a very vivid memory of getting up on the stage, when it was held in the town centre, after all the music had finished and pretending I was in one of the bands!” Eli continued, “I’m very thankful to have been brought up in Frome as it is genuinely an amazing place to live. The opportunities for creatives of all ages here to share, learn and grow are immense. The Frome Festival is one of the main reasons for this as it inspires so many people every year, without the Festival we would lose such a big platform to showcase all of the amazing talent we hold in this town so I believe it’s very important to do everything we can to keep it running for many more years to come.”

Petter from Alberta Cross said of supporting this fundraiser, “I love Frome Festival. It makes the town come alive! I also love the diversity of it with so many different cultural events and music gigs in the short time it runs. It is important for the town and will and should keep building.” He added, “I remember when we just moved here and the Festival was on, we walked through town quite late in the evening after dinner and heard flamenco guitar music coming from the Silk Mill so we stopped in and caught the end of the show and I just remember thinking how amazing that felt to have these kind of things happen in my new hometown.” Petter travels extensively for his work but enjoys coming back to Frome, which he describes as “a small cosy town with a lot to offer, located in one of the most beautiful parts of the world.”

Ted Prendergast, who provides vocals, guitar and ukulele for BroccoliBoy, remarked, “Frome Festival is a time to celebrate all things Frome and all the diversely creative and unique people we have living here. My parents took part in Hidden Gardens for the first time this year and loved it!”. He added that the band supported the fundraiser because “we believe in the importance of keeping these brilliant creative opportunities alive,” emphasising, “There is a massive community spirit here and I haven’t seen anything quite like it anywhere else!”

Chris Briden of Something Moves concurred, “Festivals are a really important way to celebrate community and be part of your local area. Without them, life is just a little bit more grey. Frome is a fantastic place to be creative, and offers more than your average Somerset town, but you can’t take this kind of opportunity for granted, and we want to make sure we hold the door open for loads more artists and bands, writers and creatives who come after us.” Chris noted, “Opportunities like this are more important than ever with many live music venues and festivals closing down”.

Our small Festival team are hard at work preparing for next year’s programme, taking place on Friday 4th – Sunday 13th July 2025, with fundraising also playing an important role during the year. Frome Festival is a registered charity that must fundraise £35k per year to deliver the programme and with recent cuts to arts funding, the environment is increasingly difficult.

We would like to extend our thanks to the performers for their incredible contributions. We also want to acknowledge the venue, 23 Bath St, which will be closing its doors for the last time after the New Year due to the challenging economic climate. This venue has been a true champion of live music over the years, and its closure will leave a significant void in the Frome community. We encourage everyone to visit and support 23 Bath St and its bar before it closes, helping them to go out on a high note!

All proceeds supported Frome Festival Ltd. (Charity Number – 1120329)