Frome Times Past- When Joni came to Frome

For many people, Frome was put on the musical map when the Foo Fighters played their secret gig at the Cheese & Grain in 2017.

However, over the years the town has been host to many equally well-known musicians who have either played its venues or recorded nearby. One of the latter was Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi, Both Sides Now, Woodstock – who stayed in Frome for a time in the late 1980s.

While her fourth studio album, Blue, is often cited as one of the greatest of all-time, it is the thirteenth that connects her with this area.

Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm was released in 1988 and recordings for several of the songs off the album took place the previous year in Bath and nearby Beckington.  It was during this period that Joni and her then husband, Larry Klein, who co-produced the album with his wife, lived in a house within the town.

An interview the nine-time Grammy award winner gave to promote the album name-checks Frome and dates her sojourn here from January to mid-June 1987.

The first track completed was a duet with Peter Gabriel, called My Secret Place, which was recorded at his home studio (pre-Real World) at Woolley, in Bath.

Other songs were then recorded at the sadly now demised Wool Hall Studio, in Beckington, located in the village’s Church Street.

As its name would suggest, it was originally a sixteenth century storage place for wool but was converted into a recording studio by pop group Tears For Fears.

After recording their Songs From The Big Chair album they opened the studio out for other artists to use and it was during this period that Joni Mitchell recorded there.

Other artists who took advantage of the studio’s facilities included Paul Weller, Van Morrison (who would later also own it), Annie Lennox and The Pretenders.

The Smiths recorded their final album, Strangeways, Here We Come, there and after they split up, it was also responsible for Morrissey’s first solo one, Viva Hate.

As for Joni, Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm would be Grammy nominated for ‘Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female’ but lose out to Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car. And although her marriage to Klein would end in 1994, during their making of the album Turbulent Indigo, it would win for Joni the Grammy for Best Pop Album.

Mick Davis and David Lassman.