Cheese & Grain — Restaurant in England

The venue itself is pretty unexceptional on the whole, and the gig had many sound issues, but I also had the misfortune of dealing with the unprofessional and ignorant staff here, namely the manager, back in July 2017 when attending the Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel show.

Granted, the situation itself was a little unusual but, having done some promotional work for Steve, I was kindly added by him to the guest list for a number of his shows over the years, one of which was at the Cheese and Grain. The venue were aware we were on the guest list and we had no issue collecting our tickets from the box office shortly beforehand.

I was informed via email by Steve's team that he would like to say hello after the show, so we waited around by the stage afterwards. I had done this at other venues before and there was never any issue for the staff, who were not necessarily aware of the situation, were perfectly courteous and professional, and, as a result, had no difficulty in checking and authorising backstage access.

However, Frome proved to be a different story altogether. Firstly, the security guard approached us when he saw us waiting around and, after I explained the situation, in turn, he went to get the manager. He approached with a miserable, annoyed expression on his face and, despite my explanation, all he and the security guard (who continued to hover over us) were interested in doing was getting rid of us. The manager was curt and disinterested, had a passive-aggressive tone and completely refused to listen. Not only did we come away bewildered by the whole episode, but Steve was left wondering where we were (his team emailed me the following day and I had to explain). I don't doubt venues have to deal with people 'trying it on' on occasion, but considering we were on the guest list and all that was required was to approach Steve's tour manager, it was a rather appalling way for the venue's team to deal with it.

Fast forward seven years later and, in light of Steve's recent passing, I really regretted not complaining at the time. It was the final time I was able to see the band play live; a memory spoiled by the staff at Frome. For whatever it was worth, I decided to email the manager and provided evidence that we were genuine. To be honest, I never thought I would receive a reply, but a simple apology would not have been out of place. Judging from the silence, he must be the same ignorant individual as he was seven years ago.

Update: Seems the venue had Google remove my review, presumably for mentioning the manager's name, so I've removed those from the review. If he had the decency to reply to my original email, I would not have left this review in the first place. He encouraged another reviewer to get in touch to discuss their review, so what's...

I have been to the 'Cheese and Grain' venue in Frome, Somerset twice in the last year. My mate and I saw 'Airbourne' (supported by 'Gorilla Riot') and more recently 'Massive Wagons' (supported by the 'New Roses' - from Frankfurt). I think in all honesty Airbourne was too heavy metal to play there as the sound wasn't great - bounced off the rounded roof. However, with Massive Wagons and New Roses the sound was was perfect.

It's a great place to see live music in Somerset. Great place to rock. There is an excellent line up of bands of all genres, so do check out their website - I'm sure you'll find something to suit you.

Parking is right outside - plenty of it, and free after 6pm. Perfect.

There are 2 bars in the venue and we've never had to queue for drinks more and a moment or two.

This music venue in super close to the town centre, but is just a few hundred yards (metres) from the shopping area, so you could spend an afternoon wandering the eclectic shops, then have a meal then head over to the venue.

Be warned ... there is no cheese and no grain ... just good live music which we all need a dose of to keep us sane. Don't forget to buy some band merch' as this is how these bands keep going these days - they don't get much from Spotify. Keep rockin' !

Highly...

The venue might be okay, but the cafe/restaurant is over priced for what they serve! The coffee tastes like thinned down instant- and looks like it too. The four pounds charged for a so called Farmers Mini Breakfast is a con, nothing more, nothing less! The egg was congeal and looked like it had been sitting for 15 minutes, the bacon so hard it needed a chisel to break it, the hash brown tasted foul and the sausage was just about the only redeeming point but why were the beans served in a side dish? Why not just use a slightly larger plate? Except this would've highlighted the measly proportions of the so called breakfast, this was a kids size meal and should've been marketed as such. Topped of with indifferent and disorganised staff this place is not high on my list of places to return to either! Colleagues also noted that there was a total lack of condiments or sauces; what sort of dump sells bacon butties but runs out of red and brown sauces and offers lettuce and tomatoes with vinegar as a replacement?? The manager of this place needs a good kick up the backside or better still replacing with somebody who knows what they are doing. I'm still peeved off at wasting £6 on what turned out to be a...