visual radio arts – devizine.com

Frome’s Cheese & Grain will host a celebration of the life of local music promoter Phil Moakes, who sadly passed away last July, aged just 66…

Party at the End of the World will be on Sunday 10th May and will be a special event in celebration of Phil’s life, alongside his family and friends. The evening features a fantastic line-up, including The Utopia Strong, Arch Garrison, Richard, Chantelle & Amy, Kavus Torabi, Thee Jolly Rotter, Hodmadoddery, and Sara Vian, and will be hosted by Martin Dimery.

Kavus Torabi fronted Gong, one of Phil’s favourite bands, The Utopia Strong are from Glastonbury with professional snooker player Steve Davis, and Sara Vian was one of many presenters at Phil’s Visual Radio Arts project.

Phil Moakes was a keen musician, and played keys in local bands throughout the seventies and eighties, including The Replacements and Wasted Space. For Frome he would become not only a legendary music promoter and media broadcaster, but a prominent community leader advocating the arts. He served as a Somerset County Councillor, founded Frome FM, and was a former Chair of the Cheese and Grain Board of Trustees.

“Phil played a pivotal role in the development of the Cheese and Grain,” a spokesperson for the Cheese & Grain said, “and was instrumental in securing the venue’s long-term future during some of its most challenging years. His dedication, leadership, and belief in the venue and its staff helped shape it into the vibrant cultural hub it is today.”

Phil Moakes’ last vision was a project called Visual Radio Arts, which started as a Frome FM project in 2016, and independently branched out to create promotional gig videos for artists from Frome’s Old Fire Station. It was in 2021 when I first met Phil, having relocated with his family to Royal Wotton Bassett, he had moved the studio to Bath Road in Devizes.

In the lockdown era musicians took to streaming gigs from their homes, often amateurly and with varying results. Visual Radio Arts offered a professional option, to capture bands live, akin to The Old Grey Whistle Test, and many artists took up the offer to perform.

Being new to the area, I think Phil wanted me to suggest local acts who might like to be hosted on Visual Radio Arts. Anyone I namedropped were already on Phil’s radar, but it didn’t stop us having a passionate and lengthy chat about the local music scene. Questioning Phil on the financial structure of Visual Radio Arts was all quite vague; it seemed his only motivation was the promotion of the musicians.

“We remain profoundly grateful for Phil’s vision, support,” The Cheese & Grain continued, “and the lasting legacy he leaves behind, not only within the Cheese and Grain, but across the wider Frome community. In celebration of his life and in honour of this legacy, all funds raised from the event will be donated to support the vital work of Fair Frome.”

Fair Frome is a foodbank charity offering sustainable services and support, raising awareness of the issues of poverty across Frome.

Party at the end of the world – A celebration of Phil Moakes

I’m enjoy Monday’s stream from the wonderful Visual Radio Arts, recorded right here in Devizes. They’ve been hosting some great shows recently, from Richard Wileman and Amy Fry, John Watterson, and the Honey Pot. This week was the turn of west country folk-rock band Courting Ghosts……

The first band I managed to catch at last year’s Bradford Roots Festival at the Wiltshire Music Centre, though I have to admit, I was still finding my way around, like a little lost first year on his first day at big school!

These ghosts literally came out of the recording studio last week, nailing their debut album and entering the mixing stage. Contributors to the album includes David Moss playing fiddle, Holly Carter on pedal steel, and Lorna from Fly Yeti Fly adding vocals to a track called I Closed My Eyes. We can’t wait to hear it!

If you go direct to Visual Radio Arts you can check out the interview they did, standard protocol at Phil’s place. There’s also countless past streams archived there. What else you going to do on a winter weekday evening, watch reruns of Homes Under the Hammer?!