Last night in an almost overloaded Village Hall we had a great final concert. We were told it might well be that the Framfield Village Hall has never been filled with so many people before on an event like this. We'll head for home in a few minutes looking back on a great tour once again!

Thanks to Graham Pope, Chris Martin, Robin and Anabelle Marten for making this tour possible again! And to all of our fans over here who have made this a great tour for us, thank you and we'll see you again in July!

Wednesday was relaxed and peacefull, we had a private party here at the estate, including a lovely dinner. Thank you again Robin and Annabelle! Thursday was our day off. We drove down to Colts Hill, near Tunbridge Wells to visit Pamela's musical Instruments museum and shop. We were hoping to find some interesting instruments there. The house was hidden away on the side of a pretty busy road and we drove past it at first. Eventually we managed to park our van and we were welcomed by Pamela herself. Unfortunately the shop was not big enough to fit more that 2 people in so while Sjoerd was in there the rest of us waited outside. Lucky for us the weather was not to bad :) In the 2m x 2m shop a huge amount of instruments hung from the ceiling in several bunches, five or six instruments together on one hook. More instruments and cases were piled up against the walls. We were sort of shocked actually since all of the instruments were in very bad shape, some of them had holes drilled in the necks to hang them off the ceiling. There were some potentially interesting pieces in the collection but we felt they were all ready for the waste bin. Quite dissapointed we drove off again.

Then we visited the High Rocks somewhere halfway between Uckfield and Tunbridge Wells. A small crag leads to a small valley like area where some high rocks (duh) can be seen. You can walk inbetween them, walk over them with small ladders and bridges. It was nice to see and soon we got over our disappointment about Pamela's music store.

We spent the evening watchin the new Wolverine movie in the Uckfield Movie House which was well worth our time. Although the film itself is not the best ever made we had a great time.

Yesterday (Friday) we spent the day reheasing and making some nice new band pics here on the estate. When you walk around here you can see fields of bluebells as far as the eye can see, its very impressive and we thought it would make a nice backdrop for some promotional pictures. We'll post one on our website as soon as we have them finished!

The gig at the Wellington in Seaford was nice, a good crowd came in to see us. It was nice to be back again and smell the sea, meet Chris Martin again and see some familiar faces in the crowd. We'll be back in Seaford on July 17 for a concert at the Constitutional Club and later in September for the Seaford Live festival.

Tonight we will have our final concert at Framfield Village Hall. Almost all of the 150 tickets have been sold, some 10 or 15 are still available though Graham Pope ( http://www.gpmusicpromotions.com ). Tomorrow we will finally head back to the lowlands, looking back to a very successful tour!

Some final comments out of an official review following the Brighton Fringe gig on monday:

Harmony Glen is:

"Irish Music with a twist"
"A pint of the Black Stuff [ Guinness (red) ] with a drop of Red Bull"
"Folk not for the faint of heart" 

We have been disconnected from the internet for a while, but here's a short update! Bolebroke Castle where we played Sunday night turned out not to be in the best state a castle should be, which was a shame because the outside of the castle was very nice to see. Unfortunately it looked like it could use a major restauration inside. Still it was nice to have played in one of Henry VIII's former hunting lodges.

Monday was our Brighton Fringe gig, which was sold out. Unfortunately the setting up of the PA didn't go as fast as needed so the whole show started an hour late. Our support for that night was Cargo, a local country-style band who did a very nice set and got the audience warmed up very well! Our first set was a big success, during our opening tune ( Ploughman's Lunch ) people allready started dancing and they didn't stop until the very last note that night had faded. The whole room was swinging and clapping constantly and everybody had a great time! The second set was no different, although some people had to work early the next morning and since we had started an hour late, they were forced to leave during the break. But Those who stayed danced untill their feet fell off, including our own agent Graham. It was an amazing party for all of us.

Tuesday we played at the Amberley Folk Club held in the Black Horse Inn, a nice and quiet pub in the beauti- and peaceful town of Amberley. A good many people came to the Inn that night and we had a nice and full room. The atmosphere was peacefull, the audience was really appreciative, listening thoroughly to every note we played. A wonderful atmosphere, so different from Monday night, but so good. We will be back at the Amberley Folk Club soon for sure! Tonight we will play some tunes at a private party here at the estate and then tomorrow, finally, our real night off!

We'll keep you posted!

Saturday morning started off as usual, with the sun going up and all... Eventually we convinced ourselves we couldn't stay in bed forever. Or at least we probably shouldn't. Besides, Graham had planned for us to go to Brighton and do some promotional work for our gig on Monday night at the Latest Musicbar (formerly the Joogleberry Inn). We were quite amazed he managed to get us a place in the FringeCity Showcase where acts do a short performance to promote their gigs, since the Brighton Fringe is Englands biggest cultural festival and those showcase spots are usually booked even before you can book them. Kudos Graham!

We played a powerful set on the FringeCity stage, within minutes the square was packed with people enjoying the sun and our music. Brighton is a city that's almost always buzzing with cultural and artistic activity but during the Fringe it's an Artists Mecca really. Performances everywhere, people dressed up in the most outragious costumes and music on every street corner. A must see. We got our audience clapping and singing along and we had a great time. We're hoping to get the Latest Musicbar filled to the brim and have a huge Irish party on Monday night! If you're interested in partying with us, some tickets are still available from the festival office or through GP Musicpromotions.

Today we will spend mostly on rehearsing and arranging new songs and tunes. Around 4 PM we'll head for Hartfield, the home of Whinny the Pooh. We'll play at the famous Bolebroke Castle, where Henry VIII courted Anne Boleyn some hundreds of years ago. Its a beautiful tudor house, used by Henry VIII as one of his hunting refuges and we're told that some of the guests will be dressed in tudor style clothing. Back in history tonight! It's a private party, but we'll tell you about it tomorrow.

We slept in friday morning and when all of us finally had rolled out of bed we tried to put together the Ultimate Setlist. Two sets with a thought-through build-up of songs and tunes. We categorized our songs and tunes into groups and carefully laid out our plan for this Ultimate Setlist. We will try it out tonight at the Rotherfield Village Hall and let you know what the outcome is tomorrow! We spent the rest of the day rehearsing and ended up in the Hare and Hounds where we played some tunes together. Eventually we were playing blues improvisations when a  bluesharp player joined in. We had good fun! Today we will do some promotional activities in Brighton, maybe even some busking, since the weather is great and its always fun to just play out in the streets, no strings attached ( metaphorically speaking of course).

Hoping to be able to get the pictures working again very soon, so you can see what it's like over here !

We managed not to miss the boat again! This time we made it easy for ourselves though - we didn't book in advance. Travelling in two cars this time ( the Harmony Van and the BassWheelz Vehicle) the journey was quite relaxed. The traditional session on the boat was cold but nice, some personell of Norfolkline noticed us playing which resulted in our picture and a small story probably being published in the Norfolkline magazine.

We arrived in Framfield around 8 PM where we met our agent Graham in the Hare and Hounds. That little bar seems to change owners every 6 months, the new owner is a Mighty Jolly Maroccan guy named Raff, who introduced some shooters to the Hare and Hounds menu with illusterous names such as "Sex with me", "Blowjob" and "Slippery Nipple" which created some quite interesting conversations that night and will probably increase the amount of hits on this website from now on. Thank you Raff!

We were taken to our hosts for this tour, Robin and Anabelle. It was dark when we arrived here but the next morning - okay, afternoon - when we woke up we realised we were at a genuine, typical English Estate, some 300 acres of beautiful landscape and gardens with the house we're sleeping in right in the center. We're feeling like kings and queens here!

The gig at the G-Spot music club in Uckfield was nice although we felt we still needed warming up a bit... not everything went as smooth as we would have wanted, but the audience enjoyed the show and back at the house we felt content and we feel we have a good tour ahead of us.

Tonight we will probably get back to the Hare and Hounds for some songs and tunes with some local musicians, some Pints and of course the occasional Blowjob...

(PS: Alex, I did have that pint for ya, it was good! And will have another one tonight. - Vincent)

 From Wednesday April 29 we'll try to post an update on our UK Tour every day on this page...