Friday Night - The Pelham Arms - Lewes

We played in Lewes tonight. It’s just inland of the coastal town of Brighton. We left early enough to tour around Brighton some. The day was overcast and somewhat cold. You could feel the ocean air chilling things down a bit. I got to see an old castle from the mid- 18th century. I don’t remember which king lived there for awhile, but one did.

What makes this castle unique is that it doesn’t really look like a castle. It’s called the Royal Pavilion and it is an odd configuration of eastern and middle- eastern architecture. It looked a bit out of place, like it belonged more in old Siam or something. Evidently this particular king loved the eastern and middle- eastern cultures and had this built to those specs. That’s what I was told in the bar tonight anyway, so take it as you will.

After touring around a little we headed just out of town to a sleepier berg named Lewes and the hotel-pub, the Pelham Arms. We had a full house tonight – a little loud like a bar crowd, but into it. We sold a handful of CD’s. I am still struggling greatly to sing without coughing up a lung, but the crowd appreciated me doing a few songs for them and then backing Briana’s album set. I have had several discussions (as you can imagine) about lung infections in the UK and evidently this is a virulent one going around that antibiotics don’t help much. Most people I’ve talked with that have had the similar run as me; have had to wait it out a month or more to kick it …. that’s lovely!

I did have a few folks come up to me that were familiar with my MySpace page and some of the songs – that was a nice little extra. We also had friend (Terry) come out to see us again. He was at the 2nd gig back in Maidstone.

We have found in general that venues here do a much better job of getting the word out than do venues in the states. Also, crowds seem to educate themselves on the artist, at least by visiting websites ahead of time. We did 2-45min sets with a break in the middle and then headed back two hours or so to our Basingstoke hub.

We head out to Cambridge tomorrow afternoon for the last stop on the tour – a venue called Acoustic Routes. We have been looking forward to this one as it is a high profile folk room. I don’t know what I’ll have in terms of a voice tomorrow (well I kind of do), but the plan will be to “leave it all on the field” as they say!

Thanks or your continued interest in my travels and music.

Peace,

Mark