I just got off the phone from a chat with Gail at The Gade & Goose in Galley Hill, Hemel Hempstead. We confirmed that The Harper Brothers will play on Friday June 1st 2012. This fits in with the Herftfordshire leg of the tour perfectly as we have Berkhamsted SkinFest on Saturday 2nd June and The Oddfellows Arms on Sunday 3rd June.

The Official Pub Guide says,

“The Gade and Goose is an estate pub situated in Hemel Hempstead. They serve a full selection of draught beers, wine and spirits for your enjoyment.”

“With its great atmosphere and warm and friendly welcome this makes it a fantastic place for everyone one to be, young or old.”

“There is a lovely beer on the premises, which is a great place to enjoy a refreshing drink in the summer months and with disabled access and a car park also on the premises this makes The Gade and Goose easily accessible for all. The entertainment nights are excellent, and are always a great success; so make sure you join us for a good time. Come on down and join us for a drink, we are sure you will enjoy every minute.”

I’m really looking forward to this gig as it is very near to where I used to live in Berkhamsted. On a side note, if anybody knows how to get hold of guitarist and ex-Harper Brother, Andy Horn from The Waveney, please ask him to get in touch we would love to have him guest on a few songs.

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The Gade & Goose
Galley Hill
Hemel Hempstead
Hertfordshire
HP1 3LB
Tel: 01442 253 477

We have another gig confirmed for The Harper Brothers UK Tour 2012. This is the Wednesday night, May 30th, 2012, which is in the middle of the tour. This is at Café René in Gloucester. This is Ash’s home town, so we’ll probably get to pop round to see his mum for a cup of tea too.  I had a quick look on Google Maps to see what it was all about and I quite liked this review:

“Best pub in Gloucester: By far and away the best pub in Gloucester. This is inarguable. Not full of absolute chavvy morons with IQ’s of under 50, like the rest of the pubs in Gloucester.”

another one said:

“Nice to have somewhere that caters for both younger drinkers and older diners. Liked: Food, Service, Atmosphere, Value, Delicious food, Good price”

Café René
31 Southgate Street,
Gloucester
GL1 1TP,
United Kingdom
+44 1452 309340 ‎

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Yesterday another gig was added and confirmed for the UK Tour 2012. This is the night after Berkhamsted Skinfest, so hopefully a few Berko people will come along if they have not had enough of us on the Saturday night. I think the last time The Harper Brothers played at The Oddfellows was about 2001, so it should be yet another trip down memory lane. I think it will be good if you get there at about 8pm.

The Oddfellows Arms, Hemel Hempstead, Herts HP3 9SP, Tel: 01442 249338

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Our mate Ben The Man asked us to put his poster for his new site here. This is a good place to go to find out what is happening in Serre Chevalier, from a bloke with his finger firmly on the pulse.

The gig at Berkhamsted SkinFest is now confirmed. More information about SkinFest Here!

At the moment organizer Paul ‘Skinner’ Foreman is trying to get us a gig for the day before as well, which would be great, so fingers crossed about that.

If you read about the history of The Harper Brothers, you will see why this may also be advertised as ‘The Going Underground Band” or “The Underground Band”. Torchy Harper had a live music pub in Berkhamsted called ‘Going Underground’ until it mysteriously burnt down 20 years ago.

Skinfest is held at Berkhamsted Football Club.
Berkhamsted Football Club Ltd
Broadwater,
Lower Kings Road,
Berkhamsted,
HP4 2AA United Kingdom
+44 1442 865977

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Paul 'Skinner' Foreman

It is now confirmed that The Harper Brothers will be playing at Berkhamsted SkinFest on June 2nd 2012. This is going to be a great summer Saturday night in Berko, please come along if you are in the area.

Some information from Paul ‘Skinner’ Foreman:

Skinfest is the 4th Cancer Research Charity Event held at Berkhamsted Football club, it’s held in the clubhouse and prices of alcohol are at club prices which helps, there’s never been any entrance fee before and unlikely that we’ll do it any different this time.

Berkhamsted Skinfest

We send a couple of girls with buckets collecting whatever people are willing to donate, in all, I’d say I’ve given around 4000 pound to the charity keeping nothing for any expenses. The football club itself has been struggling to stay afloat for a few years now, they’ve been burgled a couple of times and having these events has always helped them too, last time around 3200 spent over the bar, a record for them at the time.

The place opens around midday, bands start around 4 going on until 11.30.

The first UK gig apart from the Wedding itself on Friday 25th May 2012 is now confirmed.

I’m personally very excited about this, partly because I have never been to Melton Mowbray and also because apparently it has the best pint of Marstons Pedigree in Melton. Nice.

The Generous Briton‎ can be found at:

11 King Street
Town Centre, Melton Mowbray LE13 1XA, United Kingdom
01664 563 842

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Well the site is looking a bit better now, The Facebook Page has over 70 fans so I think all is well. Now then I’m looking for some ideas for a nice long thin header, to go up the top there…any suggestions? Please comment below. (please note that we do have to manually approve comments, just the first time, so there might be a delay before it appears)

Harper Sister-in-Law, Mary and Dave

There is an English tour planned for May/June 2012. This is coming about because we’ve agreed to our 1st and only wedding for Colin’s sister, Mary and her feller Dave in Melton Mowbray at the end of May. Because we are stupid we are doing it for free, so we have to find other poorly paid gigs to cover the cost. If you can be any help, i.e. know of a venue call us. Other than that, keep an eye on the pages for more details.

To follow we have photos, videos and tracks from our albums and live shows. Take a look and hopefully we will see you at a gig soon.

Thanks

Torchy Harper

“Le Central”, Briançon, with Mike Sukov on the right, a former Harper Brother

The Station Bar in Chantemerle is going well, in fact so well we’re buying another one in May 2012 which is also a live music bar in Briançon, France, called “The Central”, so expect more from this. Briançon is about 4km from Chantemerle

Joe Limbrick

Having built a recording studio in Serre Chevalier, France, the new project is to write and arrange original material for a new young band including Torchy’s son, Joe, now 17.

The idea is we get the cash and for the young lads, they get the fame and the women. Sounds good all round, let’s hope so and keep an eye on these pages and our Facebook page for news of that.