SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 1999

Hi everybody, sincere apologies for not writing this journal sooner. We have been on the road almost nonstop throughout this last period and have had difficulty finding the time between concerts and promo, etc. We are writing this as we travel on our tour bus from Kansas City to San Francisco. There are 11 of us touring between the full band, sound and lights. Fionnuala is the only girl and looks forward to some girl company when we finally finish this tour in November!!

To recap on last couple of months ... Rolf and Fionnuala, after a short summer break in July, toured the US again traveling to 18 PBS stations publishing our TV Special as well as promoting this current tour. These tours are always very hectic with no time to stay in any one place. We returned home towards the end of August to re-pack and then left for Japan with the full band. We stayed in Kyoto for almost a week as participants of a beautiful TV concert held in the sacred Daikakuji Temple. To work in such a beautiful and sacred atmosphere was very inspiring for us. The legendary Marcel Marceau (Bip) was also performing. He was truly amazing. The total artist in complete command of his craft and a wonderful generous and humorous person as well.

After Kyoto we left for China where we performed a total of 4 concerts; 2 in Beijing and 2 in Hangzhou. It was our fist visit to Hanghzhou and we were amazed at what a beautiful city it was. All the concerts were sellouts and we had a great time performing. Still wonderful to see how this music can cross all language and cultural barriers allowing us to communicate in our
own way. This trip to China was very special as we actually had the time to be tourists and even got to walk on the Great Wall.
After the last performance in Hangzhou we had a 30 hour trip to Chicago and on to Milwaukee where we recovered for a couple of days and tried desperately to shed the cold viruses we picked up on the way.

The Pabst theatre in Milwaukee kicked off our first complete US tour that we are still on as we write this journal.
We have performed 12 concerts to date mostly in the Midwest and East Coast including Toronto. All of the concerts have proved to be great experiences for us with wonderful generous reactions from all the audiences. We are completing the entire tour on our touring bus which is great even though it means for very long travel days and nights. We still find it less stressful
than flying as it means that we can travel with our own sound equipment resulting in more control in all the theatres and less set up and sound check time.

To pass the hours away we are all Nintendo experts!!!!! specially with world cup 98 soccer. Apart from that there are always books and more books and videos and more videos!!!

This tour ends in Mexico the 23rd of October. We'll then fly home and prepare for a Norwegian concert tour that will end November 6th. After that, we hopefully can catch up on all other matters and hopefully get back into studio as soon
as possible.

We'll keep you all posted. Thanks for your patience regarding this journal and as always we really appreciate your support.

Best Wishes from,
Fionnuala and Rolf

News Flash!!
1. Did you know that Barbra Streisands beautiful recording of Heartstrings
is now released on her new CD "A love like ours" Have a listen.

2. Our own DVD containing the full length live concert filmed in Lillehammer
in Norway and new documentaries is ready for release in November, Hope you
enjoy.

3. We have been invited to close the televised Nobel peace price concert in
Norway and will perform Dawn of a New Century" on 11 Dec.