On 10th August 1996 the second Brighton Festival of Freedom took place at Stanmer Park, next door to the University of Sussex. Having got to know the people behind the festival in its first year, Tim took a more active role in 1996 and organized and managed the acoustic stage. He also contributed the festival's astrological birth chart to the programme. With a couple of chickens wandering around at the side, the stage featured about 15 different acts during the day, ranging from local classical guitarist Richard Durrant to popular girl duo Pooka. Although the festival as a whole lost money, the staging of a huge professional event (estimated attendance 20,000) by a handful of inexperienced enthusiasts was an extraordinary achievement. Tim was proud to play a small part! The only hitch in an otherwise perfect day, was Tim being ordered to stop Pooka (the headliners) mid-song, in order to comply with council regulations. Due to so many artists performing during the day, the running times had got slightly behind schedule, thus threatening to go beyond the agreed finishing time.
Tim began sending out the first promotional copies of Infinite Ocean in early September 1997. The title track was a melodic ballad which Tim hoped would achieve radio air-play. Other tracks deliberately covered the wide range of styles that Tim had continued to develop over the last few years. These ranged from the farmyard lunacy of Free The Chicken In Your Soul to the Gabrielesque demo of Dancing Into The Sun. National and international radio plays and reviews followed, with Tim being featured on the internet for the first time.
One of the earliest enthusiastic responses was from Dutch radio presenter Mark Deren, known as Mark from Holland. Following a live interview on his Sunday night radio show on Radio Heemskerk, a trip to Holland to play live on the show was arranged. Tim and percussionist Martin Franklin eventually appeared on Radio Heemskerk with Mark, and on Radio BRTO with Andre Steijns, over the weekend of 18th/19th April. Tim and Martin played several Burness songs and Tim performed an embryonic version of a guitar instrumental he had been working on. The sessions were a great success. Later in the year Tim travelled to Holland again, this time to the Progfarm festival where he made further contacts.
At the end of January 1998 Tim contributed to a live Tuu session recorded for and by an American radio station and several months later Tim played another solo gig at The Sanctuary in Brighton. Having done as much as he felt possible in the way of promoting Infinite Ocean, Tim decided to consciously step back from music for a couple of years. This would give him time to develop new ideas, consolidate new contacts, build a web-site and perhaps most importantly, get his financial act together from the new day job of agency care-worker.