Shrewsbury Abbey - 3rd & 4th August 2007

[graemek]

Ausgezeichnete Bilder Karsten.

Please don't be tempted to say to yourself:

"that'll be enough pics now" as in this forum we never use the word "enough"
And we look forward to any comments you have to make.

Hayley certainly looks the picture of health & happiness in these pics.

Thanks again,
graeme

[grant]

Hi Karsten

Glad you got home safely and looking forward to the rest of your report of your time in England.

Great picture of the three of us sporting our ties!!

Looking forward to more pics of our beautiful Hayley!!

Best wishes
Grant

[Dori]

k0601 said:

Hello again,

like Grant I want to split my remarks and here's the first part:

Part I - August 3:

After my arrival in Stansted on August 1st with an Irish low-cost-carrier (of course no surreptitious advertising here) I had a short stop in Cambridge quarreling a little with driving on the wrong side and especially sorting the gears of the rented car with the left hand. And all these roundabouts...

The weather was beautiful these days - in fact I needed my rain coat just after my arrival here in Frankfurt-Hahn, in the UK it was completely useless.

My cheap B&B for the night was located on my way to Shrewsbury in Northamptonshire and on August 2nd I arrived in this old Tudor town. As Grant already mentioned the town lays high enough on the banks of the Severn that the flooding went away without severe damages.

My B&B was only a ten minutes walk away from the abbey and the abbey itself is only a ten minutes walk from the city centre, so it was fine to go on tour through the city.

On the day of the first concert I had my walk through the city in the morning and on the way back to the B&B I took a look at the abbey - it was 11 am and the sound crew was working. So I decided to go to the abbey at noon to wait there for Grant, Gordon and last but not least, Hayley.

At 1 pm there was Grant in the middle of the church... and since that moment he had to suffer from my German-coloured English.

I don't want to retell Grant's remarks, so here's the first picture:



To be continued...

Karsten

Those are those same purple shoes she wore on the BBC breakfast....They're so cute!!

Dori

[Joe]

Hello Karsten,

Thanks for your "Part 1" and wonderful photos. Looking forward to more of your report !

Joe

[Karsten]

Part I - addition

Hello again everybody,

many thanks for your response. (Hi Graeme, like Hayley's your German is perfect - should a little bit easier for me if we could change the official language of the forum into German

After a short night I've just red my post again - and for those wondering about the lack of the usual tourist pics; here's the abbey as a whole:




Well, it was really a very exciting occurrence to see Hayley for the first time - and then so relaxed. My English is simply not sufficient to express it adequately ; I was overwhelmed already at this point - so I forgot to make more photos from the arriving.

Many thanks to Gordon for the short invitation of me to Hayley.

Karsten

[Stephany]

Hi Karsten,

Glad to see you back and healthy after your (car) trip in Shrewsbury
Thank you very much for your lovely pictures! I particularly like the one of you, Grant and Gordon (sorry Hayley!) i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif
I look forward to reading your first impressions of Hayley and the concert.

Best wishes,
Stephany

[Karsten]

Part II - The Concert

At the beginning we were told not to take photos during the concert - with or without flashlights; so I enjoyed Hayley's songs without interruptions.

On the other hand the conditions were not the best - there were no spotlights, actually no proper light at all (ISO 1600, aperture 3,5 - the lowest my camera have, and then exposure time 1/10 to 1/6 without flashlight) during the first part until the interval.

So there are no pictures worth posting for this - but there was another chance next day...

For the second part they switched on the lights - so I was bold enough trying to get some pictures with manual focus avoiding the beam for AF and of course without flash; here they are:










To be followed by my impressions...

Karsten

Edit: I slightly reduced the size of a picture because it was too big for my computer screen Stephany.

[Dori]

What a gorgerous setting!! Look at the artwork behund her! That is my dream trip as an Art History student!! Hayley is so lucky...
Dori

[Karsten]

Part II - The Concert again

Hi Stephany,

I'm still astonished that I've survived this weird traffic.

But now after the technical remarks my impressions. In general Grant mentioned all the facts, so I could only add that I was simply enchanted from that moment as Hayley appeared. The quotation is overstressed - but she looked - and sang - like an angel. Of course her curls emphasised this picture.

Without the Grant's list I could hardly remember the sequence of the songs. They sounded almost all equal gorgeously, but if I had to choose a favourite song, it would be "May It Be", closely followed by "Danny Boy" and "Summer Fly".

In fact I didn't count them and so I was really surprised when Hayley announced "May It Be" as her last song for this evening - after checking the time I realised that over two hours were flown away like a second.

The applause died down too quickly for a second encore as Grant reported - although Gordon, Grant and I did our best... and so here's my last picture of Hayley in the green dress (for this evening):



Karsten

[Karsten]

Part III - After the Concert

First a few pictures from the autograph session - almost the same as Grant already posted, but never mind.







Karsten

[Karsten]

Part III - continued







Cheers, Karsten

[Stephany]

Great pictures, Karsten. Thanks!
Considering that you attended both concerts, would you say you prefered one performance over the other?
Congratulations for reaching 'Junior Member' status by the way

Best wishes,
Stephany

[Karsten]

Part III - continued

Hi Stephany,

I liked the second one on Saturday even more...reasons will follow - I've to do it chronologically, otherwise I'll be totally confused at the end.

So here are the next pictures:







Best wishes,
Karsten

[comet]

Hi Folks.
Thanks for all the lovely pictures and reports.
What a gorgeous setting for a concert..

comet

[george]

Great photos, Karsten!! Glad you have returned home safely.
You survived the English traffic and the floods in Gloucestershire and the novelty of a nicely formed English queue!
You have a fantastic camera. One reason I gave up with mine on Saturday night. Keep them coming.

George