St. James's Church, Piccadilly, 7 August 2008

[grant]

Hello everyone!

Peter, thank you for your superb commentary on the evening - eloquent as always.

Graeme, thank you for your comments. The Canon 40D has a feature called "ISO Expansion" which allows ISO to be pushed to 3200. It also has a feature called "High ISO Noise Reduction" I turned that on as well! Useful at times.

Here are a few more from me - the first couple especially for Stephany

Dame Malvina arrives

More later.

Best wishes
Grant

[Colin]

Hi Grant

I've got to echo Graeme and Paddy's comments about that picture - it is sublime - bravo!

Kind regards

Colin

[Paddy]

Hi Graeme,

I see you chose the same photo as I!

I hadn't refreshed the 'last 50' when I posted.

As usual, Graeme is 'streets ahead'.


Paddy

[Steve H]

Hi All,

Thanks again for all your kind comments, I was surprised by the popularity of the 'Candid' photo's so here are five more for those who like to see Hayley being just 'Charming' doing ordinary things.

Steve H

[Dave]

Aug 9, 2008 12:19:30 GMT postscript said:

...For once—and this was true at both Dunstable and Orwell—the sound system was excellent, it did simply amplify the natural voice. We had both to note the difference. Whether it is technician ability or quality of equipment—and I think the mike she had tonight was a very expensive one—but if amplification is necessary, amplify is all it did.

Hi Peter, thanks for your very interesting thoughts and I pretty well agree with all of them. I had intended to mention the high quality of the sound system but of course, the better it is, the more likely it is to be forgotten because it's transparent and all you hear is the music.

Many venues (sound systems and acoustics) do not come close in quality to what we heard at St James's Church including, for example, iTunes at KOKO last month and the Royal Albert Hall in May this year at the Classical BRITs. There, I felt that too much amplification was used in the Hall (but not for TV) and this worked against the intrinsic high quality of the sound equipment itself. It was particularly noticeable during Josh Groban's performance but thankfully, that mistake was not made at St James's church this week so well done to all concerned.

Cheers, Dave

[postscript]

Your correspondence Dave/Roger is most interesting. I'm just shooting off late (the wedding's tomorrow but I was intending to make it a weekend away) but in quick response my thought was that they had arranged it and Hayley forgot, 'the tradition' response might be right and Hayley was not aware or it could have been a deliberate instantaneous response from Dame Malvina saying what Roger suggests. Taking laptop with me so hope to catch up soon.
Peter S.

[Paddy]

Hi, Steve,


I love the 'candid photos'.

The second photo is another gem:

'Cuddly Hayley' comes to mind.


Paddy

[Tin]

Well, as a fan who has never met Hayley in person, the few shots which show a thoughtful/ contemplating/ cheerless Hayley prove a bit sensational to me. It somehow resolved the doubt of 'why can Hayley always keep her cheerful countenance in photos?'; well done on those candid shots.

Best wishes,
Tin

[grant]

Hi Steve and Everyone

Great pics! Particularly like the 'shopping' ones!

"I'll see your five and raise you three!"

Best wishes
Grant

[Paddy]

You're 'on a roll', Grant.

The third photo is fantastic.


Paddy

[Richard]

Hello again folks!

I think it was after the concert when Dame Malvina asked if we were all Hayley fans. She seemed very pleased and impressed to see so many of us there, and this would surely have been her first close encounter with Hayley's fanbase. I hope she sees this thread.

Richard

[drew]

Aug 9, 2008 11:52:21 GMT martindn said:

The real reason for my impatience is that I will be flying out to Sydney on Tuesday, and although I hope to have internet acess there, it is not certain. I will have my work laptop though, so I thought I might put some of these on a USB stick to give me something nice to watch when I can't sleep!

No pressure then Martin.

[drew]

Something for the ladies (Stephany and Mary):

So Far Away (The Land of the Long White Cloud)


Sorry, Will would not sit still!

[grant]

Aug 9, 2008 15:18:23 GMT Richard said:

this would surely have been her first close encounter with Hayley's fanbase. I hope she sees this thread.

And I hope she thought well of us Richard. In any event it was really sweet of her to show an interest - but then again, I suspect she's always had Hayley's interests at heart.

Rest assured Dame Malvina - we love her and we'll look after her for you!

Best wishes
Grant

[Mark]

Hi everyone

Firstly, thanks to Steve & Grant for the very best set of photo's of Hayley that I have had the pleasure to see. Not forgetting of course Drew for the supurb video footage (looking forward to the duets !) One or two people have commented that they are very used to Hayley's familiar smile when having her photo taken with fans etc. and that they are seeing a different side to Hayley in the candid shots. I would point out, on some of those shots taken at the sound check where Hayley was sitting, looking down, she was actually texting on her mobile phone - a look of concentration perhaps . I have however seen that more candid 'real' Hayley look before, it was actually when having her photo taken with me last year and it is my favourite photo of Hayley & I. See what I mean :





Anyway, back to the concert. Peter, I really enjoyed your report and it was obvious that you had taken time to reflect on the evening and your thoughts before putting mouse to screen. While reading, I was transported back to that evening and by the end I was actually feeling quite emotional all over again.

After the show, I told Hayley that I had found the show quite emotional and explained why. The coming together of teacher and pupil on the world stage and everything that comes with that. What a very special and (to agree with you Peter) emotional evening it was.

Best wishes
Mark.