Croydon - 28 July 2010

[anshita]

Thanks for sharing the lovely pictures Grant, Karsten and John!
And I absolutely LOVE Hayley's eye color! Jeez, it's gorgeous!

Cheers.

[grant]

Hello everyone

As promised, here are the last few Croydon pictures from me

Best wishes
Grant

[comet]

Jul 30, 2010 12:25:49 GMT Roger-G said:

Here's an edited recording of the Croydon concert with just Hayley's songs..

White Cliffs of Dover
Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
O Danny Boy
As Time Goes By
Pokarekare Ana
Abide with Me (with police car accompaniment)
We'll Meet Again

www.youshare.com/Guest/a6c0aee2b806c265.mp3.html

Weeeeeeeeeeeeee............

You may not post much Roger....

but when you do ?

They are diamonds.

Thanks for the content,

I just can't make it to any distant concerts at the moment and the odd recording or video is all we have to stay connected to Hayley's career.

Thank you for the effort it takes to concentrate on doing these technical things, I know it reduces your enjoyment of a concert if you are trying to keep quiet and keep an eye on recording equipment as well.

The recordings are very welcome,

Ummmm .now all I have to do is transfer them to wax cylinders

[timj]

Thanks for posting the concert coverage Grant, Dave, Karsten, Roger and John. Hayley's pretty as ever and I'm ready for the new CD. I hope you're having a great trip Belinda, see you again one day!....Timj

[Mark]

Hi everyone

Sorry its taken me so long to post my report - the last few days since the concert have been somewhat hectic! Anyway, I was at the concert believe it or not i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

This was my third visit to Croydon and Fairfield Halls to see Hayley in concert over the past few years. I set out at lunchtime and thanks to a lot of the British people being away on holiday, it only took me an hour and a half to drive in. As i drove down the entrance slip into the underground car park, i spotted the HWI group waiting patiently for Hayley outside the back stage yard gates. I quickly parked the car and soon joined them. It was great to catch up with all my regular HWI friends again but there was one person who I had not actually met before and that was of course, Belinda. Some of you will know that for the past 3 years, Belinda and I have worked closely together on the Connie Talbot forum, in addition to 'knowing Belinda here on HWI for the past 5 years. It was therefore a great pleasure to finally meet. We certainly were not short of conversation - put it that way

Here is our group ( without me) waiting for Hayley - Gordon was with us - you can just see his feet behind Richard!!





Hayley arrived soon after and was able to spend a fair while chatting to us. Hayley spotted Belinda and greeted her with a hug. I managed to tell her how much Martin and I had enjoyed her performance with the Canadian Tenors last month and then it was time for her to go and start the sound check.

Hayley arriving







Our little group then moved on to find somewhere to eat and drink before the show started. Soon after we had got settled and the drinks were flowing, Dave joined us and we ordered food. We ended up spending a good couple of hours enjoying each-others company and Richard's old jokes until it was time to make our way over to the concert hall.

Although I was on the front row, I was the opposite end to where Hayley was standing and the sound wasn't that great from where i sitting but, never the less, Hayley looked stunning in her various outfits and the new black dress was an absolute knock out. The choice of songs was obviously dictated by the theme of the show but she did manage to sneak her signature song in, which pleased Belinda very much.

I very much enjoyed the band also, who were very very good. I particularly liked the Thunderbirds theme tune, which so reminded me of my childhood - possibly my favourite TV show of all time. As Dave has mentioned, the young lady who was the pianist, violinist and wasn't she the Bassoonist Dave? Anyway, she was an extremely versatile musician.

After the show, we all made our way round to the stage door. I have to say that it was a bit of a Rugby scrum when Hayley appeared out of the back door. In addition to which, Hayley was clearly very short of time, having a plane to catch and I feel she was rather flustered. Not helped of course by the "bit of an altercation" described by Grant. I don't know what it was about, but one of the guys waiting got quite cross with someone who I think was pushing his way in. I know she hates having to leave before seeing everyone who was waiting to see her, but she really had no choice on this occasion.









Anyway, Hayley was soon in the tour bus and was on her way. We all said goodnight and of course, some of us will be meeting again on Monday at Nottingham. A very enjoyable evening and once again, thanks to all my HWI friends for your company and of course to Hayley for another wonderful performance.

Best wishes

Mark

[martindn]

Thanks for the report and photos Mark. You have no idea (or perhaps you do) of how much I'm looking forward to Nottingham, only 40 odd hours away!

Martin D

[petertong]

wow... i haven't been up on whats been going on over here at HWI for a while...

Hayley looks just fantastic as usual (and very colour coordinated lol) and it seems like everyone had a wonderful time... makes me jealous enough to want to fly over there to England and attend sometime just to give my poor ears a tinge of heaven!

blessings,
Peter

PS: Weirdly enough (since i love running) everytime i look at Hayley in photos (well the ones when she isn't performing) i think wow she would be a good runner lol. Does anyone know if she has kept up her jogging/running? Hopefully she has.

[grant]

Hi Mark

Many thanks for your report and pictures - I agree that it was a bit of a "free for all" when Hayley appeared after the concert - Croydon always seems to attract a fair number to the stage door afterwards. One of the reasons I like to be there for Hayley's arrival i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Best wishes
Grant

[Richard]

Thanks for your excellent reports and photographs, Mark!

I'm one ahead of you, because this was the fourth time I saw Hayley at the Fairfield Halls. I told her it was the place where I first met her nearly seven years ago, and she said that made her feel old. I joked that she should wait until she's my age and then see how old I am. If you really want to know, the answer is 99!

Richard

[Roger-G]

Jul 31, 2010 12:18:06 GMT comet said:

Weeeeeeeeeeeeee............

You may not post much Roger....

but when you do ?

They are diamonds.

Thanks for the content,

I just can't make it to any distant concerts at the moment and the odd recording or video is all we have to stay connected to Hayley's career.

Thank you for the effort it takes to concentrate on doing these technical things, I know it reduces your enjoyment of a concert if you are trying to keep quiet and keep an eye on recording equipment as well.

The recordings are very welcome,

Ummmm .now all I have to do is transfer them to wax cylinders

You're very welcome, comet.

Actually making the recording is the easy bit. The recorder runs at 'safe' settings and out of sight for obvious reasons.
The real work comes afterwards - editing the recording for levels, removing most of the applause, balancing the frequency response and removing coughs etc.

When you are at the concert and immersed in the experience you tend to overlook the fact that the the sound hasn't been set too well (although I noted at Croydon that some people around me had difficulty in hearing all the narrator's speech). But with the audio recording you have no other distraction and any defects are far more obvious. So it needs a lot of work in a digital sound editor to optimise the various sound sources. Sometimes (as with Hayley singing against a military band!) it is necessary to pick out and adjust each individual note.

I invariably record concerts but for my own private use only, listening to them in the car etc. On this occasion I uploaded the files so that they could be enjoyed by anyone who missed the cancelled performances, and for Larry who could not travel and was kind enough to offer his ticket for someone else to use.

[anshita]

Hello Mark,

Thank you for such an interesting report and photos!

Though, it suddenly crossed my mind thinking how tall Hayley is? Around 5"3? She looks really tall! I haven't seen many full-length photos of her though...

Cheers,
Anshita

[Steve H]

Thanks for that great report and photo's Mark, I hope you have a great day tomorrow at Nottingham Now that I am back from my trip to Wales with Belinda it's time for my contribution from Croydon.

Steve H

[Steve H]

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[Steve H]

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[Steve H]

Steve H