We had to drive to Irlam first to pick up the sheet music, and we had a real giggle on the way! I won't go into details but lets just say, some how we came up with Justin Timberlake's middle name being Colin - hence the title of the post! Anyway, when we pulled up outside the town hall I could tell immediately that I wasn't going to be disappointed by Dan's description of the main hall. The building used to be a church, it was very grand and old looking, a typical church, it was a very impressive building as you can see..
Once inside and we had paid the receptionist, we made our way through the various corridors and up in the very old lift to the first floor where the main hall is situated. The whole building has a very regal feel to it but when we actually stepped through the door to the hall itself it was breath taking. The grandeur of the room was overwhelming, high ceilings, ornate carvings on each beam coming down from the roof, ten huge beautiful stained glass windows, a massive oil painting of a religious scene covering one whole wall and I haven't even mentioned the main feature yet - the organ itself. It was the single most impressive instrument I have ever seen. It filled an entire wall, the pipes (excuse my ignorance, I don't know if these are the correct names of the parts) were exquisite, at risk of repeating myself and sounding stupid for not knowing another word to use but its the only word I can think of, everything was just so grand!
Then once Dan had climbed the stairs and was seated, he pulled various knobs, pressed some buttons and keys and the sound that emerged was immense. It was so loud! I was very impressed with Dan's ability, I couldn't believe he knew what he was doing, it all looked so complicated yet he moved around it like a pro and the music he played was perfect and some of my favourite, Phantom of the Opera. It sounded phenomenal!
While he was playing I roamed around the hall taking photos of every detail I could and I stumbled across something that I knew was going to make Dan very very happy.. Tucked away in the middle of piles of stacked chairs was an old, slightly worn looking, baby grand piano. As soon as the room was quite enough for him to hear my little voice, I shouted him over and his eyes lit up! He brought down his music and played some of my favourites, he even taught me how to play a piece. It was nice to be able to join in with him, usually when he gets the chance to play the piano for me, its in a music shop and if you are going to teach someone how to play, they generally want you to buy the piano first!
Once he'd played for a while on the piano and I recorded him on a few pieces (I intended to post one but I forgot to transfer them from the iPad) he went back up to the organ while I practiced what I had learned on the piano. The next thing I know a whole load of people came swarming in the hall, they were having a tour and they started taking pictures of us both! Random, I think they were impressed with Dan's talent.
Ok, well this is much longer than I was expecting and I still haven't added half the photos I wanted to, so I'll leave for now and once I've worked out how to put the pictures in an album, I'll post a link :)
Just one more photo that shows the size of the organ compared to little ol' me!
Much loves x
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