Katrina and 'Kieran' meet 'The Croppers'

Just back from Halifax where we had a great visit with cousins Ferne and Frank.  Thanks again for a great few days!  We traveled in for an Audience with the Croppers at the Halifax Casino.  For those of you 'non-Corrie Street fans' (are there really any people left in that category?), they are better known as Roy (David Neilson) and Hayley (Julie Hesmondhalgh).   Jim and Sue, you might not recognize Julie as she wears a dark wig for the show. 

We had great seats in the VIP section, second row.  Due to my diligent, 'dog on a bone' fanaticism, I had been watching closely for the event to be announced and ordered tickets back in February.  It was sold out so quickly that they had to put a second show on, and sold that one out too.  Between the 2 shows, there were 1000 cheering Corrie fans, but only 100/show that were fortunate enough to be designated "VIP".  Now, I know what you're thinking..."who'd want to be in a room with 500 screaming women....twice?", but surprisingly enough, there weren't only women in the crowd.  There were a large number of men there too, and they were easily distinguished by their looks of utter nonchalance and indifference.  That only lasted until the house lights dimmed and the Croppers stepped out on stage, at which point even the men got into the spirit of the event.  Many even participated in the question and answer period at the end of the evening.   A grand time was had by all. 


Roy, Katrina, Kier, Hayley

 All the VIP's received an autographed picture from the Croppers as well as an individual photo op.  Kier was a little miffed when he spelled his name twice for 'Hayley', only to have her add an 'an' on the end...Kieran is a more common spelling of the name in the UK, and also the name of one of the Corrie Street characters.  So if anyone knows how to remove indelible ink from a photo, please let us know...we've got a couple of letters to remove...

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  First is definitely better than second or third; 1 is better than 2 or 3; and Section 1 is better than Section 2 or Section 3.  The fab seats we had last evening were Section 3, Row B, Seats 11 and 12.  Great we thought... second row, stage left, end of the row, and no one seated in front of us!  Doesn't get any better than that, clear view of the stage, how could it not be good?  We found out at the end of the evening that as good as the seats were, they were NOT as good as seats in Section 1 and Section 2.  Why, you ask?  Well, when it came time for the 'meet and greet' where you had a few minutes of 'face time' with the celebs and a photo op, they started the process with those seated in Section 1, followed by Section 2 and then, finally 3.  Needless to say, we were a good hour after the end of the show waiting for our turn with 'Roy and Hayley'.  To their credit, you would never know that they had hugged, kissed, shook hands, and signed autographs for approximately 180 people before we'd gotten to see them.  So really Kieran...cut them some slack!