“Clothes make the man (at C&A). Naked people have little or no influence on society”.
Mark Twain
This news just broken on The Ukes Facebook page Ukulele Orchestra Tee Shirts available from their website soon!
September 24th, 2011
Ukulele Healing Powers?
Long term pal and supporter of The Ukes and the whole UK ukulele scene, Ray Shakeshaft, has had a bit of a wobble and is in hosital following a stroke. With Ray’s enthusiasm and support, ukulele clubs have popped up across the country (and beyond), ukulele luthiers have been tirelessly promoted and players united at various gatherings. Ray set up the first website in the UK to promote the instrument and it’s players. All that aside, and more importantly, Ray is one of the most interesting and warm characters you could care to meet, and this is reflected in the number of video messages that have been posted on a special YouTube channel set up to aid his recovery. Get well soon, Ray.
September 16th, 2011
September 15th, 2011
The Ukes in Australia 2012
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain will be headlining the Melbourne Ukulele Festival 2012 with more gigs to be added soon.
September 13th, 2011
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy?
From left to right we have the ageing rock-star, the professor, the earth mother, the butcher, the postman, the art teacher, the end-of-the-pier entertainer and last but not least, someone’s dad. They are merely my affectionate nicknames for those who have not had the pleasure of seeing UOGB.
Read the whole review of The Ukes at The Lowry here: http://www.salfordonline.com/musicnews.php?func=viewdetails&vdetails=30620
September 8th, 2011
Moustache Magazine Big Up
Ukes are very, very cool.
Teenage Dirtbag anyone?
September 7th, 2011
New Zealand 2010
September 6th, 2011
I’m going to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain in September! I had a hard time persuading a friend to come (the losers), but we got there in the end and I’m unashamedly very excited about it! :D
September 5th, 2011
Win a Uke plus UOGB tickets
The Ukes appear on stage with one ukulele each, no gimmicks, no tricks, no vocal enhancers or overproduced wizardry, then proceed to tear the house down. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll never think about music in the same way, once you’ve seen and heard the Ukulele Orchestra.
A concert by the Ukulele Orchestra is a funny, virtuosic, twanging, awesome, foot-stomping obituary of rock-n-roll and melodious light entertainment featuring only the “bonsai guitar” and a menagerie of voices in a collision of post-punk performance and toe-tapping oldies.
The Orchestra has seen over 9,000 days of ukulele action. It unites fans across the globe in celebration of ‘one plucking thing after another’on ‘instruments bought for loose change.’ They have sixteen-handedly turned the world on to the ukulele.
“Wonderfully clever” David Bowie
Why not join in a Family workshop?
WORKSHOPS
Family Ukulele Making with the ‘Utterly Butterlys’
Make an ‘Utterly Butterly’ ukulele, learn the basics and take home your very own creation.
The morning session is 10.30am – 12pm
and the afternoon session is 2pm – 3.30pm
The cost of the workshop is £2.50 per person.
Age guidance 6+ and no unaccompanied children (all children under 12 to be accompanied by an adult).Book soon, as places for the workshops are strictly limited.
COMPETITION
WIN A UKULELE WORTH £120 PLUS TICKETS FOR THE UKULELE ORCHESTRA OF GREAT BRITAIN!
Simply video your own ukulele performance, load it onto YouTube and send Lighthouse the link via our facebook page before September 23rd. We will run these performance videos on our screens in Lighthouse all day on 8th October. Our favourite performance will be chosen on 26th September and the winner contacted via facebook. The lucky winner will receive a fantastic Barnes & Mullins all solid Bowley soprano ukulele courtesy of our friends at the Southern Ukulele Store plus 2 tickets to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
Saturday 8th
Poole Lighthouse
21 Kingland Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1UG
Performance time: TBC
Box Office: 0844 406 8666
Online booking:
http://www.lighthousepoole.co.uk/
From: http://www.susbus.co.uk/wp/?p=118
Published on Fri Sep 02 13:38:33 BST 2011
The Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain, who play Worthing’s Pavilion Theatre on Friday, September 2, have enjoyed a massive profile in recent years.
But curiously, perhaps, it’s only fairly recently that Peter Brooke Turner has felt confident enough to go full time.
“Until January last year, I was still working at another job as a fund-raiser for charity. I could never quite believe that playing the ukulele was really something that would be lasting. It was rather like saying I could earn my career playing tiddlywinks.
“The turning point was when I was getting up at ridiculous times, playing a gig in Newcastle, say, and then getting up at 4.30 in the morning to get back to my job in Shoreditch. My wife and I looked at my earnings from the regular job and from the Orchestra and decided that I could just do the one!”
And with between 130-150 shows a year, it’s proved exactly the right decision.
Much of it has to do with changes in the way the ukulele is perceived, Peter believes.
“When I started playing in 1989, most of my contemporaries associated the instrument with George Formby and Tiny Tim, entertainers who were very popular in their day. They were goofy entertainers and the ukulele had an association as a novelty music-hall instrument that was associated with the past. George Formby films were always on on Saturday afternoons, and it was fixed as a bit of a joke instrument.
“Come the new millennium and the whole generation that had those associations kind of passed and people started seeing it in a new way, just a really, handy portable instrument. When I got stuck in traffic jams, I would just get my ukulele out and start practising scales. People started seeing it in a different way.”
The instrument started getting a new credibility - and the Orchestra’s rise happily coincided: “We were at the forefront of the ukulele revival, the most visible band playing ukuleles and we were also playing lots of concerts.
“And we were also able to show that you can play anything on them, rock, pop, classical, jazz.”
