This site has now been retired. I've moved to my new site Silverknife, where you'll find new blog posts and all my latest projects and photos. These pages will remain for at least a while, as I know some of you are still looking through the archives, but I'm reposting my travel journals and many other articles on the new site. Come and check it out.
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On Friday night myself, the missus and Ian got along to a gig by the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain, who are playing the Stables in Milton Keynes at the moment. It's been a good while since I've seen a live gig, and this one lived up to expectations by a mile.
For those who don't know them, the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain have been touring and playing for some time now (about 22 years now apparently, although not all of that in the spotlight). They consist of 6 ukelele players and what they insist on referring to as a bass ukelele (it can't be a guitar, they reason rather convincingly, as it has only 4 strings), and they play an amazing mix of cover versions.
They're best known for their more bizarre and counter-intuitive selections, particulary rock and punk covers like Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit and The Undertones' Teenage Kicks. But their appeal is more than the comedy of clashing genres.
The UOGB are a group of superb musicians who have spent years perfecting their technique on what many people would see as a relatively niched and limited instrument. Tracks like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly are very funny, but also genuinely beautiful music. The composition is as impressive as the technique, as the relatively thin sound of each instrument merges with the others to form a real composite sound of enormous depth and richness.
The group's showmanship (if not their singing voices, which are actually a lot better than these clips would give the impression - at the live performance the singing was fantastic) comes through on songs like You Don't Bring Me Flowers, in which Peter and Hester sing the duet while plucking ukeleles carried past them at some speed (and in some confusion, though never losing the rhythm entirely) by the other members of the group. The timing and delivery are hilarious.
The most intricate and brilliant tunes we saw on Friday were the two medlies, which show off the group's expertise, performance skills and choreography perfectly. The Life On Mars medley begins with the title song and builds on Sinatra's "I Did It My Way", the theme tune to "Born Free", and The Who's "Substitute", almost in the style of a round and perfectly in synch, bringing out the weird similarities in the songs and actually creating a beautiful harmony, while Fly Me Off the Handel starts with an argument over George playing a "boring" Handel track, and once he begins the rest of the group join in and overlay with the tracks they would prefer - Sinatra's "Fly Me To the Moon", "Love Story" and so on. The result is haunting and silly at the same time.
Very much worth seeing if you get the chance, and the songs are interspersed with heights of silliness like almost the entire group managing to play one ukelele at once and numerous sharp and irreverent introductions. The music is not just funny but catchy, moving and utterly engaging. Awesome stuff.
Only one major bit of news - at the end of the week I'll be off to Sheffield for my little sister's wedding (congrats Laura!). I've decided to go up early on Thursday and get in a night at a really nice-looking campsite - North Lees near Hathersage - in order to make a proper field test of my camping gear. Should be fun. Oh, and tomorrow my degree results should be out. Aargh!
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