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Litmus Films' crowdfunding campaign for its documentary on
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain's first coast-to-coast American tour.
READ MORE OR JOIN HERE
WORLD TOUR 2013 NEWS! After roof-raising, foot-stomping shows last year at the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Albert Hall in London, and Carnegie Hall in New York, our world tour continues apace, with shows in Britain, USA, France, Switzerland and Germany.
Check out our forthcoming live dates here..
Tuesday the 28th of May, touring in Germany, they met Stefan Raab on his famous TV show,
first being interviewed and then playing.
Saturday and Sunday the 18th and 19th of May found them in
a rain-soaked St. Denis d'Anjou at the Festival d'Ukulele
Friday 10th of May found them at the BBC..as part of Radio 2 Day.
Their recent USA Tour started here.....on CBS This Morning TV show
KEEP IN TOUCH! Follow @TheUkes on Twitter for the latest UOGB news, gigs and musings. You can also befriend the UOGB on FACEBOOK or YOUTUBE or simply join our E-MAIL LIST HERE.
ONLINE TUTORIAL We receive lots of emails from fans asking for arrangements of our songs, so we've put together a little tour through an old favourite: Hot Tamales. Click HERE for the Red Hot Video Tutorial, and HERE for the sheet music. Now go and practice!
'The Tracks of My Years' Podcast No.2 is now uploaded! It's Dave's turn to take a trip back in time and pick out some of his favourite tracks from the vast vaults of his musical memory. Click HERE to stream online, download to your computer, or access through itunes.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION - It has been brought to the attention of The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, that another organisation, claiming to have been playing in the UK and Europe since 1998, and to being "the cult sensation from London" is being promoted in Germany and Austria. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain has nothing to do with this organisation. To read more about it, please click HERE.
UOGB AT THE BBC PROMS - DVD AVAILABLE HERE! - A fantastic DVD of the Ukulele Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall BBC Proms is available to order only here on our website. There are some photos of the concert on our Photos page, as well as a selection of the 1000+ ukulele players who came along to play on the night. Here's a short clip from the DVD, 'Prom Night'...
CAT STEVENS May 2009- The Ukes were joined by Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens) on a German TV show. You can watch the clip HERE.
About
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is a group of all-singing, all-strumming Ukulele players, using instruments bought with loose change, which believes that all genres of music are available for reinterpretation, as long as they are played on the Ukulele.
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. There are no drums, pianos, backing tracks or banjos, no pitch shifters or electronic trickery. Only an astonishing revelation of the rich palette of orchestration afforded by ukuleles and singing (and a bit of whistling). Audiences have a good time with the Ukulele Orchestra. Going from Tchaikovsky to Nirvana via Otis Redding and Spaghetti Western soundtracks, the Orchestra takes us on “a world tour with only hand luggage” and gives the listener “One Plucking Thing After Another”.
Using instruments small and large, in high and low registers, whether playing intricate melodies, simple tunes, or complex chords, and sitting in chamber group format dressed in formal evening wear, the Orchestra uses the limitations of the instrument to create a musical freedom as it reveals unsuspected musical insights. Both the beauty and vacuity of popular and highbrow music are highlighted, the pompous and the trivial, the moving and the amusing. Sometimes a foolish song can touch an audience more than high art; sometimes music which takes itself too seriously is revealed to be hilarious. You may never think about music in the same way once you’ve been exposed to the Ukes’ depraved musicology.
History
The Orchestra was formed in 1985 as a bit of fun, but the first gig was an instant sell-out, and they've been performing ever since. By 1988 they had released an LP, appeared on BBC TV, played at WOMAD and recorded a BBC Radio 1 session. The current ensemble has been playing together for over 20 years, and has become something of a national institution. The Orchestra has given thousands of sold-out concerts across the world, including Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Poland, France, America, Canada, New Zealand and Japan. They have more recently performed sell-out shows at the Sydney Opera House (2012), The Royal Albert Hall (2008) and New York's Carnegie Hall (2010). They are returning to the Royal Albert Hall and Carnegie Hall in late 2012.
Over the last 25 years, the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain has spawned hundreds of imitators, and you can now find Ukulele Groups in nearly every major city, indeed, the Orchestra are often blamed for the current Ukulele revival which is sweeping the globe. The Ukulele Orchestra's music has been used in films, plays, and commercials, while film clips of the Orchestra’s live concerts and TV appearances on websites such as YouTube have been watched millions of times. Collaborators have included Madness, David Arnold, The British Film Institute, The Ministry of Sound, Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens) and The Kaiser Chiefs.
Selected TV / Radio appearances:
Channel 4, Skins, 2010
BBC Radio 4, Loose Ends, 2005, 2010
RADIO BREMEN - 3 nach 9, May 09
BBC1 Culture Show, Jan 09
BBC Radio 1, Colin Murray, An Audience with the Ukulele Orchestra of GB, Dec 08
SAT1 WOW, hosted by Hugo Egon Balder, Nov 08
BBC Radio 4 Documentary 'The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain' presented by Phil Jupitus, July 08
Sky Arts, Hay on Sky, June 08
BBC Radio 4, Broadcasting House 2008
GMTV 2007
3SAT Bannmeile, Live concert on leading German cultural channel, Dec 07
BBC C-Beebies, Space Pirates, Dec 2007
BBC2 Electric Proms with the Kaiser Chiefs, Oct 07
ITV This Morning 2007, 2005
BBC The Slammer, Nov 2006
BBC Radio 6, Gideon Coe, 2007
Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Dec 06
BBC1 The Slammer, 2006
BBC2 The Story of Light Entertainment, 2006
BBC Radio 3, In Tune, 2005
BBC1 Blue Peter, February 2005
BBC Radio 4 Loose Ends with Ned Sherrin, 2005, 2003
BBC2 Jools Holland’s Hootenanny, 2004
Recent Festivals include:
WOMADelaide, Australia, 2012
WOMAD, UK 2010
Cambridge Folk Festival 2010
BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London 2009
Mosel Musikfest, Germany 2009
Arosa Humor-Festival, Switzerland 2009
Saitensprünge Festival, Germany 2009
Glatt Und Verkehrt Festival, Austria 2009
Boomtown Jazz Festival, Germany 2009
Innocent Festival, UK 2008
Humorolgie, Belgium 2008
Beverly Folk Festival, UK 2008
The Hay Festival, UK 2004, 2008
Cambridge Folk Festival, UK 2007
Detroit Festival of the Arts, USA 2007
The Big Chill, UK 2007, 2005
Glastonbury Festival, UK 2005
Greenbelt Festival, UK 2006
Edinburgh Festival, UK 2005, 2006
Cropredy Festival, UK 2005
Selected Venues:
Sydney Opera House, 2012
Luxemburg Philharmonie, Luxemburg 2011
Carnegie Hall, New York 2010, 2012
Royal Albert Hall, London 2009
Hugenottenhalle, Frankfurt 2009
Karstadt Kunst und Kultur, Nuremberg 2009
The Sage, Gateshead UK 2008, 2010
Liverpool Philharmonic 2008, 2009
Lichfield Cathedral 2008
Salisbury Cathedral 2008
Chichester Arts Theatre 2008
Birmingham Town Hall 2006, 2007, 2008
TIPI Zelt am Kanzleramt, Berlin 2006, 2007, 2008
Fliegende Bauten, Hamburg 2007
The Barbican, London 2005
Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club 1988, 2005
The Royal Festival Hall 2005
Beuchauberg (Brussels)
Performers:
The performers in The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain are: Dave Suich, Peter Brooke Turner, Hester Goodman, George Hinchliffe, Richie Williams, Kitty Lux, Will Grove-White and Jonty Bankes.
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