News COME AND PLAY YOUR UKULELE WITH THE UKES AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL! On Tuesday 18th August 2009, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain are playing at the BBC PROMS at the Royal Albert Hall. You can buy tickets by clicking here. We are inviting Ukulele players to join us on the night for a mass Ukulele rendition of Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy'. All are welcome, from beginners to experts. You can find out how to play the piece on the BBC Radio 3 website by clicking here. There are eight Ukulele Masterclasses for you to watch and pluck along to, as well as PDFs of all the music to download. If you live outside the UK, click here and you can watch the classes on YouTube. In May this year, 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 Reading 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. 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: 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: 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: Hugenottenhalle, Frankfurt 2009 Karstadt Kunst und Kultur, Nuremberg 2009 The Sage, Gateshead UK 2008 Liverpool Philharmonic 2008 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.