The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

10 July 2011, The Sage, Gateshead

I’m sure you’ll remember the scene in Gladiator. General Russell Maximus Crowe is about to lead his bit of the Roman Army into battle against the barbarians. The atmosphere in the forest is electric. The armies are ready, weapons are drawn, and the tension is almost unbearable.  Both sides prepare for carnage in the frozen dawn, chaos about to ensue.

“At my signal”, growls Russell, “…unleash the ukuleles!”

… Well … Ok. No. He doesn’t.  What he actually says is “unleash hell”.  But I’m willing to stick my neck out here and say that it would have been an even better movie with that one revision. It certainly would have given the Germanic tribes something to think about.  (“Ach! Ukuleles! Flee for your lives!  Zey are playing ein novelty version of Zer Bohemian Rhapsody ! ”)

For some, the idea of a couple of hours of ukulele music, played by an entire ensemble of the things, would be hell indeed.   At The Sage last week, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (or  UOGB)  demonstrated the opposite:  the ukulele is capable of great, complex and very enjoyable music.

UOGB are usually an eight-piece but turned up at Gateshead with seven members  – two women and five men. Between them, they handle several flavours of the ukulele:  baritone, tenor,  concert, and soprano.They also play some extremely small novelty versions. (“This one is also a pencil sharpener”)
If you’ve ever wanted to hear bottleneck blues played on a six-inch ukulele, these are your guys.  They proved it can be done when they entertained a packed main hall last Sunday night.

It can be difficult to get over the traditional image of the little four-stringed wonder.  It’s always been an instrument that seems to be wearing its funny party hat, fit only for comic ditties and your Grandad’s party turn at the wedding.  Hear the word ukulele and you’re liable to think of Hawaiian music or George Formby (if you don’t have at least a rough idea of who he was, stop reading now, kids …)

The Ukulele Orchestra do something rather clever:  instead of earnestly trying to demonstrate the instrument’s versatility by playing ‘serious’ music, they play a wider range of material, much of it pop, but re-arranged into often quite intricate adaptations. Now and again they slip in some very accomplished performances of more challenging pieces. The whole package of pop, light and serious music, together with the witty between-songs patter.  is slick, well-rehearsed, and sometimes very funny.

Often, the laughs are due to the juxtaposition of the song and its arrangement.  After starting the evening with a spirited rendition of Hawkwind’s Silver Machine, they treated us to “an old English folk song” – which turned out to be a lazy, sing-along swing version of  Anarchy in the UK. There was a spot-on, expert take on the Theme from Shaft, including a polite and funny anglicized rap in the middle section.

The first half of the concert also included a piece by Saint-Saens, a bit of disco with Le Freak, and ended with a sailor-shanty folk version of Pinball Wizard, which included some impressive harmonies. The band perform a lot of songs and vocals are shared fairly evenly by all members.

After the interval, we were treated to classics such as Teenage Dirtbag, Slave to the Rhythm and Wuthering Heights, before UOGB  ended with a straightforward version of the Clash’s Should I Stay or Should I Go. Straightforward that is, apart from the mighty ukulele replacing the the sound of Joe Strummer’s Fender, which it did quite convincingly. I was surprised that it was such an entertaining evening, and the audience loved it.

At my signal, rock ‘n roll!

And pluck. And strum.