Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

The orchestra was formed in 1985, soon after George Hinchliffe bought co-founder and friend Kitty Lux a ukulele for her birthday.[4][2][5] According to Hinchliffe, the original idea was not to be a comedy act, but to create a liberating musical forum where any style of music could be played, from funk to rock-and-roll to classical, and the ukulele was chosen for its musical versatility more than its novelty value. "The humour only came in during the first gig, when we played in two keys by accident and were messing around, with the sheet music falling everywhere. I thought we should go with it." Their first gig was at the Roebuck pub, just off Trinity Church Square in London.[6] The orchestra has since performed in many venues worldwide, including New York's Carnegie Hall[7] (2009, 2012), the Sydney Opera House[8] (2012), London's Royal Albert Hall[9] (2008, 2012) and Glastonbury Festival (2005).[10] TV appearances have included: Jools Holland's Hootenanny, BBC Radio 2 Electric Proms, Blue Peter, The Slammer, Richard & Judy, This Morning and Skins.[11]

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain perform their gigs in a light-heartedly parody of a 'very prim and proper, staid sort-of orchestra', wearing traditional orchestra dress for performances, with the men in black tie (black suits and bow ties) and the women in smart evening wear, seated behind music stands.[4][12] The orchestra consists of 'ukuleleators' playing instruments in various registers: sopranino, soprano, concert, tenor, baritone, and one bass ukulele. Since 2005 UOGB has performed as an octet (sometimes a septet) “of all-singing, all-strumming ukulele players".[13]

This image shows a range of different ukuleles with different registers, sizes and scale lengths similar to most of the instruments that The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain play (The Ukulele Orchestra includes a Bass Ukulele player).

A typical UOGB concert is a eclectic mixture of songs and instrumentals ranging from the Sex Pistols and Nirvana to Bach and Beethoven; a mix of music genres, from classical music to punk, grunge, rock and roll, country and 'some oddities that don't quite fit anywhere'.[15][12] In Europe and America the Orchestra are known for playing versions of famous rock songs and film themes, sometimes changing these so that the expectations of the audience are subverted. Sometimes a rock song will be changed into a jazz idiom, or sometimes several songs which are known from different genres are combined in one “soup of contrasts.”[11] Regulars include Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" reworked as a swinging jazz number, Ennio Morricone's theme to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", "Anarchy in the UK" performed in the style of Simon and Garfunkel, and the theme tune from Shaft. The Orchestra also compose and perform their own pieces, as well as arranging medleys – for example, David Bowie's "Life on Mars?" is melded with "My Way", "For Once in My Life", "Substitute", and more.[2] Comedic elements are incorporated with the musicianship, including up to five members playing a single ukulele and times when the group each goes its own way on a piece of music.

The group has shied away from featuring the music of George Formby, Britain's most famous ukulele musician; however, in recent years, they have included a version of his song "Leaning on a Lamppost", performed in a Russian Cossack style.[16][17]

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain performing in 2014, photographed by Richard Croft

On Tuesday 18 August 2009 the UOGB performed in a late night prom in the BBC Proms 2009 Season at the Royal Albert Hall. The performance was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and received much critical acclaim. This concert included a version of Beethoven's Ode to Joy in which at least 1000 audience members participated with Ukuleles.[14] A DVD of the performance, Prom Night, was released the same year.

The orchestra has toured the US, Canada, Japan, China, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Norway, Ireland and Great Britain.

Recent years have seen television appearances on programmes such as Jools Holland's Hootenanny and Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway performing alongside Robbie Williams.[18] High praise has been forthcoming from the press for live shows.[19][20] The orchestra performed at the 50th anniversary VE day celebrations in Hyde Park (with Cliff Richard and Vera Lynn), before an estimated audience of 170,000, in 1995.[4]

Often the orchestra will provide advance notice of an audience participation number. They provide a link to the piece online so that those that wish to participate can come prepared.[2]

In 2008, the group performed Dreamspiel, a ukulele opera, composed by George Hinchliffe and Michelle Carter for the Grimeborn Festival at London's Arcola Theatre. They have also, in 2010 and 2011, performed Ukulelescope where they played music to accompany silent movies from the British Film Institute archives. In 2012, Waly Waly on the Ukulele reworked arrangements of Cecil Sharp's collected folk tunes for performances at the Birmingham Town Hall and Cecil Sharp House in London. (Recordings from these shows were released in 2016 as the CD The Keeper.) In 2013 they issued a special collaboration with Ibiza Air for their Cover of the Song "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)". They released an EP with 4 Remixes in different styles like Tech house and Chill-out. In 2014, to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the Great War, the orchestra presented When This Lousy War is Over which reflected a range of attitudes from the time; patriotic, pacifist and feminist, and drew from gipsy music, music hall, soldiers' songs and even a song from the then radical avante-garde Cabaret Voltaire in neutral Switzerland.[21]

• Official website
• Detailed fan website