Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain at UC Irvine - Sunday March 27, 2022

 

With Melanie's new-found fascination with the banjolele/ukulele - her Covid project - she discovered this combo, an all ukulele orchestra based in her (parent's) homeland of Great Britain. The closest they came to us in LV was in Irvine, California, but that gave us an excuse to visit her mom, as well, so we made a long weekend out of it.

There has been some variation of this combo going on for 40 years (!) now, a fairly remarkable feat, especially seeing as the uke is really just coming into more mainstream vogue now. Of course, members have come'n'gone, but the core remains and every individual, from the oldest to the youngest, is highly talented with their instrument and their voice. These characters have truly created an orchestra, with various styles and sizes of ukuleles, from bass to soprano and everything in between, to give each instrument its own singular sound.  Jonty, the bassist, and Laura, the youngest member, are the rhythm section while the rest round out the different voicings, with Ewan and Ben taking most of the leads on their mandolin-ish and guitar-ish instruments, respectively, while Leisa plays with a fast right hand and the "elders", Dave and Peter, play the highest register, rounding out the sound.

Everyone sings wonderfully, with especially impressive 7 part harmonies and rounds interspersed between everyone's solo spots. Everyone is a comedian, as well, with some particularly corny bits - including a spot of silly dancing and "mouth trombone" (don't ask) - side-by-side with genuinely hilarious moments. The songs are all interpretations of popular numbers from the 60's to the present day, with only one old school bluegrass tune - one that you would expect a ukulele to be playing. There were a couple of Bowie tunes ("Life on Mars" and "Heroes"), a Grace Jones number, something from Lady Gaga, a Cranberries tune and much more. A couple of medleys were especially impressive in that they were able to incorporate the same backing for 7 different songs at once!

I can't even imagine how extensive their repertoire must be after forty years and they didn't play some that we hoped for (Hawkwind's "Silver Machine" comes to mind, but it's doubtful that many others attending would have known that one), but it was a well-rounded, 2 hour (with intermission) show. Funnily, considering how popular the uke has become with younger bands/musicians, the audience here were mostly at least our age or older - something that even the Orchestra noted and commented on. In any case, a fun, somewhat goofy time, was had by all.