Saturday morning saw me up early to grab the bus to the Festival site in time for the first workshops of the day. Arriving with tons of time to spare, I wandered round the Marketplace in the Gilchrist Room of Easterbrook Hall, packed with stallholders selling ukes, straps, books, T-shirts, raffle tickets & more.
I spotted Colin Tribe, who is a very prolific poster of chord melody tunes on YouTube & writes the syllabuses for ukulele grade examinations. I’d previously bought a set of his arrangements & his Uniquelele book, so we had a nice chat & he showed me some better fingerings for some of his music, kindly giving me an updated copy of Spanish Flea to try out & a uke-shaped keyring.
I also said hello to Matt Warnes, who runs World of Ukes & would be performing later in The League of Ukulele Gentlemen. He gave me a spare copy of UKE Magazine to pass round PLUC members who’ve not read it before (& is arranging for uke club discounts on his merchandise – let me know if you’d like details). I’ve been to a couple of the events he organises before – including seeing Taimane Gardner in Birmingham & a Big Boat On The Mersey weekend, which culminated in us playing our ukes at the Cavern Club!
Then off to the first of three workshops I was attending today: An Introduction To Chord Melody Solos, with Stuart Butterworth. I was interested to see how this would be run, as Stuart had led a mass session on the final afternoon of last year’s UFoS & teaches many different groups in Dumfries & Galloway. He gave us extracts of his new book & took us through the chords, tabs & sheet music. There were useful summary sheets of the various chord voicings used as a way of helping people familiarise themselves with the fingerings before playing.
The second workshop was Richard Durrant‘s Ukulele Circuit Training One. He’s a classically trained guitarist who was introduced to the ukulele by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain’s George Hinchliffe when they both were at the Royal College of Music – George gave him a uke tuned in fifths (ie like a violin) & he was soon enjoying playing that & the more usual reentrant-tuned one.
His workshop was very different & useful: at the outset explaining how vital it is to cultivate a good neutral posture with relaxed & efficient hand positions; giving us a two-finger strumming pattern (‘strumming with one finger is like being a drummer with only one stick’); and getting us to play rhythms & sequences that suddenly turned into other well-known tunes. These techniques were designed to improve your playing & help advance you as a musician by guiding you towards effective ways of focused personal practicing.
There was then just under an hour for lunch before the afternoon concert. Folk eyed me eating my packed meal enviously as the queues for the eateries were massive with so many people rushing to use them simultaneously. One of the advantages of being in a self-catering flat, as I had grabbed plenty of interesting vegan goodies from M&S & Morrisons when I arrived on Thurs afternoon, so I could make decent meals & take snacks with me instead of risking nothing being suitable for me at the venue.
A Few of My Photos From Saturday’s Shows
The afternoon concert was nearly four hours long & packed with an interesting selection of acts. The compere, Paulus, did an excellent job throughout, as he had last year:
No rest after the gig as it was straight into another workshop! Sandwiches were included (& somehow I ended up with two – possibly because someone else had eaten mine last year!). This was Circuit Training Two, with Richard Durrant again. A little recap of some of the introductory principles, then off into another selection of interesting & deceptively tricky strengthening & dexterity exercises that aim to improve your accuracy, articulation & other areas of playing. More of that is covered in his online Ukulele Launch Pad course.
After the workshop, I was surprised to see folk were already queuing to gain entry to the main concert hall, over an hour before the doors were due to open for the Gala Concert from the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. So I joined the throng & swapped uking tales with people until we were let in. Being on my own I still managed to get fairly near the front, with a good view.
Eight UOGB members were performing & it was a full gig, with interval. as expected, it was all very slick, tightly choreographed & enjoyable, with a mix of familiar numbers & others I didn’t know they covered. It was nice to see Dave Suich in full performance mode! They got a standing ovation at the end. What a way to finish the day! I grabbed a taxi back to town whilst others jammed long into the night…
Here they are doing Highway to Hell:
More sad news today with the death of Chas Hodges, from Chas ‘n’ Dave. A versatile musician, who played with everyone from Joe Meek to Eric Clapton, Labi Siffre to Deep Purple and Gene Vincent to Jools Holland, one of his best numbers is a firm PLUC favourite, Ain’t No Pleasing You:
This year’s fete saw the rain start just as we started performing! But we remained largely dry under the marquee, playing two sets of twelve songs in each half, each around forty-five minutes.
PLUC at Pratts Bottom Village Fete, Sat 12 May 2018
In a nice variation on the ‘playing a different tune on the ukulele every day for the whole year’, Steve Phillips has decided to use it to raise awareness & collect donations for SolarAid. This charity sends low-cost solar lights to families without electricity in remote areas of Africa (such as regions of Malawi, Uganda & Zambia), so that they can use free renewable energy, instead of relying on dangerous & inefficient home-made kerosene lamps, which are expensive to run.
Steve will be recording & posting a new song daily throughout 2018 & I’m sure will appreciate some ideas for sun & light-related numbers! He’s already done Bring Me Sunshine & Mr Blue Sky.
A donation of around £4 can get a lamp to a family. And donors leaving their email address will get the chance to have all 365 uke arrangements at the end of the year.
Here’s a cheery Johnny Cash number to enjoy, I Hardly Ever Sing Beer Drinking Songs:
Today marks the 150th anniversary of the Shipping Forecast – the world’s longest continuous weather forecast. Warning of storms in thirty-one sea areas around the British Isles in a specific & concise format, it was originally sent by telegraph & then transferred to radio. The BBC have been broadcasting it four times a day since 1924, with a short interruption during WWII. Read the rest of this entry »
It was that Hollesley time of year again, but sunny Suffolk was a mix of joy and sadness as it was to be the last year at this site. Still it didn’t dampen the spirits, the revelry or uke playing.
Hollesley 2016 – Phil Doleman, Rufus & others playing Enjoy Yourself (filmed by almuzo):
Steve J, Bob & Maria – Xmas 2014
After much deliberation, we voted for Girl On Fire from Tina’s songs back in October. That joins Kevin’s three songs, as we felt they all had interesting aspects to work up.
Here are Bob’s selections for our final Top Ten. As ever, PLUC members please go & grab the actual versions we’ll be using from our Box (reminder: ask Ed, Steve or me if you don’t understand how to get Box to email you automatically as we post new songs etc in there). If enough people have printed them for this week we’ll play them Tues 8 Dec.& then again in the New Year to pick the one to keep & work on. Read the rest of this entry »
Steve H & Tina
Tina has picked three tunes that she always sings aloud, usually whilst hoovering or in the shower!
As before, we’ve put the versions of the songs we’ll be using in the PLUC Box for members. Have a go at playing them & be ready to perform them as a group on Tues 20 & 27 October, after which we’ll vote upon the one that works the best & to keep playing for the next few months. Read the rest of this entry »
Tina, Anthony & Kev
Kevin’s has dug out an excellent three numbers for us to try in April. We’ll be playing them as a group on Tue 31 March & Tue 7 April, as people seem to need a little longer than a week to practice & it worked well this month playing everything on two weeks. Read the rest of this entry »
People of Lewisham's Ukulele Club 