Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

History

Founded in 1985, the orchestra has since performed in many venues worldwide, including New York's Carnegie Hall (2009, 2012), the Sydney Opera House (2012), London's Royal Albert Hall (2008, 2012) and Glastonbury Festival. TV appearances have included: Jools Holland's Hootenanny, BBC Radio 2 Electric Proms, Blue Peter, The Slammer, Richard & Judy, This Morning and Skins.

The band was formed "to challenge people’s expectations of the ukulele," according to Uke Richie Williams.

Repertoire range

A typical UOGB concert comprises songs and instrumentals from a variety of musical genres: 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. 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.

Albums

Albums include Live in London #1, Live in London #2, Still Live, Precious Little, The Secret of Life, Top Notch and a large back catalogue of recordings. They have released two DVDs, Anarchy in the Ukulele (2005), recorded at the Barbican in London, as well as Prom Night, a DVD of their BBC Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall recorded in 2009. Their version of "Dy-na-mi-tee" (with vocals by Hester Goodman), reached #81 in the UK singles charts in 2005. Also featured on the CD single were covers of the instrumental "Wonderful Land", and of "Natural Woman", the latter with (male) lead vocals provided by musical director George Hinchliffe.

Performances

The orchestra has toured the USA, 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. High praise has been forthcoming from the press for live shows. 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.

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

Other projects

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.

BBC Proms world record

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. As well as this, the concert hosted what was then thought to be the world record for the largest number of ukulele players playing with each other at once, at least 992 players participated in a version of Beethoven's Ode to Joy. A DVD of the performance, Prom Night, was released the same year.

Line-up

The orchestra has had varying line-ups over the past two decades, but since 2005 has performed as an octet, with eight ukulele players including one who plays bass ukulele. The members wear traditional orchestra dress for performances, with the men in black tie and the women in smart evening wear.

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilations

DVDs

Current members

The group has a small number of individuals who regularly serve as substitutes: