Last night, Jo and I went to Aylesbury to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. We had only seen them on DVD before, but were really looking forward to it.

We were on the first row of raised seats, about 6 rows from the front on the right hand side, so we had a good view of the stage.

From their website:

The Ukulele Orchestra is a group of all-singing, all-strumming Ukulele players, who use instruments bought with loose change, and who believe that all genres of music are available for reinterpretation, as long as they are played on the Ukulele. A concert by the Ukulele Orchestra is a funny, virtuosic, twanging, singing, awesome, foot-stomping obituary of rock-n-roll and melodious light entertainment featuring only the “bonsai guitar” and a menagerie of voices; no drums, no pianos, no backing tracks, and no banjos. A collision of post-punk performance and toe-tapping oldies. See the universe in the grain of a Ukulele. You may never think about music in the same way once you’ve been exposed to the Ukes’ depraved musicology. The Orchestra use the limitations of the instrument to create a musical freedom with Ukuleles, (little ones, big ones, high ones, low ones) revealing unsuspected insights into popular music. From Tchaikovsky to Nirvana via Otis Reading, the Orchestra takes you on a world tour with only hand luggage and gives the listener “One Plucking Thing After Another”.

It was a really fun evening with songs from Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus, through Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush, to Back in Black by ACDC. They are a really funny bunch and I’d thoroughly recommend seeing them if you get the chance. I don’t think I ever been to a concert where so many people were laughing. We got their most recent album ‘Precious Little’ on CD and continued the experiance on the way home.