The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain: vintage clip from 1988

[pinkypinkstery]

My gawd its ponytail guy before the ponytail! And lead guy with more hair!

[parakeetist]

We played ukulele before it was cool you silly hipster kids.

[clems41]

23 years later, it's still as brilliant as it was. Well, I wasn't born at that time, so maybe I should say: 23 years ago, it was already so brilliant!

[MrColoradowilderness]

I didnt really expect to see anyone playing a mexican Bajo sexto!

[Envergure]

What the heck is that bass instrument?

[christovskymck3987]

Aaaaaaw the ponytailed pirate guy is at the back on the right!!



[1987Hilario]

Holy Jalapena! That's a guitarron! Well, I know this much, I just picked up a walking bass line for mine... lol Quite inventive, it sounds great.

[kaeksman]

The Bass Uke for the win !!! XDDD

[brianmooreshead]

Did she say that the World is Your Lobster?

[HjerteknustMusiker]

@brianmooreshead

Does is it really make less sense than 'oyster'? ;)

[brianmooreshead]

@HjerteknustMusiker I guess it doesn't make any difference really. It sounds like something Del Boy Would say from Only Fools and Horses.

[roymondo51]

@brianmooreshead: that was an Eric Morecambe quip if my memory serves me well

[brianmooreshead]

@roymondo51 Ah, I've not heard of that, but it would certainly make sense. I wonder if the presenter knew that.

[asda99asda99]

@brianmooreshead Yes she so did.

[jlaci]

what kind of pick is the best for this kind of music on a uke?

[ste0666]

As a ukulele player i hate being referred to bloody George Formby. Baw!

[Bengiskahn]

@ste0666 He played a ukelele banjo...!!

[john9ten]

I love that the bassist is playing a guitarron! That's the bass instrument that is played in a Mexican mariachi group!! You guys are great!

[TheMichael408]

@john9ten hes not holding it right though

[ericb51]

wow, cool to see the early incarnation.

[errebepe]

"There's an LP coming out"

A what-P now?

[malava77]

omg!!!

dave, kitty and george in young!

[DoratheDelightful]

I can't believe how many women there used to be!

Where have all the female Uke players gone!?

[RamonesKaraoke]

I just want to say to the Ukes - I was supposed to see you lot in Tewkesbury earlier this year, and bizarrely both my car and my wife's car died on the same day and we couldn't make it - no public transport and the taxi would have been £200 ...

Still haven't seen you. And I'm bloody gutted.

Anyway - hope to see you somewhere in Cotswoldshire very soon. You are my favourite band. Which shows that rock and roll has been in a bloody sorry state since 1978 but don't get me started on that ...

[malava77]

that is why we love em: they've got so much style!!!

[UTBESUX]

No way did David Bowie ever do anything with them

[UkuleleOrchestra]

@UTBESUX Dave Bowie (not that one) is an ace bass player from Leeds. You can see him playing double bass with them on the other BBC clip from 1990. He is re-joining the Ukulele Orchestra in Nov at London's Cecil Sharp House when the Ukes are playing some settings of Cecil Sharp's folk music. As a footnote, the other David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust etc) recently praised the Ukulele Orchestra for their "wonderfully clever" arrangements, so he may well be a ukulele player after all.

[timandrajane]

Fantastic to see this part of the group's history. Thanks for posting it. The few familiar faces look so different ... so young! ;o)

[elynch1959]

Is that a young Hester with a lovely pudding bowl haircut?

[windsoord]

OMG Look at the haircuts :D

[idrnoel]

I wish I discovered them much much earlier.

[wetmonday]

I have a couple of questions I hope can be answered please, apart from George and Kitty is there anyone in this line up still with them and I see they once peformed with Madness when was that and what did they peform?

cheers

[lizardonuke]

@wetmonday Yes, of course, Dave is still there - now with long hair. I am not aware of a live performance, but the ukulele playing for the title song of the latest Madness Album "The Liberty of Norton Folgate" was contributed by some members of the UOGB.

[cardwellism]

The guitarron is usually tuned an octave below a guitar. Simon Edwards, the guitarron player in this clip, left the ukulele orchestra to form Fairground Attraction and had a hit with "It's got to be perfect". The left handed blond ukulele player is Andy Astle, one of the founders of the orchestra, currently working with "The Band of Holy Joy", and teaching ukulele.

[karlcatt]

Oops, not three-course. It has six separately tuned strings, but tuned differently than a guitar (or a bass guitar for that matter)

[karlcatt]

It's a guitarron, a Mexican fretless, shortneck three-course bass guitarwith a high 'action' (string height), invariably played by the shortest member of the mariachi band. Fairground Attraction used one a lot as well.

[rumidom]

wow, i wasn't even born yet

[Mac260]

It's great!

And as you can see the man on the right in the front row is left handed. I don't know whether Jonty is left handed, but he plays the bass uke usually in the right handed way.

Isn't Richie the "youngest" in the Orchestra? I've read somewhere that he officially joined the orchestra when he moved to London a few years ago.

[lemonuke]

@Mac260 Richie was actually one of the very first members and played with them for about a year before moved up north for a while. But he regularly deputised and was often with them on tour in foreign countries. E.g. you can see him on the photos of their first Japan tour in 1994!

[ijujukulele2]

@Mac260 Hi ! No Jonty, and No Richie (see the comment of Lizardonauke) on this video.

But the left handed blond ukulele player is cute !

[HaileISela]

this was splendid, though it's a bit sad that the microphone didn't really do it justice...

I would give a lot for one of those LPs...

[stewkulele]

It worries me that I'm not as old as this video...

[glorimp]

@stewkulele

it worries me that im older than this video.

[chocolatecauldrons]

I can't believe you've been around this long and I only discovered you three years ago!

[meteort7]

Gosh, up three hours and almost a hundred views already!

What a great blast from the past, and what a great sound the 11 piece band had - I love Presto Tango. I recognised George and Kitty, of course, and David. Was that fresh faced lad on the far right of the front row really Jonty? Does anyone know who the others are or have I missed any of the current members - could that be Will next to David?

[lizardonuke]

@meteort7 Nooo, definitely no Will and no Jonty. Both don't appear on any Ukes album before "A Fist Ful of Ukuleles". Will was far younger than the guy next to Dave back in 1988... And as we all know, Jonty is the new boy in the band...

[Dabaka93]

What's this big instrument in the second row?

[Sheepstar15]

@Dabaka93 - I think it might be a Mexican guitarron :)