OK, what's your first thought at seeing/hearing the word "ukulele" (sometimes spelled "ukelele")? It may not be what Alexis Petridis wrote in The Guardian in this review of a show this past April by PJ Harvey and John Parish, which included the phrase:
...."chilling ballads performed on that most reliably chilling of instruments, the ukelele."
That aside, another rather unlikely word to associate with "ukelele" is "orchestra". Yet in London on Tuesday August 18, 2009, one such group, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, is scheduled to take the Royal Albert Hall by storm, in Prom 45 of the 2009 Proms. No joke, and furthermore, all the seats are sold out. Not the Promming places, though; vide infra the flip....
From the UOGB's own page, this portion of the intro sums their ethos up well:
"The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is a group of all-singing, all-strumming Ukulele players, using instruments bought with loose change, which believes 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, awesome, foot-stomping obituary of rock-n-roll and melodious light entertainment featuring only the 'bonsai guitar' and a menagerie of voices in a collision of post-punk performance and toe-tapping oldies. There are no drums, pianos, backing tracks or banjos, no pitch shifters or electronic trickery."
For Prom 45, from the BBC Proms page:
"The all-singing, all-strumming players of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain have devised a special programme for their first Proms appearance, to include a rendition of that Last Night favourite, Parry's Jerusalem, as you've never heard it before.....Other classics receiving the UOGB treatment in tonight's Prom are Wagner's The Ride of the Valkyries, Eric Coates's march The Dambusters, an excerpt from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (yes, really!) – and unorthodox arrangements of songs by The Who and the Sex Pistols."
In fact, if you're in London and play the ukulele, you're invited to participate (you need to download the BBC iPlayer to watch the videos).
Speaking of videos, some samples of their work:
Terry Grimley of the Birmingham Post had this recent article, which begins, fittingly enough:
"In an interview published last week, Proms director Roger Wright complained that, after all the effort he had put into organising the world's greatest music festival, all anyone wanted to talk about was the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain.
But given the deep affection for quirkiness which we like to think is peculiarly British, it's not particularly surprising that this eccentric ensemble's forthcoming induction into the annual Royal Albert Hall ritual has captured the public imagination."
In a way, linking its name with the Proms merely adds another level to the incongruity already achieved by the juxtaposition of 'ukelele' and 'orchestra'."
Little more can (should?) be said after this, except for you to mark down your BBC internet time on August 18, as appropriate :) . Or you can listen to that concert, as with every Prom, for 1 week after the event.
Oh, I mentioned about that concert being sold, but not the Promming places. To "Prom" during the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall means to buy standing room, in a nutshell:
"Up to 1,400 standing places are available at each Proms concert. The traditionally low prices allow you to enjoy world-class concerts for just £5.00 each....There are two standing areas: the Arena, located directly in front of the stage, and the Gallery, running round the top of the Hall. All spaces are unreserved.
Over 500 Arena and Gallery tickets (priced £5.00) go on sale 30 minutes before doors open. These tickets cannot be booked in advance, so even if all seats have been sold, you always have a good chance of getting in (though early queuing is advisable for the more popular concerts). You must buy your ticket in person, and must pay by cash."
So if you're in London and you don't play the ukulele, and want to try your luck, you have a chance of getting in if you're willing to queue sufficiently far in advance. Given this particular concert, though, several hours in advance is probably well advised.
BTW, the answer is no: 3CM has never played the ukulele. Thus it's not quite sure which side of the coin qualifies as loser, playing it, or not playing it. On the other hand, playing to a crowd of 6000 people would qualify as "winner" in most people's books, one would think. Nor will 3CM be in London for this one. He has to settle for listening to it over the internets.
Oh, and since this is Daily Kos, one sop to politics, as the UOGB's founder and leader George Hinchcliffe summarizes (OK, summarises) the core audience of the group:
"...its following generally has...a 'left-leaning, knit-your-own-yoghurt' element."
With that, 'tis Saturday night, and time for the usual SNLC protocol, i.e. your loser stories for the week below.....