All shapes and sizes Keith Wallis
Mention
ukuleles and a lot of people turn off immediately. It either conjures up George Formby, all
teeth and brylcreem, or Hawaiian maidens in grass skirts from old ‘B’
movies. But as the song goes – ‘it ain’t
necessarily so’.
The
‘Last of the Summer Ukuleles’ ‘was
set up in 2013 by Stephen Robson, and a few retired friends,
as an opportunity for a daytime jam session.
Beginning as just a group of strummers
(basically anyone who turned up with a ukulele) who wanted something to
do once a month (in a pub) and to have some fun. When I joined up, some months later, with my
vintage banjo-ukulele, knowing 3 chords, they had grown to maybe 20
players. They were a welcoming bunch and, though I was
very apprehensive about going, I found I loved the sense of camaraderie and the
opportunity to extend my playing ability.
It
wasn’t long before people who heard the lunch time jam sessions started asking us to play a set at lunch clubs or similar functions. As a lot of ukulele groups are populated by
people who are still working, daytime ‘concerts’ for groups of older folk, or
those with special needs of one kind or another, was a space we could fill.
Seeing this as an opportunity to raise money for charity, we began accepting
bookings. The first full year we raised
over £1200 for Houghton Helpers, the second year over £1600 for Kingfishers
respite care home. 2017 we were supporting 'Houghton & Dunstable Hospice at Home
Volunteers' and raised £2232.
Our 2018 charity was 'Music for my mind' for which we raised £2775.
2019 we again supported Houghton & Dunstable Hospice at Home Volunteers to the tune of a whopping £3583 !
2020 & 2021 we departed from our norm of changing charity annually and are continuing to support Hospice at Home Volunteers (generally, 2020 got ambushed by Covid19).
2019 we again supported Houghton & Dunstable Hospice at Home Volunteers to the tune of a whopping £3583 !
2020 & 2021 we departed from our norm of changing charity annually and are continuing to support Hospice at Home Volunteers (generally, 2020 got ambushed by Covid19).
We haven’t kept to the ‘traditional’ sing-a-long format of most ukulele groups, nor embraced modern songs, though both are within our repertoire. We bring a kind of self effacing lunacy and banter into our performances – this is possible because we don’t take ourselves too seriously and get as much fun out of our performances as our audiences do. Songs from the 1920’s to the 1960’s dominate our sets but we drop in some more contemporary songs too .
At the beginning of 2020 Stephen Robson handed over the reins to Jeremy, Nigel and me, while still participating and keeping an active eye on LotSU.
We
are reaping the benefit of our performances as we are frequently rebooked
almost immediately. The lunch time pub ‘jam’ has stretched from one a month to every Wednesday of the month. Venues vary on available space in the pubs but are advertised on our facebook page.
Numbers have grown for those sessions and we
have hit 40+ strummers on occasions. Needless
to say these jam sessions embrace all standards of musicianship. Our public performances have somewhat fewer
players and we most often sport a line-up of around 15.
It’s
not just the soprano ukulele, which you would recognise from the movies, that
features in our line-up. I didn’t
realise how many versions of the instrument existed until I joined the group
– so we may feature
Soprano, Concert, Tenor, Baritone, Bass, Guitarlele, Banjo-ukulele, four
string, six string, eight string, all from the ukulele family. Filling out the
sound with cajon, kazoo, mouthorgan and mandolin and sometimes with guitar, not
to mention some homemade instruments as yet unnamed !
We have a presence on Facebook
and this blog thesummerukuleles.blogspot.co.uk
(with pictures and links to videos as well as
contact particulars should you contemplate booking us).
Thank You for sharing those sweet moment. It will touch every ukulele lover heart.mitoolbuy
ReplyDeleteI'm in your photo above (big white hat) but not on your email list unless you don't have one. Enjoyed the fifth anniversary very much. Gill
ReplyDeletePlease add my name to your email list. My email is gillmulluns21@yahoo.com
ReplyDeletethat e-mail doesn't work Jill
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