It’s 1985 - Wham are topping charts and everyone has enormous hair. The first ever mobile phone (the size of a brick) is on sale and scientists locate the site of the sunken Titanic. Microsoft Windows is launched, and Bob Geldof persuades just about everyone to appear in the biggest line up we’ve ever seen to raise millions for Live Aid. Back to the Future is on our screens, the first episode of Eastenders is beamed into British homes, and what’s that coming over the hill? Why, it’s the sixteen-handed, all-singing, all-plucking Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, and they’re coming this way…
Four decades (and 400,000,000 plucks) later they’re still thrilling audiences with their off-beat humour and four-stringed virtuosity from Tasmania to the Arctic Circle, Windsor Castle to Carnegie Hall.
Formed as the antidote to mindless pop, egocentric rock, and the indulgent, bluster of the music business, what is the secret of their longevity? Perhaps it’s the menagerie of voices in a collision of post-punk performance and toe-tapping classics? Or the fact that there are no drums, pianos, backing tracks, guitars, or banjos, no pitch shifters or electronic trickery - just an astonishing revelation of the rich palette of orchestration afforded by ukuleles plus fulsome vocals.
Come and celebrate the 40th anniversary of this much-loved institution, on a white-knuckle shopping-trolley dash through every kind of musical genre. From ABBA to ZZ Top, Tchaikovsky to Nirvana, Bluegrass to Broadway with maybe a Spaghetti Western thrown in.
The Ukulele Orchestra proudly present their 40th Year Anniversary World Tour “with only hand luggage”; a witty, quirky, irreverent, awesome, foot-stomping obituary of rock-n-roll and melodious light entertainment, all played on the 'bonsai guitar”.
Catch them whilst you can.
"The best musical entertainment in the country. " The Independent
"An oversized dose of unexpected hipness." The New York Times
"A comedic musical powerhouse." The Dartmouth
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