Friday, June 12, 2009

The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain


Oh yes, this will be quite wonderful, the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain is going to be playing at the Proms.

The unlikely sound of ukuleles will take over one of Britain's largest classical musical festivals this summer, with an orchestra of the mini guitars performing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" in a play-along special.

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (UOGB), sporting tuxedos and brandishing "bonsai guitars," will perform on a stage usually reserved for the world's greatest symphony musicians.

They are calling on other 'uke' players to come to the concert and play along in a performance likely to be more reminiscent of George Formby than Beethoven.

And they will be doing ode to Joy as well! Excellent. I do hope that someone puts that up on YouTube so that we have a reasonable and decent version of the european Anthem with which to poke fun at the federasts.

If you don't know what they're like, have a look at this video.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

... and an inspired choice it turned out to be. I cannot pretend to be a great fan of the BBC, but this was truly wonderful, and quite the best thing I've heard all year.
Philip Watson, Devonshire