After 28 years of playing together, and a number of world tours, it is not surprising that the eight members of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain know how to put on a good show.
In an almost traditional Lichfield Festival show they played a wide range of music by such luminaries as Saint Saens, Ennio Morricone, Blur, Lou Reed, Kraftwerk, Blur, The Sex Pistols, Chic and Talking Heads. While they are obviously known for the prowess of their Ukulele skills, they are also a tight vocal harmony band, with a lot of crowding pleasing humour in their act.
The first half of the concert saw a wide range of songs being played, from the jazz-tinged lilt of Hooray for Hollywood to Blur’s Song 2.
Lou Reed’s Satellite of Love lifted some of the melancholy of the original to reveal the pop sheen of the song, while Adele’s Rolling in the Deep was delivered with aplomb.
The theme from Shaft was a good light reading from this pop/funk classic. An instrumental blues number, and Robert Johnson’s Hot Tamales (They’re red hot) were good fun, and showed that the Ukulele, in the right hands had as much right to play blue seventh notes as its six string counter-part, while Anarchy in the UK was robbed of its potent punk power, and delivered as a soft folk lament, complete with harmony vocals.
The second half contained more complicated, instrumental music.
Ennio Morricone’s iconic theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly had an eerie opening, before the instantly recognisable theme appeared, both whistled and played. A reading of Kraftwerk’s The Model had the same hynoptic drive of the original, whilst their reading of Saint Saens Danse Macabre allowed for some virtuosity to be displayed, in a performance that was both haunting and dramatic.
Talking Head’s Psycho Killer, one of the most disturbingly insistent, not to say sinister pop songs of recent times was also played, but levity was restored with an energetic Le Freak by Chic, which saw the audience clapping along.
Two songs featured in the encore. Handel With Care was a study in music theory, showing how one of Handel’s more widely known chord progression had found its way into many pop songs, such as Fly Me To Moon, Hotel California and a number of other songs. As each new song was added a new member would introduce it, so after a while there were six songs being sung and played in a perfect round. The applause the band received after this was very much deserved.
In all, this was a good show and although they offered nothing new to their long term fans, anybody seeing them for the first, second, third or fourth time will have been reminded of how much fun this talented octet and their family of four stringed instruments can be.