I saw the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain last night in Burlington, Vermont - I know Ivan Olarte is seeing them tonight in New Hampshire - and they were superb.
Neither Hester nor Will were with them last night, and a wonderfuil young lady named Liesa Rea was in Hester's spot.
OF all the YouTube videos I've seen, last night was the first night I really heard Kitty sing - she was great!
Jonty's whistling, Richie's simultaneous singing/playing of the lead, Dave's asides...
All wonderful, all spectacular.
Not too many people had ukes with them, and not too many stayed for autographs after the show, which was too bad, but the performers were obviously tired.
The guy ahead of me was getting a G-String tenor signed, and I decided not to have my uke signed ; I still play all of them, and I've worn off Jake's signature already from my Vita Uke, so instead, I had my copy of The Ukes Down Under signed.
Unfortunately, due to the VAT stupidity, not to mention the whole duty in/duty out thing both here and in Europe, there was no merchandise to be had - so I settled for some nice conversation and some handshakes.
Many of the people in the audience knew nothing about the UOGB, and several were somewhat mystified by ukuleles in general. During the intermission, one man saw my case, and started asking a few questions - so I opened the case, pulled my Fluke out, and started explaining about ukuleles. And then there was another question. And another, and another. So I kept answering.
Too bad we didn't get a Uke Jam going - one member of the Montpelier Ukulele group talked about starting a jam before the show with me, but didn't uncase his instrument before walking away.
My wife got one quick shot during the autographing:
And now I'm going to bed. It was a long couple of hundred mile drive today, in the rain.
Neither Hester nor Will were with them last night, and a wonderfuil young lady named Liesa Rea was in Hester's spot.
OF all the YouTube videos I've seen, last night was the first night I really heard Kitty sing - she was great!
Jonty's whistling, Richie's simultaneous singing/playing of the lead, Dave's asides...
All wonderful, all spectacular.
Not too many people had ukes with them, and not too many stayed for autographs after the show, which was too bad, but the performers were obviously tired.
The guy ahead of me was getting a G-String tenor signed, and I decided not to have my uke signed ; I still play all of them, and I've worn off Jake's signature already from my Vita Uke, so instead, I had my copy of The Ukes Down Under signed.
Unfortunately, due to the VAT stupidity, not to mention the whole duty in/duty out thing both here and in Europe, there was no merchandise to be had - so I settled for some nice conversation and some handshakes.
Many of the people in the audience knew nothing about the UOGB, and several were somewhat mystified by ukuleles in general. During the intermission, one man saw my case, and started asking a few questions - so I opened the case, pulled my Fluke out, and started explaining about ukuleles. And then there was another question. And another, and another. So I kept answering.
Too bad we didn't get a Uke Jam going - one member of the Montpelier Ukulele group talked about starting a jam before the show with me, but didn't uncase his instrument before walking away.
My wife got one quick shot during the autographing:
And now I'm going to bed. It was a long couple of hundred mile drive today, in the rain.
-Kurt