![]() ![]() The song has been covered by such disparate talents as Vanilla Fudge, Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra, but Lux’s version changed the lyrics to make it, as she said, “a tale of love and murder.” It was striking, and rather chilling. Lux also brought unexpected pathos to the odd song “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down),” written by Sonny Bono and first sung by Cher. The group closed the first half of the show by singing The Who’s “Pinball Wizard.” As a sea shanty.Īlthough humor was the keynote of the concert, there were poignant moments - perhaps none more so than the orchestra’s performance of the late Lou Reed’s “Satellite of Love.” Lux sang it in a deadpan style that seemed in keeping with the song’s depiction of an empty life. One of the most impressive feats of the concert featured no instruments at all. Hinchcliffe seemed half-serious in introducing a tune as “traditional English music,” but it turned out to be the theme song from the TV series “Bonanza.” Another lengthy - and more obviously silly - introduction led to an extended, hilarious take on the theme from the movie “Shaft,” complete with the largely spoken lyrics and Hinchcliffe’s “Can you dig it?” and “Right on, brother.” Some of the most crowd-pleasing numbers seemed to be the ensemble’s frequent salutes to iconic tunes of pop culture. While there was the occasional joke or quip about a particular song, the Ukulele Orchestra unfailingly showed respect for the material - even while sometimes twisting it or spinning it in a completely new, even absurd direction. “He must have cut up ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ to get this one,” she quipped. Rea noted that Bowie during that period sometimes composed songs by cutting out words from books and assembling them. Heaven knows into what genre their music fits, but anarchic, intensely musical, and completely original – the orchestra appears to be a cult.Not long after this came David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream” (from his “Ziggy Stardust” album). ![]() His trademark song rocked yer socks off, made you laugh, made you cry all in an exotic eight minute romp. But George would have rolled, if not rocked in his grave. There must have been three or four hundred people in the hall last night, of all ages, from five to over 70.Īnd just as I thought we’d escaped George Formby, the final encore was I’m Leaning on a Lamppost. Pinball Wizard contrastingly triggers fits of laughter across the hall. Sumptuously rendered, for each player has as good a voice as his or her instrument, Life on Mars emerges pure from two verses and then takes on layers of other songs that run concurrently – My Way, For Once in My Life, Some Day I’ll Fly Away that harmonise perfectly with Bowie’s theme. The result is genuinely orchestral, and you can’t quite divine how on earth they do it.ĭavid Bowie is so taken with their rendition of Life on Mars that he’s put a link on his website. The texture is as round as a 12 string guitar and the contrasts one instrument makes with another amaze. From Rock Around the Clock to the Dambusters the music was as eclectic as the sounds that the Ukulele can muster singly or collectively. It proved to be wall-to-wall, total entertainment.įrom rich humour, to slow nostalgia. Sure enough there were six of them – large men and a woman, armed with tiny ukuleles, a guy with an electric base and another with a guitar.Īnd that was the line up at the Cecil Sharpe House in north London last night for the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Say ukulele to me before and I’d have said George Formby and smoky old pubs browned with nicotine. “Try it,” my friend said, “you won’t be disappointed.” “Six ukuleles?” I asked, “one’s bad enough.”
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