Went to the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain's Concert in Espoo tonight. There are two more nights Friday 15th and Saturday 16th and if you are a fan of dry British humour then it is a treat. Tonights performance was sold out, and if you decide to go here is a tip get in the queue early are get right down the front and sit at the tables on the dance floor instead of the seats in the theatre.
I happened to sit down the front near Dave the long haired one and he selected our table to give presents to. I received a two day old copy of the Guardian, and the man who was sitting next to me go a used ferry-boat sticker, while his two children were given a used British rail ticket and a used stamp. As you can well imagine no expense is spared on this tour.
What can you expect? Well music from that great classical composer Johan Sebastian Hendrix. They also do modern composers like Stockhausen in a Johnny Cash style. Kiss by Prince gets a going over, and well as a cossack interpretation of Leaning on a lampost, the George Formby classic which now becomes Lenin on a lampost. The ying-tong song by Spike Milligan gets a good thrashing as does the Robert Johnson song "Hot tamales and their red hot". Songs by Marylin Monroe get featured twice, and there is a very moving performance of a Tom Waits tune.
The featured instrumentals include the theme from "the good the bad and the ugly," and that bit of music everybody knows from silent movies when the hero has to made haste to rescue the heroine who is tied to the railway tracks. At one point they had 5 people playing the one small ukulele at the same time, as a novelty. They also did a rendition of Finlandia, which brought the house down.
The concert lasts 2 hours. Drinks are served at a bar, as well as coffee and cakes. At the interval they sell their latest CD which they will autograph, although George did comment that he believed they would be more valuable if they remained unsigned.
Picture taking with flash was forbidden doing the performance, but nobody seemed to mind if I popped off a few shots when they were accepting applause.
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