Lancaster's Ukulele Malarkey 2

Lancaster Ukulele Malarkey took place two days ago and I have just recovered enough to write this blog. It was a full day of ukulele playing starting with the Morecambe Ukulele Club's usual session between 10am and noon at the Trimpell Club in Morecambe. The Malarkey began with a beginners' workshop and was followed by performances from five ukulele groups at St John's Church in Lancaster. On the right is a photo of the Morecambe group.

In the evening small groups and individuals played in the Robert Gillow pub in Lancaster. I managed a couple of supporting roles and sang a couple of songs on my own and I certainly managed more than Andy Warhol's fifteen minutes of fame.

I spoke with many people and they all agreed that the whole day was a great success. Everyone wants to come back next year. The day concluded with songs from a couple from Manchester, Lou Armer and Alice Brockman who can be seen on the left. Lou plays ukulele and Alice is on violin.

The whole event was organised by Sue Parish who runs ukulele sessions on Fridays, also at the Robert Gillow pub, and yesterday she even managed to organise another ukulele event for a Lancaster charity, the the Neuro Dop In Centre. No wonder it has taken a couple of days to write this blog!

Aloha

Lancaster's Ukulele Malarkey

The next event in Morecambe Ukulele Club's calendar is a 'malarkey' organised by Sue Parish in Lancaster on the 19th July. All the details may be found here and it promises to be a full day of great entertainment.

Here is a photo taken a couple a few weeks ago at St John's Church, during the sound check in the venue where the group performances will be held during the afternoon. In the evening we move to the Robert Gillow for the open mic session, and to finish the evening there is a performance from ukulele player, Lou Armer (from Lou and the Llamas) and her violin-playing llama, Alice Brockman.


Photo credit: Mandy Holten.

There is also a workshop and opportunities for 'pub-based strumming' and probably a lot more too.

See you there?

Aloha

Aloha

Welcome to the latest addition to the "for novices" blogs. The ukulele has been getting more and more popular in recent years and for the past four years I have been lucky enough to be a member of the Morecambe ukulele club - lucky because there aren't many clubs older than mine here in Morecambe. Four yours doesn't sound like ancient history but it is in terms of ukulele clubs which are now all over the country and the world. I have also joined other clubs in Lancaster, Arnside (and another club in Morecambe) and I am a frequent visitor to other clubs in the North West.

Ukulele festivals are also springing up everywhere. Last year I attended the inaugural Grand Northern Ukulele Festival, (GNUF) in Pontefract and this year GNUF will be held in Huddersfield on the 13th and 14th September which I am sure will be another full house. I have also been to the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain (also sold out) which is held in Cheltenham and there are some very professionally organised free festivals like N'ukefest and the Chester Summer Strum. In fact I managed to get on the main stage at Chester yesterday and on the left is the evidence.

I have already posted quite a few ukulele-related videos on my YouTube channel, but I thought it would be good to have a blog specifically for ukulele-related matters, with the space for discussion on all matters related to the world of the ukulele.

Aloha