The ukulele has two obvious selling points: It is affordable and easy to carry. However, could the unassuming four-string instrument also incarnate the spirit of punk rock?
Since forming three decades ago, the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain has helped build a new audience for what it calls the “bonsai guitar,” playing musically faithful, but thoroughly tongue-in-cheek renditions of popular tunes.
Starting its latest US tour, the orchestra — clad in evening finest, including tuxedo jackets and bow ties — quickly pulled in dozens of smartphone-snapping onlookers as the eight ukuleleists strummed their way through AC/DC’s Highway to Hell.
Playing with the Australian headbangers’ poetry, soloist Ben Rouse sang: “Hey Satan. Paying my dues. Playing in a ukulele band,” as the players raised their instruments to the heavens in mock defiance.
Asked why he took up the ukulele, fellow player Jonty Bankes said: “Basically, it’s cheap and rather easy to play, so for people like us it was a godsend.”
However, the self-styled orchestra has noticed a power in the tiny instrument over the years — with gigs including two nights at Carnegie Hall, a set at the Glastonbury Festival in England and a private party at Windsor Castle for Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday.
“The thing is, when you bring a ukulele out and start playing it, it does actually make people smile,” Bankes said. “It’s an unthreatening, friendly instrument, which causes a bit of happiness worldwide, really.”
Cofounded by Kitty Lux — whose death last year at 59 brought a rare serious note to the ensemble with a memorial concert — the group was initially interested not in the ukulele itself, but in the irreverent energy of punk rock, then on its wane.
“Punks could form a band and play three chords, if indeed they could play three. The way that the band started, the same thing happened,” said Leisa Rea, who nonetheless had learned guitar before ukulele. “The instrument was a bit of a joke, I suppose, and we turned everything on its head. The spirit of punk is alive in the band.”
“We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We’re British, so we’ve got to have some sense of humor, really,” she said.
Rea fronted the group for its take of the Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), with an amplified bass ukulele holding the rhythm under seven ukuleles of different pitches.
“It’s a good way of detecting if a song is any good,” she said. “If you can play it on a ukulele, it’s a pretty good sign that it’s a decent song.”
Orchestra member Dave Suich said that he hopes the group has helped increase the popularity of the ukulele, especially in schools, where the little four-stringer has been giving stiff competition to the recorder as a first instrument for children.
“People younger than 40 don’t know that it’s funny,” Suich said. “They just think you play an instrument.”
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS