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The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain celebrates its 25 year anniversary in 2010. This is The Ukulele Orchestra Silver Jubilee: God Save the Ukulele Orchestra.

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is a group of all-singing, all-strumming Ukulele players (the clue is in the name), using instruments bought with loose change, which holds that all genres of music are available for reinterpretation, as long as they are played on the Ukulele. A concert by the Ukulele Orchestra is a funny, virtuosic, twanging, awesome, foot-stomping obituary of rock-n-roll and melodious light entertainment featuring only the 'bonsai guitar' and a menagerie of voices in a collision of post-punk performance and toe-tapping oldies.

The last 25 years have seen them develop from a fun gigging orchestra playing in the upstairs room at a London pub, to a fun gigging orchestra playing in some of the most established venues in the UK and the world, selling out theatres and appearing on TV in many countries, being their own record label, video production company, management and concert agency. Is it a contentious claim to say that they have sixteen-handedly turned the world on to the ukulele and its entertainment possibilities? You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll never think about music, humour or entertainment in the same way once you've seen and heard the Ukulele Orchestra.

Is it a modern exercise in minimal art or a rabble rousing music hall cum stadium rock experience, as the Ukes turn up on stage with precision, and with only one ukulele per performer (no gimmicks, no tricks, no vocal enhancers and overproduced wizardry), proceed to tear the house down, with audiences routinely giving multiple standing ovations after every gig, baying for more and booking tickets for future gigs as soon as they get home.


Tickets: £18, Concessions £16