Entertainment For Lively Minds
Ukulele Guilty Pleasures - Frank Skinner on George Formby
Posted by Martin Simmonds on 28 October 2011 - 9:12am.
There was an absolutely delightful programme on BBC4 last night.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b016fpz0/Frank_Skinner_on_George_Fo...
Lot's of folk I recognised from the emerging London Uke scene together with a very charming account of George Formby's life and how it continues to be celebrated by enthusiasts.
If you can't stand anything Uke related, the added bonus of how they make "little sticks of Blackpool rock" is worth the price of admission alone!
- More from Martin Simmonds.
- Login or register to post comments
-
Agreed
I thought Frank Skinner delivered the whole thing with great charm.
Hugely enthusiastic about him but aware of the sentimentality and foolishness of Formby's films he balanced the thing out with some wryly affectionate critiques.
I love stringed instruments and can watch them being played for wife-annyoingly long periods of time. Though I have to say an hour of relentless rank-a-chank-a-chank-dank-dank on massed ukes was just enough for me.
Good old BBC4
I have to say...
... that I am liking Frank Skinner more and more as he gets older. He has a warmth and an enthusiasm which is really infectious sometimes. I even heard him on Radio 3's Nightwaves once talking about Dr Johnson. It almost made me want to read him...
Music Hall
The music hall mini-season has been rather ace. Watched the Sid Field prog this AM which was fascinating as a snapshot of time. As was Michael Grade's History of Music Hall, which was excellent, although could have done with a bit of a pruning, time-wise.
While I was very little, the oldies in the family were old enough to have been to the music hall at least weekly if not more and I am always shocked by not only how many of the songs I know, but how many I can actually still sing, words and all.
I think I'd probably quite like a good compilation of those old tunes, any know any good ones?
This is a useful one
http://www.musichallcds.com/
i've bought quite a few from there. Leslie sarony a particular favourite.
Thanks for that
Will peruse at a future date!
Looking forward to watching this!
But Martin, I have to take you to task, why is the ukulele a guilty pleasure? Surely it's pure, unbridled joy?!
Hmmmm, interesting question!
Don't know how to answer. Maybe its a phrase used if i'm doing something, and witneses look at me with a look on the face that clearly says...... "wanker". (I get that quite a lot lately.)
You should see the looks I've got since I bought my latest addition into the world.
I give you.... my new accordion!
Edit to add
meant to say that you'll see a section in the programme where the folks from the Ukelele Wednesday Group feature. (That event that we spoke of and will one day attend!)
Right on Brother!!!!
Accordions rock (I've also got a ukelele and that also rocks (in a rinkadinkdink stylee))
I've lusted after a roland chromatic midi accordion for yonks and was inches away from getting one (had saved up for 8 months) and then my partner went and got pregnant!!! Curses! (btw. I am joking here, I'm absolutely over the moon).
How are you getting on? Is it free bass? Piano keyboard or chromatic?
Teaching myself
I bought a 70 bass piano accordion just last week. I'm determined to learn it this time around. I do already have a 128 bass that I inherited from my Dad but its just too darned heavy.
In the natural scheme of things I'm a guitarist / uker although understanding chord patterns really helps knowing where all the bass chords are on the accordion. I can also just about find my way around the right hand melody line of a piano and so my thinking is that I should have half a chance in putting the two together.
Getting on pretty well even if I say so myself, jut need to break away from playing everything in C!
Flashforward to 2030
"Remember when there was that time when everybody was on about ukeleles? Around 2011, I think....I mean they were bloody everywhere.
....What was that all about, then?"
retro uke
Absolutely spot on, except it was about 2008-2009 when it peaked.
Although now it features in virtually all TV adverts. However, that's a sign of the peak of a culture having passed. It's similar to the time in the late 80s when radio DJs in the UK started to refer to new release singles as 'UK Fresh'. A belated attempt to latch onto a cult.
I had heard that they had replaced recorders in school
Might explain the upsurge.
An the FACT that they are a.w.e.s.o.m.e. I love my uke.
Yes, uke is now the most popular instrument in schools
(I'm a ukulele teacher!)
Ukelele
There's something about the sound of a ukelele reminds me of lolly sticks in the spokes of a bike wheel.
Bloody annoying ;)
Loved it
Frank Skinner pitched it just right. And I now want to play one!
The uke is nowhere near over
There is a big ad campaign upcoming that uses Mr Formby.
It's all a bit skiffle for me, but carry on.
Speaking of guilty pleasures
I just paid £400 quid for this.
Is that too much? (to quote Steve Martin).
It's made by Maton, Australia's most famous guitar maker.
Don't you love the dinky little case, though?
dinky case?
...you mean a rink-a-dink-dinky case, don't you?
Perhaps
I mean Rinky Dink, the 1962 instrumental hit by Dave "Baby" Cortez?
Uke and Quatro Combo
Bit of a shocker though....
that he got engaged only six weeks after his Mrs died.
Although I'm really hoping for a banjo revival
(Flatt & Scruggs/Foggy Mountain Breakdown)
Just watched it.
Great programme, thanks for the tip-off Martin! x