A couple of weeks ago the BBC aired Frank Skinner’s documentary about George Formby. You watch the full documentary on YouTube and it’s well worth it. I’m a fan of Formby, enjoyed it and learned a fair bit too. In the clip at the top, Frank visits Karauke in London to find out why modern […]

I had a trawl through Project Gutenberg for references to ukuleles. There were a few passing references from people you might expect like F. Scott Fitzgerald and P.G. Wodehouse. You can read those – and plenty of others – on Backwards Ukulele Player’s posts on this subject. But it’s obvious the writer most fond of […]

I’m not entirely sure it’s worth reviewing something that’s officially out of print. The ukulele songbook for Eddie Vedder’s Ukulele Songs album was available as a limited edition and was sold out before it was released (apart from a few copies sold on Flea Market Music). It is still sort of gettable. If you’re willing […]

About three years ago I put together a tab ebook to benefit Ukuleles for Peace with the help of some friends. Since then it’s raised over $3,500 for them. It’s done so well that Ken Middleton has put together a follow-up featuring tabs from me, Colin Tribe, Michael ‘Ukulele Mike’ Lynch, Herman Vandercauter and Ken […]

A healthy crop of ukulele acts, as always, at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Here’s a quick rundown of the acts I’d be going to see if I was there. Helen Arney – Festival of the Spoken Nerd and Alchemy Comedy ukulele nerd and star of Uke Hunt podcast #8, Helen Arney will doing a whole […]

I’m taking a couple of weeks off the blog. I’ll be back on 5th August with plenty of new stuff.

It’s been an age since I last updated my About page – I even have hair in that photo. Step 1 in the process: updating the FAQs. If you’ve got any other questions (or questions about my answers) leave them in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer those too. General Uke […]

Time for a little blogcation. I’ll be back on Friday 20th May. Expect some posts dedicated to music from Manchester (put your requests in the comments), game music from Portal 2 and Angry Birds, and some shameless whoring of my upcoming actual-paper book.

Yesterday – it being International Women’s Day – I was musing on how gender balanced the ukulele world is (compare the average ukulele festival to scenes from NAMM). I like to have a healthy mix on the site and writing about the ukulele makes it very easy. But it goes beyond gender. The ukulele scene […]

I’m sure 2010 will got down in ukulele history as the year of Hey, Soul Sister (don’t even think about it: released November 2009). But I’ll be remembering the year for the diversity, skill and invention on display from the ukers. And it’s heartening to see that, despite all the mainstreamification and talk of the […]