Ukuleles at the Edinburgh Fringe 2008

This year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival kicks off this Sunday and, as ever, there are a handful of uke acts plying their wares.

Learn to Play the Ukulele in Under an Hour (How George Formby Saved My Life)

Donal Coonan (from Channel 4’s thisisaknife) and Sam Brown (not Joe Brown’s daughter) set out to show the joys of the ukulele by teaching the entire audience to play the ukulele in under an hour. Ably assisted by Sally Phillips and her ukulele machine.

Venue: Gilded Balloon

Jimmy McGee with SideShow

Sideshow is billed as “The Weirdest Show on Earth” and featuring, “freaks, outcasts, and attention seekers.” For some reason, they thought Jimmy from the Bobby McGee’s would fit right in. The presence of a great number of bendy and busty women convinced him to join them in Edinburgh.

Nigel Birch in Dancing On Your Grave

Or The Cholmondeleys and the Featherstonehaughs present ‘Dancing On Your Grave’ featuring Corpse De Ballet to give it its full title.

Nigel Burch has been strumming on his banjolele the Flea-Pit Orchestra for more than a decade. This year he’s been providing musical back up to The Cholmondeleys’s twisted music hall show.

Venue: Assembly @ George Street

Liz Bentley-On-Sea

I wrote about Liz Bentley when she appeared at last years festival. This year she’ll be some aquatic strumming at the Sweet Grassmarket Swimming Pool.

If this is your first visit here, you can find the chords/tab in those posts by clicking on the song title in red.

Night of 100 Ukes

My belief that the ukulele is a force for goodwill between all in the world rivaled only by industrial quantities of marijuana took a beating today. It was reported that kids at a school in Guam were using ukulele’s to smuggle implements of destruction to mutilate fellow (willing) classmates with. There are no shortage of people who value the uke for it’s noggin’ battering qualities. Thou shalt not use ukuleles to get into girls’ pants/Use it to smash over their heads.

My faith, however, has been restored by Night of 100 Ukes. [Read more]