THE Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain will celebrate 30 Plucking Years on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, on June 17 at 7.30pm.
Eight ukuleles, 16 hands, 32 strings, 30 years, come this summer the orchestra will have clocked up 16 million minutes of ukulele action. By September 2016, they will have been active for one billion seconds.
They play ukuleles, they sing, they say funny things, they whistle, and now their 30th anniversary will be marked by a year of tours and audio and video releases.
Forming in 1985, the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain played their first gig in London, followed by the WOMAD festival, a Japanese tour and a New Year's Eve appearance on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny on BBC2.
Commitments since then have varied from playing the BBC Electric Proms with Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs; a guest appearance on Madness's album The Liberty Of Norton Folgate, concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall and Sydney Opera House; and performing with Robbie Williams on Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway on ITV1.
Tickets cost £23.25 on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here