SEVEN ukes nuked an appreciative crowd with a musical assault of surprise songs and melodies on the second date of Pocklington’s five-day Platform Festival.

Dressed in black tie and sitting in a horseshoe arrangement on stage, the six men and one woman led us on an accomplished musical journey, taking in genres from across the decades with songs to appeal to all generations.

You could almost hear the palm trees sway with the jaunty Hawaiian opener of On The Beach At Waikiki, but before you could say Mai Tai the band switched into rock mode for Prince’s Kiss.

A packed programme followed, featuring 23 tracks over two 50-minute sets. Highlights included a tense Psycho Killer and The Zutons' Valerie, as well as dance-floor favourite Get Lucky and Pharrell Williams’ clap-along audience-friendly Happy.

The near sell-out crowd comprised of all ages, from primary-school children to grandparents, and the band tuned into this generation game with its mix of tracks.

Country and folk fans were treated to a spot of Dolly Parton (9 To 5) and Joni Mitchell (A Case Of You), while homage was played to the uke grand meister himself, George Formby, with a rendition of Cleaning Windows, but in the style of a Russian Polka dance. Sounds weird, yes, but it worked.

The band are talented singers, taking it in turns to perform lead vocal while the rest harmonise. An a cappella version of Pinball Wizard drew one of the loudest cheers of the night.

In creating such rich layers of sound from what is in effect a small, four-stringed instrument, the orchestra pulled off their own wizardry - and by the cheers on the night, the audience thought it was magic.