Tonight, we went to see the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra in concert. Having only caught snippets of the orchestra's clips on YouTube, I was looking forward to a fun night. The 12-piece orchestra (including double bass) are incredibly entertaining. The stage was decorated with no less than 30 old fashioned lampshades and light fittings, supposedly resembling a living room. Their outfits were all retro 1950s-60s style glamour; I'm sure they looked good in their day.So, to the set list. Here's a highlighted version; it certainly was eclectic. A special guest appeared after intermission ...
- Haere Mai. A very sweet, nostalgic start to the show.
- Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town (Kenny Rogers). This was recorded for a TV ad and sounded fantastic on ukulele!
- Sunshine Of Your Love (Cream). Amazing. Eric Clapton's solo never sounded so good three octaves up!
- I Love You, Raylene. This was one of the more obscure numbers, apparently inspired by something painted on a billboard just north of Wellington.
- It's A Heartache (Bonnie Tyler). Great to hear live.
- Walk In The Park (orchestra original). Featured a solo whistler. There's one for the CV.
- Blue Smoke (NZ folk). Celebrating 60 years since its release.
- Livin' Thing (Electric Light Orchestra). They said this was a song that just left out the string parts; a very accurate description. As soon as the audience recognised the two taps after the introduction, the applause started.
- Africa (Toto). Incredibly ambitious, Africa really showed off the talent of a couple of the guys. However, they were totally upstaged by the appearance of someone in a gorilla suit to bang a gong. Twice. The second time, he danced on stage until the end of the number before taking off his mask and costume. Special guest: Bret McKenzie, of Flight of the Conchords fame and an original orchestra member. Huge cheers and applause erupted.
- Short People (Randy Newman). McKenzie sang this one. I don't know whether the audience had simply never heard the song before, or thought it was something he had written, but they laughed hysterically at almost every line. I know it's funny, but ...
- Jolene (Dolly Parton). Awesome strumming in a minor key. If you're going to play country music, then Dolly's the only way to do it.
- That's Amore (Dean Martin). I wondered where the extended outro for Jolene was going ... I recognised the chord structure and timing. Surely it couldn't be ... it was! This Italian was happy. :-)
- Counting The Beat (The Swingers). Ending the concert with a NZ flavour. It got the punters singing.
- Weather With You (Crowded House). This encore was played and sung acoustically from the front of the stage. I think the audience were meant to play a bigger part but seemed quite shy and reserved.
1 comment:
I dont know many of those tunes, but I do think that joining a group that makes music is an excellent thing to do both for enjoyment and for health reasons.
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