June 2015 – Name Your Poison

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I must have bogarted the joint a little too much last night. I forgot to thank everyone at the end of the 2nd set, which is the best part. Massive thanks to special guests Clelia Adams, Ash Bell and Parissa Bouass who were all fantastic. (Miss Amber and I aspire to be great singers like these guys one day)… Thanks to The Courthouse and the restaurant and thanks to Luis Christia for excellent sound and Deb on the door. Congrats to Donald who took out the raffle (free entry and free meals for two next month + a bottle of wine) and to Erina who won the framed poster (2nd time in a row). Thanks to Lyn from Niche Pics who got to take a few pics before her camera malfunctioned. Rod and Rex the silver haired rhythm section were amazing as usual and special thanks to Rex for charting out the entire drum part for Cheap Wine. (that’s dedication). Although the numbers were down compared to the rest of the year, it was a fun and entertaining evening and we had some new happy faces in the crowd. Mostly, thanks to all of you who made it and joined in the fun. See you next month for our 4th Birthday.

 

May 2015 – Swing That Thing

Swing That Thing – May Uke Night

I had 2 weeks to put this set together, even though it was a dream that began over 18 months earlier at a soiree at Louis’ place. Belle and I and friend Kellie Knight were sitting around playin’ a few tunes… (in fact the cops came and closed us down… 3 singers and ukulele…) Finally everyone was in the right place at the right time (except for Kellie) to tackle some Andrew Sisters. So we put a swing theme around the main three tunes. When our first choice of singer wasn’t available we had to quickly find a replacement. So there I was a 7 am at the IGA deli asking if Alma would like to join us… we were rehearsing that day at lunch. Luckily she was available and the three ‘Andrew Sisters’ came together and worked very hard to tighten up their harmonies and phrasing. It paid off because it was such a great highlight to the evening. We weren’t sure what we could do to follow the Beatles night and this book was very well received. Mick Buckley is just perfect in his swinging hep cat role and daughters Sarah-Grace and Molly were wonderful doing thier rendition of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.

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See Pics from Niche Pictures right here.

Beatles Uke Night – Repeat Performance

Betles Night Repeat Performance

 

Amazingly, we had a great turn out and most of the audience were newbies… (they didn’t come to the first night). The band were on fire with the luxury of having performed the songs once before. Fiona Knight again rocked the house… she found her special growl that she doesn’t know how to reproduce in any other circumstance other than singing ‘Twist and Shout’.

Clelia Adams came along and sang harmonies and lead on ‘Yesterday’…. It was a show stopper. Guy Kaychel and Raku O’Gaia again excelled and most notably was the applause Evan Sun received for his solo in ‘Something’. We even pulled out ‘Birthday’ for an audience member who was celebrating his birthday, (Happy Birthday Mason!)…

A great night and well worth repeating. As one of the happy throng commented.. “It was gear!”

April 2015 – Beatles Night

Beatles Uke Night

We have always wanted to do a Beatles Night. The reasons we put it off for so long were:  (A) It’s a massive amount of work learning all the harmonies and iconic guitar lines… and (B) What do we follow it with? The vibe at the Courthouse last Thursday 30th was so great. Every one knew all the words to all the songs. We began with all the 64 era tunes.. Hard Days Night, Can’t Buy Me Love, I Should Have Known Better  – Beatlemania was building then Fiona Knight ignited the room with her rendition of Twist and Shout – spontaneous dance erupted and this was before the break. Guy Kachel (pronounced Kay- Chull) battled the flu and delivered and Raku O’gaia as always took us higher than we though imaginable. In fact it was so much fun, we are going to do it all again on Wednesday 30th May. Hope you can make it.

Uke Mullum Beatles

See slide show from Niche Pictures here | Photo Gallery