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Hear the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain ruin Coolio's 'Gangsta's Paradise'
Download mp3 (10.09 MB)The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain was in Arizona last night as part of their latest world tour. The Show headed out to the Mesa Performing Arts Center to listen.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain performs at the Mesa Performing Arts Center on April 26, 2023.
LEISA REA: Hello, I’m Leisa Rea, and I’m a member of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. I’ve been in the band for 16 years now.
BEN ROUSE: Hello, I’m Ben, I’m a member of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. I’ve been in for about seven, eight years.
ROUSE: I was a professional guitarist for many years. I was trying to be a rock star for a long time. And I gave up when I was not earning much money at all. And I saw people playing the ukulele, I thought, "That looks like something I can do." So I got a ukulele and never looked back since really.
AMBER VICTORIA SINGER: This is like, almost sort of like being a rock star.
ROUSE: Yeah, this is as close as I’m gonna get, so I’m quite happy.
REA: I used to play the guitar, and it was too big to take on to the tube — I lived in London. I used to take it around to gigs, I used to do comedy, and it was just too annoying to have this big thing on my back. And I just thought, ukulele? Great, it’s only tiny, fits into a case, doesn’t weigh anything, perfect.
It’s a whole package, really, it’s not just going to see a band. We like to think of ourselves as an entertainment outfit, in a way. We are humorous, self-deprecating, quite British, quite silly, and we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We like to subvert audience expectations.
ROUSE: I think people are surprised by the comedy aspect as well.
REA: We’re sitting in a semi-circle on stage but we’re in sections of what I would call orchestral sections. So where I am, myself, Laura and Dominic are the drumkit of the Ukulele Orchestra. So you will get a bass and a snare and a hi hat sound. And then in the middle there’s the melody and the countermelody people, that’s Ben and Ewan. And then down at the other end, there’s twiddly bits and plucking and strumming and orientation ornamentation. So when we approach a song, we all go, 'What’s my role? I’m the drum kit, so what kind of drum am I going to provide for this?' And that’s how it works.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
Leisa Rea and Ben Rouse from the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
If you can buy a cheap ukulele, I think they bring joy, and it’s not so difficult to play. It’s difficult to make them sound fantastic, I have to say, but it’s not difficult to get a couple of chords and sing around a campfire with your friends, so go out and buy a ukulele.
ROUSE: Absolutely.
The seven-member orchestra has been around since 1985, and the lineup has changed over time. Some videos of the band performing have gotten millions of views on YouTube. Now, the ukuleleists are touring the world. Their next stop is Berkeley, California.
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