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Festival overview 11th October 2010
The inaugural Wukulele Festival brought to Worthing two dozen virtuoso musicians from mainland Europe, USA and towns along the south coast. It opened on Friday 8th October with an afternoon concert in St. Paul's Centre, featuring the PRS For Music Foundation commission of Sean O'Hagan's Music for 60 Ukuleles and 60 Children. A packed audience of parents, dignitaries (including Tim Loughton MP and Worthing's Mayor) were charmed by the school ensemble - some star struck, others waving to parents, everyone closely following the score with truly moving results.On Saturday a packed Assembly Hall sat agog as the ukulele was taken through its paces and into places one would never have suspected. Ukulelezaza's rendition of appealing standards was distinguished by his limpid and dexterous playing in a definitive opening statement of the festival's intentions. Brighton busking belles The Half Sisters provided an alluring display of the purest pop charm with a set of self-penned songs that stuck in the memory long after the rapturous applause had subsided. French maverick Lionel K. Hubert and percussionist Josh - U.K.E. - mixed Indian raga and New York downtown jazz, taking us into a realm of hyperkinetic psychedelia that few could have anticipated. South coast chanteuse Sophie Madeleine showcased emotionally charged and soothing songs from her forthcoming album accompanied by Hannah Rockcliffe. Her heartfelt ballads and paeans to the possibilities of love were as persuasive as they were melodically sophisticated. And Bob Brozman, living anthology of American folk culture, steamed through the pan-Pacific legacy of the ukulele at breakneck, breathtaking speed. He handed us a libertarian guide to global rhythm, used calypso to comment on coalition era politics - and ran in half a dozen instruments from the festival's gobsmacked stall holders.
Sunday brought bristling Po-Mo skiffle quintet The Bobby McGees. The Brighton barnstormers grabbed the audience by the throat in an exuberant set in which the language was as colourful as their high camp haute couture and the passion as palpable as a Glasgow kiss. Mood change: premium strength French export Yan Yalego presented a cool oasis of lyricism with deftly delivered blues and jazz standards plus crowd-wowing mouth trumpet and theramin-like trilling. Uke Box backline Marko van der Horst and Rene Verberne added chiaroscuro to Yan's subtle and alluring shade of blues. Violent mood swing: cue Motörhead, Britney, Abba and Prince channeled through two ordinary blokes with extraordinary instrumental skills - The Re-entrants. While the audience chuckled at their affectionately satirical take on rock and roll, they also marveled at their exquisite technique which made the familiar seem increasingly out of reach. Then Shoreham superstar Richard Durrant managed to add an entirely new element to a festival already distinguished by its eclectic and wide-ranging variety, by recourse to JS Bach, Ian Dury and Mike Oldfield. The festival finale was a son et lumiere spectacle with a score of uke players joining Richard for a hypnotic and uplifting version of Tubular Bells. Durrant's ability to bring good humour and the highest possible virtuosic standards to bear on music from the 17th century to the 21st provided a touchstone for this festival, which brought hordes of ukulele enthusiasts to Worthing for an Indian summer's weekend of astounding musicality and joyous sociability.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this event a runaway success - the numerous volunteers, generous performers, enthusiastic stall-holders, superb fringe participants - and most important of all our audience.