![]() ![]() “He hates ukuleles!”įortunately, Arts Council England is not among the haters. “My first uke was a Tanglewood, but it met a sorry end when my ex-husband smashed it over his head,” Wiseman says. Still, not everyone was initially convinced that mixing punk and the ukulele was a good idea. The band formed in 2011, Wiseman says, intending to provide “just a bit of fun with friends once a month.” Before long, however, their datebook was overflowing with club gigs and festival appearances. Two weeks later we had a gig!” says Wiseman. When I was better, I joined a ukulele society in Norwich because I wanted to play with other people, but really I wanted to play punk rock, so I nagged some friends into getting ukuleles.Ī raucous, all-female, 18-piece, London-based, ukulele punk band, the Pukes epitomize the communal, seize-the-day spirit of the punk-uke movement. “At our first rehearsal we worked on four songs. “I knew that ukes were cheap, easy to learn, and light to hold. It’s no exaggeration to say that, in recent years, the uke-and variations such as the baritone and tenor ukes and the banjolele-has become one of the coolest instruments to master.įor Clara Wiseman, the former bass player of the legendary punk group UK Subs, the transition to the ukulele was, in part, therapeutic. “I was laid up for a long time after an operation in 2010 and decided I’d use my recovery time to learn a new instrument,” Wiseman says. Having replaced the recorder in public schools as the first instrument most kids learn, the ukulele is now found in a higher percentage of households than when George Formby helped kick off Britain’s first ukulele wave in the late 1930s and early ’40s. There are hundreds of ukulele clubs in Great Britain, and according to independent music retailers, the humble instrument is in the midst of one of the largest retail sales spikes on record. Given that few places on earth have embraced the ukulele more than the UK, it’s perhaps no surprise that the instrument has found its way into the hands of punk rockers. We’re big fans, and it was such a memorable night,” McIntyre says. “That was pretty good fun, having hundreds of Stranglers fans, and the Stranglers themselves, scrutinizing us. Covering classic songs by Devo, the Ramones, the Rezillos, and the Clash in the comfort of their homes, the outsized response to their videos quickly showed that there was a hunger for uke punk. But perhaps the biggest thrill for the duo thus far came in 2011 when the musicians were asked to open a show in London for their longtime heroes, the Stranglers. Not only did Gus & Fin cover the band’s songs during their set, the Stranglers themselves watched the riotous proceedings from the balcony. Their YouTube channel, GUGUG, has 11,000 subscribers and has racked up more than five-million views. ![]() One of the first groups to punkify the ukulele, Gus & Fin have-unlike many punk acts-enjoyed viral success. ![]() When he showed it to his childhood friend, McIntyre recalls that Raucous was quite perplexed and asked, “Why did you get one of these?” But soon both men were busy transposing Ramones songs such as “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “Cretin Hop” for their newfound instruments. “Once you realize it’s the same as a small guitar with two broken strings, it’s pretty easy,” McIntyre says. It was 2006 when a friend introduced McIntyre to the ukulele, and shortly thereafter, he bought a Mahalo uke for $20. ![]() Though they’d played electric guitars in rock and ska bands together since they were kids, McIntyre and Fin, who goes by the last name Raucous, made the migration to ukes years later. “Like the Sex Pistols and the Clash, who were reacting against the overblown pomposity and instrumental virtuosity of bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, I like to think that playing punk classics these days on the ukulele is taking it a stage further,” says Angus “Gus” McIntyre, half of the Glaswegian punk-ukulele duo Gus & Fin. By Elizabeth Robson / From the Winter 2014 issue of Ukulele Magazineįor many people, the cheery ukulele might seem the antithesis of punk rock’s loud, angry attitude, but to a growing number of punkers in the United Kingdom, the diminutive four-string instrument is proving to be the perfect fit. ![]()
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