Uncannily almost exactly a year to the day when they last appeared on my show, I was very pleased to welcome our old friends D’Ukes back to the show – well 4 of the 6 piece band anyways.
Brian Smith, Hazel Smith, John Mattock and Dave Warren were on parade today but sadly Jo Kerr and Martin Burdikin couldn’t be with me today.
For those few of you who don’t know, the band was formed in 2009 as they emerged from a regular ukulele pub jam session at a pub in Chelmsford.
Since then they have gone on to perform on TV, Regional and Local Radio and were the only UK band invited to the Czech Republic’s first ever Ukulele Festival, which they headlined.
The band has been great supporters of Mencap in Braintree where they regularly perform at their Gateway Club.
Then about 18 months ago they came up with the idea of making a charity record with them (rather than for them).
Because of its appropriate lyrics the song chosen for this project was “Sit Down” by James.
And the band then worked out an arrangement of the song and together with the staff at Mencap, initially coached members of the club to sing parts.
After the song had been recorded the decision was taken to include a video (recorded in the club and on the streets of Braintree) to go with the record, and this was finally released earlier this year on Friday 22nd June during Mencap’s Learning Disability Week.
The launch was a special event at Braintree Town Hall to an invited audience where staff, volunteers and members of Braintree Mencap, along with the band themselves, were able to talk about the project, play the song, show the video, and for D’Ukes to provide some additional entertainment.
All of the profits raised from the sale of the single will go towards ensuring the future of Mencap’s work with residents across the district providing support for more than 800 children and adults with learning disabilities across the region.
If you’re interested you can view the video on line at https://youtu.be/yisN5G0VbvM
You can see D’Ukes next at the Mirren Studio which is located within the Towngate Theatre, Basildon on Saturday the 6 October.
And in the New Year they’ll be making a return visit to the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch in on Sunday 27th January where once again you will have the chance to join a Beginners Ukulele Workshop from 5:30pm, before the show proper.
This workshop is provided FREE OF CHARGE to ticket holders for the evening show for which tickets priced at £10:50 are available from the theatre box office – 01708 443333 or on line at www.queens-theatre.co.uk
Listen again here to my chat with the band: –
Later in the show we heard about the man pulled over by police in Yorkshire for driving without any insurance – something he would have done well to invest in since when stopped it was clear that his attention to road conditions was being heavily distracted by the a hard-core porn movie playing on his dashboard mounted phone!
His vehicle has now been impounded.
Wonder if it will now be “pawned”!
See you again tomorrow,
Scott
