The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, now in its 31st year, embark on a five-date Irish tour this September. The group, which combines rock, classical and comedy, has been central to the resurgence in the instrument’s popularity over the past decade and has established a global reputation with covers of everything from ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ to Tchaikovsky and Ennio Morricone.

In 2009 the band performed Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ with over 900 other ukulele players at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms.

The group has recently released two new albums, Lousy War, which features music from a variety of countries from the period of the First World War, and The Keeper, a tribute to English folk-song collector Cecil Sharp.

In a recent interview, co-founder George Hinchcliffe explained the origins of the band in the 1980s when the members were all involved in various other types of music.

The whole group had got all these other histories, and we just started the ukulele orchestra as a sort of antidote to all the other music things. Normally, with rock music and classical music there’s such a cult of personality… we thought: let’s have a band where it’s just about fun.

The current band consists of founding members Hincliffe, Kitty Lux and Richie Williams, plus David Suich, Hester Goodman, Will Grove-White, Jonty Bankes, Peter Brooke Turner, Leisa Rea and David Bowie (double bass).

Ireland has had its own ukulele resurgence in recent years with the Ukulele Hooley in Dún Laoghaire now in its seventh edition, and the West Cork Ukulele Orchestra established in 2010.

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain Irish tour starts on 7 September at the Ulster Hall in Belfast, then An Grianán in Letterkenny (8 September), the Town Hall Theatre in Galway (9 September), the National Concert Hall, Dublin (10 September) and the Cork Opera House (11 September). 

For more, visit www.ukuleleorchestra.com