Plinky Plonky Pete

Uke Aid raised £373.54p for the Cancer Centres at the Royal Stoke Hospital (Stoke-on-Trent) and the County Hospital (Stafford). 

I organised a Ukulele Jam & Social Evening which was held on Thursday 27^th March in Stafford. People from various parts of Staffordshire and Derbyshire were able to attend. It was a most enjoyable evening of playing and singing a variety of songs together. The event was also live streamed on my YouTube channel.

Donations can still be made online at www.justgiving.com/page/ukulelejam 

With two friends, Tony and Malcolm from the ukulele group, we performed a gig one afternoon last week at The Swan Hotel, Stafford. We sang a variety of songs for about 35 to 40 minutes to raise money for mind, the mental health charity. Many thanks to all those who generously contributed to this worthwhile cause.

After we’d finished our gig we got a request to go and sing some Beatles’ songs in the bar. So off we went with our ukuleles and the collecting bucket.

It was an enjoyable time and one which we might well do again.

As you may know, over the last few years I’ve been producing parodies of popular songs but giving them a Stoke-on-Trent twist. I’ve just released these songs on an album entitled “Songs in the Key of Stoke” which is available on Spotify and other streaming services.

People have often commented that I must have enough songs by now to put on an album, so I thought “What not? That sounds like a good idea.” The album cover is a parody of Stevie Wonder’s iconic album “Songs in the Key of Life” featuring a picture of myself and a line drawing of a bottle oven with musical smoke.

This morning I was invited to appear on the local radio, BBC Radio Stoke, and take part in their Music Mastermind Quiz.

The quiz consists of three rounds of questions, playing against the presenter, Lee Blakeman, with one round on 80’s music, one round on 90’s music and the last round on 00’s music. As I am of “mature years” and my favourite decade is music from the 60’s, I am not so familiar with the more contemporary songs. However, I was able to get one question right whilst Lee was able to get all this questions correct.

The quiz also takes place again tomorrow morning and also on Wednesday and they’ve mentioned that I can also have someone else on the show to help me. So I’ve arranged for my son James to assist me. It should be fun.

Last week I was interviewed on our local radio station, BBC Radio Stoke, about my latest song “Have Yourself a Plinky Plonky Christmas”.

It was their Breakfast Show and the host was Lee Blakeman who has interviewed me before, so it was good to chat with him again. They gave me a fantastic introduction in the style of “The X Factor” and played clips of all my previous songs. In the interview I was able to talk about the video which is available to view on YouTube and in particular mention the Oxford Garden Christmas Lights. This is a house in Stafford which is decorated to raise money for local charities.

Here’s a link to my radio interview: –

I’ve just produced a new music video which is available to view on YouTube. It’s my version of the classic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and it’s entitled “Have Yourself a Plinky Plonky Christmas”.

I’ve rewritten the lyrics of the original song to be more up-to-date and contemporary. Sleigh bells have also been added to give the song that seasonal effect. The video also includes subtitles so that you are invited to join in and sing along.

There are Christmas scenes filmed around Stafford town centre including scenes of the Oxford Gardens Christmas Lights, a house in Oxford Gardens that is decorated with Christmas lights in order to raise money for local charities. In the video I’m wearing my multi-faith Christmas jumper, which celebrates diversity and unity, represents different cultures and beliefs, the joy of togetherness and brings everyone in the holiday spirit.

I’ve just bought myself an early Christmas present – a Boss Dual Cube Bass Amp LX. It’s mains or battery powered with a 10 watt output and it makes a great practice amp. It has a range of effects (chorus, flanger, delay, reverb etc), a looper and also a rhythm guide (jazz, rock, R&B, country etc). I’ve also bought the optional footswitch which I can use to start the looper and/or the rhythm. It’s 10 watt output may be fine for our group’s small practice room, but for our gigs in larger venues I’ll still use my Orange bass amp.

As the song says “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas”. Although it might only be early November, in our ukulele group we’ve started to practise our Christmas songs. We’ve got a number of gigs throughout December so we thought we’d better revisit our Christmas songs.

We will be visiting a number of care homes, community groups and churches as well as playing in the town centre. On a personal level, one of the gigs I’m looking forward to is visiting the hospital where in 2020 I received several weeks of radiotherapy for prostate cancer. The staff there were marvellous, my PSA levels are now low and I’m just on six monthly reviews. We’ll be playing in the Cancer Centre and in the cancer wards, so I’ll be able to thank the staff, tell the patients my story and reassure them that there’s life after a cancer diagnosis.

With regard to the decorated ukulele that I bought in Bardolino whilst on holiday at Lake Garda last week, I’ve put on some regular ukulele strings and it sounds quite good. Yet the intonation on the fretboard is way off and it’s difficult to play even the most basic chords. As I bought it in a souvenir/gift shop, I think it’s more of a wall decoration than a musical instrument that’s meant to be played. The decoration is most attractive and is made up of lots of dots of different coloured thick paint.

However, I’ve just retuned it with open C tuning – gCEA. This involved tuning the first string down from A to G so that playing the open strings gives a C chord. So I can now play a variety of chords by just sliding my finger as a barre up and down the neck.

We’ve just returned from a holiday at Lake Garda in Italy. Whilst I was visiting a shop in Bardolino, I came across of a display of highly decorated ukuleles. With their colourful beaded designs, I couldn’t resist buying the blue one.