Plinky Plonky Pete

I’m organising a music event in order to raise money for the Cancer Centre at the Royal Stoke Hospital (University Hospitals of the North Midlands).  

This cause is very important to me as three years ago I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and received a course of radiotherapy treatment at Royal Stoke Hospital. It was successful, my PSA levels are now low and I would like to arrange a fundraising event to support their wonderful work.

 As you know, my hobby is playing the ukulele with my nickname of Plinky Plonky Pete. I will be undertaking a musical challenge and attempting to set an unofficial world record for the most number of songs performed live in a musical medley. I am aiming to perform a medley of 75 songs which will be played one after another without a break. Having searched through the various “world record books” I’m not aware of anyone attempting this before. This is different from attempting a record to perform for the longest time which usually includes taking a short break every hour. I shall be attempting to perform continuously without a break, going from one song straight into another.

This event will take place in the Main Atrium of Royal Stoke University Hospital (Newcastle Road, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 6QG) on Wednesday 25th October starting at 11:00am.   

I am inviting you to support me in raising funds for the Cancer Centre by either sponsoring me for each song I play or by making a donation. All of the money raised will go towards the work of the Cancer Centre at Royal Stoke Hospital. 

Would you be able to contribute towards my fundraiser? A donation of any amount would truly help me. 

If you could also share my fundraiser link with your friends, it would mean so much. The more people hear about my cause, the quicker I can reach my fundraising goal.

To help me reach my goal of raising £250 for the Cancer Centre, simply click the link to my fundraiser below:

www.justgiving.com/page/plinkyplonkypete

My latest music video entitled ’24 Hours from Tunstall’ has just achieved 1,000 views on YouTube. Many thanks to all those who have watched it and I hope that you enjoyed it.

I’ve just started work on my new song and I’m in the midst of recording the instrumental backing tracks. Here’s a screenshot from the Logic Pro X program that I use on my iMac which shows the various tracks. It’s great fun to build up a song piece by piece.

I tend to start with adding a click track that runs at the appropriate speed , in this song it’s 118 beats per minute. This gives me the tempo and the theory is that if I play the click track when I’m recording it enables to lock everything in together. Then I tend to add the drum track followed by the rhythm tracks and for this song I’ve used a couple of different ukuleles. Afterwards I tend to add the bass track followed by the lead riff. The screenshot shows the various tracks and how they fit together.

There’s no timescale for this project so I might leave the recording for the time being whilst I turn to working on the lyrics of the song. Once again I’m writing a parody of a popular song so I’ll be rewriting the lyrics and making sure that they fit into the melody.

It could be the late summer or early autumn when I’ll record the main vocal track and the backing vocals. Then there’s the process of mastering the song and getting the levels right etc. So it’ll probably be towards the end of this year or early next year that I finally upload the finished music video onto YouTube. However, in the meantime it’s great fun going through the various stages of music and video production.

Here are a couple of photos taken during my gig at the Dementia Fun Group in the village hall on Monday morning. It went really well, the group joined in and enjoyed the session. I’ve been invited to go back again next month and I’ve asked them to let me know if they have any requests.

In the local newsletter there was a notice about a Dementia Fun Club that meets in the Village Hall. I contacted the organiser and asked if they’d like me to visit them and sing a few songs. She got in touch and invited me to go along this morning.

The gig went really well. I’d chosen a set list of songs that I thought that they’re be familiar with , they could join in and they could have a sing along. There were some Music Hall songs, some 1960’s/70’s pop songs and some rock’n’roll. The group sang along enthusiastically especially with the Beatles’ song ‘All My Loving’ and Mary Hopkins’ ‘Those Were The Days’. I ended my set with Bill Hayley’s ‘Rock Around The Clock’ which they all join in singing and were even doing the hand jive.

It was a great success and they’ve invited me back again next month, so I asked them to let me know if they’ve got any requests.

The local newspaper The Evening Sentinel has picked up on the story of my latest video ’24 Hours from Tunstall’. The story also features on their website StokeonTrentLive and on Twitter. I am not only amused but also honoured to have achieved the status of being called a “legend”.

Here’s a link to the article on their website: –

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/ukulele-legend-plinky-plonky-pete-8123180?utm_source=linkCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

I was recently interviewed on BBC Radio Stoke about my latest music video ’24 Hours from Tunstall’.

The interview went well and as an introduction they played all my previous songs as well as my latest song. I was able to mention how the ideas for the songs have come from suggestions sent in by listeners. Hopefully the listeners will contact the radio station with their ideas so that I can record some more songs. Perhaps I’ll be able to get enough ideas for an album which I could entitle ‘The Potteries Songbook’. During the interview I was even able to get a shout out for my wife Val who was in another room listening to the radio.

It was interesting to note that we did the interview via a Zoom link on the computer rather than down the landline phone. I used the condenser mic from my PA system as it gives a good quality signal.

Here’s a recording of my interview: –

The All About Uke group performed at the ‘There Is No Planet B’ Environmental Arts Festival that was held at St. Chad’s Church in Stafford. Here’s a clip of Joni Mitchell’s song ‘Big Yellow Taxi’.

I’m sitting at the back of the group playing my bass ukulele. There was the usual issue associated with playing in a large building such as a church. The sound tends to travel upwards into the roof space rather than go forward towards the audience in the pews. However, the event went well and we performed a set list of songs about the environment.

I’ve just been invited to appear on Moorlands Radio on Friday 10th February at 2:35pm. It’s their afternoon Focus Show with Simon Jones, so if you’re able to tune in or listen online then that would be great.

Moorlands Radio is a community radio based in Leek in the Staffordshire Moorlands and it serves the main towns of Leek and Biddulph together with the surrounding villages. They responded to a Press Release I sent to them about my latest music video ’24 Hours from Tunstall’. I have been invited to talk about this video and also about my music.

It should be great fun chatting to the host and a chance to tell more folk about ’24 Hours from Tunstall’.

I’ve just produced my latest music video. It’s a version of Gene Pitney’s ’24 Hours from Tulsa’ entitled ’24 Hours from Tunstall’.

Over the last couple of years I’ve been adapting well known songs to include references of my hometown of Stoke-on-Trent.