Plinky Plonky Pete

My latest music video is available to view on YouTube. I took the AC/DC classic and gave it a Potteries twist by rewriting it as “Highway to Chell”. By the way, for those of you not familiar with the Stoke-on-Trent area, Chell is a suburb in the north of the city.

The song includes references to local Potteries culture such as going shopping up ‘Anley, the local dialect and buying oatcakes as a favourite treat. I was able to film the video during last summer before the current lockdown restrictions took effect. The video includes a number of local landmarks and it features places that are of significance to me, for example Haywood Hospital where I was born, which is just off the “Highway to Chell”.

It’s been a hectic morning as I was interviewed on the local radio station, BBC Radio Stoke, about the video. The listeners responded with their own suggestions of future songs for me to sing and I was invited back on the radio later in the morning to hear their ideas.

Furthermore, it’s also a special day for me as it’s my birthday today (February 17th). So after all the excitement of being on the radio it’s time to go and open some presents and cards.

To celebrate World Ukulele Day here’s my version of the Albert Hammond song “It Never Rains in Southern California”.

It was great fun recording this song and filming the video. I started with the drum track which I bought and downloaded from t’internet. From this it was just a matter of building up the song by adding various other tracks. For the rhythm track I used my 8-string electric-acoustic ukulele together with a 4-string acoustic ukulele. The next step was to add the bass track by using one of my bass ukuleles. The vocal tracks were next and I had to be careful of the second verse where the vocal jumps up an octave to reach the word “home”. I think I made that part reasonably well although in other parts of vocal it may be a bit more variable.

One of the distinctive parts of Albert Hammond’s original song is the riff played by a flute. In order to achieve a similar effect I used the pan flute setting on my keyboard. Actually I think it sounds quite good, as though someone is actually playing a pan flute or at least blowing across the top of a milk bottle. Finally to give a bit more depth to the song I added a string track using my keyboard. This was just done by me merely playing the root note of each chord as the song went along.

I had a great time recording it and I hope you enjoy listening to it and watching the video.

Here’s a new message for you taken from the Ukulele Society of Great Britain’s Facebook page.

The national lockdown continues and as I’m “of mature years” I’m self isolating and staying at home. However, our ukulele group continues to hold weekly Zoom meetings which gives us the opportunity of keeping in touch and playing together. I often wonder when we’ll be able to meet together in person and when we’ll be able to perform a gig again.

In the meantime, while I’m at home I having some great fun recording songs using software on the computer. I think I’ve finally worked out the best way of proceeding – starting with the drum track, I add the rhythm, bass and vocal tracks. Whilst I’m recording I aim to lock in with the beat of the drum track and hopefully this approach keeps everything together and in time. So – rock on!

Wishing you all a Happy New Year and all the best for 2021.

2020 has been a difficult year with the Covid- 19 pandemic – however we seem to have survived. Here in the Midlands we’ve just been put into Tier 4 which means the non-essential shops are closed, hotels & other venues are also closed and we’re advised to stay at home. The restrictions have meant that our ukulele group hasn’t been able to meet in person for many weeks although we continue to keep in touch with our weekly Zoom sessions. There is “light at the end of the tunnel” with a second vaccine being approved and hopefully being rolled out to the various groups of vulnerable people.

Apart from that it’s just started to snow, so here’s a photo of me in the conservatory playing “Let It Snow”.

Best wishes to you for the New Year

At a recent Zoom meeting of our ukulele group we were chatting about the traditional song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. Someone wondered if there was a ukulele version of the lyrics, which gave me an idea. So I thought I’d have a go at writing a parody of that traditional song and include the items a ukulele player might like for Christmas. Please find above “The Twelve Days of Christmas Ukulele Gifts” which I hope you find amusing.

Due to ill health and hospital appointments it’s been quite a while since I last posted, but in the words of the song by Free “I’m Alright Now”.

In these difficult times with the Covid-19 pandemic I’m really missing playing with real people. However, our ukulele group (All About Uke) are able to keep in touch using Zoom. Due to the technical issues of delay we’re not able to play together at the same time so our leader Rachel mutes our microphones and we can play along with her. Afterwards we can unmute our microphones and have a chat.

In the above screenshot, the theme of the meeting was “Hats” so we all wore a hat and played and sang songs about hats. By the way, I’m pictured on the top row, second from the left, wearing a Scottish tam o’shanter.

With the Covid-19 lockdown the various ukulele groups have been suspended and we’re not able to play together until things get back to normal.

In the meantime, my plastic ukulele is ideal for outdoor use such as playing in the garden during the sunny weather. The neighbours don’t seem to mind and as yet I’ve had no requests from over the garden fence. By the way, the ukulele is an Eddy Finn Beachmaster All Terrain model which actually sounds quite good.

We are going through some difficult and worrying times at the moment. Looking forward to when it’s all over and we can meet again.

I’m busy working upon my new project, it’s the follow-up to my YouTube video “Drive some more down the A34”.

As you may remember, I performed the song live on the Breakfast Show of the local radio station (BBC Radio Stoke). At the end of the interview I was asked what song I would be recording next and I mentioned that it could be a song with a Stoke-on-Trent twist. Therefore I’m in the midst of recording a medley of the parodies of three popular songs which I have entitled “The Potteries Songbook”.

If this project were to really take off, then I had the idea of designing a cover for a possible CD. I thought of including some line drawings of myself playing the ukulele and a bottle oven with some musical smoke. However it probably won’t get this far but at least I had some fun drawing the design. By the way, you may have noticed it’s called “The Potteries Songbook Volume One”. That’s just in case it gets really popular and I decide to produce Volume Two next year.

Meanwhile it’s back to recording the songs, getting some friends together to add the lead guitar and percussion tracks and then finally doing the filming. There’s no timescale for this project as it’s more of a hobby but I expect it’ll be finished sometime this summer.