The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is a live show, a musical and entertainment team, a company and a brand which has successfully and independently put on live shows for 40 years, and has produced and sold CDs, DVDs, and other merchandise via gigs and through its own online shop, earning many millions in various currencies.
Tours have included the UK, the US, Europe, Asia, Australasia and beyond.
Notable gigs have included headlining and selling out at The Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, The Vienna Opera House, Glastonbury Festival, WOMAD, Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, The Barbican and many significant venues all over the world.
The UOGB has deliberately never “signed” to a record label, publishing company, PR company, management company or other orthodox music business entity, although it has licenced its productions to CBS, Sony, and other record companies or entities in the UK, Asia, USA and beyond, and has had significant quality press, radio and TV exposure in many countries.
Articles and reviews about the UOGB have appeared in The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Morning Star, The Economist, Vogue, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Chicago Sun-Times, Marie Claire, The Melody Maker, The New Musical Express and others.
Many reviewers have noted that concerts by the UOGB are virtuosic, amusing, entertaining, witty, quirky and irreverent. The performers use only acoustic ukuleles and voices, without electronic effects. Nevertheless, they achieve a hard-rocking sound when playing pop music, and a sensitive, nuanced sound when playing pieces with a classical basis.
The Orchestra is held as the world’s first Ukulele Orchestra, which started the fashion for ukulele ensembles and Ukulele Orchestras and has been an inspiration for ukulele social groups which have proliferated in many countries since 1985, the year of the UOGB’s foundation.
