It was so great to be back in Northcote for our umpteenth Melbourne Ukulele Festival performance.

20ish ukestrans travelled for a fabulous performance in the most beautiful of venues – the Chalice Uniting Church in Northcote. This page is the record of that performance.

The Ukastle Ukestra is the performing entity of the Ukulele Community from Newcastle Australia where ukestras happen 6 times every week. Ukestras are bit party, bit lesson, but performances are different. Performances happen once in a blue moon and are disciplined-ish.

Enjoy!

Gold on the Ceiling featuring Jayra Drummond

After a lengthy intro from the MC, Jayra belts out this song by the Black Keys.

 

Homecoming Queen with Trish Collins

Trish takes lead vocal on this song by Thelma Plum, a Gamilaraay woman. Homecoming Queen speaks of the difficulties of identity for a young indigeneous woman in Australia in the 1990s/2000s.

Harvest Moon with Suzy Collins

Our version of Harvest Moon is inspired by the Angus and Julia Stone interpretation of the Poolside version of the beloved Neil Young classic.

Total Control – lead vocals from Kristi Fegent

We think Kristi, along with our accompaniment, achieves a beautiful understated treatment of this Motels song that was largely only a hit in Australia. Mark also wields trumpet in a short solo.

Kashmir

Jane steps into the breach of the most difficult song of our 12+ year ukestra history. Scheduled lead vocalist Sam Reich was struck down with COVID days prior to our performance, and Jane acquits herself perfectly. Kashmir is a 1975 song by Led Zeppelin who are not exactly known for their ‘ukulele-friendly tunes’. All ukestrans applied themselves earnestly to mastering this song with multiple riffs and different rhythmic meters. The Beat Buddy is set on Rock 1 – Tempo 84 which of course, you really wanted to know.

Old Man

Colourful Ken Lambert sings a beautifully reserved version of the Neil Young classic.

No Surprises

We were blessed to have a guest lead vocalist from Melbourne on this one. Jane Cameron melted us all, whilst Ken colour coordinates the glockenspiel.

Medicine Man, featuring Carol McCaskie

Carol is a top advocate for public health measures to keep us safe in a pandemic. This includes singing this song. Go Carol!

Hurt by Judy Neiland

Judy hurts us with this lovely rendition of Johnny Cash’s finale. But it was really written by the Nine Inch Nails.

Colours

Jayra closes off the set as she began it, a big voiced performance with mucho groovo.

Thank-youse

• Thanks to the Melbourne Ukulele Festival Committee for organising this wonderful community event.
• To all ukestrans who put a lot of time into rehearsing, two of whom did the rehearsals yet didn’t make it after becoming ill.
• Of course, our lead singers always impress.
• To Mark Doro for taking these videos, and for posting his own videos to our Facebook groups
• To Jane Jelbart for being a fabulous and hard-assed performance director.
• To Mark Jackson for base bass.
• To The Sum of the Parts (music), who make all of this possible.