It’s August, which means that it’s the Edinburgh Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe, plus book festival, film festival etc.. Actually, as someone else pointed out, describing the Edinburgh ‘Fringe’ as a ‘fringe’ festival is rather like describing U2 as an indie band or Steven Spielberg as a cult director; it’s been way bigger than the ‘International Festival’ for many years.
As well as the T on the Fringe lineup, for which I have got tickets for many bands, I’ve also been taking in comedy and other shows. Today I went with Mrs. 17 Seconds and our friends Dave and Mark to see the Hull University Big Band, who were fantastic, and not the sort of thing I tend to put on at home, but they were brilliant. On Thursday, another 17 Seconds friend, Rory, had organised tickets for the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain. If your vision is something of a whole load of very elderly people playing George Formby songs then you are well, well out of date. They played a whole range of stuff including ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ by Wheatus, Bowie’s ‘Life On Mars’ and Talking Heads ‘Psycho Killer.’ Oh, and ‘Anarchy in the UK’ by the Sex Pistols. A huge amount of fun, and they don’t take themselves too seriously.
Thanks to Mark, I have a few links below for YouTube which have performances of songs done by the Ukelele Orchestra.
The Good, the bad and The Ugly
Oh, and seeing as we’ve had those, how about some originals by Kate Bush and David Bowie themselves?
Kate Bush -‘Wuthering Heights.’ mp3
David Bowie -‘Life On Mars?’ mp3
These links will be up for one week only. Go and see the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain if you get the chance (and maybe you’ll catch them playing ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’!), and indeed the Hull University Big Band.