Life

Anne Hailes: Belfast Ukulele Jam makes for quite the tasty-sounding human salad

Anne Hailes

Anne Hailes

Anne is Northern Ireland's first lady of journalism, having worked in the media since she joined Ulster Television when she was 17. Her columns have been entertaining and informing Irish News readers for 25 years.

Participants at the Belfast Ukulele Jam in Belfast's Botanic Inn
Participants at the Belfast Ukulele Jam in Belfast's Botanic Inn Participants at the Belfast Ukulele Jam in Belfast's Botanic Inn

FOR a huge number of people this coming weekend is special. On Saturday and Sunday August 17 and 18 the seaside town of Dun Laoghaire will be rocking to the music of hundreds of ukuleles and happy people singing along.

Players will come from all parts of Ireland and Britain and visitors from round the world will be welcomed to enjoy the fun of the International Ukulele Hooley. But beware: you'll be so enthused it's quite likely you'll head off and buy your own instrument and join one of the groups, be it Dublin where there are more sessions than any other part of Ireland, Belfast, Bangor or perhaps Crossgar – lots to chose from.

I got drawn into the Belfast Ukulele Jam, up to 70 men and women who meet every Tuesday evening in the Botanic Inn on Belfast's Lisburn Road.

It was formed by Mark Stephen Hughes in 2015. He'd come across these groups in London and was fascinated by the instrument and brought it back to his home place of Rostrevor. Interest spread like wildfire, with Sean Lawlor and Nuala Connelly taking over the running of the group when Mark returned to London.

The Jam began in the Oh Yeah! Centre in Belfast and the people crowded in. They came from all over the city and then beyond, today they even fly in from England – and one member is from Italy.

From Oh Yeah! the sessions moved to the Sunflower Bar but quickly outgrew that venue and now their meeting place is 'The Bot'.

Sean calls himself the bingo caller

Everyone has a list of 1,200 songs on their iPads and Sean shouts out the numbers.

"Right everyone, 117."

As one, 30 players, with more arriving every minute, began to strum and sing "I see a pale moon a-rising."

The only number they don't play is the one most of us would think of – George Formby's When I'm Cleaning Windows. Instead you hear Queen, Johnny Cash, Teenage Kicks and Blame It On The Boogie. There's an element of skiffle, a lot of pop and pure joy in what the Belfast Ukulele Jam do.

"As well as the weekly sessions, we visit nursing homes, charities and community events, and we've appeared at festivals such as Sunflowerfest, Fiddler's Green and now there's excitement of the Ukulele Hooley in Dun Laoghaire. We can also be booked to play at private parties, weddings or corporate events."

There's no limit. They've even been known to serenade travellers on a Translink train and they performed recently on BBC One Show during the Open golf in Portrush.

The music continued to swirl around the bar: All About The Bass, Rock Around The Clock, Bohemian Rhapsody and more. Even when I sat in on this session, people came into the bar and stayed, bringing their drinks to the fringe of The Jam and throughly enjoying it.

"One man from Donegal told us there are accidental nights when magic happens and for him this was one of them," Sean said. "That was lovely. We often get people asking to join. No problem, just come along, no auditions and it's easy to learn on YouTube."

Indeed I was so enthused I actually went to Matchetts music shop the next day and for £49.99 bought my very own ukulele and I'm making progress. I was really chuffed walking through town with my music case and my uku (now I'm a student I can use the short form).

It's an investment for the whole family as apparently they are now being bought by parents and schools in favour of the recorder so there are budding recruits for the Belfast Jam. Members are teenagers up to 80s, grannies and grandpas, students, nurses, IT specialists, teachers and civil servants, and a TV producer.

"We're a human salad"

So said Tommy, a long-time member. And I was in the middle of this salad.

Geraldine sat beside Peter, a former fireman from London who travels to take part in sessions; opposite was Tani, from Italy, a musician who sports a washboard and four thimbles. Hetty sat astride a cajón, which looks like a box but is a drum, snare towards the top, bass at the bottom, and Sean multi-skilled on ukulele and kazoo.

One girl had tiny fairy lights round her ukulele and Dillon has adapted his as a flame thrower just to bright up the night. It's a lot of fun.

Mary Rose and Nuala work at the Hospice and they bring their music to staff and patients every Thursday afternoon. They are off cycling next November through Cambodia and Vietnam with their ukuleles to raise money for the Hospice. Charity support is at the heart of this gathering.

My host, Sean, was a potter who studied ceramics at university in England and Wales. He came home and apprenticed himself to a pottery business in Letterkenny.

"You learn the skills of your craft at university but not the skills of business."

He did learn these skills and had a very successful business selling his range of ceramics in many parts of the world. Then he decided to diversify and established 1st Impressions, his Belfast-based business that makes ceramic hand and footprint casts of children, families and grown-ups, but his ukulele is never far from his side.

By the time I was leaving here was quite an audience including an elderly man sitting alone in a private corner of the bar, minding his own business but when I waved goodbye to The Jam I noticed he was singing along with my exit music, Sally Be Good.

:: More details at belfastukejam.com