Report Philip Barr, Photos Phil Barr,Video Joe Fisher

    Members of the Wakeylele band arrived outside the imposing bulk of the Ash Grove building on a showery, not very summery afternoon in confident mood fresh from their recent success at Whitaker Grange. 

   Inside was a spacious hallway which included large pictures and photos of the Royal family, the Houses of Parliament and a red telephone box, no doubt meant as a stimulus to the memories of those getting on a bit. When passing these scenes, I believe I overheard Pop and Malcolm discussing Isaac Newton’s third law of motion, suggesting that those seasoned performers belonging to Wakeylele aren’t yet in need of a picture of the Queen Mother to jog their grey matter, Mike Sidebottom leaving his uke behind today merely being a temporary blip.

   So, onto the show and having set up in the dining room from which there were impressive views in the general direction of Bretton, the band edged its way into the resident’s lounge where an expectant audience were gathered and without further ado David counted us into the Gig Intro/ Side by Side(ish) “anthem. ” The first of our solo stalwarts then took the stage with Chris hoping that Tickle My Heart would tickle the fancy of the residents which it surely did. David then made it clear to the audience that the majority of modern music was a no, no for ukuleles, then naughtily prepared them for an Al Jolson song before instead playing Carolina in The Morning which I thought we played rather well as we did the weather medley. Mike S then raised the tempo with a rumbustious rendition of Blue Suede Shoes which had the whole room swinging from the rafters and then, taking advantage of the energy created, the band rounded off the first half with It’s Now or Never, showing off their ‘island’ strum skills before everyone watched David like a group of sparrowhawks for the signal to start singing ‘Woke up this mornin’ feeling fine’ after he had strummed on the introductory C’s and F’s for several minutes. (To add to the gaiety, there had also been a jolly ‘face time’ during one of our songs with Roy and Margaret exchanging pleasantries with their niece who runs Ashgrove, with extra contributions being added by the exhibitionists within the group. 

  A short break , to borrow Chris’s phrase, from a rather warm room, was welcome with cold water being the obvious choice of refreshment, before we resumed proceedings with more ‘blasts from the past’ with David adding interesting snippets about Wakefield’s own Noel Gay, that child prodigy who became both prolific and well known in the music world, after which the band demonstrated its growing ability to increase the tempo midway through the Leaning On … tune without too much damage being done and then being able to, in the main, hit the right notes in the more restrained Slow Boat to China.

Two solos punctuated the band tunes with Roy performing Teenager in Love in consummate style without worrying about his lack of paper copy whilst Pop was, as Dave F has mentioned, showing that it isn’t only the grey matter that is flexible when singing the bouncy Jambalaya. A second mention too for Dave for managing to respond to his ‘wife’s’ exclamations in Three Wheels despite having a troublesome arrow sticking out of his head.  I should also add that everyone capable of puckering up did so with great panache during Singin’ the Blues and the afternoon concluded with the usual gusto for the Old Time Medley with several keen residents joining in virtually throughout; with the inevitable exceptions, one lady especially finding it difficult to settle to one place with the patient staff doing a great job. Jane, free from any videoing responsibilities with Joe’s camera being set up centrally, was able to utilise her caring skills, when necessary, in her former place of work before moving onto nursing at Pinderfields. (In truth, she came to be nosey to see how things have changed but she was happy also to find that a former colleague still works there. She also thought that we sounded quite good!   

     Another great effort from David in taking the lead for the third time in six days as well as putting out detailed information and responding to last minute requests for paper copies, etc! Thanks are due also to Richard H for working away in the background dealing with website problems for which everyone is grateful. 

 Finally, as some people know we have just returned from Sicily and happened to be walking on the lower slopes of Mount Etna less than 24 hours before it erupted violently which we were fortunate enough to witness on Monday so it was appropriate in a way that we played at Ashgrove – boom, boom.

 Next up is the outside gig at Horbury Fair which is well worth turning out for and the weather is looking much better for a week on Saturday, touch wood.