An exuberantly zany evening of fun, spending a night with the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain feels a little bit like stepping into an old Looney Tunes cartoon.
The April Fools’ Day show at Campbell Hall, presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, was a highly entertaining zig-zagging night of music, which went from a zany take on Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” to an impeccably timed mashup of “Life on Mars,” “My Way,” “For Once in My Life” and “Born Free” to Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al.”
Celebrating their 40th anniversary tour — a k a four decades and 400 million plucks — the seven-piece orchestra began in 1985 as a counterpoint to that era’s mindless pop and rock, with Leeds University students donning black tuxedos and doing shows in tiny rooms above old pubs. They’re still wearing the tuxes but have since traveled the world, engaging audiences from Tasmania to Carnegie Hall, as well as in Santa Barbara, with an impressively rich orchestral palette using only ukeleles, their singing voices, and a wee bit of whistling.
The scope of their repertoire included Broadway (“If My Friends Could See Me Now” from Sweet Charity with high kicks and jazz hands from the audience encouraged), James Bond theme songs, ZZ Top, British punk rock, westerns (“Rawhide” and other cowboy tunes), classical musical, and even The Muppet Show. All minus drums, pianos, backing tracks, guitars, or banjos.
One of the most splendid feats of the night was their take on disco and “vocal” synthesizers for “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real).” Their covers on “Dreams” by the Cranberries and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” were also quite memorable.
Leading into a song called “I Hope That the Lady Comes By,” which they played for Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday party, tenor ukulele player Laura Currie quipped, “If it’s good enough for the queen, it’s good enough for Santa Barbara.”
It was more than good enough for Santa Barbara. It was a great night of music and entertainment. The crowd clearly agreed, as evidenced by multiple standing ovations, followed by an encore that included “Highway to Hell” and “God Gave Rock and Roll to You.”
