First Visit to St Andrews

Following on from our recent Music Award Win, Dee Ukes shared the news of their success at Sunday Sessions Folk Club on 25th June. It was an opportunity to thank all the people from Sunday Sessions who voted for us. We sang a couple of songs, then went on to enjoy the rest of the fabulous entertainmenet on offer. What a great night!

On Monday 26th June Dee Ukes crossed the river and found their way to Balnacarron Care Home in St Andrews where we managed to squeeze into their room. What a brilliant audience they turned out to be! One of the residents, Ella, became a little impatient and started singing Why Are We Waiting before we got organised. She proved to be a lovely, funny lady who enjoyed singing along to our songs and giving her verdict at every opportunity. She also took a shine to our George! Another lady called Maggie was not shy at trying out a few very groovy dance moves. One of the highlights was when I was asking them what a ‘wee dug’ was and right on cue, Bonnie, a gorgeous bichon frise, appeared at the doorway, from the ‘loaby’.  Everyone was very complimentary at the end and I’m sure we will be back to St Andrews at some point.

Dee Ukes @ Balnacarron Care Home, St Andrews 26/06/17

27/06/17 Round Up:

• Playlists were decided for Hilltown Fun Day and Broughty Gala day. These have now been sent to those attending.
• The Programme for the Festival of Politics has just been announced. Here is the Programme if you wish to have a look. fop2017  You can also see who else is entertaining by clicking here
• We practised the following songs:
  • We’re Not Going to Take It
  • Hooked on a Feeling version 1.1 – Loving the ooga-chakas!
  • When You Walk In the room
  • Blame It On the Ukulele – we have agreed to leave out the word ‘just’ on line 2 to help us all sing it the same way.
  • Our memory rock songs
  • Those Were the Days My Friend

Wow! What an exciting week we have had. Thanks again to everyone for all your support with everything and for ‘going the extra mile’ with gigs!

Still buzzing!

 

Dee Ukes Win Music Award! Woo hoo!

We are delighted to reveal that we have won a Chorus Community Music Award 2017 organised by Hands Up For Trad. Many thanks to everyone who voted for us: friends, family, other ukulele groups, hair dressers, gym buddies and many many community groups. We are the first ukulele group to win this award. Literally a couple of hours after the winners were announced we headed off to perform at Midlin Day Care where there was a real party atmosphere. One of the service users Jim has amazing whistling skills and helped us out in some of the songs. Brenda was the star dancer with some amazing moves! Much to the amusement of our audience four of our members, Pat, Irene, Marge and Bob, demonstrated their dancing skills as others sang Beautiful Sunday. Great fun! 🙂

Dee Ukes @ Midlin Day Care with our Woo hoo Congratulations balloon. Thanks Marge x

On Wednesday 21st June, Dee Ukes were entertaining at one of the regular Tea Dances organised by Lifegate Church, who are located in Haddington Crescent Whitfield. Lifegate do a great deal of work in the community, including holding a weekly cafe and a weekly Foodbank. If you would like to find out more you can visit their website at www.lifegate-dundee.org.uk

The large hall was beautifully adorned with flower arrangements and attractive tables of sandwiches, cakes and biscuits. Visitors were invited along from other areas, including some well known faces from Orchar Care Home. As the title of the afternoon suggests, there were soon many people on the dance floor. Quite a large number of people valiantly attempted the Slosh much to our delight and the delight of those still seated. Others joined in the singing with great enthusiasm. What a lovely afternoon! Our photo shows two of the organisers standing at the back.

Dee Ukes @ Lifegate Tea Dance 21/06/17

20/06/17 Round Up:

• New Gigs:
  • Sunday 2nd July 2017 @ Broughty Ferry Gala Day @ Castle Green – time tbc (around 15 minutes pm)
  • Monday 4th September 2017 2-3pm @ Jubilee Court, Letham Angus
  • Wednesday 14th February 2018 10-11am @ Monifieth Women’s Group in the Cabin, 6 Union Street
  • Thursday 12th April 2018 7.30 – 8.45pm Tealing Guild @ Inveraldie Hall DD4 0QW
• Dee Ukes Party @ Finmill Centre 11.30 – 1.30pm (tbc with Pam) Tuesday 25th July. Next week I will get a list of food contributions plus who wishes to do a party piece.
• Sunday Sessions is this Sunday 25th June @ Monifieth Bowling Club 7.30pm. Dee Ukes members will sing Elvis Mega Medley and Beautiful Sunday.

Songs practised:

• Elvis Mega Medley – We have decided to miss out the first instrumental section and keep in the other two.
• Beautiful Sunday – sounding good.
• We’re Not Going to Take It Anymore – sounding pretty good.
• Hooked On A Feeling – We tried out one or two different ideas and have tweaked the song a little. I have made a few changes on version1.1 which is now on the website.
• Memory songs: Rockin’ All Over the World & Rock Around the Clock.
• Newish song – Somewhere Over the Rainbow Medley – We should be able to make this one work with practise and listening to how Israel sings it. https://youtu.be/Z26BvHOD_sg?t=2
• New song- Those Were the Days My Friend – We tried this for the first time and it went well. I have done a version 1.1 to help with the single strums for the verses. It is now on the website.

Many thanks again to all for your patience with new songs. 🙂

 

Medieval Fair

What a glorious day of weather for the Monifieth Medieval Fair, which fairly brought out the crowds. There was so much to see and hear: pipe band, dog show, fly ball dogs’ course, the famous Knights of Monymusk, Football dispaly, children’s races, tug-of-war, various dance groups, teenage singer Kama Donald, Strathspey and Reel Society and of course the U3A Folk Singers. Some excellent entertainment with something for everyone.

Dee Ukes started off their entertainment in the Beer tent. What better place to start? We soon had a little crowd who ventured in, drawn to the sound of music. Or perhaps it was for the beer! Anyhow, we were pleased when a couple of ladies started dancing to Blame It On The Ukulele. Their bossa nova moves were pretty cool! This was followed by two young brothers, possibly around 3-5 years old doing their own little dance. Lovely!

We then had a bit of a wait until we were due to perform on the main stage. However, there was a backlog of acts, so we agreed to head back to the Beer tent to do our second slot. We were delighted when two members of the audience danced the Slosh throughout our performance of Beautiful Sunday. It certainly proved to be a Beautiful Sunday for everyone. Well done to the organisers, even although the programme did get a little muddled up! 🙂

Many thanks to all my Dee Ukes friends who were able to attend, even those with unexpected plumbing problems! Such dedication! 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS

For those going to St Andrews next week we will be using this playlist. Balnacarron Home, St Andrews 26th June 2017

Excitement Building!

Excitement Building!

As you know voting for the Hands Up For Trad Community Music Award ended at 5pm of Friday 16^th June. We now have to wait until the winners are announced on Thursday 22^nd June via Facebook. Fingers crossed. Many thanks to all who voted.

 

Here are some stills from the videos we have which were taken at Ballumbie Primary School. What a happy bunch we are! Love some of the expressions! Click on the first picture, then the arrow on the right to move through them. Enjoy. 🙂

 

 

13/06/17 Round Up:

• New gigs:
  • Wednesday 21^st June 2017 @ Lifegate Church Tea Dances, 50 Haddington Crescent 1-1.45pm
  • Relay for Life @ Caird Park – Saturday 26^th August pm time tbc
  • Sunday 1^st October @ Manhattan Works, Dundonald Street – UN International Day of the Older Person – time tbc between 12 noon and 4pm
  • Thursday 12^th October @ St James Church, Fort Street, B/F – starts 7pm (play for perhaps 1.5 hours)
  • Monday 30^th October @ Gerard Hall, Monifieth – 2-2.45pm & 3-3.45pm
  • Monday 22^nd January @ October @ Gerard Hall, Monifieth – 2-2.45pm & 3-3.45pm

• Scottish Parliament Songs:
  • We’re Not Going to Make It – sounding good. For the section We’re right / yeah, We’re free / yeah, We’ll fight / yeah, a small group only sings the ‘yeah’ (with attitude!)
  • House of Gold – We spent quite a bit of time trying out different things with this one. Eventually we decided to put it aside fir the time being.
  • Hooked on a Feeling – The men will sing the ooga/chakas for the first 6 lines (sounds good.) We still have a few things to sort out with this one, but I think it will work out well J
• When You Walk in the Room –  We practised this for the medieval fair and it sounded really good.
• Beautiful Sunday – Sounding good. Irene and Pat did a grand job doing the slosh to this one.
• Elvis Mega Medley – sounding good.

Enjoy the sunshine this weekend. 🙂

Five More Days of Voting!

Only five more days to share the good news!

I am thrilled that Dee Ukes have been shortlisted for a national Community Music Award. We are the first and only ukulele group to have been selected by a panel of experts to go forward to a public vote in the Hands Up for Trad Community Music Awards. We are in the category entitled The Music Cure – Music and Health. 

Below you can see some videos of us performing recently at Ballumbie Primary School.

If you would like to vote for us, click on the link in red below. It is easy to vote, but voting ends on Friday 16th June at 5pm.  You will see on the page VOTE NOW!

http://bit.ly/2qSevw4

It would be fantastic if a ukulele group from Dundee could win this prestigious award.

I would greatly appreciate if you could vote for us and share this information with others who may be interested.

As well as lots of information about us on this website, you can read a summary on the Hands Up for Trad website by clicking the link below.

https://projects.handsupfortrad.scot/chorusawards/chorus-award-winner-2015-dee-ukes/#disqus_thread

Dee Ukes have had another busy weekend.

On Friday 9th June we were invited to Happy Ukes Social evening where Happy Ukes put on an excellent short concert, followed by a fantastic buffet provided by the staff at Alison’s Bar in Dundee. This was then followed by many willing groups and individuals doing their party pieces. It was a brilliant evening. Many thanks to Happy Ukes for the invitation. here are a few photos of Dee Ukes members performing.

Can anyone spot George?

Just 3Folk

Just 3Folk

Dee Ukes @ Happy Ukes Social Evening 09/06/17

On Saturday 10th June we were at Beech Hill Court in Forfar for the first time. There are a few sheltered housing complexes in the Lour Road area and we have been to most of them. Some people from along the road came to see us again. One lovely lady called Linda definitely holds the record for being the first on the dance floor after 2 seconds of playing. She was an absolute joy, telling us she is from the Highlands where she was a gamekeeper. She really got involved with our banter. Another lady who had obvious health issues suddenly came to life and sang virtually every word of Side by Side. Very rewarding to see. 🙂

Dee Ukes @ Beech Hill Court 10/06/17

Today, Sunday 11th June, Dee Ukes had another first when we were invited to Anne Creegan’s house where she was hosting a gathering for Contact the Elderly. Supported by a network of volunteers, Contact the Elderly organises monthly Sunday afternoon tea parties for small groups of older people aged 75 and over, who live alone, offering a regular and vital friendship link every month. If you would like to find out more click Contact the Elderly

What a brilliant afternoon we had with some of the elderly being well into their 90s. Everyone was soon singing along, including the volunteers who accompanied the elderly.

Following the singing we all tucked into some lovely sandwiches and home-made meringues and scones with jam and cream. Many thanks to Anne C for being such an excellent hostess. 🙂

Dee Ukes @ Contact the Elderly Event 11/06/17

What a fabulous weekend of fun, food and great music.

Dee Ukes Nominated for National Award!

I am thrilled that Dee Ukes have been shortlisted for a national Community Music Award. We are the first and only ukulele group to have been selected by a panel of experts to go forward to a public vote in the Hands Up for Trad Community Music Awards. We are in the category entitled The Music Cure – Music and Health. 

If you would like to vote for us click on the link below. It is easy to vote, but voting ends on Friday 16th June at 5pm.  You will see on the page VOTE NOW!

http://bit.ly/2qSevw4

 

It would be fantastic if a ukulele group from Dundee could win this prestigious award.  

I would greatly appreciate if you could vote for us and share this information with others who may be interested.

As well as lots of information about us on this website, you can read a summary on the Hands Up for Trad website by clicking the link below.

https://projects.handsupfortrad.scot/chorusawards/chorus-award-winner-2015-dee-ukes/#disqus_thread

 

As you can see below Dee Ukes have had a very busy start to the month of June.

On Saturday 3rd June we had our first visit ever to Kirkriggs Court Retirement Homes and Sheltered Housing in Forfar. It was nice to see a few familiar faces from other gigs we have done in Forfar. What a lovely audience they turned out to be with one gentleman in particular proving to have a terrific voice. Everyone was up for a good old singalong. Just what we like! One lady happened to be passing the window looking for her daughter. I beckoned her in and invited her to stay and listen to at least one song. She stayed until the end! Thanks to Laura and Christine for providing us with tea/coffee  and delicious cakes. 🙂

Dee Ukes @ Kirkriggs Court 3rd June 2017

 

On Sunday 4th June we were invited to a Volunteer Celebration Event as June 1-7 is Volunteers’ Week. It was great to see so many volunteers, young and not quite so young, receive their certificates and to hear some of their stories. The event was held in the newly refurbished Fairfield Sports Hub which was lovely and the organisers Avril and Hazel had added extra decoration in the form of balloons and banners. The strawberry tarts also proved to be very popular with everyone, including us! At the end, many of the volunteers came over to express their enjoyment of our entertainment. We were given numerous other events to consider!

Dee Ukes @ Fairfield Sports Hub 04/06/17

 

On Monday 5th June we were invited to be part of the entertainment at yet another Celebration Evening for Volunteers. This one was held in Ballumbie Primary School. Again, a huge number of volunteers were given certificates in recognition of their wonderful contributions to the community. There were other brilliant groups entertaining: Whitfield Choir, Finmill Guitar Group and 5 young school girls who did an excellent dance routine. Here are the videos of the songs Dee Ukes sang.

Dee Ukes Ukulele Band

You Are My Sunshine

Blame It On the Ukulele

Rockin’ All Over the World

Dundee Songs

 

Many thanks to all my Dee Ukes friends for their fantastic support with everything! You are amazing! 🙂