Do you remember 2014? It seems like only a week ago we were celebrating a year that almost exploded with opportunity. For us 2014 was a year we’ll remember for a number of reasons. We got to move into a bigger room at the Prince of Wales, so for the first time in quite a while we could play and breathe at the same time.
We put out our 5th book of songs which includes countless songs that have become classics. We played a few weddings. Mainly weddings of Moselele members but that’s good as it means they’re not embarrassed to be seen with the rest of us in front of their families.
We went into a studio and recorded a song.
This wasn’t something we were expecting to do but the chance to try and help Moseley Park and Pool with their lottery bid turned out to be the sort of incentive that we needed. Though getting Gurdan Thomas to write us a decent song helped quite a lot.
We got to the point where we have sold nearly 1000 Moselele Bambookuleles and got to visit the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival where we met loads of nice people. Even some people that have made the effort to travel to Birmingham to play with us.
We had tried to cut down on the number of gigs we did this year as 2013 had been a bit overwhelming. We got to play for some great people at Alfie Bird’s, the Bohemian Jukebox, Oxjam Brum and the Nowhere Bar. We also held two sing-a-longs at the Prince of Wales. One as part of the Moseley Festival and our usual Christmas sing-a-long. Both of them turned out to be massive events with hundreds of people turning up and singing louder and better than we ever stood a chance of competing with.
One of the things that we learned last year is that doing so many gigs takes a lot out of people. Although we’ve always encouraged anyone that’s come a long to Moselele to take part in our gigs we did come to a point where we were much too reliant on a few people who know the songs. So we’ve decided for 2015 that we’re going to stop doing gigs and concentrate on our Thursday nights in the Prince. A big thanks to everyone that has booked us in the last few years.
We will continue to do our Summer and Christmas sing-a-longs.
The next big thing we’ve got coming up is the release of our sixth book of songs. This book is going to outrageous with a notably inappropriate choice of songs.
If you got a ukulele for Christmas and can’t think what to do with it, or if you’re a proper musician that wants to join with some communal singing and strumming why not come and join us? We’re always desperate for people that can sing. We meet in the Prince of Wales on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month. We’re in the shed at the back (it’s a big shed).
Thanks to everyone who has supported us in 2014, we hope to see you in 2015.
