![\"Mark-S\"](\"https:\/\/moselele.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Mark-S-300x300.jpg\")
1) Tell us how you started playing the ukulele. (How long ago? Did you play other instruments before?)<\/strong><\/p>\nI started almost exactly a year ago, with a very nervous first session where I could only really attempt a C chord on a uke I’d ‘borrowed’ from my four year old son. I still play the piano (badly), but no other instruments.<\/p>\n
2) What uke(s) do you play? (Have you made any adjustments\/personalised it? Do you use a plectrum?)<\/strong><\/p>\n After a few weeks I decided I needed to restring my four year old’s uke. Reasonably, he refused, so I bought myself a cheap red Makala Dolphin. Now I’ve upgraded to a ‘Moselele’, concert size. I sometimes use a felt plectrum, sometimes not.<\/p>\n 3) Do you remember your first Moselele? (What prompted you to come along? What were your first impressions?)<\/strong><\/p>\n I remember being vaguely aware of Moselele (bizarrely I’m in a crowd shot of the first gig three years before I joined!) I checked the website and then just turned up. I wasn’t sure what to expect to be honest. I was a bit concerned about knowing nothing, but I soon learnt that no-one else knew anything either.<\/p>\n 4) What keeps you coming back to Moselele?<\/strong><\/p>\n Playing music in a group has been a total revelation to me. It sounds weird and I’m not sure how I’d got this far through my life without trying it before. Perhaps because the piano is a solitary instrument and you rarely get to play it in a group? It’s great when we are playing well; it’s sometimes hilarious when it falls apart. Moselele at the Prince of Wales feels a bit like a continuation of the ancient tradition of meeting together in a pub to sing traditional folk songs, but in our case we are singing dubious 80s power ballads. It’s also about a shared musical heritage and anyone – anyone – can contribute to that.<\/p>\n 5) What’s your favourite Moselele song?<\/strong><\/p>\n It varies! Maybe Echo Beach?<\/p>\n 6) What’s your usual Moselele tipple?<\/strong><\/p>\n Timothy Taylor’s Landlord. And one of Ian’s pork scratchings on the way past.<\/p>\n 7) Do you practise at home? (What do your family\/housemates\/pets think?)<\/strong><\/p>\n I practise songs for gigs, including listening to them on loop, sometimes try playing them with the kids, managed a couple of Xmas singalongs. Come to think of it the neighbours are moving house.<\/p>\n 8) What’s your favourite Moselele story\/memory (so far)?<\/strong><\/p>\n Rude Food Fiesta was an extremely strange experience: singing ‘sink you with my pink torpedo’ to a crowd in an allotment in Digbeth? I never thought I’d do that.<\/p>\n 9) What would you say to anyone thinking of joining?<\/strong><\/p>\n It has been quite a year – try it.<\/p>\n 10) Tell us a secret.<\/strong><\/p>\n This is a confidential website, right? I’m a sleeper agent for North Korea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week’s interviewee is Mark. What can we tell you about Mark? Well, he insists he didn’t stalk us before he came along to a Moselele night, but the evidence is overwhelming… and his daughter is our biggest fan. Aw, cute. 1) Tell us how you started playing the ukulele. (How long ago? Did you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Roses are red; lizards are scaly; guess what it's time for? Yes: Meet Moselele. This week: Mark S http:\/\/wp.me\/p4fHzI-cR","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.moselele.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Mark-S-feat.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4fHzI-cR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moselele.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moselele.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moselele.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moselele.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moselele.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=797"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.moselele.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":809,"href":"https:\/\/www.moselele.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions\/809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moselele.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moselele.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moselele.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moselele.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n[Editor’s note: he’s right. Creepy much?]<\/p>\n![\"mark-is-waiting\"](\"https:\/\/moselele.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/mark-is-waiting1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n