Quick Update

Its been over two years since we last updated the blog page, so its about time we fixed some of the details listed here. We are still very much alive and kicking but we no longer practice at the Foresters Arms.

Our new location is the Travellers Rest in Darlington [DL3 9JP] and practice the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month.

Another way to contact us is through our facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/UkuleleExpress/

Introducing Foresters Ukulele Night (FUN)

As of the 7th August 2014, Thursday and every FIRST Thursday of the month, 7PM onwards. A new night of ukulele fun will be happening at the Foresters Arms. Please note that this is a separate event to the Stockton to Darlington events which is at capacity. This new event is open to all, old and new players.

It will be headed by Lol.

Gig Calendar

This calendar is also available from the right hand side under gigs and events

Live on BBC Tees Again! with John Foster

Here we are again at BBC Tees. after much discussion about the ukulele on John Fosters afternoon show, we ended up making an appearance! here are a few pictures. an

and here is a link to the interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPFLA_6kHmk&feature=g-all-u

Stockton to Darlington Ukulele Express Live on BBC Tees

I'm sure that you all heard us on BBc Tees with bob fischer.

here is another chance to listen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbYKR78QVfg

Butterwick Charity Night

We recently put on a charity gig in aid of the Butterwick childrens hospice.
i'm very pleased to announce we raised almost £1500!

a fantastic effort. thanks to the 150 people who turned out in support.

thanks to all the guys in the express too, a fanstastic effort with lots of spare time given to ensure the night was a success!

For One Night Only

To All members, past, present and future (oooh I like how that sounds :) ).

On Thursday the 8th of March 2012 we will not be at the Foresters Arms as we will be performing a rehearsal for a charity performance in aid of the Butterwick Hospice, that will be happening on the 9th of March at the Eaglescliffe Social Club (see poster below for details if you are interested in supporting this great cause).

We will be back to our usual time and location from the 29th of March.

Happy new Ukulele Year

Here we are again, another year rolls around, at least we got those xmas songs out of the way!

We still meet every 2nd & last thursday of the month, so if its your new years resolution to start playing uke, then you are in luck!
all newcomers welcome, the forresters arms is located 10 mins from Darlington town centre and two mins from the A1 Darlo/Newton Aycliffe turn off.

See you all there!

Still going strong at the Stockton to Darlo Ukulele Express!

Still going strong and meeting at the Forresters Arms in Darlington.

Meeting on the 2nd and Last Thursday of every month.

email me at simonb250@hotmail-dot-com for more info

we are also available for your function or party, playing a wide range of songs with very cheap rates, infact we usually have to pay to get in!

if you are a uke player, or beginner looking to join, or just want to know more, feel free to get in touch

Spring update

Just a few more dates for the diary

April meets
14th
28th

May
12th
26th

After the raging success that was our appearance at StAugustines, Darlington, we have been asked to appear, here and there!

There are a few little gigs we may be appearing over the coming months too!
so keep watching this space, the dates will be announced soon.

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to wish all our members a very happy new year. Heres to a great year filled full with ukulele nights!

Our next few dates for you are diary are as follows

Thursday 13 th January
Thursday 27th January

Thursday 10th Febraury
Thursday 24th February

Thats right meetings are the second and last Thursday of every month.

looking forward to seeing you all soon

Simon

A few pictures from the Ukulele Juxebox!

£215 Raised at the Ukulele Juxebox!

At last sundays do, the Ukulele Juxebox we raised a magnificent £215!

Can i add a huge thanks to everyone who helped and attended.

special thanks to Kate and her team, they worked very hard to make the night a sucess and were very generous too.

thank you everyone, heres to the next one!

The Ukulele Juxebox. Sunday 21st November

Just a quick reminder that the Ukulele Juxebox is on tonight, and its for one night only!

for all you members who cant make the regular nights, this is a great opportunity for you to see what we are all about!

All the songs are in a handy song-book, no need to worry about learning the tunes or the words. its very easy to join in!

Theres hot food and a brilliant raffle

All for an excellent charity, the British Heart Foundation.

We need all the support you can muster.

hope to see you all there

Simon

The Ukulele Juxebox. Sunday 21st November

For one night only ( for now anyway!) the Stockton to Darlington Ukulele Express will be performing the Ukulele Juxebox, Live at the Forresters Arms.

Its all for charity, in aid of the British Heart Foundation. The idea is you have your very own Live Juxebox. all you need to do is pay £1 to have your request played by our fine Ukulele group. You can even sing with us for £2!

I'm asking you all to come down and support us, all you members who cant quite make it down to join us on our regular events. Come on down and join the fun.

We have a excellent songbook for you to choose from, you don't have to worry about knowing the words or the chords, leave that to us!

There will be delicious hot food, and a brilliant raffle with loads of prizes.

All held in Darlington's cosiest pub!

So bring you friends, tell your neighbours, come and have a great night

Meeting twice a month at the Ukulele Express!

as oour meets are now getting really popular we have started to meet twice a month.

every 2nd and last thursday of the month at the forresters arms.

all are welcome, if your new to the uke, or even if your old to the uke!

we are even getting our own t-shirts done! if you want one, get in touch

see you all soon

This club is really jumping!

We had our most recent meet last week, and what a meet it was!

So nice to see lots of new faces, i hope to see you all on a regular basis, and to the folks who dont make it often, come on down sometime. it s a very friendly meet, with very friendly people, all the songs are projected up on the wall so no worries about not being able to join in.

At our last meet we really had the pub bouncing, what a great night, and thanks to you all for coming.

Next meet is scheduled for Thursday 26th August, start around 7pm.

If you havent come along, feel free to come, you are all very welcome.

See you all soon

Simon

How Did That Happen ?

On the 24th of July 2010 our little ukulele club turned 2, not sure how we missed such a significant date.

Its hard to believe that 2 years have gone by so quickly, when there was just 5 of us at our first meeting, wondering if the numbers would grow. Well I'm please to say that our numbers have grown, so much so that we are practically bursting out of our little room and with a top bunch of people as an added bonus.

Lets also not forget that we lost one of friends along the way when Jeff sadly passed away last September, we could certainly have used his mandolin playing on Maggie May.

Julys meet

Hi everyone,

just a quick note to say our next meet is scheduled for Thursday 29th July. i hope all our new members can make it? its great to have you all there.

also we were due to meet up with some uke players from Cornwall on Thursday 12th August, sadly they are no longer coming.

does any one still want to meet up on that date? obvioulsly we would still have two meets in August.

please contact me if you would like to meet up on the 12th August and i will arrange it.

i am off to the Ukulele cosmos camping weekend in July, so i'll see you all in August

Stockton to Darlington Ukulele Express in Technicolor

At our last meeting we took a few videos, the first is of us performing Ghost Riders in the Sky for the Ukulele Cosmos monthly open invitational. The rest are from when we take a break in the middle of our group strum alongs to have our little open mic. section (don't worry this is totally optional ;) )

So for your viewing pleasure here are our vids.

Please note if you click on the youtube logo in the bottom right of the video it will take you to the main youtube site for that vid where you can get more details of who is performing, etc.

March Meet arranged for Thursday 25th March

just a quick reminder about our next meet, yep, its tomorrow!

also dont forget the new venue.

the forresters arms, coatham mundeville.

meet at 7 as usual

Stockton to Darlington Ukulele Express has a new venue

From Thursday 25th Feb 2010, Stockton to Darlington Ukulele Express will be meeting at the Foresters Arms, Darlington. This is a lovely family friendly pub with reasonable priced meals for anyone wishing to grab a bite.

There is plenty of car parking space and is an easy location to reach, just off of the A1, follow the A167 toward Darlington, Link to Google Map Here.

The full address is :-
Foresters Arms
Coatham Mundeville,
Darlington.
DL1 3LU
Tel : 01325 320 565‎

Meeting time as usual is from 7:00 PM, enter the pub and take the door to the right, to the left is the bar. Hope to see you all the.

Xmas Meet is on Thursday 10th December

Hi everyone,

just to let you all know to keep a space in your diary for our Xmas meet. its on Thursday 10th December.

there will of course be some nice xmas nibbles, and maybe some mulled wine too.. all included in the Subs price which will remain only £1.

i hope you can all make it

Simon

Novembers Meet-Thursday 26th

Hi everyone,

just to let you all know Novembers meet is on Thursday 26th. Usual time and place.

Wear a jumper, its getting cold in the hall now!

See you all soon

Simon

Octobers Meeting and a good Youtube for beginners

Little reminder that Octobers meet has been brought forward a week, its this Thursday 22nd Oct. Usual time, usual place.

And we have had a few new faces to our club recently and i wanted to share a good spot on youtube for learning new songs, its a guy called Music teacher Mike. Heres a link to his channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MusicTeacher2009

its well worth a look

See you all soon

A few vids from our last meeting

This is the second meeting we've had where in the middle of the meet we have a little open mic section. This is already proving to be quite popular with a diverse range of songs being played.

Don't worry though there is absolutely no pressure for anyone to get up and do a turn, just sit back, relax and take a sup from your pint.

I've managed to get 3 vids uploaded onto to youtube and embedded here, please make sure that the HQ symbol in the lower right is red as this means its showing in best quality (though this does require a little more speed from your internet supplier, if its stuttery click it to show in normal quality).

Appologies if your performance is not on, I didn't record them all and a couple of the recordings had poor sound.

So here we go

The Prairie Home Companions better known as Stan and Eve, I have no idea what this song is called, so if you do post on the reply.




Lol performing the Kinks Waterloo Sunset



Ken playing a Pub with no Beer (some Australian ditty)

1st Year Anniversary Bash!

Well what a night!

we had a few new faces, who we hope to see again.

we had a bit of an "open mic" thing going on! maybe this could be a new feature.

a big thanks to everyone who has attended over the last year and i hope to see you all again

to those who havent yet made it down to club, get yourselves there!

keep the new songs coming in too, we've got quite a selection now too

see you all soon

Simon

Ukulele Mike's Ukulele Lessons

Anyone wanting to learn a few songs (already has over 100) and get loads of tips and ideas should go and take a look at Ukulele Mike's channel on youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/MusicTeacher2009 I've also added a link to our main page (on the right hand side), it really is that good.

One year on and going strong!

Hi Guys,

July is the one year anniversary of the Stockton to Darlington Ukulele Express.

our next meet is scheduled for Thursday 30th July. i hope everyone can make it, and make our anniversary meet a meet to remember!

There will be a few nibbles and maybe even some cake! and i hope to see our members who are yet to make it to the club

Since our first meet our numbers have increased and we now have 20 members

We have our own forum and all our songs are available to download from the website

The club is easily located, upstairs in the Darlington railway institute, parking is readily available and free too

i hope to see you all there

i would also like to take this opportunity to thank Keith for all his hard work in setting up this website, and re-arranging all the songs and putting them on the site

and thanks to, to Ken, without his help and encouragment this club would not of got off the ground.

Simon

No Meeting in June

Hi all as there are a few off on holiday in June we decided to cancel the meeting and instead have it the first week in July.

Therefore our next meeting will be be Thursday 2nd July, hope to see you all then.

April's Meeting and a small update

Simon's on the ball and has already got the room booked for Thursday 30TH of April.

I know some have found the location of the songs a little confusing, I've therefore updated the link on the right hand side to go to the file section of our "group", the link now says "Songs and Files".

To manually get to this location click on the "Visit this group" link in the Google Groups box on the right hand side. From the group you can now navigate to the files (this is where the songs are) and the conversations where you can start a conversation on any subject. When you write in the conversation part those that are registered with the group will receive the message in an email.

If anyone needs any other tips please let me know and I'll put up a post on how to do it.

Finally nice to see a couple of new faces come along to last nights meeting, hope you had a good time and come along to the next one.

March Meet arranged for Thursday 26th March

The room is booked, so see you all there

Februarys Meet

another month passes by, and so to does another meet of the ukulele express!

Although i thought the Buddy Holly Tribute act was going to invade the room! luckily they cleared off

A great time was had by all, with plenty of new songs to play. There was a couple of coldplay numbers, and one from the Quo!


Keep the song suggestions coming in, and see you all soon

February Meet

Hi guys,

sorry i've been a bit slack!

the next meet is scheduled for Thursday 26th Feb.

hope you can all make it?

Dont forget to email me any new songs you have.. then i can put them up on the projector

Change of date for January Meet

As a few could nt make it i have changed the meet to Thursday 29th Jan.

Same place, same time

hope you can all make it!

Ukulele Player - Free Mag

Ukulele Player magazine issue 2 has just come out. Its a free mag and a very good read, well worth downloading if you've not come across it. Issue 2 has a competition to win a new uke that just requires you enter an email and posting address.

http://www.tricornpublications.com/uke_player.htm

Simon, there's also a club listings sections if you want to get it added.

January Meeting

Hi Guys,

next meet is arranged for Thursday 22nd January. Usual time, usual place.

if anyone has any new songs to recommend, please email them to me so i can print them off as i hope to have our new projector up and running.

How are we all getting on with the split stroke?

remember its Down, Down, Touch Up, Touch Down, Down! Then repeat, but with only one Down stroke at the start. Get the strokes into your head so it comes more naturally when you are strumming the uke.

Anyone who cant do it at the next meet has to get the beers in!

Music to watch girls go by, at our Xmas meet

thats one song we were playing, its a catchy little number. keep an eye out for it on the song page.

We had a great night at our Xmas meet, with mince pies, mulled wine and a few dates too...

I wish you all a very merry Xmas, and look forward to meeting up again in January, i'll post the date soon.

happy new year too!

Our last Meeing of 2008

Our last meeting of 2008 will be on Thursday 18th December.

Lol has sent out a few Christmas tunes for us to try, some of you should already have these, I'll try and get them uploaded to our files section sometime during the weekend for those that did not receive them.

Remember the best way to be kept upto date is to be a member of our group by adding in your email address in the right hand side, you will then get a confirmation email.

Steven Sproat workshop - How was it?

Summed up in one word "Brilliant", everyone I spoke to was having a great day, some even commented that they had learned more from the workshop than they had done in the whole time they had been playing the uke. Although Stockton to Darlington hosted the day we had friends from a number of the North East clubs including Tune Army (No post in there yet but please register on the right hand box if you intend going) and the Ukulele Allstars ) apologies if I've missed any other clubs off, but feel free to leave a comment to advertise it :) )

Steven is a great teacher, his workshop is interspersed with songs showing off the techniques that we were learning about (some of which I managed to capture in video below), not only is he a good teacher he's a top chap, very friendly and more than happy to help out and give advice.

Thanks for a fantastic day Steven and we'll hopefully be able to arrange a follow up session sometime in the new year.

Special thanks to Simon for sorting out the room and putting on a lovely spread and to Ritchie for managing the troops at the Gateshead end.

Please Note you can double click on the video to take you to the proper youTube version where you can then select to watch it in higher quality.


Steven Sproat playing Jeff's Martin.



Sweet Georgia Brown








Robert Palmer's It Could Happen To You using Katya's ukulele (anyone know the make and model is?).








A little snippit of some technique.






12TH Street Rag

Once gain thanks to Steven and to everyone there making it a superb day.

Club News

There are now only a few places left on the workshop. so if you want to reserve your place get in touch.
Next meeting is on Thursday 27th November, to cover the cost of the room i am introducing a subs book, simply put your name down and your money. The idea is we can buy a projector for our song sheets, or a round of drinks! with any moneys left from the subs.

see you all soon

November's Meeting

Is Booked for the 27th of November from 7 PM, see you all there.

Steven Sproat workshop 6th Dec

Listen up folks, we have managed to secure a workshop with Steven Sproat. its going to be held on 6th Dec, from 11-5ish at the usual place, the Railway institute club.

we really want to offer places to anyone from our club who wants to attend before we offer spaces to other uke players in the North.

so please get in touch!

the cost for the workshop is £22 per head, that includes a teaching pack, sandwiches and tea & coffee. i might even make a cake!

if you would like to pay now to confirm your space get in touch

October Meeting and some Exciting News

Thursday's meeting went well, we're all still very much learning to play together, so we need to sort out our timings and play strums that compliment each other, this will all be fixed with time :)

This however leads me on to some exciting news, Steven Sproat has agreed to do one of his excellent Saturday workshops for us, check out Steven's website for further details or look for some of his videos on youtube. No matter what your ability this will certainly help move your uke playing up to the next level. We're still working on a suitable date but its likely to be in November or December so please if you want to attend I need for you to let me know as quickly as possible, either do this in our group forum link is on the right hand side.

I'm going to end with a little mp3 recorded from Thursday's meeting warts and all :) a little medley of some of the tunes we played http://www.box.net/shared/kb79zyhnrc

October's Meeting is on ....

The 23rd, 7 PM as usual. Hope to see you all there.

As a quick addition if anyone is struggling with their chord shapes, I've uploaded a couple of useful chord charts to the file section of our group.

Quick Tips - Replacing Strings
We all have to do it eventually, here a re a couple of links I found useful.
http://www.ukuleles.com/SetupnCare/stringtie.html

http://liveukulele.com/lessons/changing-strings/

http://www.ukeland.com/pages/articles/stuff/string.jpg

Somewhat Quieter

After that rowdy lot from Gateshead invaded our club last month ;) it was always going to be a little quieter. But I'm please to say we had a few prospective new member come along to sit in and see what we get upto, they'll hopefully turn again at our next meeting with ukulele in hand.

Simon didn't bring along his promised cake, next time he says ;)

We're hoping to have some new song printouts for the next meeting. You'll find the nine songs in our file section of our google group, link here ==> http://groups.google.co.uk/group/ukulele-express

While I'm on the subject of the group, please make sure you sign up to it, by doing so you will receive an email every time a post is added in there, it will keep you upto date regarding meeting etc.

Couple of Quick tips
Do yourself a favour and download APTuner its a briliant tuner for the PC all you need is a microphone plugged into your computer, its better than any clip on tuner.
Link here ==> http://www.aptuner.com/cgi-bin/aptuner/apmain.html

Tip number 2 - If you're not familiar with a song we might be doing, simply search for it on youtube, it will almost certainly be on there, here an example of a song thats becoming a favourite of ours http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x241pZhtLDY.

Next Meeting in September

The Stockton to Darling Ukulele Express has its next meeting on the 25th September 2008, all welcome.

Also wanted to quickly mention AP Tuner, this is a shareware unlimited chromatic tuner that simply uses a microphone plugged into your PC, its a brilliant program and will help anyone trying to tune up their ukulele's. Link is here AP Tuner. Most of us in the club use C tuning that means the strings are tuned GCEA.

Night of a Thousand Ukes

Ok maybe not quite a thousand but I wanted to use the title ;)

Thursday the 21st was the second meeting of the club and saw the numbers swell from 5 to I think I counted 18. Now admittedly more than a sizable chunk was brought along by Ritchie from the Gateshead area, no doubt lured by the cheap beer from the bar below and the promise of cake also brought along by Ritchie (I think we need a club rule that states he brings cake to every meeting). Its a 35 minute trek from Gateshead to Darlington, I know because I do it myself, so we're very grateful they came along to give us some support and to show us how it should be done, you're more than welcome to come along any time guys :)

Besides the Gateshead crew we also had a couple of others turn up after seeing the site and adverts in the Northern Echo, again we're really pleased you turned up :)

There are a few photos to come, I'll post those separately. Don't forget to keep an eye on our Google group for the date of the next meeting http://groups.google.co.uk/group/ukulele-express.

Club Information

The Stockton to Darlington Ukulele Express is a Ukulele club in the North East of England for Ukulele players of all abilities.

The venue is the Foresters Arms, Darlington. Situated just off of the A1, follow the A167 toward Darlington, Link to Google Map Here. Post code for Sat Navs is DL1 3LU.

The meetings are currently held the second Thursday and the Last Thursday of every month. Check our Google group for the date of the next meeting http://groups.google.co.uk/group/ukulele-express.

Contact Simon Brown for further details.

Club Songs

At our first meeting the following songs were chosen as a good base to start from, this list will be added to over time.

I'll See You In My Dreams in F - from Ukeland
Five Foot Two - song 74, Doctor Uke
When You're Smiling - song 274, Doctor Uke
Down Town - song 67, Doctor Uke
She Loves You - This version is in our Google Group, direct link here
I Wanna Be Like You - In our Google Group, Direct Link

Forum / Group Page

Using Google tools I've setup a Forum/Group for discussing club topics and uploading files. At the moment its restricted to members only, please send an email to either Simon or myself for invite to the group.

The groups address is found at http://groups.google.co.uk/group/ukulele-express

Please note : By default if you are a member of the group every time a post is made you will also receive an email to your regular email address, you can turn this feature off.

If you get the following message and your membership has been approved it just means you need to Sign in to Google Groups.


You cannot view the group's content or participate in the group because you are not currently a member. Members must be approved before joining.

You must be signed in and a member of this group to view its content.

• Sign in to Google Groups

• Sign in and apply for membership or contact the owner.

The First Meeting

On the 24th July 2008 the Stockton to Darlington Ukulele Express had their first meeting at the Darlington Railway Institute Club. Special thanks to Simon Brown for organising and finding a venue.

Five turned up in total and though not a huge amount it was a great start which will hopefully see the numbers grow in the future.


Left to right Simon, Janet, Ken, Ritchie and Keith

The plan is initially to meet every three to four weeks, with members to bring along and showcase to the rest of the club (if they feel confident enough to do so) something that that they have been working on, some of these songs could end up the club song book.




Six songs have been chosen initially for members to practice and then play together in a group at the meetings, I'll post separately with links to the songs.