Appearances - 2023

Were you there? - have you got any comments or pickies for any of the appearances below? if so, please let us know

21/12/23 Welland House Care Centre

Hi all, Well, we certainly got a warm reception - in more ways than one - at Welland House Care Centre today.  Once we had sorted out our clothing - divesting ourselves of thick, woolly Christmas sweaters and thermal nether garments - we set about entertaining a group of around 20 residents. We played for 80 minutes - a mix of Christmassy and non-Christmassy songs. There were 8 official Wuccies singing and playing, but we were joined by resident, Garry, who knew the lyrics to most of our songs and who helped with the counting-in. Other residents also played their part on percussion, and there was some nifty foot-work from those who got up and danced. All-in-all, it was a fun gig to be part of, and we got a further £75.00 for Acorns. Many thanks to the Wuccies (and non-Wuccies) who helped to make the event so enjoyable and successful. Cheers Trevor

17/12/23 Saltmarsh Social Club

Hi all. Thanks to the lively band that played at Saltmarsh yesterday and special thanks to the Peopletonians who made the journey across several time zones, got visas and learned new dialects for the trip. We were billed to follow a carvery lunch and a bingo session. Gradually, as we sang and played, the hall partly emptied as those satisfied by the lunch and the bingo, exited. Curiously though, at the same time, the applause got louder and some dancing began. Overall, we had a great time and the remaining audience was enthusiastic and highly complementary about our performance. As well as the gig fee (£75) we received £88.75 in the Acorns bucket (thanks for counting this, Trev) and a further enquiry about our availability.

16/12/23 Droitwich and Evesham

Hi Everyone, Two for the price of one! I was privileged this week to lead (from the front and centre) two WUC gigs. The first was last Tuesday at the Kingfisher Court in Droitwich and last night at the Hampton Social Club in Evesham.

12 Dec - Kingfisher Court Retirement Complex was a Christmas Party for about 45 residents who were all dressed up and ready to go from the first number Amarillo, making great use of our percussion from there on! So thank you Brian, Pattie, Jean, Rick, Nick, David H, Shirley, Shell, John Ma, Ian and Steve H for your support but most importantly entertaining so well and enhancing the WUC reputation. Nice to see John M fit and well. He got the best banter award for his answer to the question’ “Who’s got a beard that’s long and white?”. Not sure his wife would have agreed but it made us laugh. Special mention to Ian who played bass so well for the first time, so he said, for forty years! Thanks mate! No pictures so count yourselves lucky! We were paid £120 gig fee and the organiser said - 

Hello to John and all the band. Thank you so much for coming to entertain us on Tuesday. What a great evening you gave us all. Your enthusiasm and energy was brilliant and we all sang along to familiar and favourite songs. A great night and all for a very special charity. 
Well done and thank you once again. We will definitely be rebooking. Penny Richardson.
​
15 Dec - Hampton Social Club in Evesham was to have been a reunion of the organiser Alan Wiznievski and John Hi, who I gather met in recent times at a Sunday Beginners session and remembered (!) they went to school together. John was indisposed but Alan, who everyone called Alan Whisky was there and is pictured in pink playing along on ‘Dance the Night Away’. The point was made that we were very entertaining and it was “one of the best nights we've had for a long time”! So well done Brian, Jean, Peter S, Nick, Joan, Maggie, Shell, Maureen, Les, Martin H (thanks for Runaround Sue and scat singing in the Jungle Book Medley BTW), John Ma, Steve H and Gerd. Gerd was our Dutch bass player and very good to boot. Part of our let’s beat the bass player shortage self-help programme. Thanks Joan for your ‘scouting’. £100 gig fee and £61.72 in the ‘bouquet’!

£300 total for the two gigs overall for the cause!

Regards, John He

14/12/23 Spectrum Days

Hi all, Well, we had yet another highly enjoyable hour singing an assortment of songs at Spectrum Days this afternoon. This was our fourth visit there, so we had a good idea of what to expect... and we weren't disappointed! We were greeted with all the usual enthusiasm and glee and everyone had a great time: us playing and singing and the members and their carers dancing and joining in on the percussion instruments. Of course, today's performance was greatly enhanced by the spectacular participation of Jim, who positioned his wheelchair front and left... and who counted in most of our songs... and who sang along with all of them. This time, we made sure he was miked up through the club amp! And this time... big trumpet fanfare!... he had with him his ukulele, a present for his recent birthday. The hour passed by very, very quickly and we then did what we could to help reduce the size of the cake and mince pie mountains on the table near the door!

Very many thanks to all the Wuccies who contributed to the joyful success of the afternoon, and to the staff at Spectrum Days for inviting us along. We're expecting some photographs of the event from them in the near future. I also delivered WUC Christmas gifts. Anwen and the other staff members were really grateful for them, and they will be given out to the members shortly. We'll soon be receiving photos of the Big Unwrap! Finally, we were given a hand-made Christmas card, which I'll try to remember to bring along to club on Monday. Cheers​ Trevor

13/12/23 Park Heath Social Club

Hi all, Thank you and well done to the group who played at Park Heath Social Club today. We played a mixture of Christmassy and non-Christmassy songs, and the residents - as usual - loved it. The audience were great, and we think we've found our percussion section for when we go on our Grand World Tour of certain bits of selected parts of some areas of Worcestershire next year! We'll get our people to talk to their people to sort out the smallprint.

The whole afternoon was an awful lot of fun! Apart from the lovely spread put on for us at the end - far more than we could eat - there was the gig fee of £80.00 and the Acorns bucket yielded £29.00, so another £109.00 for the charity effort. Nigh swan! Cheers​, Trevor

09/12/23 Newton Court BFE Vets

Hi All, Big thanks to all who turned out to wild and woolly (Allan’s words, not mine) Leominster tonight. Particular thanks to Trevor and Sue who got extra stamps in their passports! Great building and a great crowd of people. The chef and his team in the kitchen were bopping along. The man of the moment, Dom was unaware that we were going to be there. Once he realised we were a live band and not a CD he went out to his car and retrieved his ukulele and played along with a couple of songs. The venue Boss Lady, whose name I’ve forgotten, said we sounded great. Can’t beat that. A different, though pleasant gig. Elaine

Hi Rob, First of all I would like to say a massive thank you to yourself and the whole of the Worcester Ukelele band for attending our Christmas Party on Saturday. It was a huge hit, we all loved it!! We would like to add an extra donation to your charity of the year and were wondering whether you would like us to send it to you or straight to the charity. Thank you once again, Kind regards,​ Emma Cooke

08/12/23 Droitwich Spa Bowls Club

Hi Everyone, A cracking gig at the Bowls Club this evening. The band played and sang well (a  special well done and thank you to the seven ladies) and the audience enjoyed us. Those of you know me well will know that I never knowingly over-praise so when I say it was a cracking gig it was a CRACKING gig. We were augmented on a few numbers by a talented teenager, Poppy. She also performed a solo at the start of our second set. I think it was an Oasis song but I can't tell you which one. Poppy did sing and play well. It’s lovely to hear a teenager playing ukulele rather than the boring old farts of WUC. We raised £217.30 for Acorns in addition to having a great evening and giving a great evening to our audience. Well done us. Colin

I agree with Colin - a thoroughly good evening, helped along by Poppy (pictured).  Geoff

08/12/23 Hallow Hand Made

Quick thanks to all who turned up for this afternoons gig. At very nearly 2.00 we were four players short but on the dot of 2.00, three Bromyard Bunch players arrived and quickly set up and soon caught us up. A very enjoyable gig, not a huge audience but having being supplied with instruments, thanks Yvonne, they joined with gusto. In John Kanaka naka (which was a gamble) they BOOMED as good as any Cornish fishing fleet would have. I think if we’d stopped singing during Delilah it wouldn’t have been noticed. Arms linked and swaying they were wonderful. We were treated to ‘afternoon tea’ half way through. On top of all that we collected £102.98. (That includes our fee.) Highlight of the afternoon for me was when Wendy, the organiser, whispered in the ear of Wendy the audience, the naughty words to Living next Door to Alice. The biggest grin and possibly the loudest singing after that. Thanks again Elaine

03/12/23 Worcester Victorian Christmas Fayre 5

Hi Everyone, This is a thank you to the players who represented WUC so well today at the 6th, if you include Frilly, appearance at the Victorian Fayre. Today was the wet and squidgy one, weatherwise but at least we could feel our fingers!! A very decent crowd joined in with us, as we smiled through the elements and later sailed away to warm tea and stronger things, come 3pm. Thanks to the ‘Bucketeers’,  Laura and Sylvia, who collected for us a marvellous £99.45! Very good and the moment to realise that our involvement at the Fayre has possibly bought in well over £600 for Acorns Children's Hospice. A big special thank you to Trevor for leading the majority of the gigs, particularly the very cold ones, plus Colin yesterday at the Hopmarket, not to forget the other Bucketeers Anne and Rosemary. Thanks Geoff for your inimitable playing, Martin for scat singing so well in the Jungle, and the rest of you for being so jolly! Regards John

UPDATE The total raised across all the gigs was £563.83 well done everyone again! Also for clarity Elaine jointly led two of the gigs with Trevor on Thursday and Friday.

02/12/23 Worcester Victorian Christmas Fayre 4

Well done to this afternoon’s HopMarket Band who played and sang very well even though some of the songs were not in our normal repertoire. See My Baby Jive did have a momentary loss of control but there was no crash. There wasn’t a lot of footfall through the HopMarket but luckily Rudolph 1 and Rudolph 2 guided us through the snow and ice to the HopMarket entrance so that we could be seen and heard (or maybe herd) by passers-by. That did significantly improve the donations into the buckets. The total collected was £92.06 and One Euro (thanks to Trevor for counting the cash) which I think is an excellent total. Colin

02/12/23 Worcester Victorian Christmas Fayre 3

Hi all, We had a great time back in Bell Square today, singing and playing a mixture of Christmassy and non-Christmassy songs. We started a little earlier than expected, as the Morris Dancing side who were scheduled to be on just before us, from 10:30 to 11:00, performed their first tune and dance... and were told by Security that they could not continue, as they were far too boisterous and constituted a risk to public safety! (As the group included our own Hilary, I could see where Security were coming from... NOT!) Anyway, the Morris Dancers went elsewhere and we filled the resultant vacuum. We really enjoyed our performance, and so, obviously, did the audience, which included none other than Santa himself for a couple of songs. He sang along and danced with Rudolph and Vixen (?) and posed for many a photo! We were also ably aided in our efforts by the Bourne Family Singers and Dancers - the family of Wuccie, Jo. Our two domesticated (I'm not sure about house-trained, though!) reindeer did a great job on the buckets, and the yield was £134.94. Well done and thank you to everyone who contributed in whatever way to the success of the session, and thank you to the management and shopkeepers of Crowngate for letting us back in to Bell Square. It felt like being back home again! Cheers Trevor

01/12/23 Worcester Victorian Christmas Fayre 2

Hi all, Well it was certainly an eventful gig on the Main Stage in Cathedral Square today! We performed the same song list as yesterday, as only the stall-holders, the sound engineer and us knew it was all the same stuff. We got a very good reaction from the crowd, many of who stayed for the whole of our set, singing along, clapping their hands in time, and dancing. We were late getting on, so played for around 50 minutes, and we only had one reindeer on bucket duty today, so the amount in the bucket - £54.67 - was very creditable. Unfortunately, we had to finish a little early as well, when one of our members - was taken ill. First Aiders and an ambulance turned up very quickly and the were soon in the ambulance. Thanks to everyone who donned all those Christmas hats, antlers, and thermal undies and helped to make today another (mitigated!) success. Cheers, Trevor

30/11/23 Worcester Victorian Christmas Fayre 1

Hi all, Many thanks both to the human and reindeer Wuccies who braved the cold today to play in our first gig of the year’s Victorian Christmas Fayre season.  On approaching Cathedral Plaza, we were delighted when we saw the size of the crowd gathered in front of the stage and when we heard the rapturous applause that the performers were getting. Then, as we got closer, it dawned on us that it was one of the local primary schools singing, and that the audience was made up 99% of proud moms, dads, grannies and grandads. They were right to be proud, though, because the children sang (most of our songs!) really well. They came off the stage, and another equally brilliant school went on, with matching audience, and the it was our turn. Two primary school groups make for a very hard act to follow, but we gave it everything we’d got, despite the icicles forming on our tuning knobs, and I reckon we pulled it off. Although the crowd wasn’t huge at 2:00 pm on a Thursday, we did get some applause and even the odd cheer. More importantly, though, we got the impressive sum of £114.90 in the bucket.  A good result for an hour’s singing and playing! We’ll  be doing  it all again tomorrow.  I might pop in to Music City to see if Steve sells heated ukuleles! Cheers Trevor

 28/11/23 Inspire Neurocare Worcester

Hi all, A group of 11 of us drove past the entrance to the University on Oldbury Road, this afternoons. into what - for some of us, at least - was unknown territory. We were on our way to the Inspire Neuro-Rehabilitation Unit where we played to a group of patients, all of whom were suffering from an acquired brain injury, and to their carers and family. The room we played in was relatively small, so it's a good job we were so few in number. However, that only added to the atmosphere of what was another fun-filled and hugely enjoyable afternoon. We did two sets of around 40 minutes each, comprising some of our 'old standards' and some Christmas songs. Percussion instruments were distributed before we started, and they didn't go unplayed! There was also some impressive dancing going on, for which even Len Goodman would have given more than "severn"! Another inspiring afternoon at Inspire, together with tea and biscuits and a £75.00 gig fee. Organiser, Dawn, said they'd love us to go again, and I, for one, would love to go! Many thanks to everyone who contributed to a great afternoon! Trevor

24/11/23 Sacred Heart Church, Droitwich

Hi all, Many thanks to the 15 Wuccies who played and sang at the social evening held for the congregation of the Sacred Heart Church in Droitwich this evening. We performed to a lively and responsive crowd, who did wonders in joining in on either official or makeshift (cutlery & beer bottle!) percussion and in singing along lustily with many of the songs. It was a really enjoyable evening. They said they'll have us back next year, and, I for one would be more than happy to oblige. If we do go again, we'll have to remember to include an Irish song in honour of the lady who does all the cooking. You have to keep the chef happy! She told us that she's from Cork, so Whiskey In The Jar is definitely on the song list for our next visit there. Cheers​ Trevor

10/11/23 Stan's Birthday Party

Hi Everyone, Just a brief note to thank the faces in the picture below for there efforts on Wednesday morning at Worcester Amateur Rugby Club. A lot of you will know Stan via gigs at St Paul’s in town. It was our pleasure to play at his 87th birthday celebration. I received this from his daughter -

Thanks very much for yesterday every body had a great time, and we had lots of feed back from people to say how much they enjoyed them selves It was good to have the Percussion instrument which got everyone involved. I loved to see people dancing.
Big thanks again
Bev and Stan

Dancing and getting people to enjoy themselves at 10.30 in the morning takes a great bunch of WUCCIES and I think they were there! We got Stan singing as well - twice! Regards, John He

08/11/23 Saltmarsh Castle Park

Many thanks to the "Just in Time" band who navigated (with some difficulty) to the Saltmarsh Castle Bar at very short notice tonight. The epithet "Just in time" refers to the fact that we were only asked to play a few days ago, not to the musical timing which was excellent as was the general singing and playing. The audience lapped it up and they want us back soon. Thanks again everyone. Allan. 

Hi all, It was a great gig last night. Apart from all the fun, it was also brilliant to have a good sum of money in our bucket at the end. A grand total of £169.97 for ACH. Cheers Trevor

01/11/23 St Joseph's Church Thursday Group

Many many thanks to the 12 Wuccies who braved the worst that Ciaràn could throw at them this afternoon to travel to Malvern to play at the St Joseph’s Church Thursday Club. The audience was small - 8 - with many of the regulars obviously taking note of the advice to refrain from travelling unless it was really necessary. (Very sensible! Let’s be honest: travelling to see a ukulele group might well be highly desirable, but it’s not strictly necessary! ) However, what the audience lacked in quantity, they more than made up for in quality! The impromptu percussion section performed brilliantly and kept us on beat. Although there was no gig fee, the bucket did the rounds over cake and tea, and I was amazed at the amount that was contributed by the very generous Thursday Groupies. Acorns Children’s Hospice is £38.60 better off as a result of their kindness! Oh… and the gig was great fun!

28/10/23 Masonic Music

Hi Everyone, This is a thank you to the following Wuccies who played at the Masonic Music Evening yesterday. So, Jan, Nick, Liz, Joan, Anne. Chrisie, Shirley, Maureen, Jean, Rick, John Hi, Brian, Eirlys, Ken, Colin, Steve H, Martin H, Pete L and David H, a huge thank you for your support. Also most importantly, based upon a phone call I have just had from the organisers of last night’s fun another huge thanks, because as Steve H tells me the audience thought we were professionals! Maybe not but the playing and singing were indeed excellent. Indeed it was thanks to Steve that we got the gig! It was also great to hear John the Bass again, as part of a tight rhythm section with Shirley. The audience made good use of the percussion we gave out and as you might guess from the video were up for some fun, as was one of our ‘lot’! Most importantly was the discipline shown by the players in following rapid changes to song to suit our audience plus taking on the challenges of things like Hot Stuff for the first time. A crowd pleaser it would appear! The icing on the cake, or indeed the cherry on top, was the amount raised for Acorns Children’s Hospice. With the agreed gig fee of £150 included, the raffle and donations amounted to £606 OVERALL, WOW!! This means our total for the year is definitely a record breaker! Well done Wuccies, a super job. Regards, John

27/10/23 Spectrum Spooktacular

Hi all, A huge thank you to those members of Worcester Spookulele Club who steered their broomsticks to the Spectrum Days centre in Droitwich this afternoon to help with their combined 10th Anniversary and Halloween celebrations. The room was heaving, with members, their carers and family. They all looked so eerie in their Halloween outfits that they scared us! Luckily, though, we were allocated a special black rug to perform on, a rug imbued with magic powers to ward off evil spirits. We had prepared a list of 20 songs - 10 nice, happy songs and 10 spooky scary songs. Some of the scary songs were scarier for us than they were for the audience, as we'd never played them before! Some of the songs had quite tenuous links to scariness, although if you do a search for 'ghost' in the WUC song list, Molly Malone is one of three songs that pop up... so we sang it!  One of the songs on our list was about a serial killer, whose MO was bashing people's skulls in with a silver hammer! Very ghastly and ghoulish! Amazingly, there was a Maxwell in the audience, and he stepped up the the plate - and the mike - with a great ukularaoke version of Maxwell's Silver Hammer. (We did make sure he was unarmed before allowing him anywhere near us, but it was OK, as he's not that Maxwell! ) He also joined us for our last song - 'Swede, Carrot, Lime!' We played non-stop through all 20 songs - 1 hour and 15 minutes, which seemed to fly by, There was lots of stand-up dancing and wheelchair dancing, and waving of arms and tapping of feet and joining in. In short, it was another wonderfully chaotic and joyful with the fantastic members of the Spectrum Days Centre and the absolutely brilliant people who support them. Our next visit is at Christmas, Can't wait! Cheers​, Trevor

21/10/23 Great Malvern Farmers Market

Hi Everyone, The charming ensemble in the photos below were assembled alongside The Priory in Malvern this morning to do good work on behalf of Worcester Ukulele Club. There were one or two worries about the weather, the position, shelter and no bass player!! However I am extremely pleased to say that they went beyond good to produce an excellent performance. Therefore to Peter G, Joan, Tom, Terry, Shirley, Maureen, Jean, Jo, Ken, Andrew, Brian and Pete L plus Dave and Jane S, a VERY BIG THANK YOU. Dave and Jane spotted we were short and came along to play their part joining us after the photos were taken and came back from Boots! Shirley, with your foot tambourine thank you for helping keep us together and digging a small hole in the soggy grass. Well done Jo for completing your second gig successfully. Also nice to see Andrew with us again. Finally thanks Joan, your brilliant work with bucket brought in a marvellous £118,61. and an excellent passing audience, one of whom, Rose, passing by with a uke on her back came and joined us! A great result all round. Regards John

14/10/23 Upton Snodsbury Church

Hi All, Thanks for supporting this gig. I hope you agree that it went very well and that despite the small audience we played with smiles and energy to play our part in entertaining those there. Big thanks for Phil stepping in on bass and Shell/Shirley double tambourining (if such a word exists!), plus Eirlys, Brian, Jean, Pete L, Joan, David H, Barb, Martin H and Steve H. for singing and playing so well in what was a great acoustic. Regards John

04/10/23 Pershore Volunteer's Lunch Club - St Andrew's Centre, Pershore

Evening All, This is a slightly belated thank you to the group of Wuccies who entertained a goodly crowd yesterday. I am pleased to say their singing and playing were both excellent helped by a tight rhythm section consisting of Mark and Shirley. More importantly they all exuded cheerfulness and engaged the audience so well. ‘Volunteers’ (!) Jean and Yvonne did the hand-jive to ‘At the Hop’ and got the best audience response yet with a flurry of hands copying their moves! Well done. The audience also made good use of the percussion instruments we shared with them (thank you Yvonne) and sang heartily, with ‘Cleaning Winders’ seemingly their favourite. ‘Winders' not windows says Jean ’cos it’s a northern thing! Great feedback from the organiser Jo who promised to send a picture of the band. It hasn’t arrived yet so think yourselves lucky!! We were also privileged to play ‘Happy Birthday’ to Joan who was a 100 yesterday! No, not that Joan!! With £48.65 in the bucket to be added to our gig fee it was very satisfying all round. So thank you Bev, Brian, Jean , Anne, Pete, Frank, Yvonne, Joan, Barb, Shirley, Maureen and Mark. Regards John

29/09/23 Spectrum Days Cake and Coffee Morning

Hi, all, A massive vote of thanks to those Wuccies who played at Spectrum Days this morning. As gigs go, I found this - a second visit to the venue - hugely inspiring, humbling and rewarding... and it was also great fun! I discovered it's hard to sing and laugh at the same time. What a joyous and joyful bunch they are! James, whom I remembered from out last visit, once again parked his wheelchair in with the band and sang along with all our songs - even counting us in for most of them. Talking to him afterwards, we decided that he doesn't have a photographic memory, but he does have a tape-recorder (phonographic?) memory! He said he will bring his microphone and amplifier with him next time. I suggested he fitted out his chair with disco lights! The hour went by really quickly, with lots of rattling rattles and shaking shakers from the audience, along with chair-dancing (much more entertaining than square dancing!), and stand-up dancing. We finally came to the point when we had time for only one more song. Cue a highlight of the session: I offered the choice of Hi Ho Silver Lining, Johnny B Goode and Sweet Caroline. One young lady, who had been doing a cracking job on percussion all session, squealed with delight when I mentioned Sweet Caroline, so that's what we sang. It was great to have the opportunity to talk with some of the clients and their carers afterwards, especially over tea and cakes!  (I was assured that none of the cakes contained any calories!) Everyone I spoke to seemed to have enjoyed our performance, and they are looking forward to our next visit, in October. I'm certain that we're looking forward to it ourselves! In a world that seems to be full of nothing but bad news, Sue and I came away from Spectrum Days fully cheered up by our experience there. It's so good to know that there still exist happy, kind and compassionate people like the clients and carers at Spectrum Days. Cheers​, Trevor

28/09/23 St Pauls Church

Good Evening Wuccies. This is a copy of the thank you to the players at today’s gig at St Paul’s Church. Some of you know it as ‘Stan’s Gig’! He was there and sends his best wishes to WUCdom. The letter is as follows :

Hi Everyone
This is a big thank you from me, on behalf of the Church organisers to Eirlys, Beverley, Brian, Jean, Terry, Ann, Rick, Martin S, Pete L,Frank, Shirley, Shell, Maureen, Martin H, Anne G, Geoff, Jo and Liz for your contribution to today’s very successful gig. In human terms it was a very friendly, smiley group of players who from the first song got some people dancing and then increased that number as we played on adding to the clapping, tapping and singing ringing around the church. Congratulations go to Jo who played her first gig today very successfully. 

The church representative Peter said we had connected and entertained the audience very well. So well, we collected £76.73 in the bucket to add to the gig fee of £50. All in all a good day for the 'WUC giggers’ fine reputation. Thanks Geoff for the photo and the tanned appearance. I’ll change my FB profile!! Thanks, John He

23/09/23 Huntington Hall Buskathon

Hi All, Well I think the most important part of the Buskathon today was the appearance in the audience of a famous rugby player. Don’t ask me who it was! Trevor, please fill in the details. All I noticed was that he didn’t get those legs from sitting behind a desk!! (The man with the muscular legs was Jake Abbott, ex-Warriors number 7. Worcester Warriors supported the Acorns Children's Hospice for many years, and Jake was an Acorns Ambassador, so he was very appreciative of our fund-raising efforts. Trevor). So, we did two two-hour gigs today in fine weather to appreciative audiences with a collection of minor celebrities. There were: a small pirate called James; a small police officer on his dad’s shoulders; a small ballet dancer; a young girl who’d just bought a pink ukulele from a charity shop, and a very little boy who played percussion until his granny asked if we could play Baby Shark.  Well of course we obliged. All the verses! He sang along and danced wildly round granny. We had special requests for two songs - This Little Light of Mine and When I'm Cleaning Windows - that brought in £10 each. Altogether a very good, and hopefully lucrative, day. (Yes - we done good again with regards to lucrativitiness!! The total collected - combining cash and QR - is a whopping £455.80!! There was also, as always, 1 Euro, 30 cents. Trevor)
Many, many thanks to all those Wuccies who combined to make the day such fun and so successful. (Well done, also, to the crew at the other gig at St Stephen's Church Autumn Fayre. The total raised for Acorns today over both gigs is £583.52 Wow! Trevor). Cheers, Elaine (and Trevor)

23/09/23 St Stephen's Church Autumn Fayre

Thanks to the band who played at St Stephens Autumn Fayre today. We played to a small but appreciative audience who thought our performance went well with ice cream and did a bit of dancing as well. Thanks to Geoff for bassing and we must also thank Paul, the sound engineer who got us heard well outside our Gazebo! As well as the £75 gig fee, Kate did some sterling bucketeering and collected a further £52.72 in the Acorns Bucket. Lindsey, the curate of St Stephens thanked us warmly. I thanked her and her boss for the fine weather on the day (the same as last year)! Thanks again and hope the Buskathon also went well. Allan. 

16/09/23 Ronkswood Community Centre

Hi all, Well, what an enjoyable gig that was at the Ronkswood Community Centre this afternoon. Although the crowd wasn't huge - just outnumbering the 14 of us, at times - they were really appreciative and responsive, clapping their hands, tapping their toes and joining in with the songs. The youngest audience member - 7 or 8 at a guess? - gave a virtuoso performance on Elaine's jingle bells! Get her signed up, someone! We really proved the power of music... especially when, during our performance of 'Bring Me Sunshine', the heavens opened! No panic, though! Being British, we went in for a cup of tea and a cake. During the cake-break, we moved inside to the Sports Hall (with wonderfully echoey acoustics), where we did our second half, which actually went on for 20 minutes longer than it was supposed to! It wasn't just raindrops that kept falling onto our charity buckets. As well as the  £75.00  gig fee, there was £31.07 in the bucket, meaning that the Acorns Children's Hospice is now £106.07 better off. Nigh swan!  Cheers Elaine and Trevor

10/09/23 Malvern Wells Fete

Hi Everyone, A sparkling bunch of WUCCIES played with verve and skill to entertain the audience at yesterday's event. Therefore a big thank you is due to : Pete, Colin, Martin S, Rick, Hilary, Bill, Brian, Jean, Nick, Marty, Frank, Bev, David H, Barb,, Kathryn, Trevor R, Mark (bass), Dave S and Joan on Bucket! Our smiley and happy group provided a great welcome to the sunshine that arrived just as we played 'Bring Me Sunshine'! Well what more can I say. Well done all. Regards John He

09/09/23 Norton Care Home

A massive Thanks to: Brian C; Joan M; David Hi; Barbara T; Shirley D; Maureen C; Martin H; Steve Ho; Phil E; Frank D; Anne T; and Geoff (the Bass). Who all heroically performed in Saharan Temperatures today at The Norton Care Home. It wasn't one of our best Wuccie performances but in the circumstances we all did well to survive the gig. Special thanks to David Hi for pitching up early to help me set up the "kit". We were late starting due to the residents taking longer to be brought out into the sweltering amphitheatre (they weren't sure if they were the audience or the "prey"). But we eventually started off in the blistering heat and after only a few songs it was obvious that my broken back problems were worse that I anticipated and my "counting in" leadership waned quickly but Brian, equally quickly took over that role - many thanks Brian. We cut the first half short by two songs so that the timings for Lunch could catch up - And I must say Thank You to all the Care Home staff for looking after us as well as the residents (to be fair after singing eight songs in the Sahara Desert temperatures you could really tell the difference between residents and Wuccies ;-). After a superb lunch, by mutual agreement, we resumed with only five more songs in the second half but by this time we had moved to a new shaded location and sang to half the audience whilst the other half were being wheeled back indoors before heatstroke set in. As such we survived and we get a £75 donation/fee plus we collected £28+ in the bucket to put into our Acorns Charity coffers, so Thank You Norton Care Home too. See you all soon Andy F

P.S. All you Heroes/Heroines, make sure you take in plenty of fluids - Gin is a fluid!

03/09/23 Nightingale Court

Thanks to the nine Wucies who joined me today for the 100th birthday party Gig. Special thanks to Trevor for leading so well as always, and Elaine for the shakers and rattles; hope you got them all back. The centenarian and my mother were two of the few audience left awake by the end of a nearly one hour set. One lady was complaining that her hearing aids weren’t working, but I don’t think it was down to our playing as my mother was singing all the words to the songs and adding to the percussion. I did announce that ‘now you know where I got my musical talent from’, to which she retorted ‘What talent? I keep on telling him’. Thanks mother for all your encouragement and support! Cheers, Phil.

02/09/23 Alfrick Horticultural Show

Hi All, Well that was a first. I don’t think we’ve ever played in a car park before but that was the venue for our first set. Slow to start but we ended up with a crowd sitting on the wall, joining in. They let us in with the grown ups for our second set, and we played on the field. Notice the word ON. We had quite a wait but it gave us time to have a wander round and spend a bit of money. Some of which will come back to us when the show profits are shared. Our second set was cut short for the presentation of the trophies but we were all slowly melting by then so we said our thank yous and left them wanting more!! Thanks to all who came along and gave it their best. Elaine

26/08/23 The Last Gig at this year's Worcester Festival

Hi all, Many thanks, specifically, to those who played in Crowngate today for the last of our five gigs as part of the Worcester Festival You helped to encourage the wonderful people of (or in) Worcester to part with the magnificent sum of £205.09. Many thanks, generally, to each of you who contributed to any of the five gigs. The total collected for Acorns over all five sessions is £879.56. Wow!
It's very rewarding to note how lucrative the gigs were, but - far more importantly - they were great fun to be part of. Today was certainly no exception.
1. There was one great highlight of the day, when Alex the Acorn (aka Nick, but don't tell any of the small (and not so small) children who interacted with him today that Alex is just a man in a costume) decided to try his hand at pole-dancing, using the signpost in the middle of the square. Rashly, he launched himself into the activity without first carrying out a full and robust risk assessment.  Fortunately, no paramedics had to be called, but I believe Elaine and Geoff's sign got a bit of kicking.
2. Oh... and there was Joan...! There were two great highlights of the day, the second of which being when Joan did the Eric and Ernie dance to "Bring Me Sunshine". One of the onlookers (of which there were many) was so impressed that he put £5.00 into the bucket. Joan would have us believe that it was the elegance and grace of her movement that inspired such a reaction, but we think it is more likely to have been the "short, fat hairy legs"! It was just like Ernie was there with us! 
3. Oh... and there was Reuben...! There were three great highlights of the day. Yes, there was Alex the pole-dancer and Joan the Ernie-dancer, but there was also young Reuben, there with his mother, who took great delight in accompanying us on bells and tambourine through a good half-hour's worth of songs. He had a tremendous sense of rhythm and he really kept us together most expertly when we started falling apart! We've signed a contract-in-principle with his mother to take him along with us as our chief percussionist when we finally get the call to Glastonbury! Oh... and he also starred in a cameo duet with Alex in an unforgettable rendition of "Heads and shoulders, knees and toes" - with all the actions! It's fair to say that he outshone Alex in this performance... although it's also fair to point out that Alex was at a disadvantage, as he hasn't got any shoulders... nor a nose!
So, a brilliant finale to a brilliant set of gigs! Well done to everyone who took part. Time for a bit of rest now... but it'll be Christmas before we know it! Cheers Elaine and Trevor

Hi all, And though they are far too modest to acknowledge themselves, thanks are especially due to Elaine and Trev for taking it in turn to lead and herd us bunch of WUCcy cats into shape over the previous Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, and Saturday (today). Special mention goes to Elaine's creative collection of rattles, whistles and triangle sound effects. Also to Trev's wry humour in the introductions, and his stunning tin whistle solo during 'Knights in White Satin' (though I don't think they would stand much chance against the Knights in Shiny Armour in a jousting contest). I especially enjoyed harmonising on the ad-lib acapella Andy Pandy closing theme "Time to go home", which I hope may become a club staple as an encore. Honorouble mentions also to Geoff on bass for being Official Photographer, holding the beat and keeping us all in time - despite our best attempts to meander, we managed to start and finish together on an impressive majority of the songs. Anyway, I survived random weather, cancelled buses and rail strikes to show up on time for the 5 days, and had a great time. Thank you both, and indeed to all my fellow strummers. Memories are made of such as this. Cheers, Peter G. 

25/08/23 Worcester Wheels

Hi all. Thanks to the band that played two very good sets at Worcester Wheels today and thanks to Geoff on the bass. I understand that the audience was a little smaller than in the past but they were great with singing and dancing. One of the audience joined us at the front and sang This Little Light of Mine very tunefully. We reached the finish time of 1.30 but the audience was very keen for us to do our last 4 songs....so we did....and were rewarded by applause that louder than we could have expected from the audience size! The Acorns bucket collection has yielded £57 and 57p (one in a hundred chance of that happening, I think), so with the gig fee of £75, a further £132.57 to the Acorns. Well done the band and thanks to the Worcester Wheels. Allan. 

23/08/23 (Yet more) Worcester Festival - Huntington Hall

Hello Wuccies everywhere but particularly the crew who played in Crowngate today.​ Another great session was had on the steps of the Huntingdon Hall today. We got through our playlist of 21 songs bang on time, and there was a good amount of participation from the passers-by and the diners. Little Esme - passing by with her mom - stopped and accompanied us brilliantly for a few songs on the jingle bells, before departing for the toy shop. She was back a few minutes later, as we were deemed to be more interesting than the toy shop! That is an official classification from a real expert in the field! We were also informed by one of the diners that our performance was better than one she attended, given by the English National Opera at Covent Garden! (However, she was put on the spot somwhat... and there were more of us than there was of her... and we were all armed with ukuleles... but we'll take the accolade anyway ). Most importantly, I think we all enjoyed ourselves! It did feel a bit like Wednesday half-day closing today, with not much apparent footfall. However, Jovonne (Joan and Yvonne combined - all the celebrity couples do it!) and Kate The Bucket still managed to collect the amazing sum of £177.17 in the buckets. A very WUCCESSFUL session! Thanks again! Last one on Saturday. Elaine & Trevor

19/08/23 (Yet more) Worcester Festival

…a lively group of Wuccies sang and played to their hearts’ content a whole host of songs from our gig list. Although it was great fun, we weren’t doing it exclusively for pleasure; there was also the serious business of raising dosh for Acorns to consider! To this end, we were most ably aided by the bucket-rattling skills of a ladybird, a bee and Alex the Acorn (aka Anne, Rosemary and Barbara/Chrissie respectively) The passers-by and the (captive) audience of diners at Bill’s seemed to enjoy our performance, and - in addition to the feedback of applause - they chucked into our bucket the grand sum of £163.27, which is now in our club account and will soon be on its way to the Acorns Children’s Hospice. Many thanks and congratulations to everyone who helped to make today another ‘WUCCESS!’ Cheers Trevor

16/08/23 (More) Worcester Festival

Hello All, particularly the band of merry men and (wo) men who played this afternoon in Crowngate. We played for an hour and twenty minutes and managed to collect a magnificent £184.9 something. Sorry Trevor told me but I was walking round the supermarket at the time and forgot. Very nearly £185.00 wonderful amount for a Wednesday lunchtime. Yes we had wonderful leaders (said she modestly) we had a collection of wonderful songs, played and sung wonderfully by our wonderful players. We had two wonderful bucket rattlers and I suppose at this point I should mention our wonderful bass player. BUT the star of the show was Nick. He volunteered to take on the role of Alex the Acorn. We may have been good but he was beyond good. I’m afraid he put Pudsey in the shade. His antics were hilarious. He got high fives from the most unlikely people. Even from a security guard and we all know they are weaned on pickled onions. He danced, posed for photos. He got smiles from passers by who were determined to ignore him. He even danced, with all the actions, to an acapella version of Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. Amazing considering he didn’t have either shoulders or a nose! Well done everyone for making todays gig enjoyable and very profitable.

12/08/23 Worcester Festival

Hi all, Many thanks to the crooning crew of Wuccies who played in front of the Guildhall this morning. The weather was kind to us, despite the forecast of a 50% chance of rain. We played two sets of 30 minutes, sandwiched between 30-minute sets from a very good - but fortissimo - nicely alliterative brass band from Bournemouth. There may have been no precipitation, but there was some participation! We had quite an audience, with lots of singing along, and even some nifty footwork that wouldn't have looked out of place on Strictly from Bucketeer Yvonne, and one of the crowd. The "Chuck It In A Bucket" mantra was chanted and duly worked its magic, with a total of £149.11 about to wend its way to Acorns. A great result from an hour of enjoying ourselves! Well done, everyone!  Cheers​ Trevor

26/07/23 Crookbarrow View

Hello All, We had a great afternoon at Crookbarrow View, never as many in the audience as in an evening session, but nevertheless, a good turnout. We took the singalong songbook with us which proved very popular, but quite a few of the audience new the words to all the songs regardless. Anne took a bucket around in the second half and collected a very creditable £62.49 plus one Canadian coin looking remarkably like a 10 pence piece. Thank you to all our players, to Elaine for the bells and whistles and to Trevor for bringing the songbooks and percussion that was played by most of the crowd. All the Best,​ John

26/07/23 Sight Concern Afternoon Club

We got cake! :-) Geoff

Magnificent response from our toe tapping audience as well as lusty singing resulting in a £125.08 bucket collection which combined with our £75 gig fee raised a handsome £200.08. What a great effort. All credit to my lively band ..... They were chord perfect and Geoff's bass kept us all in check . Thanks to everyone....  great team.  Virginia

22/07/23 Northwick Grange

Thanks to the octet who played this morning at Northwick Grange. It was wet outside but sunny inside with sunny residents, staff and relatives. Thanks to Trevor for digging out songbooks used a long time ago, and for bringing his percussion instruments. Residents were able to sing along and play percussion. Star of the session was Marjorie who danced and rattled to every song. She even had a little dance with our bass player! We were offered a non alcoholic cocktail on the way out. My Cranberry Crush came with a straw, a slice of fruit and an umbrella! Thanks again to all concerned. Elaine

20/07/23 St Mary's Church Over 60's Club

Hi all. Thanks very much to the band who played to a small but very appreciative audience at St Mary's today. We haven't been there for a few years due to covid etc but they definitely want us back again. The gig fee plus + £22.71 in the bucket totalled £97.71. The gig fee came with a Teddy Bear thank you card though I don't think that any reference to Elvis was intended! Thanks again to all. Allan. 

13/07/23 Spectrum Days Droitwich

Hi all, Many thanks to the group of Wuccies who met at Spectrum Days in Droitwich this afternoon, where we played for a group of around 25 young adults and teenagers with profound learning difficulties and their carers. It’s not very often that I have difficulty in finding the words to express my feelings… but I’m struggling here! What an experience it was, both deeply humbling and highly inspiring in equal measure. To say that they were a receptive audience is possibly the understatement of the century! Those who could hold a shaker or a rattle held, shook and rattled. Those who could, got up and danced. Those who couldn’t get up, sat in their chairs and danced! Each Wuccie may have come away with a different high point. For me, it was Jim, who asked to sing with us in the band. His carer steered his wheelchair next to me, and he joined in with just about every song we sang… and he knew all the lyrics off by heart! Wow! Although there was a gig fee, I declined it, as Spectrum Days is a charity in its own right, and I’m not comfortable with the idea of taking money out of one charity bucket to put into a different charity bucket. The other giggers that I talked to about this were totally in agreement. The staff, who were absolutely awesome, were almost as full of praise for us as I am for them. They said they would have us back in a heartbeat. I strongly suspect that we will get another booking, and I hope to be amongst those who sign up for it in time! Cheers Trevor

09/07/23 Teme Valley Farmers Market

08/07/23 Astwood Bank Carnival

Many thanks to the band of pirates who enlivened the Astwood Bank Carnival procession and terrified some of the spectators. Mercifully, the rain stopped just before the procession so no ukuleles warped or developed the seeds of wet rot. Spectators thronged the route and were rewarded by and sang along to our brilliant renditions of our 2,3 and 4 chord songs!!! The pirate ship (John Hi's decorated bass cart) went down well (but didn't sink!) and this and our piratical costumes were rewarded by second place and a rosette  in the "procession walkers" competition (which we didn't know we were competing in!). The photo of the group taken by an innocent bystander unfortunately fails to show the pirate ship in all its glory but maybe some other photos will come to light. Special thanks to John Hi who hauled his bass cart through mountainous seas to ensure that we kept roughly in time. A  very well earned £230 which will enrich the charity coffers of WUC in due course. Thanks again crew, Allan.

08/07/23 St George's Summer Fair

Hi All, Just to say I sat and listened to Wuccies today at St George’s Fete and it was very pleasant, fun and good! There were people dancing along the road you might not have seen, enjoying the music, thought I’d let you know! Rosemary

Hi Everyone, A brief note to say thank you for your support at the gig today. It felt like we had both a good and, more importantly, happy playing group. There was lots of good banter. Big thanks to Bill for filling the bass space so well. Congratulations all on playing a diverse selection so well and responding to ‘route’ changes! Best of all we got them dancing and donating. There was £68.13 to add to the £75 gig fee. Thank you to Kate, Rosemary and Yvonne for ‘Bucketeering’! Yvonne encountered Joan (picture) who gave a donation in exchange for us playing Sweet Caroline’! Exciting version with the correct chords but one we don’t usually play! Not sure where it came from but well done the players for dealing with the situation! Rosemary was kind enough to send a 'well done' message. Thanks Rosemary. I hope you all also heard the feedback and thanks from the organisers at the end. You did WUC proud. 

Oh and we played ‘When I’m Cleaning Windows’ twice by unpopular request! Here is a bit of video from the first set just after the rains went away!

https://www.facebook.com/saintgeorgesworcester/videos/249026277871214?locale=en_GB

Regards John

01/07/23 Fladbury Walkabout Garden Festival

Hi Everyone, We played at the Fladbury Walkabout yesterday. Contrasting last year the weather was lovely and we had a good (dry) audience who responded very enthusiastically to the energetic  performance of Shirley, Shell, Liz, Martin S, Kathryn, Rick, Geoff, Trevor R, Rick, Pete, Dave S, Dave H, Chrisie, Frank, Jean, Virginia, Joan, Yvonne and Martin H. We played a lot of up tempo songs including some newer medleys, thanks Colin for the Buddy Holly one. We played ‘When I’m Cleaning Windows’ by request and the ‘Hand Jivers’, starring Joan, Jean, Yvonne and Barb, appeared after crowd encouragement and band cajoling for ‘At the Hop’. To be fair they did a great job and got the crowd joining in as well. A good first set was followed by an excellent second one with lots of 'leaping about' energy in the group. The Twist, The Quo and Da Doo Ron Ron at the end sent everyone away happy. Fun was had and £180 gig fee has been added to the charity. Thank you everyone. Oh and Geoff for the photo plus extras! Regards John

27/06/23 Welland House Care Centre

A big thank you to the players at Welland house today. A small band of eight made a big difference to the residents there. We played two venues to two different audiences. Well almost, four from the first audience came with us for a second helping. We had Sylvia, a retired musician who danced and Rob who danced to every song we played! Some of the staff danced too. The highlight of the afternoon was Gary, he requested The Last Waltz. We couldn’t help with that but when he asked for You’ll Never Walk Alone we managed to find it and he sang along. As Trevor said we made his day. A very enjoyable gig both for the residents, staff and us.
Thanks again, Elaine and co. leader Trevor (not 'never walk alone' Trevor - you know what I mean!)

24/06/23 Acorns Buskathon, Huntington Hall, Worcester

Hi all, Many, many thanks to all who - mad dogs and/or Englishmen that they are - went out in the midday Sun to play on the steps of Huntingdon Hall today. We split into two shifts, morning and afternoon, each of 1 hour, 45 minutes. Those of us not bright enough to be wearing sandals played and sang our socks off, and those in sandals obviously sang something else off, The great people of Worcester evidently enjoyed what they were hearing, many of them choosing to stay a while and listen. We even had diners at the cafe opposite getting up and dancing! The tried and tested slogan of "Chuck It In A Bucket" worked its magic, and - after a post-Buskathon 'Countathon' - I am delighted to announce that we collected a grand total of £450.76! A brilliant result! Thank you, Worcester! For anyone interested, I counted the collections from the morning and the afternoon sessions separately... and there was a difference of a mere £5.54 between the two. Most importantly, though, today was great fun. Thanks again to everyone who contributed to another WUC success, and thanks again to the long arms and shallow pockets of the people of Worcester. Cheers Trevor

17/06/23 Bilford Court Retirement Village

Hi all, Many thanks to all those Wuccies who supported one - or both - of the two gigs today. This morning saw us at the Broadheath and Rushwick WI Centenary celebration.  There were lots of activities going on, and we were ‘live muzak’.  However, our enthusiasm shone through, and we had them up and dancing and singing along in the tea-room next to the main hall.  I received lots of great feedback at the end, and Acorns will be £90.00 better off as a result.
This afternoon, we did our first ever gig at Bilford Court Retirement Village, where we had great fun.  Performing outside, we entertained an appreciative crowd for around 75 minutes.  There was lots of singing along and lots of dancing, but the highlight, in my opinion, was the wonderful impromptu ‘Orang U-dance’ by one of the audience when we sang King Of The Swingers.  At the end, copious thanks came our way from the crowd and organisers, and they are keen to have us back at Christmas.  Another £50 will be winging its way to Acorns’ coffers as a result. Thanks, again, everyone!  Trevor

16/06/23 Three Counties Show

HI all, Just a quick note to say thanks to the dozen or so Wuccies who performed at the Three Counties Show on Friday. John Hi did a great job of leading, and we played and sang well to an appreciative audience of passers-by... some of whom stopped and sat down to listen. We had a bucket on hand, and even a Rosemary to hold it during our second session. We did well though: I banked £162.14 later that day! It's left me with a banknote I've never seen before, which I'll take to the Post Office tomorrow. (I'll post a picture on the WhatsApp page to see if anyone knows what it is!) There's also the gig fee of £120.00 to add in. All in all, it was a good weekend for our charity efforts, with a total of £422.14 bound for Acorns. Far more importantly, though, we had great fun! Cheers Trevor

07/06/23 Park Heath Social Club, Hallow

04/06/23 Berkley Arms Strum in the Sun

Thanks to everyone who played at a very hot pub this afternoon. The photo is of a young man who, in response to me saying we were going to play Spider-Man but there wasn’t one in the crowd, brought his very own Lego Spider-Man to show us! The “Chuck it in the Bucket” strategy worked and we collected £151.37 plus an extra £5.00 if we played some Status Quo. We did, of course and so the final total was £156.37. Thanks to all. Elaine

30/05/23 Drakes Broughton Village Hall  Vintage Tea Party

Hi all, A massive thank you to everyone who played and sang their socks off at the Drakes Broughton Village Hall Vintage Tea Party this afternoon.  It was a joyfully noisy affair, but we did really well, eliciting much positive feedback - and two unprompted encores at the end, in addition to the stage-managed and rehearsed encore!  There were sandwiches and cakes galore for us, washed down with tea and coffee.  However, the highlight of the afternoon was when I got home: counting the cash in the Acorns bucket. There was the amazing sum of £309.04!!!!  That is in addition to the fee of £75.00. All in all, ACH is £384.04 better off.  What a great afternoon!  Huge thanks to the villagers of Drakes Broughton. Huge thanks, again, to all who played. Cheers Trevor

27/05/23 Maggs Buskathon

Hi Everyone, Glorious sunshine, great singing, great uke playing, great little kids dancing, great teenagers dancing, great Kate the Bucket our loyal helper, great Yvonne and Ann, great leaders, great audience and great £400 raised in such a short space of time! I’ll have to take to the bank with their machines, I swear the coins were jumping around to confuse me! As well as a fun time we have spread the word about the work of Maggs and most significantly and poignantly I think, one of our homeless persons was quietly standing under the tree in the distance with his bags listening to us, at least he knows we care. So a huge thanks to you all on behalf of the homeless and me (Rosemary) x

14/05/23 Hanley Swan Tea Party

Hi Everyone, To the players at today's gig and for information... Thank you for playing today at Hanley Swan. A very well received gig. With the aid of Yvonne's percussion and Bill Burton's lyric booklets we were able to engage the audience. They sang and bashed their instruments well and I think a good time was had by all based on the feedback at the end and during. The band of Ann, Pete L, Rick, Tom, Jean, Brian, Nick, Bev, Yvonne, David, Barbara, Shirley and last but not least Mark on bass  played very well throughout and helped hide my mistakes with aplomb. The banter and fun rating in the group was high. I am not sure what the gig fee will be but £52 was in the 'bucket' and there was a big vote of thanks at the end. Well done WUC and thanks Bill for the gig. Regards John

14/05/23 Malvern Spring Fair

Hello All, Well, we did it, not sure how but we did. We collected a respectable £76.77. ( Trevor may tell me different, I once got 4% in a maths exam). We were outdoors in the bandstand and our audience were a long way off. All’s fair in love and music! Thanks to all who turned up. Elaine

08/05/23 Severn Heights

Thanks very much to the band who squeezed into the Severn Heights lounge today. You made a fine sound much appreciated by residents and visitors. Special thanks to Mark on bass, Martin, so sadly disappointed by Runaround Sue and of course Trevor, our Orangutan star of king of the swingers. The £75 gig fee + £22.58 in the bucket totalled £97.58 for Acorns. Well done the band. Allan. 

06/05/23 Norton Hall Care Home

Just got back in and would like to thank everyone, Jean, Ann, Shirley, Steve, David, Martin and Les for making what could have been a good gig into a Great Gig. The weather drove us all inside but the residents, relatives and staff that were there all enjoyed themselves. We are getting a £50 gig fee/donation and at the end we were well fed and watered, so thank you to Michelle (Events Organiser) and all the Norton Hall Care Team too. I have attached a photo of the "spread" I managed to take before Les, Steve and Shirley demolished it. Thanks Everyone Andy F

05/05/23 Meadow Court

Many thanks to the band who sang and played so well at Meadow Court today. We had a great audience who joined in most enthusiastically. As well as the £75 gig fee, we received £52.40 in the Acorns Bucket. So, well done again the band....continue to nurture that magic touch! Allan. 

04/04/23 Kempsey Church

Thanks to John Hi, Virginia, Eirlys, Trevor T, John He, Brian, Jean L, Ann, Colin R, Chrisie, Jackie, Shirley, Maureen and Mark who all played magnificently at Kempsey church this morning, despite us being really spread out. Don't know the exact total but more than £100 was made for Acorns and we were invited back asap! There was a good spread for us after playing and a glass of bubbly to celebrate the Coronation. In fact there was so much food I was given a tray full to give to the guys and gals helping at Kempsey polling station all day long, where I called on the way home to vote. Thanks again all. Bev

And a big thank you to you Bev for arranging it with the church. A very enjoyable gig and they made us feel very welcome and how lovely to be included in their celebrations. A big thank you to John for leading us and to Mark on the bass as well. Xx👏🏻👍🎉👑🎂🎸🎶 Eirlys

It was my first gig since my stretch in hospital and really enjoyed getting back to joining you all thanks guys and gals 🤪🤪🐺🐺Colin R 🤪👍

27/04/23 St Pauls Church

STOP PRESS- Thanks to Joan we know that there was a gig fee of £50 and £90.20 in the bucket. £140.20 in total. Well done all.

Hi Everyone, Firstly a huge shout-out to  Ann, Bev, Claire, Eirlys, Frank, Geoff, Jean, Jerry, Joan, Kathryn, Liz, Pete, Rick, Terry, and Veronica for their efforts at St Paul's today. Great feedback from familiar faces, Stan and Peter who said we entertained them very well. Thanks for putting up with the fluid nature of the 'show' and most importantly creating some fun! Geoff you were a rock and thanks for the picture.  Extra well done to gig newbie Clare! Regards John (He)

25/04/23 Bromyard Road Methodist Church

Thanks to everyone who played at this gig. It’s a bit strange playing a gig that lasts only 30 minutes and I did have a slightly guilty feeling when drinking tea and eating a scone and welsh cake in the green room. But it’s the time we were asked to play presumably to fit in with the event timing. We always go down well and this week was no exception. We enjoyed ourselves and received a gig fee of £75 to pass on to Acorns. Colin

22/04/23 Ukraine Fundraiser

Thank you to all who played in Worcester today. We were fortunate with the dry weather although it was a bit cold. We played two good sessions and attracted quite a bit of interest from the public who donated generously I think although the final count has not been completed yet.....thank you Trevor for your stirling efforts on this!!£££ As we finished the afternoon session two young Ukainians gave a rendition of their national anthem which was a nice finish. We will have find out the chords for it if we do another fundraiser!! Thanks again to all who helped and played. It was an enjoyable day Rob 

Following my earlier note, Trevor has now counted every last coin and we raised £503.06!! This is a great result for three and a half hours playing!! Thanks again everyone and especially to Trevor for counting it all..... Cheers, Rob 

20/04/23 Wharf Care Home

​Hi John the Bass, Trevor T, Trevor R, Anne,  Geoff R, Rick, Kathryn, Shirley the Foot Jingler and Liz... Just a quick note of appreciation to you who represented WUC so well this afternoon at a new venue in Stourport. The audience were well entertained and very appreciative. We should be going back again! Trevor says £80 for Acorns received so well done again. On a personal note can I say that the level of abuse to me was of a very high standard!! Regards John He

14/04/23 Droitwich Spa Bowling Club

Hi Everyone, WUC played a fabulous gig at Droitwich Spa Bowling Club last night. We had a great selection of songs, played and sang well and the audience sang with gusto. We also had a few laughs. We received a gig fee of £220 and collected £50 in the charity bucket (which an audience member requested be passed round). A total of £270 for Acorns.  A big thank you to everyone who played and sang. Colin

18/03/23 Turk-Syria Earthquake Fundraiser, Bell Square, Worcester

Hi all​, Many thanks to everyone who turned out to support the Big Bell Square Busk for the British Red Cross Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal today. The weather wasn't quite as cold as it was at our last performance there, but the relative warmth of the air was as nothing compared with the warmth and generosity of the wonderful people of Worcester who gave me a bit of a mammoth cash-counting task this evening. (I started at 5:00 pm and finished about 10 minutes ago, at around 7:30 pm.) It was well worth the effort though, because the total - checked twice by me and once by Sue - is an astounding £1,026.24!!!** (There was also a 10 Euro note and 5.04 Euros in coins.) What a great result! Apart from the financial reward, it was nice to see that we brought a lot of smiles to a lot of faces, and I was also moved by the tearful appreciation of the two separate Turkish people who were so grateful that we were raising money to help people in desperate need in the country of their birth. What a great day. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who helped to make it so, and sleep well! Trevor

15/03/23 The Rose Garden, Hereford

Hi all. Many thanks to the splendid band who travelled across county lines (with no illegal substances) to play at the Rose Garden, Hereford today. We put on an excellent show to the approval of the audience who sang along, percussed and even danced to Elvis. Martin H sang his sorrowful song about his treatment at the hands of Runaround Sue and everyone played and sang well, including the 2 songs new to our gigging, A World of Our Own and See My Baby Jive. There were shouts of more at the end but tea had to be served to the residents. Trev. handed his camera to a member of the audience. We are told that we will be invited back by the financial measure of the success of the afternoon was £150 in gig fees and £99.53 rounded up to £100 in the buckets. Well done everyone and best wishes, Allan. 

25/02/23 Acorns Buskathon - CrownGate Bell Square

Many thanks to everyone who came to join the Big Bell Square Busk today, with special recognition going to those brave/rash souls who thought they'd be ok without their thermal undies on! It was quite chilly, and I recommend that, when we next play there, we ditch the gig list and play the songs from the soundtrack of 'Frozen'! May unlimited praise be heaped upon the heads of Rosemary and Anne for their boundless energy and enthusiasm in engaging with the passers-by, especially the children. We witnessed some awesome young dancers strutting some stuff! Many thanks also to the Mayor who came along to show his support. We are going to have to get him signed up on one of our Absolute Beginners Workshops. He appears always to be wearing round his neck what - with a few minor adjustments - would serve as a good ukulele strap, so he's half-way there already! And now for the important bit! We played and sang really well and produced a wonderful sound, to which the great people of Worcester responded brilliantly. I am delighted to report that a very long cash-counting session confirmed a total of £812.95 in the buckets. What a great result! Roll on the next one... providing it's a bit warmer! Trevor

22/02/23 Eastbank Court

Many, many thanks to the brilliant band that assembled at Eastbank Court this evening. I thought we sounded really good tonight, and the audience of around 30 were superb, singing along, clapping their hands, tapping their toes and 'chair-dancing'. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a gig so much! The gig fee of £75.00 was backed up by an amazing sum of £71.85 in the collection bucket, making Acorns Children's Hospice £146.85 better off. A really great outcome from a really great night! Cheers​ Trevor

09/02/23 Eastnor Castle

While the ‘A’ team entertained St Paul’s a small group (see below), of us responded to an invitation from Mel, at Acorns, to go to Eastnor Castle and play in the Great Hall to entertain their guests who were coming along to a reception involving a short visual promotion of the charity, tea and cake and an hour long tour of the Castle! It’s an indication of a developing relationship with Acorns and we were pleased to see Worcester Ukulele Club listed as one of their supporters this year; we are appearing on much of their publicity and may well lead to more booking requests. All seven of us were presented with a ‘goody bag’ as we left with some small gifts as a ‘thank you’. Thanks to Anne, Phil, Les, Martin, Maureen and Brian for looking good and playing well. We were playing opposite a roaring log fire and next to a Broadwood grand piano in a glorious setting. As a bonus we had a beautiful sunny day on which to visit the castle. This was neither a fund raiser nor a ‘gig’ as such - Mel described it as doing her a favour! Any time, Mel!! Yvonne

09/02/23 St Paul's Church - First Gig of the Year!

Hi all, Many thanks to you all for going along and doing what we do well. The audience obviously enjoyed the performance, to the extent of getting up and dancing! They even enjoyed being guinea-pigs for the experimental numbers! As well as the £50.00 gig fee, we collected £88.20 in the buckets. A great result for ACH! Cheers, Trevor