The Wigan Boat Express - on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway?

Second day of the George Formby Society meeting in the North Yorkshire Moors, June 2016. First day enjoyed by all, ukulele and banjo-ukulele, Formby songs and non-Formby songs, friendship and music, smiles everywhere, birdsong and sheep just a step away outside Goathland Village Hall. Idyllic. The subject of my last post.

Second day - we met on the platform of Grosmont station, ready to catch a train just up the line to Goathland. A few songs on the platform, to the amusement of the other tourists, and at last the steam train came in. What wonderful beasts these old engines are, lovingly kept going by the devoted steam enthusiasts... when this one came in, it was promptly adorned with a new (temporary) headboard - name-plate - on the front of the engine.... WIGAN BOAT EXPRESS!

The Wigan Boat Express is one of George Formby's comic songs, dating to 1940. The running joke is that Wigan is a seaside town (it isn't) and that it has a pier - where, presumably one might board a ferry or even a ship - in fact, Wigan Pier is a wharf on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, redeveloped in the 1980's - but of his book, "The Road to Wigan Pier" George Orwell wrote "Well, I am afraid I must tell you that Wigan Pier doesn’t exist. I made a journey specially to see it in 1936, and I couldn’t find it. It did exist once, however, and to judge from the photographs it must have been about twenty feet long." A boat express was a train to take travelers to catch a ferry or a boat...

Well, we sang and played The Wigan Boat Express on the platform, alongside the newly-but- only-temporarily-named train... well, what a hoot! There followed a ride on the train - some of us just went to the next station, to Goathland, and from there we walked through the beautiful moorland countryside to a lovely old pub, the Birch Hall Inn, at Beck Hole. Good beer, good pies, wonderful sandwiches... and those of us who were still there well into the afternoon - we played.

Are we going to do it again next year? You bet we are....

Personal thanks here to Caroline Stewart, Chairman of the GFS, for organising every last detail....



Photos courtesy of Robert Rayner, Tony Jackson, Kate Howard, Caroline Stewart

A Ukafrolic in the North Yorkshire Moors with the George Formby Society!

It was the summer convention of the George Formby Society the other week. We never miss. Been going regularly for four years now, LSH (Long-Suffering-Husband) and I. At first it was for the welcoming atmosphere and the music, but quickly we found that we also looked forward to meeting the new friends we'd made there. But this time we did have to miss it.... all packed up and ready to head north to Blackpool, we headed south instead, to be with our daughter, who had fallen awkwardly and broken her arm. The really important things do serve to divert the mind even from Ukafrolics! Glad to say, she's on the mend...

As luck would have it, an extra meeting had been arranged to take place a couple of weeks later in the beautiful North Yorkshire Moors... at Goathland, a village on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. All organised by GFS chairman, my very good friend Caroline Stewart. We rented a cottage for a couple of nights with friends and wow, what a weekend it was! It was all willing hands welcome, when we arrived to prepare the room at Goathland Village Hall... set up all the important things - microphones and sound system, chairs and tables for the audience, the bar, and the tea/coffee station. By the time we'd finished, folk had started to arrive with their instruments and friends and family. It was just grand, and the weather smiled on us too!

It seemed to me that everyone who had brought a uke or two got up on that stage and had a go... plenty of George Formby songs, but other great songs as well, and yes, I did get up there as well .... and to crown the day we had Gabriela La Foley and we had the GFS Musical Director, Matthew J Richards. First class entertainers, both! Everyone was wonderfully entertained from 2.00 in the afternoon til 10.00 at night, with a short break for pie and peas and the raffle. Kate had made some souvenir key rings specially for the event, and every one was sold ... all costs were covered by takings and the raffle, and there was even a surplus, which went straight to the charity for prostate cancer.

And as for the fun, that was just the Saturday! I'll tell you about the Sunday next time!

So here's a few pics...

Caroline Stewart, organiser and GFS Chairman, mans the sound system!

The LSH's.... Long-Suffering-but-very-supportive-Husbands... (mine, Caroline's and Kate's!) do a wonderful job of manning the bar!

Newly-weds Clarice and Mark Ramsden!

A George Formby Society meeting is never complete without a thrash!

Photo courtesy of Robert Rayner

Lovely pic of Pat and Trev singing the Marrow song! Oh, what a beauty!

Caroline Stewart and Peter Pollard

Clarice Ramsden
Photo courtesy of Robert Rayner

Gabriela da Foley
Photo courtesy of Robert Rayner

Kate Howard
Photo courtesy of Chris Richards

Geoff and Pat
Photo courtesy of Robert Rayner

Yours truly with my Gibson UB2
Photo courtesy of Chris Richards

Caroline Stewart with my DJ Morgan uke..
Photo courtesy of Chris Richards

John, Kate and Martin in the bar

Yours truly with one of Kate's lovely commemorative key rings!

Matt Richards leading a thrash playing his Ludwig banjo-uke


Of course there were more performers than I have pictured here - and I have tended to gather photos of my friends... more pics may well be added to this little collection in the next few weeks.

So this was the Saturday... but Sunday was a cart-load of fun, too! That'll be coming up - very soon. Regular readers will know that this is a very personal blog of a very personal ukulele journey, and I do hope you enjoy reading it. I try to document interesting points along the way, and share stuff I really like at the same time. As I said, very personal. So if you're reading this, thanks for dropping in and coming this far with me... right, back to practising Magic Ukulele Waltz!

Ben Rouse with Aldrine Guerrero and James Agg at UFGB

LSH is having the lads in tonight. This is becoming an annual tradition - himself and a few pals to chew the fat and make some noise away from the women. Last year he thought I'd be going out - I wasn't - so I shut myself away upstairs with my uke and amused herself quite satisfactorily, thank you, while gales of male laughter came up the stairs. Well, it would be no hardship to do it again tonight, but it turns out that the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain are playing tonight in the next town. That'll do for me! I phoned a pal and we'll be there. The fellas can make as much noise as they like.

These days when I know the UOGB are going to be around, the first thing I think of is, "Will Ben be among them?" Ben Rouse. A really nice and highly talented young man I met for the first time at GNUF (Grand Northern Ukulele Festival) last year, although I had seen him perform before. Ben plays fantastic ukulele and I was pretty wowed at GNUF to see him doing a great job accompanying Mike Hind on double bass. So I was very pleased to see a few months ago that he now plays with the wonderful and very famous Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain!

I saw Ben most recently in Cheltenham at the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain. One of the headline acts was Aldrine Guerrero - my, what a player! (see also... Ukulele Underground) To keep this brief, what a wonderful surprise - on the Sunday afternoon open mic stage, who should appear but Aldrine, flanked as always by Aaron Nakamura but also by Ben and James Agg! Myrna and I hadn't been able to get a seat in the pub beer garden, so we were sitting on our coats on the grass right in front of the stage... how lucky... I was able to get some good video. Here it is, for your delectation!



Well, wasn't that something special!

See it on Youtube here...

There will be more on Ben and the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain before too long.

Meanwhile, thanks for dropping in! Busy busy, off I go again...

I'll Get By - with LSH beside me...

I'll Get By
by Fred E Ahlert and Roy Turk, 1928

Times are just a little gloomy right now. Little tremors in the ground beneath the feet. Could be a lot worse, could be rather better... counting the blessings... and I found myself singing this song to myself this morning. "I'll get by, as long as I have you...." thinking of dear LSH of course, Long-Suffering-Husband, always supportive, always positive, always my rock for more than 40 years... "I'll get by" as long as he's there. So anyway, I thought I'd test myself and try to work out the chords by ear. I do this occasionally; I've done it since childhood to amuse myself on piano and recorder, and it's a great thing to try to do it on ukulele - I don't do it enough really. But the fact that I've worked this out with some parts as chord melody with chords up the neck (including some 9ths) is credit to the musician who was my teacher last year, and to whom I'm returning for a few more lessons - Phil Doleman. Highly recommended!

I’ll Get By (my version - if you're not keen, try Doctor Uke...)

C I’ll get by as long as E7* I Dm7 have Dm you,

C#dim Though Dm there be Dm9* rain Dm7* and G7sus4 dark G7 ness too

G7sus4 I’ll G7 not G7sus2 complain, G7 I’ll C see it C#dim through G7

C Though you may be far E7* away, Dm7 it’s Dm true A7 Dm

C#dim Say F what care D9* I, D7* dear,

C* I’ll get A9* by A7 as Dm long as Dm7 I G7 have C you


(C#dim G7)


• I use the chord shapes below …

Dm9 5557
Dm7 5555
E7 4445
D9 5657
D7 5655
C 5433
A9 0102


G7sus4 0213
G7sus2 0210

The suspended chords are just based on the G7 – here moving with the melody.

After I'd done this, I searched on line and found a version on Doctor Uke's pages. It's also in C, and a little different. Song number 640. He also has it in the key of A, which I haven't actually looked at yet.

Actually the key of C is a little low for singing here - for a woman, anyway. If I were to use this to sing with the uke I would use a uke in D tuning, or Eb... ie ADF#B or Bb Eb G C

Perhaps I'll do a video. But not today.

I'm still gathering photos to report on various Ukafrolics - keep the faith, I'll be back soon! And thanks again for dropping in!