Fence Club 2 @ The Caves, Edinburgh, Thu 14 June 2007
The ukelele’s place in contemporary pop is usually resigned to playing second, um, fiddle to more conventional, less novelty-inclined instrumentation. Where George Formby and Tiny Tim’s eccentric schtick was strictly Kodachrome, however, Uni And Her Ukelele, aka Heather Marie Ellison, is a day-glo riot of candy-coloured tutu, kids TV presenter tights and sparkly silver eye make-up.
The San Francisco belle may be at the bottom of the bill of this latest and increasingly homogenised Fence Records love-in, but, with her uke Sally Luka in tow, she’s by far the most interesting thing on it. Because, behind the rosy-cheeked apparel, chorus girl ditziness and wonky dance moves, is a handbag full of classic 1960s girl pop that could have shimmied out of The Brill Building, loaded up on bubblegum and busked its way into your heart with would-be Wall Of Sound power-pop show-tunes pared back to one-gal-band basics.
Somehow, miraculously, Uni manages to apply such sugar-sweet sensibilities to The Smiths heartbreaker, Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want. Swoonsome as it was, where, oh where, were the roller-skates?
www.myspace.com/uniandherukelele
http://www.unicornbread.com/
The List, issue 580, 20 July 2007
ends
The ukelele’s place in contemporary pop is usually resigned to playing second, um, fiddle to more conventional, less novelty-inclined instrumentation. Where George Formby and Tiny Tim’s eccentric schtick was strictly Kodachrome, however, Uni And Her Ukelele, aka Heather Marie Ellison, is a day-glo riot of candy-coloured tutu, kids TV presenter tights and sparkly silver eye make-up.
The San Francisco belle may be at the bottom of the bill of this latest and increasingly homogenised Fence Records love-in, but, with her uke Sally Luka in tow, she’s by far the most interesting thing on it. Because, behind the rosy-cheeked apparel, chorus girl ditziness and wonky dance moves, is a handbag full of classic 1960s girl pop that could have shimmied out of The Brill Building, loaded up on bubblegum and busked its way into your heart with would-be Wall Of Sound power-pop show-tunes pared back to one-gal-band basics.
Somehow, miraculously, Uni manages to apply such sugar-sweet sensibilities to The Smiths heartbreaker, Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want. Swoonsome as it was, where, oh where, were the roller-skates?
www.myspace.com/uniandherukelele
http://www.unicornbread.com/
The List, issue 580, 20 July 2007
ends
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