Saturday 18th of June was spent manning my little stand at the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain, and I had the chance to meet some lovely folks and amazing players.

See that sign? Laminated. I am a professional.

I must confess, the modern ukulele scene is mainly off my radar, as is most music recorded post-1942, but I was thrilled to meet several players whose style is right up my street. Chris "Ukulele Uff" kindly gave me a CD, and it's been on heavy rotation in the workshop since! He and John Anderson have both mastered that old-school right hand style that my ukes are absolutely made for. I'm a soprano uke guy at heart, and that playing style is why. LOOK:

JUST. SO. GOOD.

Ukulelezaza was another new acquaintance - I don't know if I'm more jealous of his technique or his vintage instrument collection. He has a series of chord-melody arrangement books and CDs that you need.

I was also very delighted to meet Danielle, of the Mersey Belles, who is now the proud owner of a Glenwood Taro Patch. She's been gigging 'Otto' about the place already, as you can (just about) see in this video from Biddulph Ukulele Day:

Zaza and Uff were both interested to know if I could make a steel-strung weissen-uke, to get more volume than the nylon-strung prototype I had with me. The more I think about it, the more I'd like to give it a go. Maybe a concert scale one. Hmm.

Ooh, and finally, I got to meet the Duke of Uke himself - there should be some Wunderkammer fare popping up in that marvellous emporium as soon as I can get something made.

Top marks to Jude and the rest of the festival crew, they put on a great weekend - looking forward to next year already.