Earlier in May, I returned to Huddersfield for the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival 2018 and once again enjoyed a great weekend chatting to uke players and exhibiting the full range of Noah Ukuleles, including the latest addition – a Taropatch (8 string) in baritone scale. One particular highlight was meeting Tricity Vogue, the amazing Ukulele Cabaret performer and I am absolutely thrilled to welcome Tricity as the latest Noah Ukuleles endorsee. Tricity has already made very good use of her new Noah Monkeypod Electro tenor, playing it at Buckingham Palace last week for Prince Charles’ 70th birthday bash! Here’s what Tricity had to say about being a Noah Ukuleles endorsee and her recent royal experience:
“I’m hugely grateful to uker Matt Hicks for telling me about Noah ukes and putting them in touch with me. I’d been frustrated for a while about buzzing on my concert ukulele which put me off playing it acoustically, and I was struggling with the same dilemma many performing singer-songwriters have; to have an instrument you can play on stage it needs a pick up, but that can sometimes compromise the delicacy of the sound when you’re playing it and composing on it at home.
I met up with Matt Cohen at the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival in Huddersfield a couple of weeks ago, and was over the moon when he offered me a beautiful semi-acoustic tenor, made of a very striking monkey pod wood. The monkey pod tree is called ‘rain tree’ in Vietnam, where this lovely tenor uke was made, perhaps because the leaves fold up in the rain. I played my new tenor uke for the first time on stage that night at the Late Night Cabaret, and was delighted with how it sounded when amplified on stage. I also enjoyed passing around my new treasure for the ukers at the festival to try. The verdict was resoundingly positive. Great finger space for plucking, and a nice easy, comfortable action. All in all, a delight to play.
What I couldn’t tell Matt when I met him in Huddersfield was that I had a huge gig coming up that I needed a very special ukulele for, but now the gig is over I can reveal what it was. I was invited to perform with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain at Buckingham Palace for Prince Charles’ 70th birthday garden party yesterday. My Noah tenor sounded lovely blending with the full array of ukuleles played by the orchestra, and was in my left hand when I shook hands with the Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Charles with my right. The Duchess asked me how long I’d been playing and whether it was a hard instrument to learn (ten years, and no), and Prince Charles thanked me and told me he liked my top hat”. Tricty Vogue | May 2018
Tricity is a regular performer around the UK with her Ukulele Cabaret and her All Girl Swing band – find out when you can see her next here.
Photo by James Millar.