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Frome Ukulele Club

Super Sizzling Summer '17

It's been a busy summer for The Frukes including our secret festival gig at The Cornerhouse; The Independence Day Fair at The American Museum and the roaringly successful Food and Drink festival at Longleat. Not only that, we've battled it out at The Winchester Ukulele Festival, entertained the crowds at Leigh on Mendip and helped folks relax after the Frome Independent Market at Rook Lane. Oh, and then we did a flashmob at the Steve Harley gig at The Cheese and Grain! 

Next weekend we're at The Priming the Pump Festival in Westbury for a final fling before the August break! 

Christmas Shenanigans 

Save the date - 17th December will be The Mighty Frukes massive Christmas Charity gig at Rook Lane Chapel. There will be new songs and tunes, old favourites and a sprinkling of Christmas cheer. We might even get A Fairytale of New York right this year! 

You can expect a fully stocked bar, dancing, singing-along, silliness, balloons, tinsel a super raffle and a cracker of a time!

   

Tickets will sell-out! Watch this space for details of where you can get hold of them from early December. 

Summer Fun

It’s been a busy summer for The Frukes. June and July saw a gig virtually every week, what with Horningsham, Leigh on Mendip, The U.O.G.B After Show Party, two shows as part of Frome Festival - our own lovely Cornerhouse, and the equally loved White Row Farm.   Add to that the Galhampton Gin Festival (who could turn that down?) and then – drum roll please – opening The White Horse Stage at The Trowbridge Village Pump! Not only did we play, but we were on the poster, the tee-shirt and the flier!

 

It has definitely been an experience playing such diverse venues, using our own PA system has been a challenge (“can you hear the picking?”) and then we play at Galhampton and The Village Pump where their mics seemed to pick up every sound we made. What a great evening though – a proper stage with a sound crew, a sound check and an audience that sang along.   Looking along the line, there were definitely smiley faces – on the front row and at the back.

With numbers ranging from 15 to in excess of 30 it has been great to see people “step up to the mark” and perform.   We are certainly a good time group (I almost said “band” – ooops!) and leave behind a good vibe.   We’ll keep it going through the rest of the summer with Corsley Show on August 29th and Beckington Party in the Field on September 17th and we will get round to more new songs in the autumn – just in time for the favourite Christmas tunes to muscle in on them!

Spring Shindig Sell-out Show

Rook Lane Chapel was really rocking on Saturday 30th April as The Frukes sold out their “Spring Shindig” in aid of Routes Café and The Frome Missing Link and raised £2,000 to be shared between the two charities.
The “House Full” signs meant that there was a great atmosphere as The Frukes played some of their old favourites  as well as some new numbers. Come Up and See  (Make me Smile) and Cecilia were definite crowd favourites.   A montage of Human, Rocking’ all over the world and Country Girl got everyone up and dancing!


A new departure was a second stage where small group numbers were performed.   This showed off some of the gifted vocalists in the club in a new light and allowed for some quieter and quirkier numbers to be performed.   With a strong rendition of Psycho Killer, some soulful harmonies on Stand By Me, and some unbelievable antics on Add Me, amongst many other gems, The Frukes showed a huge range of mood and talent.
With a firm backing in Frome, the Frukes concerts during Frome Festival are bound to be popular – don’t miss out.

 

The Big Spring Shindig 

Tickets are now on sale for The Frukes Big Spring Shindig. After the success of last year's sell-out charity fundraiser we are holding this year's do at the bigger (and warmer) Rook Lane Chapel. In addition to perfect picking, synchronised strumming and heavenly harmonies we can promise a night of maraca shaking, washboard scratching and cowbell dinging! We will be joined by Dexter's Extra Breakfast who will entertain with their songs for a soon to be defunct species. 

This year we are supporting two local charities: Routes Youth Cafe which provides support, information and guidance for young people and Frome's Missing Link which is aiming to create a traffic-free route from Frome to Great Elm, Radstock and beyond.

Tickets are available from The River House Cafe they cost £8 for adults, £5 concessions and £20 for a family.

Out with old in with the new (and other cliches)

So: after two December gigs that saw The Frukes put the spirit into Christmas, as well take quite a bit of it ourselves, we staggered into the New Year. The Santa-themed sessions at The Griffin and The Cornerhouse have become something of a Frome tradition and a splendid time appeared to be had by all. Despite the evidence George seemed remarkably sober.
 
 
We were delighted to be asked to play at A Show for Fred on January 16th at Rook Lane Chapel. This was "an upbeat celebration of the life of Fred 'Brenda' Rolfe", and featured many local musicians and singers. Fred was well known around Frome, especially for her involvement with the Festival. She was highly regarded and a driving force behind the Friends of the Festival. She is irrepaceable and will be missed by all.
 
 
By January 22nd we thought it was probably time to have our Christmas meal and this was fantastically organised by Abby.  Staff at the Talbot in Mells gave us great food, drink and service. The highlight of the night was, of course, the presentation of the Golden Dicks (which after careful reading turned out to be Golden PICKS). These awards are highly sought after and recipients cherish them for ever. They were professionally presented by Bridget and Jacqui who clearly are in line to replace Ant and Dec at some point. It was an excellent occasion and dignity was, apparently, maintained at all times. It is worth noting that no Frukes were harmed in the making of this event.

Frome Festival 2015

The 10 day festival caused a real buzz around the town with something for everyone. This year the Frukes played a couple of gigs to packed audiences in their home town. The Granary was awash with Ukuleles, and a trumpet, and spoons...

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain comes to town!

On the 9th May, the world famous uke band visited the Cheese and Grain. After a sellout show, Fromes own Frukes hosted an after uke jam in the packed Grain Bar. Spare ukes were available for anyone to join in and Jonty from UOGB joined the Frukes on stage.

Prime time National Radio for The Frukes

While Carolyn Quinn was interviewing in the bar below about the marginal seat of Frome and Somerton, she couldn't help but notice the Frukes playing upstairs. This resulted in Teenage Kicks and a few sound bites from some local Frukes appearing on Radio 4's PM programme on the 10th April. 

The Frukes sell out the Silk Milk and raise a £1000 for charity

'House Full' signs had to be placed outside the Silk Mill as The Frukes and guests played to a loud and friendly audience. £1000 was raised for the Gateway club (some of whom were present). 

The Gateway club is a social club for adults with learning disabilities in Frome.