h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Great article - particularly enjoyable as I own a banjulele which I play very badly!

George Formby, who probably did more than any one else to popularise the uke and it's variants in the UK, had so little musical knowledge that he employed a tuner who's job it was to ensure that the correct instrumnets were available for each song. The instruments were labelled in a number of ways - typically they would be labelled "for xxx" song or "Up a bit from window cleaner". A couple would also be labelled with the actual key. I guess his tuners had to be on their toes!
http://www.georgeformby.co.uk/gf_story/gfstory.htm

Turned out nice again, hee, hee!

I am glad you liked my work.

GF

By the way...I am leaning on the lampost at the corner of the street in case that certain little lady comes by....Do you think this a socially acceptable form of behaviour ?

Certainly it's acceptable, unless the lady is Fanlight Fanny, and you've got your little ukelele in your hand.

Aaaahhh! Fanny by gas light! Ooohh, matron!!!!! Quick nurse, the screens...

The best GF impersonator I ever heard was Alan Randall. He told my old man (who was a sax player) that he spent 20 years mastering the vibes, and 20 minutes learning the uke chords - then no-one ever let him play vibes again. Actually, there is a point to George swapping ukes - he used C, D and Bb tunings, so, without retuning (or using a capo) which would disrupt the flow of the set, his trick of shoving the uke through a gap in the curtains and swapping it for the one in the required tuning was about the best choice.
If you are interested in Uke music, then Sophie Tucker's performance was worth a listen - but Brudda Iz ruled, rules, and always WILL rule IMHO.
BTW - I use "dropped G" (actually "dropped F" as I use Bb tuning, useful for jazz cos it fits better with trumpet / clarinet / trombone etc)on my concert uke, and only the soprano is in re-entrant tuning.