It’s entirely true that what the Queen wanted for her 92 nd birthday might not have been Ed Balls. It’s also true that what she got was, in part at least, Ed Balls.
This does not, however, excuse India Knight and this in The Times:
What any Queen wants for her 92nd birthday — Ed Balls on a ukulele
That’s the headline writer, a subeditor. One of whom is a reader here in fact. So Shame! Shame!
This though is India herself:
Instead, here’s Alfie Boe getting all het up and doing thrusty dancing. Here are Harry Hill, Frank Skinner and Ed Balls (yes, and also perhaps no) playing the ukulele and singing When I’m Cleaning Windows. It’s a jolly idea, and they look like kind people who visit old people’s homes to cheer them up.
A ukulele, eh?
Well, here’s the image used to illustrate:
That’s a banjolele.
Tsk, I mean tsk.
Yes, I know, but I used to be a banjo player. Even made one of those long playing records as one while a member of an unpopular beat combo.
Life after politics, eh?
You do realise we will have to disown you now? A banjo player?
Tenor/rhythm, rather than bluegrass style. So that’s OK then.
The traditional definition of a ‘gentleman’: someone who knows how to play the banjo … and doesn’t.
… and the definition of “perfect pitch” is when the thrown banjo goes straight down the well without bouncing off the sides.
You’ve gone up in my book even higher but you need to embrace the bluegrass. Flatt and Scruggs down to Alison Brown. Quality music. Though good banjo adds a definite unique feel to any music.
Trad jazz was my thing, gave up banjo when the earlier trumpet player moved on and I moved up – or forward in the line up if you like.
That’s incredibly pendantic 😉
You play banjo? Isn’t that cultural appropriation?
Surely everybody knows that a ukulele looks like a miniature guitar, not like a bedpan. So much so that the UOGB’s guitar backup is known as their “bass ukulele”.