Men's Sheds Play Elvis at Porthcawl Festival Bridgend 2017

It was a beautiful warm Saturday September 23rd when a few ukulele players got together to play at the Elvis Festival at Porthcawl, Bridgend.

Men's Sheds Squirrel's Nest Bridgend and Shedquarters Maesteg were much appreciated at the festival. They started playing along the esplanade, away from the large P.A. systems and the crowd were soon joining in. After only 20 minutes of playing, they were discovered by the MC of the Dog Show and ushered to the arena to play, to get the crowd warmed up before the show.

Later they had Elvis dancing in front of them and a karaoke singer, who may have been a little inebriated, as she introduced herself by asking, "where's your f****ng coinage pot?". Anyway, the crowd seemed to enjoy it!

If you want to learn the uke or any other instrument, come along to ShedQuarters on a Thursday, we are a friendly bunch. If you already play an instrument and want to join in, come along.

Make a Ukulele? Why Bother?

I play the ukulele, a "cheap and cheerful" instrument, very affordable, and easy to play. So why bother to make one? To which I'd say "why not?". There's something very satisfying about making things, and making things you can use is doubly satisfying, I find.

Having trawled through the very many sites on the Internet under "cigar box ukuleles", I came up with a design which I was convinced would be an improvement on most of those simple ones I'd looked at, and off I went. I've now completed my first one, and it's playable! Not the greatest sound,  and not loud enough without amplification, but it stays in tune, and is certainly better than the super cheap ones which seem to be on sale everywhere. However, I've also learned some very useful lessons, which I'm trying to put into practice in my second build.

Firstly, if all the websites do things in a particular way, there's a good reason for it! Secondly, like any good project, precision is important - "near enough" doesn't work, and I had to spend time recutting bits of the ukulele to make sure everything fit together tightly. I also learnt a fair bit about how sound is made, and which parts of the instrument are crucial to a good tone - might seem obvious to many, but not to me!

Eventually, it would be nice to make more of the instrument, but this time I bought the fretboard, the machine heads and the strings. The photos show the bits at a midway stage in the project (right) and the finished article (left).

Garfield and Alan from the Shed are building similar, improved versions of this model, and I'm trying a different approach with my new attempt. I'll add to this short article once we see whether or not we're improving. In the meantime, if anyone wants to join us, let me know. 

Article by: Les Jones

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Nice Day for a ShedFest

On Saturday 2nd September we had our first ShedFest with the help of Sheds in Bridgend in partnership with Awen Cultural Trust, Bridgend County Borough Council, Halo Leisure and Local Community Coordination.

Men's Sheds came from all over Bridgend, Maesteg ShedQuarters, Squirrel's Nest and the Caerau Old Gits were there, among others.

Children enjoyed the bouncy castle and other entertainment, Squirrel's Nest demonstrated their woodwork skills, Caerau's ShedForce served the free burgers and sausage rolls while ShedQuarters showed off their photo club and other skills, in our tent occupied by our Chairman John Gates and our photo expert, Phil Hillier.

There were also local men from Ogmore Valley, sharing their skills, including an arts exhibition, archery and a bike track. The archers had a long queue of visitors waiting to loose a few arrows at the targets.

Musical entertainment and singalongs were arranged by Les Jones, the Musical Director of ShedQuarters and The ShedHeads with skilled accompaniment by Richard Keen of Squirrel's Nest. Even Andre's 10 year old son, Aaron, joined us on drums for a few numbers.

Richard brought some ukuleles and taught visitors to play a few chords, while Aaron taught a couple of girls the drums.

The day was hot and sunny, ideal weather and judging from the smiles and laughter, a good time was had by all. Thanks to all those involved, especially Andre Van Wyk, in making this happen and be so successful.