Turned out nice again! George Formby Society celebrates in Blackpool, UK
Eeh, champion! George Formby was beaming in Blackpool yesterday, as men and women, boys and girls, took their little ukuleles in their hands and joined their hero on stage to sing and play, "When I'm cleaning windows..." He wasn't really there, of course. The Lancashire lad with the cheeky grin and surprisingly saucy songs has been dead for years, but a black-and-white photograph stood in for him at the Winter Gardens, where the George Formby Society was holding its annual conference.
Ah, nostalgia. A dwindling band of old folk, remembering the songs that got them through the blackout? Not quite. There were many grey hairs among the 400 or so heads nodding along, but children, too. And here's an astonishing thing: Formby is bigger than he has ever been since his death.
"We have just broken our record again," said Gerry Mawdsley, president of the society. "We've got more members now than at any time since 1961, when George died and we were founded." The 1,200 are mostly in the north of England, but also all over the world. And the instrument Formby played, the ukulele, is experiencing an unexpected revival...
Read entire article at Independent (UK)
Ah, nostalgia. A dwindling band of old folk, remembering the songs that got them through the blackout? Not quite. There were many grey hairs among the 400 or so heads nodding along, but children, too. And here's an astonishing thing: Formby is bigger than he has ever been since his death.
"We have just broken our record again," said Gerry Mawdsley, president of the society. "We've got more members now than at any time since 1961, when George died and we were founded." The 1,200 are mostly in the north of England, but also all over the world. And the instrument Formby played, the ukulele, is experiencing an unexpected revival...