When I was at school I started a band called Bazooka Joe. We were a live band with a bit of a following and over many years it had lots of members, some more, some less illustrious than others. Unfortunately for them I couldn’t sing but insisted on being the frontman as well as lead guitarist, so in those pre-punk days we were too rough and ready to get a deal. Madness covered one of our songs “Rocking in A-flat” and that was about the only legacy we left to the world. Apart from an anecdote about the Sex Pistols playing their first gig as our support band, it didn’t end well.

What many years of twanging with my mates did achieve was an advantage over other directors when I started making music videos. I had more in common with the bands than the crews and I think it helped me get started. For a while I kept playing music and directing film, but prancing about posing on a sticky pub stage somewhat lost its raison d’etre when I got a regular girlfriend. Also my quiff went into negative. Although I enjoyed playing the guitar, directing took up more and more of my time, so I unscrewed my tremolo arm, put down my Stratocaster and unplugged my echo unit.
Twenty years later my brother-in-law discovered a wonderful, eccentric recording made by an uncle he had never known playing in a ukulele band in the ’30s. Sadly, his uncle’s uke had been sold. My brother bought him an old one for Christmas to make up for it. I immediately grabbed it and have been uked up ever since; my desire to play and perform rekindled, fanned into a flame by the little plinky plonky instrument.

I now have a collection of baritone, soprano and concert ukes, an all-metal resonator and various ear-piercing amalgams of uke and banjo called banjoleles. I tend to buy old instruments; I like the thought that old ukers have been playing away on them in the past and the tone is usually mellower. I try and hide new purchases from the trouble, but the shape in a parcel is a bit of a give away. What’s great about the ukulele is simplicity. Its four strings make chords pretty easy, you can be strumming a tune within an hour or so, but like the late John King, if you want to play Bach on it you can as well. I’m re-enthused to play music and to find odd new/old songs to add to the repertoire, but in a contrary way – although I’ve nothing against them – I don’t play George Formby songs or Hawaiian music, the two things the instrument is really best known for. I do love the old Tin Pan Alley tunes, “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries”, but also old music hall stuff like “He Played his Ukulele as the Ship Went Down”. It’s great for old cowboy songs and, of course, blues.

I take a uke with me when we shoot abroad; it’s much easier to carry than a guitar and better relaxation than BBC World News in the hotel room. It looks a little absurd, which may be part of the attraction, and it’s a great instrument for an easy sing-a-long. I have mates from old punk bands and film producers I’ve infected with the bug; we get together every now and then and strum. Many of my family are classical musicians, they’ve all had ukes as gifts, and at my wife’s last birthday we had a 20-person strong uke band playing. Actually, I should dig out the tremolo arm and the echo unit, see what they add to a thrashing banjolele. Q

> Hear More: Danny Kleinman very kindly recorded two ukulele serenades for us. Check them out on the Extracurricular blog at boardsmag.com  

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