The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra is an ensemble of

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

players based in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by ...

, New Zealand. Apart from a

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

the band is composed entirely of ukuleles. Their

repertoire A repertoire () is a list or set of dramas, operas, musical compositions or roles which a company or person is prepared to perform. Musicians often have a musical repertoire. The first known use of the word ''repertoire'' was in 1847. It is a ...

consists mainly of covers of modern

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...

and some ukulele and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

s. Costumes and comic banter are also part of the WIUO appeal.

Description

The increased public profile of one of their members

Bret McKenzie Bret Peter Tarrant McKenzie (born 29 June 1976) is a New Zealand musician, comedian, music supervisor, and actor. He is best known as one half of musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords along with Jemaine Clement. In the 2000s, the duo's c ...

— one half of the Flight of the Conchords — combined with the use of their songs for a nationwide advertising campaign for New Zealand bookstore chain

Whitcoulls Whitcoulls is a major New Zealand book, stationery, gift, games & toy retail chain. Formerly known as Whitcombe & Tombs, it has 54 stores nationally. Whitcombe & Tombs was founded in 1888, and Coulls Somerville Wilkie in 1871. The companies mer ...

in late 2008 resulted in an increase in their national profile. On 15 December 2008 their ''Little Bit Wonderful EP'' reached no. 32 in the Official NZ Music Chart. The same recording topped the NZ Indie Music Chart for January 2009. Until November 2008, the band played a weekly early morning gig at the tiny Deluxe Cafe in downtown Wellington, which was also featured in their first music video directed by Tim Capper for their cover of the song "

It's a Heartache "'It's a Heartache'" is a song recorded by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler. Written by Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe, and co-produced with David Mackay, the single was released in November 1977 through RCA Records. The song topped the charts in Austral ...

". The band made occasional tours of

and has performed in festivals including

Womad WOMAD ( ; World of Music, Arts and Dance) is an international arts festival. The central aim of WOMAD is to celebrate the world's many forms of music, arts and dance. History WOMAD was founded in 1980 by English rock musician Peter Gabriel, w ...

New Zealand,

Cuba Street Carnival The Cuba Street Carnival was a street parade and creative celebration in Cuba Street, Wellington, New Zealand that was intermittently held from the 1980s and saw crowds of 10,000 - 20,000 people. It stopped in 2009 due to a lack of funding, and wa ...

New Zealand International Comedy Festival {{Short description, Annual comedy festival in New Zealand The New Zealand International Comedy Festival is held simultaneously over three weeks during April/May in Auckland and Wellington. From its beginnings as a 2-day event, the Festival has n ...

Big Day Out The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typically in January of eac ...

Auckland and arts festivals in Christchurch, Nelson, Tauranga and Taupo. The WIUO is one of New Zealand's most popular live acts, touring throughout Australia, United Kingdom and the United States. The band has performed sold-out shows at the

Edinburgh Fringe Festival The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

, the

Melbourne Comedy Festival The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the second-largest international comedy festival in the world. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typical ...

and the

where they won the Best Local Act award. The band recorded the theme music for the TV comedy ''

Diplomatic Immunity Diplomatic immunity is a principle of international law by which certain foreign government officials are recognized as having legal immunity from the jurisdiction of another country.

'', a documentary series about renowned New Zealand entertainer Sir Howard Morrison and a documentary about NZ war songs. In 2009, the band recorded their third EP, ''The Dreaming EP'', at Neil Finn's

Roundhead Studios Roundhead Studios is an Auckland-based sound recording studio owned by singer-songwriter Neil Finn. It was officially opened in June 2007, however by the time of its opening, several international artists had already used it whilst the studio was ...

. In 2011, the third EP, ''The Dreaming EP'', was recorded in the lounge of one of the band members and was mixed by

Lee Prebble Lee may refer to: Name Given name * Lee (given name), a given name in English Surname * Chinese surnames romanized as Li or Lee: ** Li (surname 李) or Lee (Hanzi ), a common Chinese surname ** Li (surname 利) or Lee (Hanzi ), a Chinese ...

. In 2014, the band recorded their first full-length CD, ''Be Mine Tonight'', at an undisclosed location in Wellington. It was mixed by Wellington sound engineer Neil Maddever in his mobile sound studio. This recording was documented in a radio diary for the public radio station

Radio New Zealand National RNZ National ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa Ā-Motu), formerly Radio New Zealand National, and known until 2007 as the National Programme or National Radio, is a publicly funded non-commercial New Zealand English-language radio network operat ...

by producer and band member Gemma Gracewood. The band's musical leader

Age Pryor Age Pryor is a New Zealand musician and songwriter. He records and performs solo, he plays many instruments and is a founding member of the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, The Woolshed Sessions, and Congress of Animals, and is also a ...

has producing credits on all of the recordings. In January 2016 the WIUO toured the United States for the third time, but without several original members – Nigel Collins, Sam Auger, Gemma Gracewood, Carmel Russell and Dan Yeabsley. Bass player Hal Strewe and singer/ukelele player Deanne Krieg stepped in to bring the touring party up to eight members. In June 2017, the group announced they were taking a break while members pursued other projects. By January 2020, the group's website was no longer available, and by August 2021 the domain was being occupied by an Indonesian blog which appears to be about basic education. Their Facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/TheWIUO/ remains sporadically active, with occasional posts about other ukulele related events or people. As of March 2022, the most recent post was from September 2020. Their MySpace page is no longer available.

Discography

Albums

Extended plays

References

{{reflist

External links

The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra official site
Careful - this URL now linked to an Indonesian blog.
Official MySpace page
(link no longer works)
Television performance and interview with Nigel Collins and Andy Morley-Hall
(

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

)
"It's a Heartache" music video
(

)
Concert performance
of a cover version of the Outkast song " Hey Ya!"
Whitcoulls Advertisement "Don't Take Your Love to Town"
featuring a cover of "

Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" is a song written by Mel Tillis about a paralyzed veteran who lies helplessly as his wife "paints erselfup" to go out for the evening without him; he believes she is going in search of a lover. As he hears the ...

" (

) Ukulele players New Zealand musical groups Mandolin orchestras Musical groups established in 2005 2005 establishments in New Zealand Musical groups from Wellington Music organisations based in New Zealand