They came, they saw, they uked! The Ukulele Death Squad are on a mission to make ukuleles cool and they’re taking no prisoners. Edinburgh is already fairly uke-friendly, they found some local ukers to be support act at their shows. After their second show they went into town to do some late night busking and ended up getting two evening slots at M2 on top of  Waverley Mall! These guys never stop!

They hail from Australia as many great Fringe acts have. Julian and Benjamin seem to be the front guys with a sax player and a bass ukulele player. First impressions can be very important, in a darkened, rather hot room, suited up with shades – cool as fuck! In the shades and suit Benjamin looked like Ben Affleck as the Matt Murdock side of Daredevil (Yeah, not a good film, but that’s what immediately sprang into my head) and Julian? If Jim Henson had made an Aussie, wild-haired, ukulele-playing larrikin muppet, his name would Julian. He is the heart and soul of the band, his rendition of Bang Bang was amazing, the whole band really go for it on this one, it’s still popping out of my head at really intervals. As an earworm it would definitely be in my top ten.

Luckily I spotted on Facebook about the M2 slots, so I caught them again, this time with room for a little dancing, yay! They loved Edinburgh right back and said they intend to return next year, until then I have their CD. Perhaps for next year there’ll be a new CD that includes the song about the sax player’s adventures in London?

In fact, let’s have an Aussie musical invasion next year! The return of the Melbourne Ska Orchestra would be most welcome (though in a better venue for dancing in – the Assembly Checkpoint?) and it’s been some time since the Suitcase Royale parked themselves at the Fringe.

Come on, cobbers! Come on back to Edinburgh 😎😎