The Yorkshire Ukulele Circle – A

Personal History

I first discovered the Yorkshire Ukulele Circle on 2 January 1992, when I visited it for the first time in an upstairs room at the Waterloo pub in Wakefield. I have a very close friend who came with me to the George Formby Warrington Exhibition in 1991 and whilst we were walking around the exhibition, he revealed that he thought his dad would like to visit it. My friend revealed that his dear dad was a George Formby fan and, better still, a player himself. Even more remarkably, he lived only a fifteen-minute walk from where I lived at the time. That is how I came to meet Stan Brown. I went to see Stan, and he told me about the Uke Circle, inviting me to accompany him to the next meeting. One of my all-time favourite songs was On the Wigan Boat Express, which I had first heard on Terry Wogan’s radio show, perhaps in the late 1960s or early 1970s. I had never forgotten it. When I attended my first meeting and climbed the stairs to the private room where it was being held, I could hear someone singing the very song I had tried unsuccessfully to buy but had never forgotten. When I entered the room, I was able to enjoy the latter part of the performance. The singer was none other than Dennis Mitchell, who would become a great friend. In the months and years following that first visit, Dennis was always helpful and encouraging. Stan introduced me to many other people that first evening, among them were Dennis Taylor, Mac McGee, Dennis Mitchell, Dickie Speake, whose banjo-ukulele playing was utterly amazing, Trevor Brown, Lionel Owen and, of course, Paul Mountain, who was also very encouraging and eventually got me on stage with him to perform my first song. In fact, everyone in that room would become good friends. In those days, we met twice a month at two different venues, making it easy to get to know everyone and appreciate the musical skills they possessed.

The beginnings of the Yorkshire

Ukulele Circle

The Uke Circle had, of course, been established long before that memorable evening. In 1973 or 1974, a letter was sent to the George Formby Society Committee asking whether a small group of Yorkshire members could apply to become the first branch of the GFS. Bill Logan, the Society’s very first President, was adamant that there would be no branches, believing that they might take something away from the Blackpool conventions. The hopeful Yorkshire members would have been known as the Leeds and District branch. But thankfully, for all those people over a fifty-year period who enjoyed the songs, friendship and performances of the Yorkshire group, Bill Logan stuck to his guns. The proposal was not permitted, and the Yorkshire Ukulele Circle was born! I understand, from conversations with founder members over a glass of beer now and again, that the word Circle became part of the name because, at the first meetings, the small number of interested people sat around a circular table. Those early meetings took place in various locations including, on some occasions, a vivisection establishment somewhere in Headingley near Leeds! Over the years, the group gradually gathered momentum and its membership grew. When I attended my first meeting in January 1992, the room was quite full, with a few audience members but mainly players. To my inexperienced eye, they were all very competent, while one of them, Dickie Speake, was simply brilliant. Several others were excellent entertainers, too. I am thinking of people such as Jack Sharp, Dennis Taylor, Stan Brown, Lionel Owen, John Beevers and Paul Mountain. These men were among the cornerstones of the Yorkshire Ukulele Circle. One other member deserves a special mention. As well as loving George Formby’s music, he was brilliant at singing Al Jolson songs. Charlie Hever was larger than life, one of those rare people who was most certainly a real character. Charlie was an ex-serving soldier who had seen action in the Malayan jungle during the Malayan Emergency of 1948–1950. He never forgot his mates in the Green Howards, his regiment, and maintained a military bearing to the end of his life. He also became a great personal friend.

Meetings, concerts and the people

who made them happen

When I first joined the Uke Circle, Paul Mountain was the Master of Ceremonies, introducing the performers and making any special announcements. We did not simply meet twice a month at our two regular venues; we also gave many charity concerts over the years. These included performances at Cookridge Hospital near Leeds, Nostell Priory, the famous historic Yorkshire house owned by the National Trust, and Eden Camp, a large Second World War museum in Yorkshire. The other members who helped keep everything running were Dennis Mitchell, who managed the sound desk and would transport the sound equipment between his home and the two monthly meetings, and Lionel Owen, who collected the 50p subscriptions at each meeting. Eventually we would be wealthy enough to purchase a second set of sound equipment thanks to another much-missed member called Peter Waterhouse who was kind enough to leave the Uke Circle £1,000 in his will when he sadly passed away. Dennis Mitchell was a brilliant sound engineer, always attentive and never distracted from monitoring the sound coming from the stage. He also never, ever forgot to turn up the ukulele microphone whenever a ukulele solo was coming! Other notable things that Dennis is remembered for today is that he was the creator of the much sought after Mitchell Monarch banjo-ukes. He also did much restearch and created the GFS strings which always outsold all other strings in the GFS Shop. From that very first meeting, I realised that we had a real jewel in our crown. I am referring to Dickie Speake, who was, and probably still is, one of the greatest exponents of George Formby’s style of banjo- ukulele playing. Dickie had achieved that remarkable standard before he ever attended a GFS meeting. By the time I joined the Uke Circle, however, he was sitting in the room at that first meeting I attended, playing a keyboard. Once I got to know Dickie better, he told me that he had decided to master the keyboard so that he could accompany all the other Uke Circle players. There was, however, one small problem: when it was his turn to perform in front of an audience, he had nobody to accompany him! Ever the resourceful chap, Dickie decided to record his own songs so that he could perform to his own backing tracks. Before long, all our playing members were asking him to record their songs, too. And so the backing tracks that are still in use today were born!

Dennis and Dickie

Dickie Speake and Dennis Mitchell were very close friends who lived near each other in Halifax. They also formed an entertaining partnership that was second to none. Each had his own particular talents, and when they came together, the result was something very special. Dickie, as I have already mentioned, was a brilliant player. Although Dennis never quite reached Dickie’s extraordinary standard of playing, he was himself an exceptionally good entertainer. Long before his Uke Circle and GFS days, Dennis had been a well-known performer in amateur dramatics, and I am sure he could have made a successful professional actor had he chosen to follow that path. Together, these two complemented each other perfectly. They were immensely popular, and their performances remain fondly remembered to this day, both within the George Formby Society and, of course, by everyone who enjoyed their contribution to the Yorkshire Ukulele Circle. I also hung on to every announcement Paul Mountain made, because there always seemed to be something extra being planned during my early years with the Circle. I remember one special meeting at Shelf Village Hall to celebrate the Uke Circle’s twentieth anniversary. We enjoyed a grand concert, attended by many leading members of the George Formby Society. We even had our very own Santa Claus in George Butterworth, who was also the Circle’s resident photographer for many years. At each Christmas party, Kathryn would buy small gifts for everyone attending and, on many occasions, would also prepare the supper.

Celebrations and honorary members

The GFS clearly had a considerable influence on the founding members, because the Uke Circle established its own Honorary Members award. I am proud to say that both Kathryn and I received certificates in recognition of our involvement. Kathryn received hers some years before me. For quite a few years, she prepared suppers for every Uke Circle meeting and also organised the Christmas parties and other celebrations for which the Circle became well known. As membership continued to grow, for special events we eventually had to hire a much larger room because our regular venues could no longer accommodate everyone who wanted to attend. Thanks to one of our members and great friends, Brian Knott, we were introduced to Lightcliffe Club at Hipperholme, near Halifax. The room could accommodate one hundred people, and even a few more. We did not use Lightcliffe Club solely for our Christmas parties. We also held two or three fancy-dress parties there and celebrated Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee. That was a particularly memorable occasion. Queen Elizabeth II, played by Alice Hodkin, and Prince Philip, played by Colin Reed, greeted all the guests who had lined up especially to meet the Royal couple. Queen Alice was carrying one of those model dogs with nodding heads that were once a familiar sight in the rear windows of many cars. Naturally, her nodding dog was a Corgi! Brian and his great friend Dale Norman were always good friends and supporters of the Circle, Dale for a time was sound man and Brian, on the rare occasions when we did not have enough members in the room to pay for the room hire, was never afraid to put £20 into the collection for subs. For a short while, we also had our own little journal, called No Limit. The first issue appeared in January 1995, and the publication continued, on and off, for a couple of years, with a final special edition produced for the fortieth-anniversary celebrations.

Keeping the Circle going

Eventually, the responsibility for running the fortnightly Uke Circle meetings fell to Kathryn and me, as the other members had either grown too old to continue or had sadly passed away. At Mirfield Club, we had to rearrange the room and move all the furniture, including bringing out a small but extremely heavy stage that was kept in the gentlemen’s toilet! We also had to set up the sound equipment, using photographs I had taken on my phone to guide us. Things were easier at Carrgate, where we had plenty of help from Anne, the club steward. On many occasions, she would carry the sound equipment to the front of the room for us. As the years passed, Kathryn and I were not getting any younger either. Thankfully, Cathy and Kevin Staniland came forward to offer their help. Kevin brought along his own, far superior equipment, which made our lives much easier. It was a fantastic contribution from two great friends, and we were extremely grateful. When COVID arrived and life changed so dramatically for all of us, we eventually decided that, once things began returning to normal, we would close the Mirfield branch and continue with just one meeting a month at Carrgate WMC in Wakefield. The four of us kept things going until the Yorkshire Ukulele Circle reached its fiftieth year. We then decided that the time had come to close. It was not because we lacked an audience or players. Rather, Kathryn and I were feeling the effects of advancing years, while Kevin and Cathy faced the considerable journey from Rotherham for every meeting transporting all the sound equipment. We held a special final meeting in June 2024, complete with supper and a room full of members and friends. It was a wonderful and memorable occasion on which to bring the Circle’s activities to a close.

The icing on the George Formby cake

From 1991 to 2024, I enjoyed so much and had the pleasure of making so many great friends. I can tell you that running any sort of club or GFS branch is no joke. Whatever the weather, and whatever other attractions may beckon, you have to get everything started and turn up in the hope that the meeting will be well supported. For the most part, we were fortunate, although there were a few evenings when you might wonder whether it was all worth the effort. I have to say, though, that these occasions were few and far between. Looking back now, I have such special memories of a group of people brought together by their love of George Formby. They shared their music, their friendship and their enthusiasm, and they changed our lives! The Yorkshire Ukulele Circle was, for me, the icing on the George Formby cake. Peter Pollard 31 October 2026