In 2008, I wrote and recorded my own album, Will Grove-White & The Others, with the help of some ace musicians. In 2012, I released small fry, the difficult second album featuring only miniature instruments. With those musicians we went on to do a toe-tapping run of eccentric live shows (including one at the National Portrait Gallery where the audience joined us for a massed kazoo rendition of Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out of My Head).
As well as myself on Vocals and Ukulele, The Others included the wonderful Ben Castle on Clarinet, Max de Wardener on Double Bass, Dan Teper on Melodica, Pat Levett on Cardboard Boxes, as well as a host of others, including, at one point, the entire Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (without their Ukuleles).
Inspired by artists like The Mills Brothers, Jim Henson, Louis Jordan, Tom Waits and Paul Spooner, the music brings to mind the foggy night in Shepherds Bush when Louis Prima and Hoagy Carmichael sang bluegrass harmonies to Sid James. The Musical Saw solos, the virtuoso Whistling, and the thumping Tuba basslines add a dash of joie de vivre to the everyday grind.
You can read an interview with me about the first Will Grove-White & The Others album HERE, or if you speak French, there’s another one HERE.
Will Grove-White & The Others:
- Will Grove-White: Vocals, Ukulele.
- Pat Levett: Drums, Boxes, Saucepans, Harmonica.
- Ben Castle: Clarinet.
- Max de Wardener: Double Bass.
- Dan Teper: Piano, Accordian, Melodica.
- Jonty Bankes: Bass Ukulele, Whistling.
- John Hoare: Pocket Trumpet.
- Dylan Bates: Violin.
- Alex Kidston: Tuba.
- George Hinchliffe: Ukulele.
- Guy Bellingham: Musical Saw.
- Ali Milne: Baritone Ukulele.
- Peter Brooke Turner, Hester Goodman, George Hinchliffe, Kitty Lux, Dave Suich, Richie Williams and Mara Carlyle: The Unsure Choir.