Bicester u3a’s ukulele group is entertaining dementia groups and residents of dementia care homes with popular songs. They regularly play to audiences around the Bicester area and further afield. They have a number of bookings for the coming year. The group of 23 has varying levels of playing ability and enjoy playing to an audience..

Bill Jeffries, the group leader, has been heading the group for the last eight years. He began  playing when his grandson started playing at school. He has been playing for 12 years.

Records show there was a ukulele group at Bicester u3a more than 20 years ago. The current group began meeting at Tesco’s Community Room, but moved to Blackthorn village hall, near Bicester, as their numbers grew. Regular meetings are on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month. Playing ability varies from basic chord strummers to more advanced lead introduction picking and everyone joins in the singing.

Bill said: “The space at the village hall isn’t suitable for us to break up into smaller groups. It’s not feasible to teach while others are playing. We’re limited at the regular meetings to showing new chord shapes and relying on everyone practising outside the meetings.”

When group members show an interest in a particular aspect of playing Bill arranges to meet them for one to one support, usually at his home. In this way he is able to dedicate the extra time needed to address their specific issues.

Initially they met and played in the village hall, never playing to an audience. Bill wanted to show off their skills and he started to look for venues where they could play. A friend of his had contacts at a local care home and suggested they see whether the group could play there. Since then they’ve gone from strength to strength, including performances at two local coffee shops and a pub. Last year they had 17 gigs in various venues.

They play and sing typical 50s, 60s and 70s music, including songs like ‘Walking Back to Happiness’, ‘Rocking All Over the World’ and ‘These Boots Were Made for Walking’ to name a few. Members say that playing in a group is far more satisfying than playing alone.

“It’s so rewarding to see the group performing and giving joy to people,” said Bill. “We encourage the audience to join in by singing and, where they are able, dancing,” he added. “Some of the centres provide percussion instruments for the audience and we like them to participate as much as they can,” he continued.

Over time the group has noticed that the audiences have become more interactive and staff at the homes have commented on this, saying that the ukulele group is welcome entertainment.

Mandy Dellahunt, Sally McConnell and Elaine Hyde, who run the Forget Me Not club in Bicester, which caters for people with dementia and those who are elderly and socially isolated, said they would have the group every week if they could. The regular sing-a-long is fun for everyone and brings back memories. A lot of people can remember the words to songs even when other memories become more obscure.

Bill continued: “At one performance a woman was crying and I asked her whether we had upset her. She told me no. This is the first time in three years that I’ve seen my husband singing.”