GAUDY ORDE

I am a day late posting my Tuesday talent this week-it’s due to computer problems-again. Therefore this week’s should be entitled Wednesday’s Wonders for many reasons.

When I was Festival Poet at the Fishguard Folk Festival in May I had the pleasure of seeing one of the funniest, inclusive and original trios working today. Led by the sterling Jeff Japers (http://jeffjapers.co.uk/), Gaudy Orde performed with gusto, improvised superbly and drew the audience into their singular view of the world.  Jeff presents himself as one of the great British eccentrics, swopping hats for each song, drawing unique metaphors from heaven knows where and singing songs about cows, sprouts or mysterious men in purple fleeces...

I cannot recommend them enough, they are an amazing live act, but enough from me, let’s hear what the Oracle of Orde himself has to say.

What inspires you to write? 

Like a lot of writers my inspiration comes from things happening around me and my opinions about it. Although when I first started writing I don't think I was a very opinionated person but I knew I wanted to write 'funny' songs. (I had tried writing regular songs but it didn't please me)

As I didn't hold any opinions I wrote a lot of songs anthropomorphic in nature because it was a useful comedy tool for me to put an animal in some kind of human setting, such as 'Comfy Monkey'. But as my writing progressed I discovered you could take a fairly mild opinion on a topic, turn up the volume of that opinion to 11 and have an extreme opinion which in turn makes it funny, such as 'Kill All The Violent Dogs'.

I drive a lot for a living and find it an ideal time to think about songs. I note down thoughts and lyrics on an app called 'evernote' on my smart phone.

What instruments do you play

The instrument I have played the longest is bass guitar. But I can also do the basics on guitar and piano and the very basics on the drums.

With Gaudy Orde I am doing three things at once, vocals, ukulele and I play a bass cajon with a foot pedal using it like a bass drum (I had tried a regular bass drum but found it too boomy)

How did you come up with the name of the band

Barry Sidings, our Bazouki player, as a child had a family friend called Gordon Ord who would visit on a regular basis and talk to Barry's father about cacti. Barry found this very boring and gave him the nick name Gordy Ord.

Gordon Ord was the Liberal Party Candidate for Feltham Central Ward in the Hounslow Borough Council Elections of 1964 and although not elected, still wore a suit every day.

I warmed to this character and we decided to name the band after him but looked at the wording, we rested on Gaudy because it means cheaply showy in a tasteless way and Orde as we are just ordinary working people but also in memory of the eccentric World War 2 General Orde Wingate.

When will we see a cd

We are working on recording songs and hope to put some on a CD for sale at gigs as soon as we can. I'm also putting some stuff on soundcloud.com/gaudyorde

My favourite thing is to perform live and I think it's the best way to experience us.

Cows feature heavily in your writing, are they your favourite animal

They might be. In the early days it was Horses then Monkeys. Cows came along when I though one day that I needed some Cow songs. It's the one animal I still seem to write about amongst the newer observational songs. The latest one being 'Evil Cows'.

Who are your uke heroes

There's plenty of great players out there but the one's that stick in my mind are:

The Re-Entrants because they have a great stage presence, are technically fantastic and very funny.

The Hot Potato Syncopators because of their theatrical side. They put on a fabulous show and I can see that the links are as important as the songs, something I'm trying to achieve with Gaudy Orde.

Bosko and Honey because I had the pleasure of being on the same bill as them in Taunton in 2008. They're certainly living the ukulele dream and they play so beautifully together.

Lyrics first or tune

The lyrics first because I see them as being more important. I then make music to fit the words, this is something that has become easier the more I do it, perhaps I'm settling in to a particular style.

What’s in the pipeline

I intend to keep writing as much as possible. The most recent is a song about Wires that I finished a few days a ago.

The next Gaudy Orde gig is at The Brecon Fringe Festival on Sunday 12^th August in The George Hotel 4pm. We're looking forward to this as there are loads of bands playing so we should have a good audience.

Over August Bank Holiday I'm doing a couple of solo spots at the Greenbelt Festival in the Late Night Twist Venue which is always a great laugh. It's an open spot but there are a few regulars that make it worth the while especially the Compere Paul Cookson.

We hope to get on to more Festivals because we think we'd go down great but its such a hard slog trying to get noticed. So until then we'll keep enjoying the South Wales Scene. One of our favourite places to play is Cwmaman and we'll be playing at their festival again in September.

If you were a colour what colour would you be and why

White with a grass stain as nobodies perfect.

If you like the videos and want to hear more from Gaudy Orde you can subscribe to his podcast over at i-tunes Jeff japers Friday Fun Track, I have.