Peter Moss
Peter has been involved with the ukulele on and off for the past 54 years. His late father Dennis Moss, who played Spanish guitar, bought him a wooden ukulele for his 8th birthday, and taught him the basics. Peter took to it like a duck to water. By the age of 10 he was a competent strummer and had already won a local talent competition hosted by the Manchester Evening News. He also had a little show set along with his sister Wendy.
At that period, the George Formby songs were considered too risqué for children to sing, so Peter's dad taught them some old Tin Pan Alley songs like Baby Face, Five Foot Two, Who’s Sorry Now etc. After his father shared what he knew, he wisely introduced Peter to some skilled players.
One very influential person was Ray Bernard, a founder member of the George Formby Society. Ray played melody pieces like Lady of Spain, Rubinstein’s Melody in F…. and Peter was fascinated with his technique. From that moment onwards, Peter became committed to that style of playing.
Shortly afterwards, Peter was introduced to recordings by Roy Smeck and slowly, by ear, he learned to play in a similar way. More and more ukulele solos were added to Peter’s repertoire, and he began to win local and then national competitions within his peer group and then also won against seasoned players. For one competition he was banned from entering a 3rd time as he had won the previous two years!
TV and radio followed and then at aged 17, all came to a halt. Peter felt there was nowhere else to go with the ukulele in the UK and he put down the instrument in 1978 in favour of the guitar.
Roll on 35 years - in 2013 Peter's wife Michelle purchased a new ukulele as a birthday gift for him. It didn’t take long to get back into the swing of things and the jazz chords learnt on the guitar were now being utilised on the ukulele. This time around there was the inclusion of the internet and social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook. Within 6 months of posting demos, Peter was invited to appear at the Milwaukee Ukulele Festival, then a tour of Florida, then Australia and New Zealand. After all of those international appearances, Peter started to be invited into the UK and European ukulele circuit. This included Germany, France, Poland, Austria, Chechia and headlining twice at the prestigious Monopolele Uke Festival in Italy.
The story continues...
Peter's Youtube Channel
At that period, the George Formby songs were considered too risqué for children to sing, so Peter's dad taught them some old Tin Pan Alley songs like Baby Face, Five Foot Two, Who’s Sorry Now etc. After his father shared what he knew, he wisely introduced Peter to some skilled players.
One very influential person was Ray Bernard, a founder member of the George Formby Society. Ray played melody pieces like Lady of Spain, Rubinstein’s Melody in F…. and Peter was fascinated with his technique. From that moment onwards, Peter became committed to that style of playing.
Shortly afterwards, Peter was introduced to recordings by Roy Smeck and slowly, by ear, he learned to play in a similar way. More and more ukulele solos were added to Peter’s repertoire, and he began to win local and then national competitions within his peer group and then also won against seasoned players. For one competition he was banned from entering a 3rd time as he had won the previous two years!
TV and radio followed and then at aged 17, all came to a halt. Peter felt there was nowhere else to go with the ukulele in the UK and he put down the instrument in 1978 in favour of the guitar.
Roll on 35 years - in 2013 Peter's wife Michelle purchased a new ukulele as a birthday gift for him. It didn’t take long to get back into the swing of things and the jazz chords learnt on the guitar were now being utilised on the ukulele. This time around there was the inclusion of the internet and social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook. Within 6 months of posting demos, Peter was invited to appear at the Milwaukee Ukulele Festival, then a tour of Florida, then Australia and New Zealand. After all of those international appearances, Peter started to be invited into the UK and European ukulele circuit. This included Germany, France, Poland, Austria, Chechia and headlining twice at the prestigious Monopolele Uke Festival in Italy.
The story continues...
Peter's Youtube Channel
