Die Anonymen Ukuleliker — Musik aus 100 Jahren So what is it all about? As the name might tell you, Die Anonymen Ukuleliker are a ukulele band from Berlin. It all started with Hans Praßny and Stephan Roth in 2017 playing their ukes in parks and at private parties. Fun and enthusiasm soon let their repertoire grow.
Another important event was the regular pubsinging at the „Dodo“, a nice and cosy bar in Kreuzberg which unfortunately does not exist anymore. Here Stephan and Hans had the chance to present new stuff to a relaxed and friendly audience which seemed to mostly enjoy it.
In September 2018 our two ukers had the first performance in front of a bigger audience which took place at the annual wine festival in Berlin-Friedenau. Friends supported them with cheers, some people even started dancing and singing along and everybody seemed to have a good time. Indeed an encouraging success!
That was the igniting spark for the idea to form a genuine band. The two started looking for another uke player with singing abilities and – even more important – a bass player to give it all a firm ground, so the first ad was placed on a neighbourhood portal.
Only a few days later Tom Siems showed up and turned out to be the ideal bass man, an outspoken ukulele lover as well as a versatile player of all kinds of basses – including bass balalaika! In addition he brought in a lot of know-how concerning video- and audioequipment which also helped the band a lot (and still does so).
The three started rehearsing weekly, and already in November of the same year the first official concert took place at the Thai restaurant Ratana, one of the band‘s favourite haunts. Again the audience was very pleased, but the trio felt that somehow the band was not complete yet. Tom had the right idea – the band was in urgent need of a drummer.
But would that really work out? Tiny ukes accompanied by big drums? The solution was found again by Tom – let us take a cajon. For those who are not familiar with that instrument: it is a wooden box, roughly looking like a loudspeaker with the player sitting on top. Not too loud, easy to transport and just the right size for smaller stages. Tom knew a young man who had just started playing drums as well as cajon in another band of his.
Thus we called Alex Kreisle and invited him to a first rehearsal. Again the band was lucky to find somebody with skills and creativity who brought in his energy and love for the band’s extraordinary repertoire right from the start.
From that day Die Anonymen Ukuleliker became a quartet and have been ever since.