It’s hard to believe that when I started with the ukulele four months ago I hadn’t heard of George Formby, but … I hadn’t. Because now that I’ve learned of him, I’ve fallen in love with his personality and ukulele skills, and in fact, I’m kind of addicted.

I only heard of him five weeks ago, which is hard to believe, considering how obsessed I’ve become with him since then. But it wasn’t until, right before my three-month uke anniversary, when I announced I would post a video of me playing and asked you to choose a song, that someone suggested I play “Leaning on a Lamp Post,” which led me to discover (via Wikipedia) that “between 1934 and 1945 Formby was the top comedian in British cinema,” and that in 1939 “he was Britain’s number-one film star of all genres.”

But he didn’t travel well, it seems, and he never caught in in the States. I quickly fell in love with him, though, thanks to what I found on YouTube, which included this recent documentary that explains his appeal and revealed that after his death in 1961, the George Formby Society began holding quarterly conventions in Blackpool.

And then, thanks to a Twitter search a few weeks ago, I discovered that one of those cons was going on that weekend, and I befriended a dedicated bunch of UK Formby fans, who’ve been giving me the kind of feedback I need to learn the uke the way I want to learn it, particularly since no one on this side of the pond, including my ukulele teacher, had any idea who Formby was.

And so, in the spirit of friendship, I threatened to post a video of me singing one of Formby’s songs to the Formby Facebook Fan Club, even though I’m in no way ready to sing them. See, the man used a bunch of special strumming techniques, like the split stroke and the triple, to create banjolele solos he’d plunk down in the middle of songs to wow audiences, and I have no idea how to do that yet. But these new friends seemed so convivial that yesterday I recorded myself “performing” the first Formby song I found on YouTube, “Why Don’t Women Like Me?” And after their response, I thought, oh, why not post it here?

Before you see my Formby butchery (if you even do see it, because there’s really no need, as I made this primarily to show my UK friends, as my brief introduction reveals) here’s Formby himself doing it the way it should be done, from his first film, Boots! Boots!

And now here’s some guy who doesn’t quite know what he’s doing but does it anyway.

Since learning of the man, I’ve watched almost every Formby video that exists on YouTube, have noodled away on three or four Formby songs, have joined the George Formby Society, and am seriously considering attending a Blackpool convention sometime in 2013.

Oh, yes. I have chugged the Formby Kool-Aid. And it’s one of the tastiest drinks I’ve ever downed.