By SARAH LYALL


LONDON - If the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain exists partly to subvert expectations, then the first expectation it subverts is that it is going to be very, very bad.

“Relief is one of the major emotions of our audience,” declared Dave Suich, an orchestra member.

But the happy surprise of encountering something completely different from the banjo-plucking embarrassment of your imagination doesn’t wholly explain the deep love the orchestra inspires, not just in Britain, but also in Europe and as far away as New Zealand and Japan.

Previously the private passion of a large but inconspicuous group of devotees, the orchestra hit mainstream popularity in September when it performed to a sold-out crowd at the BBC Proms music festival at the Royal Albert Hall here.

“They have grown into a much-loved institution,” The Observer of London wrote. In The Financial Times Laura Battle praised the orchestra members’ “consummate skill” and said that the “sophisticated sound they make - both percussive and melodic - is at once hilarious and heartfelt.” Part of the appeal is that the group - eight of them, all singing and playing the ukulele - extracts more than seems humanly possible from so small and so modest an instrument, with its four little strings. Part of it is the members’ deadpan sense of humor, in which they laugh at themselves as much as at the music.

They have deliberately not sought record deals and earn most of their money from 150 or so live performances a year and from the albums they sell directly from www.ukuleleorchestra.com, their Web site.

There is the unexpected delight of their repertory, a genre-bending array stretching from “The Ride of the Valkyries” to the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K,” which they perform as a friendly folk song, infusing even lines like “I am an Antichrist” with a cozy bonhomie. They also play a version of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which affords Mr. Suich an opportunity to fling his hair around.

Ukuleles are mildly humorous and kind of cute, particularly when deployed by adults dressed in black tie. “The minute that eight people walk onstage with ukes, you’re winning already,” said Will Grove-White, an orchestra member.

“With heavy-metal riffs, when you pluck them out on the ukulele, they sound really weedy,” Mr. Grove-White said. “It’s a good way to mock pomposity.”


HAZEL THOMPSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES / The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain plays songs by Nirvana and the Sex Pistols.