PARENTS with painful memories of playing pitiful rounds of London’s Burning on school recorders can breathe a sigh of relief ahead of their own children’s end-of-year school concerts.

In South Cumbria at least, the coolest kids have dumped recorders for ukuleles - the instrument recently popularised by Taylor Swift, McFly and Mumford & Sons.

“Sales have gone through the roof,” said Ian Penwarden-Allan of Penwarden Music, Milnthorpe.

In the last few months Ian’s popular sheet music shop has sold 60 of the colourful stringed instruments to primary schools in Milnthorpe, Witherslack and Beetham.

“Smaller than a guitar and with just four strings, kids can learn four chords in half an hour which pretty much covers any rock song,” explained Ian.

“More and more primary schools are recognising that the ukulele is an easier and more accessible route into music for their pupils.”

A conductor, trombonist, pianist and harpist in the British Army, he has performed in front of Royalty and led the fanfare team that heralded the re-opening of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in 1989.

Now settled in Milnthorpe with his wife Tracie, a professional soprano and singing teacher, their shop boasts one of the largest collections of sheet music in the north-west.

“We cover everything from Abba, Sam Smith and Led Zeppelin to Beethoven, Handel and Chopin through to folk and just about every musical ever written,” he said.