Diary Of A Busker Monday February 21st Winchester High Street (corner of Marks And Spencer, Time: 12:30-5:35pm).
As often happens, I come into town intending to do a mere two hours and end up doing quite a bit more. The weather was overcast – it’s never undercast, and it began to drizzle a number of times, making me decide to pack up, but then not bothering to. Today marks my debut of a new tune – not literally new in terms of being ‘current” – none of my repertoire is, it’s all ancient! – but a freshly learnt song – Tammy, the theme tune from the film called, strangely enough, Tammy, or Tammy And The Batchelor, from 1957 starring Debbie Reynolds -still alive, and Leslie “don’t call me Shirley” Nielson – recently (sadly) deceased. The song is sung over the opening titles by The Ames Brothers and later on by Debbie Reynolds at her bedroom window. I learnt it yesterday directly from a 1961 LP by Chet Atkins – Chet Atkin’s Workshop. I played it on off a 1959 HMV record player presented to one of my grandfathers by his employers upon his retirement in 1959 – pretty much contempory with the album! It was actually another song on the album I was listening to, as requested by George from Saturday, but this one appealed to me more. It has a real late 50s sound, complete with tremolo effect on the guitar. This is handy, as I have a little tremolo dial on my Roland Micro Cube battery powered amplification system….or amp. So I’m playing this song Tammy and Jeremy appears, and he knows the song. This amazes me, as there can’t be too many people walking around today who remember it. Jeremy says, “Well, Marvin, that must have been meant to happen, as I’m probably the only person who knows this song.” Yes, it’s gone down well. I play it again later, to Ragtime Phillip. He likes it so much he asks me if I will write out the tab*. Of course I will! …and I played it again later, for George, who indirectly directed me to it. However, Tammy is a tiring song to play, as it is all fretted high up the neck, and with the forfinger barred across all the strings. And my fingers are rather large for the narrow frets you get at the ‘dusty end’ of the guitar – “stay away from the dusty end, there’s no money up there!” as Chet Atkins once said.
Later on, a bunch of 14 year olds walk by, one offers me a Dorito – No Thanks. Another bunch of kids walk by dumping some shrapnel – 1 and 2p coins, heavy and worthless, in my hat. One of them accidentally spills something from a plastic cup, some sort of soup – carrot, lentil – it’s yellow-y anyway, on the ground in front of me.
Later…there are two CPSOs across the road – the woman I see every day and a bearded male colleague. They are questioning a man on suspicion of walking with a mountain bike. They are talking to him for quite some time. The man – the detainee, attempts to escape several times but is restrained by the bearded one. I give them The Third Man as background music to their detaining.
It’s very noisy today, with often six buses queing up to go around the corner. After four hours it’s getting on my nerves. I end up stopping whatever I’m playing when they are nearing the corner as no one can hear me anyway. I meet Alfie. I occassionally see him set up near WH Smiths. He’s a pianist and busks with an electronic keyboard. He’s not often out – I rarely see him this time of year. He’s in his seventies and has a speech impediment and it looks like he’s got some problem with his face. I think his speech problem must have something to do with that. I’ve heard him play the slow section of Chopins’ Fantaisie-Impromptu, Opus 66 and that’s not something you hear everyday in the high street! So he gets my approval – and that’s something not often ‘got’ in the high street, either. Alfie says he likes my Third Man. Actually, I don’t know his name’s Alfie untill I ask him and then – because I can’t understand him, I have to ask him again. “It’s Alfie, that’s my grandfather over there” – he points down the road. “Sorry, what?” I say. “That’s my grandfather, King Alfred – the statue (he laughs)…It’s a joke!”
Earnings: £46.87p
* Tablature – guitar notation
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