Diary Of A Busker Day 552 Tuesday April 29th 2014 Winchester (1. Opposite Pavilion, Time: 1:20-2pm, 2. Opposite Oxfam, Time: 2:10-2:20pm).
There’s a guy with a guitar and P.A. speakers at The Butter Cross…and the homeless guy with the whistle down at Vodafone. While I’m standing around the corner from him, Ernie, who made the staddle stone thing a few days ago, turns up. He looks pleased to see me, and he’s really pleased when I show him his creation on my keyring. Then he says ‘You’re looking very smart’ – I’m in my bank job outfit: black coat, black gloves, and carrying the bag with the stool sticking out the end!
A few seconds later, when I was at the corner of Market Street and The Square, writing in my pad, Roger Lacy and his good lady wife walk by. He says ‘Ah, you’re writing your next song order – maybe some Everly Brothers today? Or the winner of the 2:30 at (name of a horse race place which I’ve forgotten)?’ I said ‘No, I don’t bet, but my partner does. She won forty quid on The Grand National’. ‘Really?’, he said. ‘Yeah, amazing, eh? – forty quid’. Actually, I DID have a bet on but my horse lost.
I end up down the road, doing forty minutes for £3.70p. The minute I start, a van pulls up but at least it was a few feet away and not right in front of me. This was during Albatross. The driver got out and said ‘What a nice tune’. He was parked for 10 minutes, then left, after saying again how nice the music was. What a nice chap! I packed up when it started raining, although I was going to, anyway. Legless Brian was outside The Eclipse when I walked by. He said it was ‘quiet today’. Legless Brian knows. Posh BrYan was on the red wine a few doors to the right. He never came over to say hello when he left. He mustn’t have been drunk enough.
Ten minutes later, I was down the far end, where I haven’t been for awhile. Four buses went by as I was setting up, and I could feel myself getting annoyed by that, even before I started playing! It went OK, though. In the ten minutes I got in before it poured (again), I made £4.30p – more than I got for the forty minutes at the other place. I then went to Waterstones to wait for the rain to stop…it didn’t, so I came home, and of course it stopped as I was halfway there. The funny thing was, as I was coming into Greenhill Road, the van that parked in front of me earlier, was parked across the road. Then the driver walked up and when he saw me he said ‘Have you made enough money to pay the mortgage off?’ I laughed and said ‘No, I haven’t made ANY!’, which was almost true.
Earnings: £8.00