Diary Of A Busker Day 608 Monday August 11th 2014 Winchester (Opposite Jigsaw, Market Street, Time: 4:17-5:54pm).
I seem to be seeing alot of Mr. W. Kendall of late. He rode by today and asked if I knew Telstar, which, oddly enough, I taught Tom and Owen (their performance now on youtube!) The trouble is the melody: it’s all over the place, so the chords would be everywhere. Maybe I’ll look into it again…
There are hundreds of dreadlocked, rucksacked young folk walking about, from this Boomtown festival just out of town. And quite a few in very small cars covered in mud. One stopped right in front of me and the girl driver – not even waiting for me to finish whatever song it was – said, ‘Do you know where (somewhere) is?’ Being offended, I just looked at her and carried on playing. Then some bloke walked between us so she asked him. She drove off, saying, ‘Thanks for your help’, sarcastic bitch. Tough luck, lady. Make a note: Must not come to Winchester and interrupt MBN while he’s in the middle of a song.
A bit later, another car pulled up really slowly and I was deliberately keeping my head down so they wouldn’t ask me where some place was. But then I saw a hand put a coin in the bucket, so of course I have to look up in preparation of thanks and acknowledgement. The bloke just looked at me with a cheeky grin, which made me laugh.
I met a young guy named Marly, who was listening across the road: he really liked Girl, so when he came over and donated, I asked if he liked The Beatles. He said he mainly liked jazzy stuff: Django Reinhardt and some modern players I’ve never heard of. He was asking about the stuff I play: he’d never heard of Chet Atkins or Merle Travis, though he’d heard of Tommy Emmanuel. He’d seen him do Classical Gas on Youtube, so we started talking about that. I said I wished it (Youtube) had been around when I was his age, which was about 20, and he actually said he realised he was lucky – ‘We’re the first generation who’ve got all that’. Indeed.
I made it just over an hour and a half. I left when some pigeon chucked down a load of moss and dirt from the guttering, which landed right next to me. I took it as a sign.
Earnings: £15.82p