Diary Of A Busker Day 2374 Sunday May 19th 2024 Winchester.
‘The Last Flight Of Billy Balloon’ says the old guy with the walking frame. He’s seen me loads of times before but never seen my newly vinyl LP (250 copies of which were delivered two days ago on my birthday) propped up in the gigbag.
‘Oh yeah, I’ve just had a load of these delivered. It’s one of my original albums…nothing like what I play out here, though.’
He doesn’t take the risk of buying it but Roy and his daughter Wendy are over from the Isle Of Wight and Roy is a bit more daring. I’m so thrilled that I give my phone to Wendy to take a photo with Roy holding the album and me clutching the £20 note. Realising the enormity of the occasion, Wendy takes a picture on her own phone.
’Now all I need is a record player!’ says Roy.
It’s a warm day and no sign of rain for once, and also no sign of that twat from The Hambledon, so I can get through two hours without him looking out his window at me, or coming out after an hour and looking at his watch.
By the time I’ve come back in after a long break at home, Gareth is at The Buttercross so it’s back to The Square and another two hours, by which time my mind is drifting and I’m starting to make stupid mistakes so time to pack up…but just after I’ve put the guitar in the case, a woman comes up…
‘You’re not going, are you?’
‘I am, I’ve been here two hours.’
‘Oh, we’ve just got here, well, ten minutes ago, we’re over there (she points to a table of women in their 30s who wave)…we really like you.’
Well, that’s enough for me. I say I can manage another ten or fifteen minutes – she’s thrilled, and I reach for the guitar but what’s this? She’s seen the album – ‘Is this you?’
‘It sure is.’
‘A vinyl album, can I buy it?’
‘You sure can! I’ve got two here, one’s normal black and one’s in red vinyl.’
She takes the red one and pays using my newly printed out QR code – she scans two of the £10 ones. I’ve got these on the advice of Mr. Tann, who’s now dispensed with his card reader and uses only the codes. For now, I’ve got them all on bits of paper but I’ll get them all on one soon. So I’ve got one for £2, £5, £8, £10 and £15 but I’ll need to get one for £20, for the new album. She goes back to the table and a minute later one of her friends comes over.
‘Can I buy an album?’
‘Wow, of course you can! I’m out of red vinyl but you can have a black one.’ I hand her an album.
‘Billy Balloon, is that you? Is that your name?’
‘No, I’m…’
She interrupts ‘Oh, you’re Marvin.’
‘Yeah, what’s your name?’
’Vicky.’
’He Vicky and nice to meet you.’
‘And is this what you do? Do you like doing it?’
‘Well, I play covers out here but I’d love to make my living, getting paid for doing my own music.’
‘Well, you’ve just sold two albums!’
‘Oh yeah!’
‘But I know what you mean’ she says. ‘I used to go out with a musician and his broke his heart that no one wanted to know about original music. He ended up playing in cover bands.’
‘Yeah, I know what it’s like. It’s mostly tribute bands playing at all these places. I know, because I’ve been in enough of them!’
I ended up doing another half hour, which put the total up to 4 1/2 hours, quite a long one! Anyway, I couldn’t believe it, THREE albums sold; two red, one black. I reckon the red ones are going to be the more popular.
A momentous day – in fact a Golden Day as, thanks to the album sales, the day’s earnings went over the £100 mark.