Diary Of A Busker Day 2509 Thursday March 20th 2025 Winchester.
A couple of days ago it was Dangerous Dave’s brother who was in attendance but today it’s the man himself. I’ve just done the first song of a two hour spot at the top spot when DD turns up. There’s no “hello Marvin” or anything like that, it’s ”ave you played it yet?’ He means The Third Man, his favourite. ‘No Dave, I’ve just got here but here you go…’ and he gets his request and at the end I’m gobsmacked to get the princely sum of 65p, in silver coinage. I really am almost lost for words because that’s 65p more than what he usually gives. Speaking of which, why is it more offensive to get 1 or 2p from someone than to get zero from most people who walk by? I’ve never worked that out.
Anyway, at the end Dangerous Dave compliments me on my footwear – ‘I like your kickers.’ ‘Thanks, Dave, they’re Doc Martens.’ ‘Yeah, I know. They’re good.’ ‘Yeah, they’re from the Made In England line, they make them the same way they did in the sixties and with better leather than the normal line, which look a bit plasticky.’ Yeah? ‘ow much were they?’ ‘A lot, 200 quid but they’ll last me the duration. It’s taken awhile to wear them in, though!’ ‘ Yeah? Well, they’re better than what I got on me. Just been doin’ the gardening, see?’ He looks down on his black shoes, with some mud on. ‘Yeah, well I wouldn’t do any gardening with these!’ I wouldn’t do any gardening, anyway. I wouldn’t know how.
The weather was good, as it’s now into double digits, and the coinage wasn’t bad. I got a fiver and a scan donation of a tenner from an older man who asked some questions about busking, such as do I need permission. ‘No, well, not yet. You do in Reading and Oxford and the London Underground…and Chichester. In Chichester you have to keep reapplying for a permit every two months but I can’t be bothered with all that now. I just turn up and play if there’s no one there, and no one’s come up to ask if I’ve got one.’