Diary Of A Busker Day 2513 Tuesday March 25th 2025 Chichester.
Another early train to Chichester and it’s Christian at The Cross; he says he’ll be done at 2:30 which is 3 1/2 hours from now, which is no problem as, because he seems to be the only one playing at the moment, I can chose either North or East Street. North Street, in front of the “Murray or None” statue will do, as it’s a bit sunnier than East Street.
I aim to do a two hour stint here. The coinage is consistent if not exemplary…no fivers or CD sales but steady, which is fine AND I remembered to dig out the California Girls TAB before I came out so that’s fine now.
Today’s weird and slightly annoying encounter. An older man, with beard, glasses, fedora, comes up and stands to my right and says loudly ‘Do you know who’s birthday it is?’ I’m in the middle of playing something that’s not Albatross so I have to concentrate and CANNOT take part in a conversation. He repeats it ‘Do you know whose birthday it is TODAY?’ ‘Hold on’ I say and go through another 30 seconds of the song and at the end I say ‘Right, I’m all ears. You have my undivided attention.’
‘Do you know whose birthday it is today?’
‘No.’
‘Have a guess.’
‘Look, I don’t know and I’m sorry but I don’t have time to start guessing who’s birthday it is.’
‘It’s someone really famous – you KNOW him.’
‘I know him? I don’t think so.’
‘He’s 78 today.’
‘I don’t know.’
‘ELTON JOHN! Have you heard of him?’ he shouts.
‘Of course I’ve heard of him!’
‘Can you play one of his songs?’
‘No, sorry, I don’t know any – I mean, I know them but not how to play any, sorry. I do mainly sort of guitar stuff.’
‘What? You don’t know any Elton John?’ he’s shouting again.
‘No, I bloody well don’t and now I’ve got to play something else, alright?’
He shouts to some women across the street ‘HAVE YOU HEARD OF ELTON JOHN?’ They look but don’t answer. He drifts off and I start playing again. A minute later he’s stopped at a bench and leans in saying something to the couple sitting down, probably asking if they’ve heard of Elton fucking John.
A couple of men my age come up after Telstar.
One of them – ‘Heinz Burt.’
‘Me – ‘Yeah, he was in The Tornados.’
‘Yeah, my brother used to see ‘im drinkin’ in the Chuck Wagon in Eastleigh, ‘cos ‘ee ‘ad a bit of a drink problem later on. My brother’s seven years older than me ‘an ‘ee used to see ‘im in there…an’ Benny Hill was our milkman.’
‘Really? so he really was a milkman’ I say, and at this point something an old bloke said to me years ago in Winchester comes to mind. This old guy, who I’m sure is dead now, was a Southampton cabbie and he used to drive Benny Hill around and he said to him once “So Benny, why ain’t you married?” and Benny said “Why have one woman when I can have them all?” Anyway, I didn’t bother relating this as I was enjoying listening to this bloke talk.
It was mainly the one bloke who was doing the talking and after a bit, his mate started walking off so I said to the one who was talking ‘anyway, nice to meet you, I’ve come up from Winchester, by the way’ and he said ‘Oh yeah?’ then shouted to his mate ”ere, ‘ees from Winchester.’ I said ‘Yeah, near the railway station.’ ‘Yeah? There used to be a really good heavy metal pub by the railway station but they shut it down ‘cos Sophia Loren complained about it ‘cos they were filming near there.’
‘You know, I remember hearing about them filming something with her at the station.’ I think it was a remake of Brief Encounter with Richard Burton.
Those two turned up near the end of the set. After I’d packed up I went round the corner to the loo then to outside the cathedral to have my packed lunch of a peanut butter sandwich and a cucumber and cheese spread sandwich and 6 “white” grapes – thought they’re actually green.
Christian’s still at The Cross – he’s got another hour and a half to go. I don’t want to go back to the first spot so I walk down East Street…and what’s this? There are a couple of blokes lying down on the pavement outside Barclays and three police cars and a police van parked in the street. At first I thought there’d been a fight and they were unconscious or even dead but there’s no ambulance and then the police are trying to lift them up. There are a bunch of teenagers standing near me and we’re all looking at the scene. I say ‘Well, whatever’s going on, I think they need some background music!’ ‘Yeah.’ says one of the teenagers. Then I see one of the cops pick up a placard with something about Barclays written on it. Ah, it’s a protest.
I set up and after a few minutes look up but the protesters and cop cars are now gone. Fuck me, they got them sorted out quick! Anyway, I intended to do a mere hour and a half here because I’d had no warming up break in the usual coffee place up North Street but the temperature was fine so I went the whole two hours, which put the total to four hours – the longest I played anywhere for ages. After the train fare was taken off the coinage came to £53.96 and a damn sight better than the last two times here.