Diary Of A Busker Day 2514 Thursday March 27th 2025 Winchester.
There’s a young woman with a saxophone at the top spot, The Square’s deserted so no point in setting up there…no one at the crossroads but too late to set up as they’ll be putting the bins out soon…I get off the bike in front of the new Pizza Express formerly Debenhams and I’m toying with the idea of setting up but decide against it. The reason is the fruit and veg bloke on the opposite side of the street near Sainsbury’s and his ‘WHO WANTS A KILO OF STRAWBERRIES AND BLUEBERRIES FOR A FIVER NOW?’ which he’s shouting ad infinitum and which I KNOW will drive me fucking bonkers within a minute. And that’s before I start playing. Of course, he’ll no doubt not appreciate ME, either, blasting away at James Bond while he’s trying to shift some grub. I’ve played here a few times over the years and it’s not worth it so I go a bit further down, towards the King Alfred statue and set up opposite the Cell Repair shop.
The coinage is acceptable and mainly from small groups of kids just out of school – one reason why late afternoon is better than early or mid afternoon. Must remember that.
As I’m setting up and for the first few songs, there’s a binman emptying the bins a few feet away. He has a glove on one hand but the other is gloveless and a couple of fingers are covered in dry blood. Still, there he is, diligently and valiantly pursuing his vocation. Now, if he was a millionaire footballer, he’d be stretchered off.
Directly opposite is the door of the phone shop and inside, the owner is behind the counter, facing me. After a bit, he closes shop and wanders off, returning after 15 minutes to open the shop but stand outside it. Soon after a big bloke with a shaved head covered with tattoos turns up and a conversation ensues, which becomes quite heated; at one point the big bloke says loudly ‘I’m not a dickhead!’ These two then get their phones out and start showing them to one another, the big bloke occasionally raising his voice and putting his face nearer the other (much smaller) bloke and I’m thinking any minute now this bloke’s going to get physical.
A few minutes later two PCSO Rangers, a man and woman, turn up and stand in the middle of the street in front of me, looking at these two, who are now speaking more quietly…then the big bloke sees them and says ‘you can come over’ so that’s what they do and for some minutes the shop bloke and big bloke show the cops their phones. I can’t hear what they’re saying because I’m playing – just a lot of phone-showing, though. After a bit, Big Neil comes by, is beckoned over by the male cop and now HE joins in with the discussion/phone-showing for a few minutes until he goes off back up the high street, then the big bloke walks off towards the statue and the shop bloke is left with the two cops, who he shakes hands with before entering his shop. No idea what that was all about but it gave me something to look at for a few minutes.
After an hour and a bit, I’m starting to feel the cold. It’s supposed to be warming up but it seems to have gone back to what it was a couple of weeks ago, prompting an old woman to say ‘It’s cold here, isn’t it? Oh well, it’s warmer tomorrow…they say!’ ‘I hope so, spring and all that’ I say. I forgot, just before she came by I sold two CDs to a woman who said she’d been listening to me ‘for ten years’ to which I replied ‘that’s a long time, I think it’s time I stopped, then!.
Just before the hour and a half is done (my limit), a young woman with long blond hair and wearing tight purple leggings walks by towards the statue. A young bloke carrying a beer bottle is walking the other way and after he passes her, turns round and watches her, walking backwards as he does. That really made me laugh.