Diary Of A Busker Day 2538 Tuesday May 6th 2025 Winchester.
There was no one at The Buttercross but it’s in the shade and it’s not too warm a day so I opt out of setting up there. But the crossroads are free and in the sun. The only competition for “trade” are the two young Hare Krishna blokes opposite, taking shifts in trying to shift a few Mini Bhagavad Gitas. I open with Waterloo Sunset, as I’ve been going through it at home with the original Double-Six electric 12-string and the new second hand JangleBox. I think it sounds pretty good but I think I’ll do it a bit more before I record it. No 12-string or JangleBox out here, though.
The end of Cavatina’s interrupted by a woman who says ‘That’s so nice, thank you…it’s an old one.’ ‘Yeah, from 1969, I think.’ ‘Oh, the year I started my nurse’s training.’ At this point I come out with the obvious – ‘No! You’re not THAT old!’ The coinage is sparse, in fact for a few periods there’s bugger all and my mind starts to drift…I think about Irene Dunford – it was definitely her who I used to see because she’s got a Facebook page but there hasn’t been anything on it for around eight years. But the photos confirm it was her. After some research I found out that Scott Walker proposed to her but she turned him down – there was an article in one of those 60’s fan magazines. She also went out with Barry Sheene, the motorbike bloke. There’s a photo of them both topless on his bike.
But that does my head in, that the woman Scott Walker proposed to walked by me loads of times! What a shame I didn’t have my Billy Balloon vinyl album on show back then! She might have come up to me. I mean, to see an album named after a character from a Scott Walker song she would have heard. Mind, that would have been more than 40 years before I started playing out here.
Speaking of bikes, that fat biker bloke (who incidentally bought my Billy Balloon CD but didn’t like my voice) comes by after parking his bike and smokes outside the Pret door. In fact, he was one of the few donors, giving a few coins after Life On Mars? Speaking of which, back to Irene. She also went out with Bowie! I remember years ago I read an interview with him where he said he got into Scott Walker through some girl he was dating. He was jealous because she was always going on about Scott Walker – this was after Bowie’s first solo album from the summer of ’67 flopped. Anyway, he then started listening to Walker and got a bit obsessed. Anyway, there’s an old interview with Irene and she talks about all this so that’s another mystery solved. It was her!
Oh well, it gave me something to think about while waiting for some coinage. Unfortunately, it never really happened and after a solid two hours I pack up and count the money and it’s a few pence over £10. I’m starting to feel sorry for myself when a bloke with no legs and one arm goes by in a wheelchair.