Diary Of A Busker Day 2558 Monday June 9th 2025 Winchester.
I wasn’t going to come in, then I thought “what the hell, why not?” which, as it turned out, was good as it ended in a unique way. Nothing much occurred for the first half hour…after Anjie (or Angie), a woman came up to ask what it was, which I get quite a lot for that one, in that lots of people have heard it but they don’t know what it’s called. A bit like the Gnossienne, the favourite of the idiot bloke who lives near The Square! Then a noise started up which sounded like it was coming from somewhere down The Pentice. It was an instrument – at first I thought it was a violin; maybe Kai was back, but then I wasn’t quite sure as it was quite a jazzy sound, with big leaps in the lines – low to high very quickly. It was just below the volume where it would have interfered with me so I carried on and didn’t let it bother me.
There was a bit of a dog kerfuffle when two teenage girls were taking their two rather large dogs through the alley and were passed by a middle-aged couple and their much smaller dog. The two big dogs went berserk and one tried to take a bite out of the small dog’s stomach which obviously angered the owners but instead of apologising, the two girls reacted very aggressively, cursing the older couple. I thought there was going to be a fight (between the humans) but fortunately both parties carried on going their separate ways.
I’d done almost two hours without a break and was going to do a couple more tunes when a young bloke came up, sat on the monument and complimented me on what I had just finished playing. He then shook my hand, said his name was Fergus and asked if he could play along with me with his clarinet and I thought “Ah, it was him down the road!” I said I was winding up but he could play along for another two songs as he seemed a nice bloke. I went into Here Comes The Sun and bloody hell, I never realised how loud a clarinet was (I actually played one in high school). It was louder than me through my amp! Anyway, he did his bit, playing the vocal melody now and again and doing his jazzy improvisation – he did a good job keeping up with me, and at the end there was a load of applause from a handful of people who’d stopped to listen. I said to him ‘That’s the most clapping I’ve had all day!’
I then said ‘What about this one’ and did the catchy pre-chorus bit for Can’t Take My Eyes Off You. He asked what key it was in – I said it was E, so we did that together with me shouting ‘Now to G!’ just before the key change and again, a load of applause and a bit of coinage. At the end I said ‘I should really give you a couple of quid for that’ but he wouldn’t have it. Fergus took his clarinet apart, went off and I finished up with James Bond. Anyway, if I’m not mistaken that’s the only time I’ve been in a duet here. Only for five minutes but quite enjoyable and it made a change from my boring solo guitar. Certainly, a few people seemed to find it refreshing, including the manager of Montezuma’s who came to his door to see what the exotic sound and commotion was!