Day 2691
Monday May 11th 2026
Southampton
I’m trying to avoid the home town during the week, as it’s not worth bothering about. Chichester and Reading were out due to bad trains and weather so I went back to the big city. Also, I wanted to do a session with the 12-string before taking it in to fab luthier Jimmy Cole tomorrow to sort out the frets and I don’t know how long I’ll be without it.
I’ve just come out of John Lewis and I’m walking down towards the mall entrance when I can hear music which gets louder and louder as I’m coming up to the entrance. Exiting the mall, there’s a bloke singing to backing tracks. He’s doing How Do I live Without You or something that sounds like it – all those sorts of songs sound the bloody same! He’s way too loud and I’m standing there thinking if I should say something. I think what I’ll do is walk up to the end of the pedestrian bit at the top of the road, at the other end to Bargate, set up in the middle, out in the open and face down towards this bloke and see how loud he is…and I can still hear him but it’s not as loud, obviously, and anyway, two can play at that game. I turn my amp up to almost full volume and that sorts that out. My word, my new little amp really belts it out.
Unfortunately, it’s very windy and quite cold and I’m thinking I’m going to do an hour and that’ll be it. A familiar face from Winchester appears – it’s Jacob, the guy who dresses up as superheroes – ‘Hey, did you see me in the march the other day?’
‘Yes I did, Jacob. You were right near the front.’
‘Yeah, it was a great day. Always nice to see you play.’
‘Cheers Jacob.’
He’s always got a smile. I wish I was like that!
A few minutes later a young woman blows me a kiss. Behave! During Albatross, a man pulls up on a mountain bike – ‘Is that a…twelve stringer?’ he says. I stop to converse, not that I want to but I’m so loud that I won’t be able to hear what he says if I don’t stop.
‘It sure is.’
‘I’ve got a friend in London. He’s building a violin.’
‘Wow, really?’
‘Yeah, and then after that he’s going to start on a guitar, like what you’ve got there, and…’
I’m cold and not in a very good mood and he’s come up and interrupted me, so – ‘Can I carry on playing my song?’
‘Uh…yeah’ he says and rides off.
A couple sway nearby…he then says ‘Know Wonderful Tonight, Eric Clapton?’
‘Well, no (I can’t stand it)…but I know the piano bit of Layla.’
‘Uh…what about Wonderwall, Oasis.’
‘No, sorry. I know it.’
‘You mean you know it but you won’t play it?’
‘Well, I don’t play it…but like I said, I can give you Layla, the end bit.’ Which is what I do. They sway to it for a minute then give me the thumbs up and are off.
When the hour is approaching, I’m colder and determined to cut the session short…and just after I’ve thought that, a woman comes up and puts a tenner in the case! Well, this totally rejuvenates my old and cold body and I decide to carry on a bit longer…then I sell a CD, so that keeps me going another little bit longer and soon enough I’ve past the hour and a half mark…and a fiver appears. Sod it, I can do another ten minutes…then a man appears, stands by waiting for me to finish the Gnossienne, then approaches – ‘Have you got anything on Spotify or anything like that. I’m a radio presenter, awaaz fm. Got anything I can listen to?’
‘Well, the only thing I’ve got on Spotify is a song called Little Speck Of Blue. It got a bit of airplay a few years ago (a fair few years ago!). It’s definitely on Spotify.’
He gets his phone out and scrolls around a few things…’Yeah, OK, I’ll let you know when I’m going to play it.’
‘Yeah, OK, brilliant, cheers!’
Oh well, that’s not too bad – a CD sale, a tenner, fiver and maybe some airplay, and this keeps me going to the full two hours and that’s quite enough because, apart from getting cold, I’ve blasted my ears in! Anyway, job done. As I’m setting off to the mall, a man says – ‘You’re fighting a losing battle with that bloke down there, he’s too loud!’
‘Yeah, I know. I could hear him more or less when I came out of John Lewis and I was thinking of asking him to turn down but I’ve got to be in the right mood to do that and I wasn’t.’
‘Yeah…I mean, he’s so loud no one can set up anywhere else.’
‘Yeah, I know…but I was OK because I’ve got this new amp and it’s bloody loud and I couldn’t even hear him once I started up!’
‘Haha. There was a girl singer here not long ago. Had the voice of an angel…but this bloke, he’s here all the time.’
‘Really? I must have been lucky the last two times because I was the only one here.’
‘Yeah, you were. Well, there’s no need to be that loud. Maybe you should buy a coffee and trip and spill it on his face!’
‘Haha. Yeah, by mistake…or dump it in his speaker.’
Oh, and I found a good way to stop the guitar case shutting when it’s windy. I just lodge the jigsaw puzzle box with the books in, in the space between the top and bottom of the case, in the side of the hinges. Sorted for even a gale force five occurrence.
And that’s that. The coinage, an almost respectable £36.91 after the £4.35 train fare is taken off.