Diary Of A Busker Day 221 Saturday April 7th 2012 Winchester High Street 1. Opposite Reflex – just closed down, Time: 1:23-2:38pm, 2. Opposite Vodafone, Time: 2:55-3:55pm
I’m again banished to the outer reaches but I’m fortunate to receive a donation right at the start, from Carol, my hard-of-hearing regular from The North. I thank her. ‘How are you, pet?’ ‘I’m fine, Carol – I’ve only just got here.’ ‘Eh?’ ‘I’VE ONLY JUST SAT DOWN,’ I shout. ‘Oh really – well, there’s something for you to start with.’ ‘Thank you, Carol, I appreciate it.’ ‘Eh?’
Up at the crossroads, Dangerous Dave leans against the wall on my right. ‘When you’re ready,’ he says. I don’t even need to ask what he wants – certain aspects of this line of work have become somewhat predictable. I tell him I’ll play it – The Third Man, of course – as soon as I’ve finished what I’m playing, which is Yellow Bird. During TTM, DD contributes; how much I don’t know. Some mate of his turns up as I’m finishing and says, ‘Batman! – play Batman!’ So I play Batman, then, because a stationary audience of two or more scares me and I will do my best to disperse an audience of one, plus I don’t want to give passers-by the wrong impression – that I’m only good for two-note Neanderthal riffs – I go into a rather slower-paced tune; Elvis’s Can’t Help Falling In Love. But instead of drifting off, they stay and join in singing the melody or rather ‘la, la’-ing it – but they’re so out of tune I think it must be deliberate…the whole song. I listen on in resignation as they obliterate the culmination of 30 years of hard work. People walk by and look, some in obvious amusement. At the song’s end, the dangerous one says ‘Cheers Marvin,’ and off they go. A man who’s been watching comes up and puts a £1 coin in the bucket – ‘That’s for your patience!’ It’s not patience, it’s just that I gave up.
A girl walks by wearing a T-shirt with yet another trivialisation of the Second World War government slogan KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON. It says KEEP WARM AND HUG A PONY.
Earnings: £26.76
