Diary Of A Busker Day 272 Tuesday August 21st 2012 Winchester High Street 1. Opposite Vodafone, Time: 2:46-4:05pm, 2. Opposite Oxfam, Time: 4:20-5:42pm
Looking for a place to set up, I come across Frank just up from the Vodafone spot. He’s standing in the middle of the street, looking up. I ask if he’s alright. ‘Yeah, just seems quite difficult warming up today…playing, y’know.’ ‘Just one of those days, eh?’ I say, and I ask if he’s going to set up here. No, he’s going up to The Buttercross so I set up and start up…and ten minutes later Frank walks by so I’m assuming there must have been someone else up there.
Almost an hour in, a young bloke who’s been chatting to the ice-cream lady across the way, comes over. I notice he’s carrying a violin case so I ask if he wants to busk here. No, he actually plays the guitar. So why the violin? ‘My mum said I wouldn’t be able to learn it, so I’m going to prove her wrong. I’ve never played a violin before!’ I wish him luck and tell him about when I took some violin lessons at school; my arms got so tired and hurt so much, I couldn’t hold the violin up for more than two minutes. In the end, I had to give up the lessons. He then starts talking about bands and asks if I’d like to have a “jam session” with him sometime. This prompts me to launch into my ‘hearing damage means I can’t play in groups anymore, even duos, in fact it sometimes gets too loud just with me and my little amp’ part of my Hard Luck Story. He seems a nice lad; only eighteen…but sorry, that’s not for me. Again I wish him luck with his violin, and his mum.
I end up down the road, opposite Maison Blanc for a rather quiet hour and twenty minutes. In fact it’s so quiet that, although there were a few outside tables that initially required my entertaining, by 5:15 there’s no one there. Anyway, I carry on for a bit and watch a local drongo go round the deserted tables, taking the sugar sachets from the condiment bowls.
Earnings: £25.03