Diary Of A Busker Day 344 Thursday March 28th 2013 Winchester High Street, opposite Vodafone. Time: 3-4:20pm
At The Buttercross, there’s the same bunch of young people, or students, that were annoying me a few weeks ago. In particular, that ugly, fat girl who was walking by strumming a guitar…and she’s doing it again. I carry on walking…past the mandolin guy who was out yesterday. He’s not that young, actually – probably about 40. I set up at the same place as yesterday. One of the Winchester people I saw at the Tommy Emmanuel concert appears and after agreeing with him how “mind-blowing” it was, he says he wants to buy another CD off me. This is the guy who likes my While My Guitar Gently Weeps arrangement. When I give him the CD he asks if he can have another one as there’s a microscopic scratch on the case. It’s so tiny I can barely see it, in fact it would probably rub off with a finger across it. Anyway, I get him another one. Some people want blood.
I’ve been playing twenty minutes, when I look up and see young Sam watching from across the road. He comes over and I mention the money he made yesterday. I should have asked how much because I really want to know! He says he’s taking today off – ‘to chill’ and ‘hang out’ and all that stuff young people say. I play a couple of Beatles songs while he’s here; When I’m Sixty-Four and While My Guitar, which he likes. He GETS the muted bass part; it’s nice to be appreciated!
Barbara The Racist comes by. I’m not sure she was going to; she was on the other side of the road but I caught her eye so she had to come over! She says she hasn’t got any change ( I was right, she wouldn’t have come over). I say it’s OK. Then loud Maurice turns up – ‘HE USUALLY STOPS PLAYING WHEN I TURN UP!’ he shouts, going on about when I got annoyed with him a few days ago. ‘ARE YOU COLD?’ I say I’m OK as the wind’s not so bad today. I introduce him to Barbara who, after he leaves, asks me about him. I say ‘he’s what you’d call a character – as you probably guessed. He shouts a lot. If I’m playing Yellow Bird and he hears me way down the road, he’ll start singing it.’ ‘Yes, I think I’ve seen him berating people at other times.’ ‘Oh yes, he does that a lot, too’ ‘And he drives one of those smart cars, doesn’t he?’ ‘Yes he does. He’s alright though…well, a character, like I said.’
Another annoying occurrence are small children bearing shrapnel. In this instance, three boys about 6 years old. One – a really arrogant looking, short little brat, drops the coins – with five second gaps between them – into the bucket. It annoys me so much, I want to kill that child. I decide I won’t put up with it…in future.
During my zither-like Third Man arrangement, a man walks by and says ‘You should be in a sewer in Vienna’ which – by people ignorant of the film – could be taken the wrong way, but for me, I’ve got no problem with it! Barbara The Racist returns and puts a pound coin in and says ‘I walked all the way down the road to get you that.’ I say ‘You shouldn’t have, Barbara.’ After a pause, she says ‘Do you HAVE to do this?’ ‘Busking? Well…yeah, although I like to think I’m in between jobs. There are good things and bad things about it, the weather being one of the bad things. It’s alright sometimes, though.’ Barbara says she ‘doesn’t like it with all these…’ and I thought she was going to say ‘negroes’ or ‘foreigners’ or ‘Indians’, but no – now it’s ‘…market stalls, but they’re not here today.’ I say ‘no, they’re down the road and up the other way. Not in this part – there’s no room.’ ‘No’ she says, ‘I never buy anything from them, it’s all rubbish!’ ‘Neither do I, Barbara.’ ‘Lots of people do, though.’ ‘They sure do, Barbara.’
Earnings: £23.79 (including 1 CD)