Diary Of A Busker Day 385 Monday June 10th 2013 Winchester High Street, opposite Vodafone. Time: 2:05-3:25pm
There’s a man I see around a lot. He’s early fifties, white hair, always wears sandals with socks, even when it’s cold, and he’s usually on a bike. I don’t know his name but he’s got a couple of kids at the son and heir’s school. I don’t know if I like him very much, actually, as I remember one day up at the Arbor, one of his kids wanted to join me and the son, kicking the football about and we said he could but the boy appeared really reluctant, as his dad wouldn’t approve, or he’d shout at him, and he said he was supposed to be going home. But it was weird, he really did appear scared of his dad.
Anyway, this man usually says hello as he’s going by, but today he stops, leans in to me and says ‘You know, you’re a Winchester institution,’ which sort of throws me for a few seconds while I try and think of something witty to say back, and the only thing I can think of is ‘I take it you don’t mean a mental institution?’ He ignores that and says ‘The council should award you in some way.’ I suggest he might like to get a petition going (put your money where your mouth is, etc.) and present it to the council. He thinks for a few seconds, then says ‘How should I describe you?’ ‘I don’t know,’ I say, then wait for him to reply. He doesn’t, so I say it again – ‘I don’t know, but I’ll have a think about it,’ which I did, for about a second afterwards before I forgot about it.
After I do Borsalino (I’m really going to have to see the film sometime!) Brendan and that woman friend he’s always with – I don’t think they’re an item – chat to me. They really like Borsalino so I tell them all I know about it; that it was from a 1970s French film – called, weirdly enough, Borsalino, and that it’s the name of a style of hat, basically a Fedora. I didn’t go into my usual ‘a friend of Tommy Emmanuel played it to him, he loved it and played it down the phone to Chet Atkins who loved it so much he recorded it on his last album’ lecture.
Anyway, Brendan and his friend like it so much that I play the main bit again, which I’m just about able to do while chatting, as it’s better than sitting around chatting and not playing. Then they say there was some twelve year old boy up at The Buttercross an hour ago, doing a ‘brilliant’ rendition of Take Five on his saxophone (which reminds me, I should resurrect that one, I seem to have forgotten about it…because it’s so difficult!) so I try a few bars of the main bit, which I’ve certainly played better. Then, in an attempt to redeem myself, or make an excuse. I say ‘Well, the thing is, you have to remember the kid’s only playing one note at a time – the melody. I’m trying to play the whole thing, so he might be playing the notes really well, but he’s still just playing one at a time!’ But good luck to him. I wouldn’t have had the nerve to do that when I was twelve, not out in public, anyway.
Earnings: £16.06