Diary Of A Busker Day 503 Saturday February 8th 2014 Winchester (1. Opposite Pavillion, Time: 1:45-2:35pm).
A cold and very windy day, but I’ve got my trusty camera to weigh down the bucket! A few songs in, a bloke starts shouting about God near the cathedral grounds entrance. There are two others with him, and one of them takes over after a few minutes. It’s a bit annoying but what can you do, apart from go over and get into an argument – which I don’t – or just give them dirty evil looks – which I do. They go off soon – maybe my evilness worked.
My old friend Chris, from the open-mic days, turns up with his girlfriend(?) I forgot he bought a guitar off me a couple of years ago…or was it ten (time really flies when you’re getting on). He says he’s been playing it alot and will send me a song he recorded with it*. He also says he’s moving back to Winchester – I think he moved to London. I remember he used to be known as LCD: Last Child Dancing. I forgot to ask if that was still going. I always thought he was the most talented by far, from the open-mic lot, although, unfortunately, that might not be saying much – most of them were bloody awful. I wonder why he’s moving back…I suppose I’ll soon get the chance to ask him. A thoroughly decent bloke, AND he donated.
I last 50 minutes here, then do a quick count-up: about £13 – not bad, but I couldn’t make the hour: too cold, so I took quite a long break – 45 minutes, at Waterstones…
…A weird moment. I open a new book on Van Gogh: The Sunflowers Are Mine, near the middle, and it was the beginning of a chapter, and the first sentence was ‘Van Gogh arrived back in Paris on the 17th of May 1890, after just over two years in Provence…’ – my birthday! – the day, not the year. Then I looked at another new Van Gogh book: Van Gogh – The Life, and read about how they now don’t think it was suicide, but more like an accident. The bullet was in the stomach, not the head. It was at an angle and was from too far away. And also, he’d written to his brother saying he would never kill himself.
Back out, after the tingling in the fingers had gone…I walk up the road to The Butter Cross, thinking I might set up, but Tony’s there! In fact, apart from me, he’s the only one out today it seems…which isn’t surprising: it really is windy…and cold. Anyway, I set up down the road…and sell a CD – at £9, no less. This is because I’ve stuck a bit of paper that says £9 over the bit of paper that said £8! The lucky purchaser is a young American woman. That really cheered me up – it was terrible, that half hour here, yesterday. Very depressing. In fact, it got me really down for the rest of the day. Today’s a different beast, though. The money’s a lot better, straight off. Lots of kids hassling their parents to give them something to give to me: Fine by me.
Ragtime Phillip arrives during the first Gymnopedie – weird, as it’s one of his favourites. He’s looking well, considering the cancer. He raises his hat a little – ‘I’ve lost the hair, though’. He’s been up St. Catherine’s Hill – ‘Being a tourist in my home-town’. I say I’ve been off for two weeks and he reckons it’s the tendon in my hand, and the cold weather won’t help at all. But that’s nothing compared to your fingernails and hair falling out, and having to wear a colostomy thing. Bloody hell.
After Phillip leaves, I do some capo songs and I have a theory about something. I’m sure it’s not my imagination, but if I do 2 or 3 songs with the capo on the 7th or 8th fret, I’m sure my left hand warms up a bit. And I’m sure it’s because it’s much nearer the rest of my body then when I’m playing down at the far end, near the nut. I’m sure it warms up during Yellow Bird, too, because the whole thing’s done up around the 7th fret and further up, near my body. There must be something in it – as they say, it’s not bloody rocket science! So, I need to do: Blowin’ In The Wind, Here Comes The Sun, Girl, then tune down for Yellow Bird, when it gets really cold.
I managed an hour and ten minutes, which took the total to two hours: a bit too long, really. I don’t know how long Tony stuck it for, but he walked by, around the half-hour mark. The money was very good today, finally. Sympathy money!
Earnings: £49.04p (Including one £9 CD)
*I’m still waiting…
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