Diary Of A Busker Day 559 Tuesday May 13th 2014 Winchester (1. Opposite Bellis, Time: 1:20-2:25pm, 2. Opposite Pavilion, Time: 2:30-3:15pm).
I get the first of two related comments. Those of the ‘you’re wasted here’ variety. The first, from an Irish lady wearing those big black cataract glasses. She was sitting over the road for a bit, then she comes over, donates and says ‘I hope you find somewhere where you’re more appreciated’. She must have noted there’d been one donation since I started, and I was on the 5th song. Anyway, I thanked her, and then she said ‘Can you play The Deerstalker?’ Deerstalker – ha! I had to make my excuse – ‘I used to play it, you mean The Deerhunter – Cavatina, but I’m very out of practice, sorry’. I didn’t dare say I had the music with me. I still would have had to go over it for an hour, though. Then she said ‘I’ll come back to you’, and went off.
Maurice comes bellowing up the road, carrying a rabbit box – hutch, I think they’re called – with, yes indeed, a rabbit in it. He puts 10p in the bucket and carries on up the road, bellowing all the way…then he comes back, goes into the bakery behind me, comes out and says/bellows ‘Guitarist man! Have you got ten pence?!’ I say I have, and give it to him – probably the same one he gave to me. Then he says ‘Well, I came out of the bank with twenty pounds. All gone!’ ‘What happened to it?’, I ask him. ‘Pass’, he says. ‘Pass?’, I say. ‘PASS!’, he shouts.
I give it an hour and 5 minutes then pack up…and after having a look near Vodafone (yes, he’s there again, Sid The Flute Breather, breathing into his flute), I set up at Pavilion, where I get the second ‘You’re wasted here’ remark. It started like this…a man comes up – ‘Do you know any Brazilian music?’ I say ‘Only this (I do the intro to Deve Ser Amor)…Deve Ser Amor – a samba’. He: ‘Umm…you were playing something earlier…Here Comes The Sun, it reminds me of Black Orpheus, the film…you’re probably too young’. I say I’ve heard of the film. He says ‘Well, it was a French film in English, shot in Brazil’. ‘Hmm…very confusing’, I say. ‘Anyway, you’re wasted at this venue!’, he says (venue- ha!) I say ‘Well, thank you. At least its got air-conditioning!’, being outside, of course.
During the 1st Gymnopedie, I see Mandolin John, mandolin case on his back, and he’s pushing a shopping trolley loaded with some bags, not shopping bags, though. It looks like he’s moved out…there’s definitely a sleeping bag in there.
Earnings: £21.90p