Diary Of A Busker Day 565

Diary Of A Busker Day 565 Wednesday May 28th 2014 Winchester (Opposite Gieves & Hawkes, Time: 3:30-4:25pm).

An overcast sky which started to lightly drizzle as I was coming into the High Street – typical! At The Butter Cross, there were two young guys: one strumming, one banging on a box. Halfway down to Vodafone, it’s Syd/Sid with his flute, who I was going to ask if he could maybe move up a bit, so I could set up at Vodafone, because he was halfway between two spots, but I couldn’t be bothered talking to him!

I walked down almost as far as Oxfam, then decided to come back and set up at Gieves & Hawkes, mainly because the thought of all the buses going by, down at Oxfam, was really putting me off setting up there…and it went alright, although I thought I’d have to stop once or twice, as it started to properly rain every 15 minutes. A van went round the corner and one of the blokes in it – the one near the window – looked at me and said something ending with ‘mate’. Probably something like ‘Oi, you’ll get electrocuted, mate!’ – I don’t know, all I could really make out was the ‘mate’ bit. Anyway, people shouldn’t shout things out to people they don’t know!

Most of the coinage (I’m pretty sure) was of the sympathy variety. I mean, I must have looked pretty forlorn, sitting there hunched over the guitar, trying to protect it from the drizzle, which never really stopped. I even sold a CD: to a rough-looking woman with dyed blonde hair – a sort of haggard ‘rock-chick’ type, who I met twice. The first time was just after I went into the 1st Gymnopedie, and she shouted really loudly from the pub across the road ‘Is that Albatross?’ I stopped and said it was Erik Satie, then did a bit of Albatross, to show the difference. The natives WILL be educated.

Then, 15 minutes later, she turned up again, asking about the CDs and mentioning the Gymnopedie, or as she called it – GERANAPELABO – that’s what it sounded like, anyway! Although I pointed out that Albatross was on both CDs – because she wanted that to be on it, she went for the £9 one, originally pulling out a £5 note until I had to inform her that, no, that one she was holding was an hour long and that’s the more expensive one. Anyway, even without the CD sale, the money would have been above the normal rate.

I wanted to do an hour but it started to rain heavy at around the 50 minute mark. I managed to drag out another 5 minutes, but the guitar was pretty wet by then and, also, the amp batteries needed changing – the low E was buzzing the whole time when it was fretted on the 7th fret, on the verses to California Girls, so it was time to stop.

Earnings: £20.46p (Including 1 CD)

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