Tuesday March 27th 2012 Winchester High Street 1. Opposite Vodafone, Time: 1:40-3:58pm, 2. Opposite Bellis, Time: 4:45-6:02pm
A day of perfect temperature; not too cold, not too warm. In fact, if it’s too warm, my fat fingers swell up, making it impossible to play! Someone I haven’t seen for awhile, George, who used to promise he’d get me ‘loads of really good paying gigs’, turns up. George loves Chet Atkins and always requests Mister Sandman, one of Chet’s famous arrangements from the mid-fifties, and he requests it today. To George, bless him, I’m a celebrity. A load of people walk by and contribute, which brings forth George’s comment, ‘You see, you’re really famous in Winchester!’ It just so happens that for the fifteen minutes before he turns up I got zero, then he turns up and there’s loads of donations then after he leaves, bugger all for another fifteen minutes! So he thinks I’m raking it in. No so. Not for the first 3/4 of an hour, anyway. After two hours – I only intended to do one – the hands are starting to ache so a break is in order…at the cathedral grounds, which is full of people, being it’s a nice afternoon. I find a spot away from everyone because I’m an unsociable so-and-so, and partake of the usual; small apple, bowl of KBC, and count the dosh. £37.05 for two hours and 20 minutes. That’s above the hourly average. Whoopee. I decide to do another session in an attempt to get the takings to the magical £50 mark. I’ve done well, so far…I wonder if it’s because I’m the only one out playing in the fine weather. Up near Smiths, I have trouble getting the volume knob on the amp to work. I think I must have bashed it, recently. It either doesn’t work at all or it’s stuck on the loudest volume. Anyway, I get it to work but after an hour’s playing I’ve had enough. I know I’ve had enough because my brain stops and I start making schoolboy errors. This is much to the amusement of one of the regulars, Jeremy, who’s leaning against the wall on the other side of the street, chuckling. This starts to annoy me…like laughing at someone’s misfortune. And another thing, he NEVER contributes. This is the same person who, the other day, held his phone to my amp for a minute (after he’d held it to the guitar, the idiot). He should come out here and sit and play for hours on end, trying to scrape together a few quid. Anyway, I made the £50, no thanks to Jeremy. Earnings: £51.04