Day 2390

Diary Of A Busker Day 2390 Thursday June 20th 2024 Southampton.
 
The day has arrived when I finally build up the courage to do my own songs and what more appropriate place to do it than the place where I first busked, Southampton, fourteen years ago. In fact, I’m only a few yards away from the exact location. Back then it was at the side of the street with my back to the wall but today I’m in the middle of the road in front of the bollards just up from the Bargate.
After sorting out some feedback from the mic I went straight into The Pirouettist, preferring not to actually sing words – I was too shy to do that straight off, but to ease myself into it, singing the “bum bum” lyrics, if you want to call them that (last performance live a couple of years ago with Rebsie – ‘we’d now like to play what we call “the bum bum song”’).  I then did Portrait Of A Woman then lost my nerve because there was no response and did the standby, Here Comes The Sun, in case this nerve-loss should happen. That immediately got me a few coins, which I suppose was bound to happen because everyone knows it…then, my confidence regained, I did For Ever, extending the chorus, got a coin, did Boy Became A Man, The Pirouettist and Portrait again, then did some instrumentals, Here Comes The Sun again, but got no more coinage for anything. 
 
I was starting to get a bit depressed and was wondering how long I’d been standing there – no stool as I didn’t have room for it, and besides, Dean Dyson doesn’t sit down and he’s older than me! Unfortunately, in my pre-gig nervousness, I’d forgotten to take a photo, which I always do, to record the start and finish times. But going by the time my train got in and the walk here, I’d done just over an hour. Just then a van turns up and the driver indicates he wants to go through the bollards, which retract into the road. This means I have to move, so move I do. The driver gets out – ‘Sorry mate’, gets the bollards down and drives through. 
My stuff is all in disarray and I can’t be bothered to set up again. Besides, I’ve had enough for the time being.
 
I pack up, walk up the road and sit down on a bench opposite the mall entrance and think…do I really want to do this? Being ignored while busking other people’s music is bad enough but being ignored playing my own songs is something else. But of course, people will ignore me – they don’t know the music! It’s just some old guy going “bum bum bum bum” – what the fuck’s all that about?! I can’t chicken out though. After all, I’ve just bought a bloody amp to do this. I don’t know though…I’ll see how I feel tomorrow. I think a bit of it was because no one spoke to me, which is really unusual, as there are always people coming up to talk about whatever I’m playing, because they KNOW it. Actually, someone did come up – a bloke from up north who asked if I knew of any pubs where he could watch the football – ‘Yeah, he says there are some oop the road’ he said to someone on his phone. 

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