Diary Of A Busker Day 2432 Tuesday September 3rd 2024 Winchester.
I thought I’d give the double-neck a rest so back with the Cadillac Green Gretsch today…and a new thing to play; the theme from The Sweeney, complete with Thames Television/ITV ident! In fact, it’s not “new” at all, as I was playing it 10 years ago, as the date on my hand-written tab confirms. I needed the tab to refresh my memory. Anyway, the inclusion of this piece turned out to be rather prophetic.
The top spot was free so away we go…unfortunately the coinage was nothing to write home about so I ditched the letter early on. I was going to give up after an hour but hoped it might get better so I carried on another half hour…and another half hour, so that’s two hours. Suddenly a young woman with a Hampshire Council lanyard appeared, said she’d seen me loads of times and wanted to buy an album! This is always great as it means a £12.50 profit from a £20 sale.
She didn’t have any cash so I got out the bit of paper with the QR code for £10 – she would need to scan it twice. While she was trying to do this, I heard some loud talking going on to my right so I turned my head and saw a couple of drongos with Claire, the old woman who loves dancing to all the buskers.
The woman buying the album was having trouble with the scanning so I’m trying to see if I can help, when the talking becomes louder and I can now hear some swearing so I turn my head and one of the drongos sees me and says ‘I don’t mean YOU. I’m not talking to YOU!’ I think it’s best to ignore him so I carry on with the scanning help and finally sort it out and the woman leaves with her red vinyl copy and I resume playing. But a minute later some objects are thrown onto the pavement in front of me so I stop playing, turn to the drongo and say ‘Can you not do that?’ to which he replies with several ‘FUCK YOU!’s. By this time Claire has moved away from him and his two mates and is dancing in front of me. I also notice the drongo has spilt some red wine from a bottle that’s almost empty, so he’s probably well pissed up. In fact, I’m quite surprised as this particular drongo is usually very pleasant to me.
His mates make an attempt to drag him off, during which he turns to me and shouts ‘FUCKING LEARN SOMETHING NEW!’. Right, that’s it, I’m not having it. Claire has stopped dancing by now and I ask her if that drongo has been harassing her. ‘Well…he was trying to get me to have some of his wine and I was saying “I DON’T DRINK, I DON’T WANT YOUR WINE!” and he was still trying to get me to have some and I said “LOOK, I DON’T WANT ANY, I DON’T DRINK AND IF YOU ASK ME AGAIN, I’LL SLAP YOU” and he said “You wouldn’t do that sort of thing, would you?” and I said “I WOULD, NOW PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE!” and he wouldn’t so I said it again, you know, “PLEASE GO AWAY OR I’LL SLAP YOUR FACE” and he said “You wouldn’t, do that, would you?” and I said “OH YES I WOULD”‘ I tell Claire that that’s harassment and say we need to report it to the police. At this point, the drongo and his mates have moved down the road and are sitting on the bench outside WH Smiths but they then get up and walk down towards the crossroads. Well, as usual there’s never a copper about when you need one…however, like the buses, 15 minutes later, four turn up at once so I flag them down, let them know what’s happened and they go in search. I say I’d be willing to identify him if they bring him back up the road – I say I’ll hang about for a few more minutes.
The cops go off, I play a few more songs, Claire dances but I don’t think her heart’s in it. After a few minutes, a lone copper turns up, asks us both what happened and if we’re willing to accompany him up the road to the police station to give witness statements, which we both agree to. When I’ve packed the bike up, the copper, whose name is Mark, leads the way but it takes ages, as Claire is very slow and I’ve got a bad left heel AND it’s uphill all the way. In fact, it’s basically on the way home so for me, it’s killing two birds with one stone.
When we get there, Mark opens the gate to the yard so I can park my bike and then takes us through to the main bit, where he sits us both down in a small “interrogation” room, while he goes and makes us two cups of tea. I assure Claire that we’ve done the right thing, or else that arsehole will carry on being an arsehole, but Claire’s not phased at all by being there, and she obviously gave as good as she got when the drongo was harassing her. In a bit, the tea arrives and I’m taken to another small room by a young copper Alex, to give my statement. He asks me for a description of the drongo but I can’t remember anything about what he’s wearing but what I do know is he’s got a peculiar facial tick and when I say this, Alex knows who I’m talking about.
Anyway, they’ve arrested him – “he wasn’t too pleased about that” says Alex, but can’t interview him as he’s intoxicated. Alex asks if I’m prepared to give evidence in court – yes, of course I am. Anything to get these arseholes off the street, I mean I helped to get that other arsehole Gary Page a city centre ban, so bring it on, I say. They’ve got all my details because I gave a statement ten years ago but I can’t remember anything about that! I was in the room for an hour and a half, then we left and Alex knocked on the door of the room where Claire was – she was still there, and told Mark he was finished with me and I was on my way.
Oh well, good about the album sale!