Diary Of A Busker Day 2435 Tuesday September 10th 2024 Winchester.
After a chat with Don Lavelle – he’s on day 15 of his latest high street painting, looking up towards Jewry Street from the end of The Pentice, I set up at the top spot and no sooner had I got the guitar in tune, it’s Claire. I asked if she was kept long after me at the police station the other day. ‘Oh yes…a long time.’ ‘Well, it’s good you came up with me. I mean, they need people like us to make statements or that bloke will carry on.’
‘They said they’d send me a letter about it but I haven’t had one yet.’ ‘Neither have I but they will, probably if it goes to court.’ Then she got into the middle of the street and starts dancing. Apparently, there was a video of her dancing to a young singer and it had got over a million views. Claire’s gone viral – haha!
Pretty soon she’s at the bench and talking to an old man in his motorised buggy, then she’s coaxed him out and they’re dancing and loads of people are taking photos and videos and I’m thinking if one of those with me in the background is going to go bloody viral. At the end of a song they move their faces together VERY slowly then touch lips and a kiss. After a couple more dances, he’s back in his buggy and he comes across to me and gives me a £2 coin. ‘I see you had a nice dance there!’ I say. ‘Yes…very slow!’ he says. I laugh, ‘Well, I think you’ve pulled!’
Three women turn up and sit on the monument – they’ve got some chiffon-like scarves, then one gets up and dances with Claire, waving a scarf about. Then she embraces Claire and this goes on for a good few minutes, the two of them with their arms around each other in the middle of the high street. Then the other two women get up and one hands a scarf to Claire and the next minute all of them – Claire and the three women are dancing, waving the scarves about.
Half an hour later, Claire needs a break and sits down behind me and the three women come to me. One says in a German accent ‘You are spreading love unt happiness to this place. God has given you this gift. Vee owe our happiness to God. You are his instrument, you know?’ Bloody hell, I didn’t expect that. ‘…so how are you here, playing?’ I end up giving them a truncated version of the Hard Luck Story, ending with ‘…so I was going deaf, playing in rock groups so I had to stop and decided to do this.’ And right on cue, my hearing-aid battery conked out. It had given me several warnings over the last half hour and then the final one, a descending 4-note arpeggio and that’s it. They offer to stand by my stuff so I can nip into Boots a few doors down to get a packet and 5 minutes later I’m back.
The women are very interested in my hearing – ‘Vee would like to pray for you, OK?’ ‘Pray for me?’ ‘Yes, vee pray for your hearing if it’s OK?’ ‘Yeah, sure…why not, go for it!’ (what have I got to lose) One of them puts her hand on my shoulder – ‘OK…God, please can you help Marvin’s ears. His left ear unt his right ear, so please make him hear again. Amen.’ I’ve just had a thought – I raise my forefinger – ‘Actually, can you also pray for my two fingers on my right hand because I’ve got this neurological thing called Focal Dystonia which makes the responses a bit late and makes it hard to play some things.’ ‘Yes, God, please help Marvin’s hand so he can play the guitar. Amen.’ I have another thought. I mean, why stop there – ‘Oh, and I’ve got this thing with my left heel, Plantar Fasciitis, it really hurts.’ ‘Yes, of course…God, please help Marvin with EVERYTHING he has wrong with him…Amen!’
Well, that must have looked a bit weird – three women standing with me, sitting on my stool, one woman with her hand on my shoulder. Anyway, they say goodbye and God bless and all that and walk off and I turn to Claire who’s been observing and she says ‘I bet you didn’t expect that!’