Diary Of A Busker Day 2438 Friday 13th September 2024 Winchester.
The Two Henrys are at the top spot and a few feet away Don Lavelle’s continuing his painting.
‘They told me that when they started, they had all their songs on one A4 sheet of paper and now they’ve got THREE sheets’, he says.
‘Really?’
‘Yeah, and they’ve just done Turn Turn Turn.’
‘Oh right, nice.’ They then go into something I’ve never heard them or anyone else do before – Eclipse, from The Dark Side Of The Moon.
‘Oh, this one…and one of the guys does that little bit of laughing, you know?’
‘Oh right, yeah, the lunatic is on the grass, excellent.’
They do it really well and yes, they do the laughing in the exact right place but I’m listening for the bit at the very end – “There is no dark side of the moon, really…as a matter of fact, it’s all dark” and they don’t do it. Well no one’s bloody perfect.
As they go into the next song, that old bloke from Southampton – someone else, like Claire, who seems to come up everyday to dance, although I haven’t seen him for a few weeks, he turns up and puts some coinage in their case, so I get a pound from my pocket, go up and donate and say to them ‘The lunatic is on the grass, there he is!’ and nod towards the old bloke.
Around the corner in The Square, I have a rather boring hour and a half, saved somewhat by a hilarious incident. The pony-tailed waiter from Three Joes comes to a middle-aged couple sitting at a table near me and by mistake, dumps a whole milk shake onto the woman’s lap. She looks a bit shocked for a few seconds, stands up slowly and there’s a huge white splodge mark on her crotch area. She can’t do anything but just stand there and wait for the waiter to come out with a load of tissue – he gives a handful to her and mops up the pavement with the rest. Fortunately, she sees the funny side…as I do and I can barely control myself. In fact, through the next half hour, I have several fits of laughter, thinking about it! I mean, I need a good laugh out here sometimes, and I’ve had more than my fair share with this one.
After a two-CD sale – a profit of £13 (a relief because the coinage wasn’t that good), I had to go to the toilet so I packed up and headed down Market Street, having a look at the crossroads to see if I could set up there after the toilet. Meeta’s harp is against the Pret wall so she must be inside having a snack break, so I turn the bike around and start back when I hear ‘Marvin, Marvin!’ I turn around and it’s Meeta – ‘You can play here. I’m finished. I’m inside there with Nina.’ I say I was about to go to the toilet. ‘You can go in Pret, I’ll look after your stuff.’ She goes back into Pret and a bloke is suddenly in front of me, stinking of booze. ‘You ‘ad a good day, mate?’ he says. ‘
‘Not bad I suppose, I’m not finished yet.’
‘Well, I’ve been busking meself and I’ve made seventy quid.’
‘Really? Playing what? I don’t see any instrument.’ He puts his hand into a top pocket on his shirt and I know what he’s going to pull out.
‘Yeah…well I’ve ‘ad a bit of red wine or I’d be able to…’ He’d be able to pull his fucking harmonica out of his pocket is what he’s trying to say. He eventually does it and blows out a few drunken notes before he stops, looks at the harp and says ‘Well…’ave a good day, mate’ and stumbles off.
So I lock the bike up, go into Pret, say hello to Nina, go upstairs and have a piss, and while I’m washing my hands, the young Romanian (?) Big Issue seller comes in and says ‘Oh hello!’ Now, you know how you sometimes don’t recognise someone when they’re out of their natural surroundings? That’s what happened because although I knew her face, I couldn’t for the life of me think who she was. Then I knew…and ended up buying a magazine from her, as I hadn’t seen her in over a week.
Downstairs, I chat to Meeta and Nina for a bit then set up…and who should turn up after no more than five minutes? Claire. So we’ve now got her and the old bloke from Southampton, both come up here to dance. I actually wonder if they’re the same person, just dressed differently! Anyway, Claire dances away for a bit, then Nina comes out and joins her as I start Je Te Veux (it’s a waltz and people like dancing to waltzes, don’t they?) Nina says ‘Is that Tales Of The Unexpected?’ It wasn’t…but it is now! Je Te Veux will have to wait a couple of minutes. Ten minutes and a few waltzes later, I’ve started Angie and Nina stops dancing to film me.
A bit later, a bunch of men walk by, then one comes back and puts in a tenner, saying, ‘that should cheer you up a bit.’ What, did I look miserable? I can’t help my face, mate! Oh well, maybe it’s good I look like a miserable bugger sometimes. A woman pulls up on a bike with a big light blue box on the front containing two small boys. One of them tries to work out where the sound’s coming from. His mother says ‘See that little box there, I think it’s coming from that.’
‘What’s that tube coming from it?’ he says. By this time, I’ve stopped playing – ‘Well, that tube thing comes from this guitar, see? And it goes into that box and that’s where the sound is from. It’s called an amplifier.’ ‘Oh’ says the kid, ‘will you have a beard tomorrow?’
‘Sorry? Will I have a beard? Yeah, probably.’
‘No’, the mother says, ‘will you be HERE tomorrow!’
‘Oh sorry, I’m a bit deaf! Yeah, I probably will be…well ,maybe not right here but somewhere in the area…I like your bike. I could do with one of those myself. I could stick a few guitars in there and switch when I got bored with one. That would be great!’
I pack up not long after that, Claire still dancing. I had to stop though, because Gus from the leather stall had come round with his van, which means everyone else would be soon enough. I asked Claire when she got here. ‘Oh, about twelve o’clock.’ So she’s been here and wherever else, dancing for around five hours.’
‘And are you coming up tomorrow?’
‘Oh yes! Will YOU be?’
‘I probably will, yes…see you tomorrow, then!’