Diary Of A Busker Day 2479 Tuesday January 14th 2024 Winchester.
I remembered to come prepared with everything today – sun cream on my face, hand warmers in coat pockets…and flask of coffee. Fortunately, the temperature is up a few degrees, at a staggeringly tropical 9 degrees…and the Buttercross is free. A bunch of young people stand nearby, chatting and watching me. There are five men and two women. One of the blokes has a clipboard. After a bit, they come over. Clipboard guy says ‘We were wondering if we could do a video of you with us dancing around you? Would you mind?’ ‘No, not at all…you’re welcome to leave a donation.’ ‘Sure’ – clipboard guy scans the £5 QR code on the paper in the gigbag. ‘Thank you, that’s great…so what would you like me to play, something fast? Slow?’ ‘We don’t mind. Something up?’ ‘OK, what about Here Comes The Sun?’ ‘Yeah, great.’ So I do it, he films his mates jumping about, then they’re off.
Half an hour later, another bunch of young people – again mainly blokes but two women, one of which is dressed in what looks like a black catsuit. The catsuit comes up – ‘Hi, we were wondering if we could film you while we dance about. Is that OK?’ ‘Yeah, sure. Is this some sort of university project?’ ‘No, we’re in the army. This is something for us to do, it’s our day off.’ ‘You’re in the army?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘You don’t look like it!’ She laughs then says ‘Do you know Wonderwall by Oasis?’ It’s now MY turn to laugh – ‘Yeah, but no, I don’t do it. I’m the wrong person for that.’ ‘OK, can you play something fast?’ ‘Yeah, sure…and you’re welcome to leave a donation.’ The other girl puts in a coin and I start up Mister Sandman, which I reckon is fast enough – certainly faster than that Wonderwall garbage.
Well, things happen in threes, don’t they? and it’s not long after, when another bunch turn up but they want something slightly different. They don’t want me to play but they want me to take a photo of them dancing around to one of their lot holding my guitar, pretending to be a “rock star”. I say that’s fine and make sure I do the donation bit. The trouble is, no one wants to be the rock star, holding my guitar – they’re too embarrassed. Eventually, one agrees, so I hand over the guitar, strap it on him and he does some pose – mouth open, eyes closed, looking skyward. The rest dance about and I take the fucking photo. They seem happy about it and I get a fiver, so we’re all happy.
I managed to survive a whopping TWO hour stint but the fingers were feeling the cold, even with putting my hands in my pockets on the hand warmers after every other song. Maybe I need to do it after EVERY song. The coffee was nice but by the end, I was dying for a piss. Posh Sarah walked by as I was finishing up. ‘Are you keeping warm?’ she said. ‘Yeah, I’ve got these hand warmers!’ ‘What about your head?’ ‘Oh right…well, I might have to strap them to my ears!’
(the first donation – the QR code fiver, never came through)