Day 2482

Diary Of A Busker day 2482 Friday January 17th 2024 Winchester.

 

Continuing the amp drama of yesterday…I read that it might be an idea to squirt some electronic cleaning spray into the on/off switch so I was up bright and early to go to D & G where I parted with £20 for a big bottle of the stuff made by WD40. Taking no chances, I decided to take along my trusty MicroCube, just in case. I couldn’t fit everything on the bike so I got the trolley out and stuffed it all in there. It was heavy as fuck but what the hell, I’ll see how I get on, going into town via the arbor.

As I’m coming into town, I notice there’s someone at the Buttercross – some tall bloke with a mic, but getting nearer it looks like he’s wearing a lot of pink and white and quite frilly, with it. As I’m almost there, it’s definitely a man because he’s got a 5 o’clock shadow but he’s got makeup and a wig, I think. I’ve never seen him before so I go up and ask how it’s going – OK, he says. He’s never been here before – he’s come up from Bournemouth – ‘Oh, that’s my hometown’ I say. He then says ‘Are you the diary of a busker man?’ I say I am and he says ‘it’s an honour to meet you!’ (What a nice chap!) He says he’s been busking since 2011, which is almost as long as me, poor chap. I tell him my name and ask his – it’s Uey – pronounced ‘you-ee’. I ask how long he’ll be there and he says he’s going to do just one more song and that I can take over if I want. I say that’s fine – I’ll go down the road and come back in a bit. He wants to give me one of his CDs – I thank him but say he should keep it and get some money for it, which I regret as I wish I’d bought it now because I’ve probably spelt his name wrong.

I went down the road and was thinking fucking hell, he must get a bit of stick, looking like that. I think that’s really brave because people can be right cunts, sometimes.  Anyway, down near Tesco, I have a chat with the young Big Issue girl, who suggests I set up nearby, outside The White Stuff – in fact, this is the “opposite The Body Shop” spot – one of my old haunts, but I go back to the Buttercross and set up, with the MicroCube behind the Cube Street. Fortunately, the Cube Street didn’t conk out so maybe it WAS the on/off switch but I’ll only know after a few more goes. Unfortunately, it was colder than yesterday (about 6 degrees) and quite windy, which was no fun. I had the hand warmers in the coat pockets but after 3 or 4 minutes of playing, the fingers were freezing and no amount of in-between-song-warming could cure the problem. During a short break, when I was standing there with hands in pockets, a woman asked if I was cold and I said I was ‘but I’ve got these’ and pulled out the warmers. ‘Yes, but they’re in your pockets!’ she said, which was something I couldn’t argue with! 

 

I managed an hour and 15 minutes and that was it – my fingertips were in pain so I packed up. It was hard-going on the way back with the trolley. It’s uphill almost all the way and it was like dragging a dead weight, not to mention the guitar on my back, which didn’t help my Plantar Fasciitis! The thing I forgot was, when I’m on the bike, the weight of the gigbag is reduced by almost 100% because it’s resting on the amp case in the rear basket so it’s almost like it’s not there. Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be doing that again – too much like hard work! I’ll just take the bigger amp in and hope it doesn’t fuck up. One funny thing, it was weird being at the Buttercross and looking to the right and not seeing the bike resting against the wall. I think I find it quite comforting to see it there!

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