Day 2554

Diary Of A Busker Day 2554 Wednesday June 4th 2025 Chichester.

Back to Chichester and an hour earlier than usual…and The Cross spot is free so I get in there while I can and don’t even bother having a look to see who else is about. 

Slow coinage for a long time…a woman takes a photo and says ‘I’ve taken a picture of you and The Cross.’ ‘Oh right…cheers!’ ‘I’ve sent it to New Jersey, in America. You’re famous!’ Famous not only in Winchester but now New Jersey, wow! Well, if fame is appearing on a load of photos in front of well-known landmarks, I must be bloody famous all over the world. I mean, how many holiday photos of the Buttercross have I been on? There must be thousands!

I was pondering this when an old woman stood beside me and started dancing during the Gnossienne. After a minute she smiles and says ‘Hello again, nice to see you here. I think I’ll dance to you.’ I say ‘Nice to see YOU again, yeah, you carry on’ – I swear I’ve never seen her before. The trouble is, her rhythm is a lot faster than what I’m playing so I cut it short and say ‘How about a waltz?’ ‘Oh yes!’ she says, so I go into Je Te Veux but she keeps doing the same rhythm, which is in 4/4 time! Well, this is even more torturous; she’s dancing in 3/4 and I’m playing in 4/4. If I was bloody Robert Fripp I might be able to handle it but all I can do is try not to see her but it’s impossible unless I turn my head completely the other way, which would be a bit rude so I finish that one and go straight into Music To Watch Girls By, which is fine – I can keep time to her rhythm (to be honest, she’s solid as a rock) …then, as she’s having a good time, straight into Sukiyaki. By the end of that, she’s knackered – ‘Oh, thank you and good to see you again, I’m Doreen. Goodbye!’ ‘Nice to see you again, Doreen, bye now.’

A man around 80 and wearing a trilby says ‘can you play any Hank Marvin?’

‘Yeah, Wonderful Land. I’ll do it for you. Actually, my name’s Marvin, although it’s my FIRST name, not my last one.’

‘Yeah? Ha. Have you been in any bands?’

‘Yeah, loads of them but I had to stop because I was going deaf. I’ve got hearing-aids now.’

‘I got some. Four thousand pounds they were.’

‘Really? Well, I bought some from Boots – two thousand they were, but they weren’t as good as these ones so I got a refund. These are free on the NHS.’

‘Right, so I could go to my doctors and say I want some from the NHS – I’ll tell them you sent me!’ 

‘So, did you do any session work?’

‘Not really, only my own stuff.’

‘I used to be a cab driver in London and I once picked up this guy and he’s in the back of the cab and I’m looking at him in the rear-view mirror and thinking he looks familiar. He had long hair – white hair, a pony tail…I said to him “do I know you, you look familiar, have you ever played in a band?” and it was Jimmy Page.’

‘Sorry?’

‘Jimmy Page, and I said “oh sorry, I didn’t recognise you” and he said “that’s OK, I don’t want to be recognised.” He was going to a vinyl place in the West End, as he’d left all his albums in America.’

‘Wow, that’s a great story!’

‘Yeah, Jimmy page, Led Zep!’

Well, I think that even tops the Southampton cabbie I met years ago, who used to drive Benny Hill around. So you don’t like being recognised, eh Jimmy? Well you shouldn’t have formed Led Zeppelin, then. Be careful what you wish for, mate!

Of course, it was all downhill from there. I did another hour, which put it to 2 1/2 hours straight through, had my lunch (cheese and tomato roll, olives, Wotsits) near the cathedral, coffee at The Real Eating Company…and back to The Cross for an hour and twenty minutes (too many stalls on East Street and my classical guitar mate was in North Street). Anyway that put the total up to ten minutes shy of four hours – enough for a man of my vintage, I reckon.

The profit after the train fare was taken out was £53.06, so worth the hassle of getting here: the total train ride is just under three hours now, which is about 25 minutes longer than it was a few months ago.