Day 2623
Saturday November 8th 2025
Winchester, The Square
There’s a bloke selling poppies at the top spot – I’m not bothered about that as it’s the weekend so it’s The Square for my traditional session. After two days with the Squier I’m back out with the Faith, for a change. It’s Remembrance Week (that’s what I think it should be called) and there are a few chalked references – one, by a child (I’m assuming!) says “LESS we forget.”
Two songs in and suddenly there’s a giant poppy dancing in front of me. I mean, I know this country has gone into poppy overkill the last few years, with giant poppies on the front of buses and everywhere else but this is the first time I’ve been confronted – and that’s the perfect word – with an actual Poppyman. I can’t see his head (I’m assuming it’s a bloke in there because it’s dancing like a bloke) but he can obviously see ME – there’s a gauze-covered letterbox opening through which he can see. Of course this commands the attention of loads of people, who take photos and videos but unfortunately no donations for ME. After a few minutes Poppyman dances off down towards the cathedral. See you next year.
A worrying moment – I have a bad memory lapse during the start of the “But her friends are nowhere to be seen” bit on Life On Mars? I can’t remember the first chord and have to stop, turn the guitar tuner on (which switches the volume off) and take a minute to try and remember it but can’t. Sod it, I carry on and thankfully remember it when it comes around again.
Coinage-wise, it’s been a hell of a lot better here on a weekend. After an hour, there are no fivers and no CD sales…however, it’s not over till the fat lady sings OR until I’m visited by two very drunk women, both considerably younger than me. They’re both swaying about and holding goblets full of beer which keep spilling. They aren’t from here – they’ve come here for the Festival Of Light, whatever that is, and are very happy/drunk. They stoop down and engage me in conversation. One is named Kat, the other isn’t. They are interested in the CDs and plum for the “two for £15” deal. In fact, the one who isn’t Kat drops a £20 note in my case and refuses to accept the fiver change. They want to hear Here Comes The Sun, which I played five minutes ago, still, a request is a request and besides, they’ve just saved the session, so Here Comes The Sun, it is. The manager of The Old Vine will really love me today – forget “Two-song Marvin”, it’ll be “One-song Marvin.”
They love it – they resume the swaying, dancing – now with arms around each other, and spilling the beer. After Here Comes The Sun (no chance as it’s getting quite dark by now), they both say ‘Another song!’ and it can only be Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, because EVERY drunk woman loves the pre-chorus “Da da, da da, da da da da da”. Actually, it’s excruciatingly difficult to do because they keep going into the chorus too early and their rhythm is in a time signature known only to them…and they’re singing in a different key to me! But so what, it’s funny and they’re having the time of their life.
Well, it was inevitable…while I’m straining to see what position I’m on the fretboard (there are no fretboard markers on the Faith, just the very small dots on the side of the neck). there’s an almighty smash/crash. I look up and Kat has dropped her goblet and there is glass all over the pavement.Thinking they’ll sort it out, I carry on playing…they sway about looking at the destruction then decide on the best solution – to get the larger shards of broken glass…somewhere else! To this end, they decide on something which just cracks me up. They have obviously decided not to touch the glass with their hands so they attempt to clamp pieces of glass between their ankles and hop it to the fence area, to be out of harm’s way!
Well, I’ve never seen a Poppyman until today and I’ve never seen two drunk women try and hop with pieces of glass between their ankles. In short, they never even managed one hop…because it’s impossible…but very VERY funny. After five hilarious minutes of this, they give up and drift off. I’m not the only one who witnesses this – there is a couple on the bench to my right who couldn’t stop laughing. Not long after, a bloke came out of Three Joes and swept the glass up.
I meant to fulfil my intention of completing a full two hours but had to stop ten minutes shy of that, at 5:25, for two reasons. Firstly, I could barely see the guitar! Secondly, the volume of the guitar seemed to get very quiet. So quiet, in fact, that when I switched the tuner on, then off, there didn’t seem to be a lot of difference. I wasn’t sure if my ears were playing tricks with me or if the batteries in the amp/foot pedal/guitar were running low, or what. Whatever it was, that was enough for me and I couldn’t go on. Besides, it was getting cold – too cold for my hands.
Oh well, thank you to my two drunken Saviours Of The Day (they contributed more than half of the total amount of £31.96) and I hope they got to where they were going alright!