Day 2737
Friday September 4th 2026
Southampton.
I thought I should give the big city another chance just two days after my rather disappointing visit. The spot outside the mall entrance is out – there’s a woman in a wheelchair singing Ain’t No Sunshine (when HE’S gone – she hasn’t changed it). She’s got a paper cup in front of her which looks like it’s got £100 in coinage. Up the road, she’s almost out of earshot but she’s still doing the same song five minutes later – an extended version, I suppose.
The temperature is now around 20 so that’s fine – I’ve even donned my leather jacket – but it’s very windy and I have to keep my right foot on the case or it’ll blow away. A young guy with a load of metal in his lips and nose comes up, nods approval, puts 20p in, picks up a CD and has a look at it – ‘I’d really like a CD but I haven’t got any money today.’ ‘Take it, pay me some other time.’ I can’t believe I said that, what’s wrong with me?
Ten minutes in and she’s still doing that bloody song. In fact, twenty minutes in and it’s still ‘…and she’s always gone too long, anytime she goes away…’ I wonder if someone keeps requesting it…and then…bloody hell, what’s all this…a load of shouting somewhere…on my left, in front of the Barclays Bank door, a man with a megaphone pointing at the doorway – ‘PROTEST! SAY NO TO THE VIOLENCE! SAY NO TO THE KILLINGS!’ There’s a big billboard leaning against the Barclays wall – BARCLAYS FUND PUPPY KILLING MBR ACRES. And now, out of the megaphone a weird sound, like a load of crying and wailing – it’s a load of dogs crying/wailing. ‘THEY’RE TORTURING PUPPIES…SAY NO RIGHT NOW!’ The bank people are on the other side of the door, arms folded, looking at this bloke. They’re smiling, even laughing.
I turn up and try and play over this but it’s no good – he’s louder than me and I’m bloody loud. That’s it, I put the guitar down and go over –
‘Excuse me, how long are you going to be here?’
He lowers the megaphone – ‘I don’t know.’
‘What do you mean, you don’t know?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘The thing is, you’re stopping me from working.’
‘Well, go somewhere else.’
I can’t, there’s woman down the road which is why I’m up here.’
‘Well, you can phone the police if you like.’
There’s nothing I can do so I go back and pack up. The young guy I gave the CD to is still there. I say ‘Looks like I picked the wrong day to come to Southampton.’ ‘Yeah, too bad about that…I’ll look out for you in future.’ ‘Cheers.’ And I’m off down the road but not before I shout ‘You’re a prick, mate!’ to the megaphone bloke.
…and she’s still doing the same song. I go up and ask how long she’ll be.
‘An hour and a half.’
‘You’ll be another hour and a half?’
‘Yeah, hour and a half.’ Well, I’m not hanging about that long. I might as well go down south a bit and hope she’s not too loud…and she isn’t, even though she’s facing me. Brilliant, I can carry on.
Ah, a friendly face from the past, from Winchester. It’s ex-dispatch rider Rom. ‘Hey Marvin, wow, what you doin’ here?’
‘I’m playing here, Rom. You alright?’
‘Yeah. I met Roger Waters!’
‘What?’
‘I met Roger Waters. The guy in Pink Floyd.’
‘Really?’
‘Yeah, he was getting a train from Winchester to Portsmouth. I couldn’t believe it. I went up to him and said “Excuse me, sir” and he said “Yeah, I am” like he knew what I was going to say, you know?’
‘No way.’
‘Yeah, like you’d think he’d get a ‘copter or a limousine but he was on the train. I got a photo, look…’ he gets his phone out… ‘I said “can I have a photo and he said “sure”.
Rom shows me the photo – a selfie with Roger. I ask if I can take a photo of his photo and then one of him holding his phone with the photo. ‘So he was alright about all that?’
‘Yeah, he was great.’
‘Well, that’s good to hear.’
Rom suggests I go and busk in London – something I haven’t done in years.
‘Listen’ he says, I was just standing there, I didn’t play much, and I got over a hundred quid for two hours. People were just coming up and giving me money – they thought i looked like Jack Sparrow!’ Yeah, he does a bit. Rom holds out his hand to offer what I believe is known as a fist pump and after that he’s off…and in the distance it’s still going on “ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone”. Maybe I should go up and say she should busk in The Square – see how The Arse likes it – two hours plus of one song, haha!
I was about to pack up – I’d done 2 1/2 hours – when a woman who’d been listening on a bench came up. Her name was Jane and she was about to get on the Queen Mare 2 to New York. She loves the cruises – ‘You have to do things when you can, you know.’ I had to agree. I said it was very loud here in Southampton (not just me, there are buses, kids shouting, sirens…megaphones).
‘Well, when I was young we were always told not to make any noise. That generation, don’t talk at the table, keep quiet…don’t ask questions about the outside world, so we never knew anything so when we grew up and left home it was all a bit…the unknown, you know? But we were OK, we found out, we all do, don’t we?’ We certainly do, Jane.
Well, I gave this place another chance and it WAS a better day. The profit was £37.27.