If I had any musical talent I think I would be a busker, there seems to be something romantic and nomadic about the lifestyle which involves a guitar being your tools for work. I’m sure the reality is something quite different; weather, indifference, and worst of all idiotic people shouting abuse are all factors that buskers no doubt have to contend with. There are several familiar faces on the streets of Nottingham with varying degrees of talent, and although a lot of you will be reading this outside of Nottingham I am sure you have your favourites in your own town or city. I have lived in several parts of this country and I have my own busker memories of these places.
One of my favourites, (and I was gutted to see
that he is no longer around), was someone I used to see every day when I lived
and worked in That London in 1995. I worked at Hamley’s toy shop on Regent
Street and had to take the tube from Piccadilly Circus. At home time at the
bottom of the escalators pitched two men, a saxophonist and a Rastafarian guy
who collected money in a tambourine and combined the skin of the tambourine with
the coins to fashion a percussion instrument that he shook while the
saxophonist played the Glenn Miller tune ‘Pennsylvania 6,5000’. The Rastafarian
would improvise words to the song before booming the chorus line, every now and
again he would instead shout “Piccadilly 52, go go go”. They seemingly never
deviated from this tune, although it is possible that they simply hit that part
of the act when I left work. Another one that sticks in my memory was a man in
York who had two singing dogs. Actually he didn’t of course but his dogs did
appear to join in as backing (or should that be ‘barking’ – sorry) vocalists,
for example doing the ‘woof woof’ bit of the song ‘How Much Is That Doggy in
the Window?’ My daughter used to love the ‘singing dog man’ so we would always
stop and have a listen. Becoming a regular audience member was a bit of a
mistake as I soon saw through the smoke and mirrors to see how he managed to
train the dogs to join in; he blew into his harmonica to make a barking sound to
which the dogs would react. I also saw him give them a slight tap with his foot
although I am not going to suggest that he mistreated these dogs in any way. It
isn’t as if he stuck pins in them to make them do what he wanted them to do
like a parent of a child contestant on Britain’s Got Talent. Years later we saw
him in Leeds where he had just one dog as the other one had died, as he told me
this I could see genuine sadness in his eyes portraying a sad lonely man who
just wanted to bring a little happiness to passersby.
To return to London briefly, I noticed that
the Underground system now has intermittent areas for buskers to perform. I don’t
know if these have a time limit or whether you need some kind of licence, they
might be a free for all area like a speaker’s corner for singers, or singing
corner if you will. Nottingham seems to want to make things difficult for
buskers, but that could be just because Nottingham council is against the idea
of people enjoying themselves. We have our regulars such as Mogs Morgan, the
saxophonist who is regarded highly among the music scene and Opie Deino, a
talented musician who can be found around the city centre most Saturdays. I have
never seen her perform a gig for some reason but have often wished I had time
to sit and watch her all day. In every city we have our ropey acts too; a
familiar face around town is a musician called Smithy Row, who had a doorway
named after him.
Fact of the day: #Nottingham blues singer Smithy Row is the only busker to have a doorway named in his honour. pic.twitter.com/E70BzvXoak
— Steve Oliver (@SteveOliver76) July 15, 2013
Smithy Row makes a noise with a guitar that
from a distance or when you walk past him quickly might be perceived as blues,
although closer inspection reveals that he is just moving his fingers around
and playing nothing. He has somehow managed to make a worthwhile living out of
this.
Many of Nottingham’s musicians have busking
experience and still keep their hands in on occasion. Marc Reeves is one such
person as is Adam Clarkson (Captain Dangerous funded their debut album by
busking at various cities and have said in interview that Nottingham is not a
busker friendly place). My former radio colleague Rapunzel M.A.P. used to busk
between midnight and three o’clock in the morning and became a local celebrity
on the back of it (you can still see her on YouTube). A couple of years ago I tried
to get her to play a comeback performance but she didn’t go through with it and
sadly she and I fell out over it (although I was never told why). I do think it
is a shame that she doesn’t play anymore as she had real talent and so many
overrated singers are being courted by the local media and inexplicably gaining
nationwide attention.
Just recently I have seen some new faces up
and down the shopping areas, mainly performing covers. I am against cover acts
in theory (despite being well known for my love of covers), but I can
understand why a busker would have popular songs in their set. If someone is
walking past you on a busy shopping day then you probably have less than a
minute to impress so a recognisable favourite will grab him or her. There are a
few good singers on the street so I would like to think that they do write some
of their own songs.
I’m using this blog to formulate ideas for a
thing I am writing about buskers and would like to talk to buskers about their
experiences, so if you have a tale to tell my email address is below.
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February housekeeping
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