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.

Listen to The Sunday Alternative Saturday Bonus Podcast here.

Listen to this week's edition of The Sunday Alternative here.

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February housekeeping

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@SteveOliver76

Sunday 7th July

I imagine that the 13th July 1985 was a stressful day for Bob Geldof, what with Live Aid to organise. The phenomenon of Live Aid would be dwarfed though, as by half past one yesterday afternoon, the charity gig for The Rosie May Foundation was about to kick off. The cream of Nottingham's musical crop appeared in force to support this worthy cause, although a couple of people had to drop out, one with good reason and one without. The Elwes Arms is a very long way from Nottingham city centre, so it was good to see so many people making the effort.

The weather was on our side too, and as such the beer garden was soon full of people waiting to see a show. Due to a clash of ideas when it came to organisation, the performers on the outdoor acoustic stage went on without introduction, making my job as compere a bit redundant. I managed to take the mike to make a few announcements, but didn't get the chance to get comfortable in my role.

The running order didn't quite go according to plan either, due to the couple of drop-outs, and the arrival times of certain performers. This meant that due to him actually being present, the opening act was Josh Wheatley.

If you live in Nottingham, then you will have heard Josh on NottinghamLIVE a couple of weeks ago, or seen him out and about playing acoustic nights such as Under The Tree. He is incredibly talented, and at seventeen years old has his whole life ahead of him, the lucky bastard. Josh's opening set got everyone in a good mood, and immediately the audience were on side. 

If I'm perfectly honest, (which I always try to be) I can't remember the exact order of proceedings. But the gig was divided into two stages, one indoor and one outdoor. The original running order that was published on Facebook (remember Facebook? It's coming back) suggested alternating stages, which would have been a pain in the arse to pull off. The sun was shining so obviously people wanted to be outside. It was decided that we would run the outdoor event first, until we had to finish by six due to the licencing, and then try and get everyone in for the rockier indoor stuff later. Unfortunately, this wasn't adhered to. Lucky Fate had been scheduled to play inside at two o'clock and wanted to stick to it as they had people coming specifically to see them. In my opinion this was a rather selfish attitude to take, as their fan base could easily have waited to see them later in the day and enjoyed a drink and some acoustic acts outside, but no dice, Lucky Fate were playing at two. What was also unfortunate, is that nobody seemed to understand the 'don't' part of 'don't put any other outside acts on until they've played inside', and the acoustic stage carried on regardless.

Meanwhile outside, Anwyn Williams and Matt Blick played to a far more appreciative crowd. Matt appeared on the first edition of the return show of The Sunday Alternative, we have yet to have Anwyn on either show but her performance put her on my want list for a radio session. Matt played his own brand of dark love songs, interspersed with a cover of 'I Want You Back', and a brilliant bit of whimsy (that I sadly can't remember the title of) about the progression of boy bands from clean shaven to bearded via the moustache phase.

I took a picture of people taking a picture of me. I saw Robbie Williams do it once.

The Fade also insisted on playing their indoor set in the face of our agreed outside during the day set up, due to their rather precious guitarist wanting to get it over with. A few people filtered in to see them, but they would have had more if they had waited. They are a great band so it was a shame that they didn't play to everyone who should have seen them.

We finally got people to agree on the fact that no further performances should take place indoors until the acoustic stage was finished. This meant that everyone was free to enjoy the sunshine, a barbecue, and the chilled out summer sound of some fine acoustic performers.

I was the first person to play Matt Humphries on the radio, which I'm sure is something that I'll be able to boast about one day. 

Emma Bladon Jones has appeared on my show, unfortunately it was during one of my London absences. She performed another brilliant set of her own compositions and a few covers, which seemed to be the pattern of the afternoon. It actually works quite well in that it keeps the attention of those who don't particularly want to hear original songs. I get the impression that we were invading a local pub for local people, as there were times that this event wasn't going down awfully well with the regulars who wanted their usual Saturday afternoon pint. Fuck them, it's for charity.

Chloe McShane is another singer whose mast I nailed my colours to fairly early on in her career, I've never seen her do a set with a guitar before as she usually uses a loop pedal. The set was great but didn't seem long enough somehow. It's also a pity that she obviously had to be somewhere as she arrived, performed, and went, not giving us a chance to talk.

Marc Reeves had been doing the sound for the indoor stage, but still found the time to perform on the acoustic stage. He is one of the hardest working musicians in Nottingham after all, and probably stopped off at an open mic on his way home later that night.

The final act on the outdoor stage was Alexa Hawksworth, who was meant to be playing indoors but quickly replaced Georgie Rose who had got lost on the way and played inside instead. I've always loved Alexa's voice but somehow have never managed to see her playing live. I've been told that she is a bit difficult to work with, but I can honestly say that I didn't see any trace of that with her during the show. She was one of the few acts to actually stay until the end. 

I've often been irritated by bands who leave after their bit, and this event should have been a community gathering for the musicians to enjoy the day. I understand that a few people had gigs, or parties, it was Saturday night after all, but hardly any act stayed on for very long. Gary and I had suggested an ensemble 'Hey Jude' to close the show, but had envisaged the entire line up squeezed onto the stage at the end of the night.

At seven o'clock it was time to go inside for Georgie Rose. I recently saw her performing at Under The Tree and was keen to see her again. She has also found herself on my wish list for the radio show.

Magdalla didn't impress me much. They were polite and everything but didn't have the right attitude to the occasion, swearing on stage despite there being children present. Musically they are so-so, and I've seen them do better than this on stage at The Lacehouse.

The CTRL are a band that I have given my support to since they got in touch with me, and are one of the most exciting young live bands around. They write all their own material, but had a little fundraiser going in which everyone paid a pound to choose a cover song from a list. The crowd lapped up their set, especially when they went walkabout during the show.

The final band of the evening had a bit of sadness attached to it, but fortunately not from the audience who were none the wiser. This was Prefontaine's final performance under this line up. More about that in a moment.

It is thanks to Gary, (front centre) that this whole event happened in the first place. For months he has been fretting over bands and organisation and he did get a well earned bottle of wine at the finale presentation as a thanks. He is also the driving force (along with his brother Craig, right) behind Prefontaine, and has worked hard to build the profile of the band. Internal shit behind the scenes has driven a wedge between the members, and now the Prefontaine name belongs ( thankfully) to Gary and Craig. The drummer, Nick, can be forgiven for some of his issues, as he does have a wife and kids to think about (although surely career is more important?) but it doesn't excuse him not replying to text messages and phone calls, turning up late to gigs, and generally being unreliable. Jamie, (left) on the other hand, has proved himself in my eyes at least, as a bit of a tool. Since Prefontaine played their first gig in March this year, they have continued to rise. Not only have they had extensive airplay on my shows NottinghamLIVE and The Sound Of Nottingham UK, they have also had a feature about them in The Nottingham Evening Post (as I still call it), (alright I wrote that too), and have been offered some higher profile gigs. That is all on hiatus at the moment thanks to the selfish actions of these two people. Gary and Craig have sweated blood over the band, only to have all their hard work thrown back at them.

Jamie has thrown some frankly ridiculous accusations at Gary, including that he 'promotes the band too much'. I am not the best music manager in the world, but I know that keeping it a secret isn't how a band achieves success. Also, his friends don't get the fact that Prefontaine don't have a dedicated lead singer and that it doesn't work having all three of them taking different songs to sing. It doesn't work, maybe that's why The Beatles didn't get anywhere!

Gary and Craig are now looking to the future, and looking for a new guitarist and drummer. I for one really hope that something gets sorted soon, as they have become genuine friends and I know how much Prefontaine means to them.

It is against the law for a charity gig to end without a finale performance of 'Hey Jude'. We went one better and did 'Wonderwall' too, after the triumphant jam on last week's NottinghamLIVE. The CTRL joined Prefontaine, Alexa Hawksworth, Sam and Alex the organisers, and myself and Darren Sansom to close the show in style. Nobody filmed it, which I am pleased with as it keeps it special for those of us who were there.

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