Of A Bookshop Busk

I enjoyed a long busking session yesterday in Downham Market. I was outside the West Norfolk Deaf Association Bookshop for three hours in celebration of its fifth anniversary since opening. Normally completely solo I shared the day with John Preston, Yve Mary B and a man called Stuart. It is one of my favourite busking places and the people in the bookshop are always incredibly friendly. It also happens to be a very well-stocked bookshop and I recommend a visit to any visitors to the town. It was also, for a few very wonderful months, a monthly venue for musical performances. Unfortunately circumstances saw that period forced to come to an end.

There always turn out to be more people passing by this spot than one might expect and yesterday was certainly no exception judging by the tips. Of course, many people wanted to donate to the WNDA, but several were also generous in tipping individual performers. One man sticks out in my mind. He stopped for a while during one of John's songs and decided we needed to be lectured on how to perform for the public in the street. He said he had been observing us from a shop across the road, but I think he just made that up. Apparently we ought to have been raising spirits or moving people to action in the face of the problems facing the citizenry. It being my turn to sing next I sang "Obstacle Race", which he acknowledged was an upswing in the mood. He went on to cite the failure of the Brexit project as an example of how we should be addressing ourselves to doing something positive. I would have sung my "Referendum Rag" to him, but he'd had enough and went to fix other problems around the town. It was John's turn to sing a song, so I lost the moment, but after that I sang it anyway.