I've been out busking several times over the past week or so. Rather than write a full essay for each time I've chosen a few highlights.
Wisbech
I played for a couple of hours in Wisbech one afternoon. Argos has closed down so I set up on a flat surface (hooray) under the entrance “porch”. I didn’t account for the change of wind direction or the sideways rain. Oh well. Downham tomorrow then.
Downham Market
My usual spot in Downham turned into a wind tunnel. I eventually called it a day after nearly two hours and getting rained on four times. Many thanks to Groovy Sue who came over from her market stall with a tarp to help keep the instruments dry.
Peterborough
On Monday I planned to go to Ely, but issues with the van meant Peterborough was closer. Of course you realise that "issues" is a euphemism. After busking in Downham on Saturday I went to the gym for a bit of exercise. On my way back to the boat I noticed flashing blue lights in my rear mirror. Like any good citizen I pulled into one of the few lay-bys on that road, but guess what ... the blue lights pulled in too. I'm sure someone out there recognises that sinking feeling when one has been pulled over by the police. I was trying to work out what I'd done wrong and couldn't think of anything. I recently replaced the stop light that had blown so it couldn't be that. I could have been speeding. I have an intermittent fault that means my speedometer sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. When it's having a rest I have to guess my speed, but I'm not always sure I'm accurate. This was one of those times. My garage has tried to repair the fault, but it requires a discontinued part for the gear box, that's the trouble with a seventeen year-old vehicle. I guess Citroën weren't confident it would last this long. The rain had started up again so I wound down the window (don't mock, my window has a hand-operated winder, okay?) to let the rain in while a policeman looking the same age as one of my grandchildren sauntered up.
"Afternoon, sir, do you know why we've stopped you?" I confessed I did not. "Your MoT was due at the beginning of December ..." my life flashed before my eyes. I couldn't believe it! Having bought the van in July, or maybe August, I'd got all my dates a bit confused. Admittedly the events surrounding the purchase of the van had been very stressful and had taken place during a very, very stressful year. I was still fretting that I had left my stainless steel flask and the bottle bag made from recycled fabrics in which I carried it (made by Zoe, who trades as Ideal Chaos) at the used car lot somewhere near Maidenhead. I'd completely forgotten to check the date the MoT was due. Well now I knew. Unfortunately there really is no proper excuse for being nearly four months overdue, so the policeman pointed out that he had to give me a ticket. He was very polite. In fact he was so polite that he informed me of my rights twice ("You have the right to remain silent, but anything you later rely on in court ..." etc) as he completed different parts of the pro-forma on his phone. I'd never been read my rights before. He allowed me to carry on back to the boat since I was so close, but I would not be allowed to use my van unless I were driving it to the garage for the MoT test. That put paid to any more busking for a while then. This all happened on a Saturday and there was no reply from the garage until Monday. Apparently this was also MoT season, which I didn't know was a thing, and the garage could not do anything about my van for another week. However they could let me have a courtesy vehicle at the end of the week. At least I would have some wheels for the following weekend.
I wouldn’t normally busk in Peterborough, because parking is so expensive, but I decided to work until I’d earned the car park fee so I could park the courtesy car loaned me by the garage. I was coming towards the final half hour when this happened. No way could I compete with such a loud intrusion. However nicely he played his extended Walt Disney medley all I could do was to pack up early.
I much prefer my small towns!
This is the sound that stopped my busking set ...
King's Lynn
I enjoyed busking in Lynn today. I don’t busk there very often, but I found a good spot in Norfolk Street. A street sweeper came by and told me I was improvement on yesterday. “I could listen to you all day,” he said. “Yesterday’s busker only played one song over and over and it stuck in my head for the rest of the day! It drove me nuts.”
Another man, a professional drummer, wanted to talk drums and guitars. That was cool. Also cool was the little girl who went by several times, sometimes with mum and sometimes with grandma. She stopped for an extended listen. Every time she passed by after that she waved and called a greeting. It was also nice to see an acquaintance I haven’t seen for a while. Many thanks to Chloe for buying me lunch. Strangest and perhaps saddest tale of the day was the man who told me how he and his wife have been kept apart by the U.K.’s hostile attitude towards foreign nationals. The strangest part of that encounter was that a complete stranger explained he'd met her on Chaturbate!
Thetford
Having busked in King’s Lynn earlier in the day I set off for Thetford to attend a session of the Open House Music Group (Thetford). I was made very welcome. Nice to meet lots of friendly people. There seemed to be a bit of a Roy Orbison theme going on, but I stuck to some tried and tested Marshlander repertoire. I sang For Pete’s Sake, Burning and had a request to sing Blame It On Me. Thanks to Mike, the group organiser, for the invitation.
Hunstanton
Which brings me to Good Friday. It was such a lovely day, more busking was called for, so I set off for Hunstanton. I left quite late (after lunch) in the hope of missing the traffic that would undoubtedly be heading for the seaside that day. That didn't work so I took some of the back roads I knew through West Norfolk and didn't arrive in Sunny Hunny until 3.30pm. I assumed my friend, Adrian, would probably have the bookshop open so I pulled in to see what the score was. The shop was indeed open and had been very busy during the morning. Once again I chose a very slow part of the day to set up. Barely raising a two figure amount of cash in tips was more than made up for by the fact that a few people actually stopped and listened. Now that is pretty rare and rather nice when it does happen.
