Buskers

[flotemysost]

In the flat I was living in recently during the winter lockdown, every day I'd hear the same busker playing on the high street (which was right under my window) - same repertoire each time (always kicked off with Heaven by Bryan Adams, then a bit of Fleetwood Mac). She had a very nice voice tbf, but it did get a bit tiresome hearing the same songs every day.

I've since moved to the other side of town (well, North East to South East London) and I'm 99% sure I could heard her singing this morning - same setlist, very similar voice etc.

What buskers or street entertainers have you got near you, and are they any good? It seemed for a while every medium-sized town centre in the UK had a band of Peruvian-looking panpipe chaps getting unceremoniously ignored outside a shopping arcade every Saturday afternoon.

[imitationleather]

I liked the dead ringer for Ian Brown who used to blow into a traffic cone around Covent Garden.

There's a very jolly/drunk eastern European who parps into a trumpet in Newcastle.

All other buskers are rubbish. A couple of years ago a white guy with dreads would play a bongo outside my flat. Seriously wanted to kill the cunt.

[Sebastian Cobb]

There was a famous one in Aberdeen who was affectionately known as 'Guitar Wifey', she used to strum an out of tune guitar with no apparent effort to form any sort of chords or music out of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKhKIhERujc

I think at one point she was threatened with deportation and there was a bit of a local outcry about it.

There's a little piece on her here:
https://thetab.com/uk/aberdeen/2014/09/27/guitar-wifey-uncovered-5681

[non capisco]

I liked the dead ringer for Ian Brown who used to blow into a traffic cone around Covent Garden.

He had a much better voice than Ian Brown. It was always either 'When The Saints Go Marching In' or 'Another Day In Paradise' with that guy though. Vary up your repertoire, mate. After his Covent Garden residency he moved for a while to a spot right outside my workplace window on Old Compton Street during the boiling hot summer of 2003. I think he deviated from his unceasing setlist of New Orleans ragtime and Phil Collins exactly once when I heard him play the theme from Emmerdale Farm. My colleague was in the toilet at the time and refused to believe me that it had happened.

[JaDanketies]

Manchester had the Piccadilly Rats, headed by the most manc-looking guy imaginable:



Poor guy got hit by a tram and died. It was like the loss of a major celebrity over here. I bet Manchester will be sadder about the death of the Piccadilly Rats guy than when Morrissey snuffs it.

Just near where the Piccadilly Rats used to perform is a guy with a tin whistle who doesn't seem to understand anything about music and is just free-jazz improving on an unpleasant-sounding instrument. I suspect the tin whistle is just to attract attention.

[Tokyo van Ramming]

A friend told me of the Cambridge Bin Busker

Admirable, really.

[Gurke and Hare]

I liked the dead ringer for Ian Brown who used to blow into a traffic cone around Covent Garden.

I love punchlines that write themselves.

As anyone who's ever lived in Nottingham knows, the lovely Xylophone Man was the greatest of them all.

[non capisco]

There was that guy on Tottenham Court Road who used to sellotape a toy saxophone to a Henry Hoover's mouth, put on an instrumental tape on a boombox and then stand there pointing at the Henry as if he'd discovered a sentient vacuum cleaner that could play an instrument. What an act.

[imitationleather]

Actually the old guy near Brick Lane who played an organ was good too.

[imitationleather]

There was that guy on Tottenham Court Road who used to sellotape a toy saxophone to a Henry Hoover's mouth, put on an instrumental tape on a boombox and then stand there pointing at the Henry as if he'd discovered a sentient vacuum cleaner that could play an instrument. What an act.

Haha I'd forgotten about him.

If only he'd lasted into the era of TikTok. He'd be a star.

[Icehaven]

I've got a mate who busks (acoustic guitar and singing), and when he lived in Coventry he used to go to Stratford in Summer and play Beatles songs and absolutely raked it in from American tourists. He lived in Wales for a few years and played in Carmathen and apparently did OK.

[Kankurette]

I've never seen the Piccadilly Rats. Boo. Though when I was living in Chester, a guy who played the electric violin used to play outside the Oxfam shop I worked in and he was pretty good. I think he sold CDs as well.

[Midas]

Walked past a woman singing an operatic number and a man sat outside Greggs drumming on a bucket. They were exactly what you'd expect. There's usually a woman who stands by some bins and sings 'Hallelujah' on weekends but she must have finally given up the ghost.

[touchingcloth]

Is the blind guy who used to play in front of an umbrella on Manchester's Market Street still around? He is the only busker I have a specific memory of, mainly because his assistance dog was such a good floofy boi.

[Stoneage Dinosaurs]

A friend told me of the Cambridge Bin Busker

Admirable, really.

Not as good as that bloke who plays the saw.

[Wonderful Butternut]

Around my way, mostly identical sounding fuckers twanging away on acoustic guitars and shout-singing some crappy old shit, tearing their vocal chords apart in the process, thus ensuring they'll never be any good.

Did see a group of 5-6 people doing reggae covers, complete with dancing, a couple of years ago. They were good.

[JaDanketies]

Is the blind guy who used to play in front of an umbrella on Manchester's Market Street still around? He is the only busker I have a specific memory of, mainly because his assistance dog was such a good floofy boi.

Oh the Hoochie Coochie Man! He was really good. Played Dire Straits and Jonny Be Good and sing along, great stuff. Not seen him for a long while. Sometimes you get impressive beatboxers in that spot now.

[Tony Tony Tony]

Used to pass this guy outside Hammersmith Broadway after work regularly

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SybGiPi5dfA&feature=youtu.be

Even the 15 seconds of this You Tube clip exhaust me. The guy used to dance for feckin hours. I haven't seen him lately so I guess he raved himself to death or he is happily retired on his earnings living in a cottage in Cornwall.

[markburgle]

I used to see this guy around Bayswater. I think he's great, got good feel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5xPQrcVGqs

[idunnosomename]

anyone remember the guy by Covent Garden tube who just used to sit there doing the first two bars to the Flintstones theme down a traffic cone?

or of course, that Norwich staple, the Puppet Man, who comes all the way from Great Yarmouth to do his disturbing act where he thrashes hand puppets about to Beatles songs on a ghettoblaster.

ahh, England.

[imitationleather]

anyone remember the guy by Covent Garden tube who just used to sit there doing the first two bars to the Flintstones theme down a traffic cone?

Take me off block you dickhead!

[timebug]

We have a local bloke who dresses in full scots kit, kilt etc,and tortures his octopus on one of our main city centre streets. Funny thing is, I heard him talking to a passerby once, and despite the full scots outfit, he is a Yorkshireman! Still a bloody row though to listen to!

[Bently Sheds]

I was in Peterborough last week and there was a bloke on the edge of Cathedral Square singing syrupy modern ballads to a barely audible backing tape which was played through a small (presumably battery powered) guitar amp. As I got nearer I noticed he had an associate with him, dressed in full Lonsdale - woolly hat on head. He was the Bez to the singer's Ryder; but his dance moves were akin to those wobbly air blown things outside car dealers in America. Like Howard Joneses mate had thrown off his mental chains and then completely lost them.

The last time I was in nearby Stamford they had some gadge in a tailcoat playing classical guitar  - full on Julian Breaming it he was, he even did the Nokia ringtone. I've also seen a string quartet playing in the street. You get a better class of busker in posh old Stamford.

[The Mollusk]

I've never seen the Piccadilly Rats. Boo.

If you've never seen them I really don't think you've any rightful place to be booing them.

[JaDanketies]

I was in Peterborough last week and there was a bloke on the edge of Cathedral Square singing syrupy modern ballads to a barely audible backing tape which was played through a small (presumably battery powered) guitar amp. As I got nearer I noticed he had an associate with him, dressed in full Lonsdale - woolly hat on head. He was the Bez to the singer's Ryder; but his dance moves were akin to those wobbly air blown things outside car dealers in America. Like Howard Joneses mate had thrown off his mental chains and then completely lost them.

Friend of mine (used to) busk, doing juggling, and he would always have one of our less-reputable acquaintances with him in the background, because he felt at-risk of being robbed or mugged and wanted someone to back him up. This might've been the unspoken purpose of Bez.

My friend busked in Manchester or Bury though, which are probably a little bit dodgier than Peterborough.

[The Dog]

Got a classics lecturer who sometimes busks outside my local Londis, but he only knows about 3 lectures: Something about Virgil, Ptolomeic Egypt and another one he does in Greek. He's got an overhead projector and everything. Seems to be very popular, but I don't know why. Just ancient media studies isn't it? Waste of everyone's time.

We used to have a busker with a guitar who did Oasis covers, but he got chased away by a man on a horse.

[Gurke and Hare]

or of course, that Norwich staple, the Puppet Man, who comes all the way from Great Yarmouth to do his disturbing act where he thrashes hand puppets about to Beatles songs on a ghettoblaster.

About 20 years ago I saw a legit great puppet Beatles street act in Covent Garden, two people playing Beatles songs over 4 inch tall marionette Beatles on a full band stage set, really good stuff it was.

[Tony Tony Tony]

anyone remember the guy by Covent Garden tube who just used to sit there doing the first two bars to the Flintstones theme down a traffic cone?

or of course, that Norwich staple, the Puppet Man, who comes all the way from Great Yarmouth to do his disturbing act where he thrashes hand puppets about to Beatles songs on a ghettoblaster.

ahh, England.

I have seen the Puppet Man in Great Yarmouth on many occasions. Though his 'act' is pretty shite, it is crap in an endearing way.

This story in the local paper about him getting thumped has some very odd bits than made me think it has a whiff of being made up, for publicity purposes obvs. Having said that, the bit about getting a custard cream from the old bill is so precise it has got to be true.

https://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/news/puppet-man-regrets-yarmouth-move-1876020   
.

[confettiinmyhair]

The Puppetman used to be part of a collective of buskers. There was a dancing robot, a group of pan pipers. For other Norwichers there was a guy just before Covid who used to wheel around a huge speaker and presumably a karaoke system and sing along to reggae like a discarded roadie from UB40's tour of 1987. I miss that guy, as drunks would often pitch up next to him and dance along.

[steveh]

A few years back there was a woman who busked at Kings Cross tube station who despite sounding British when I heard her talking would use similar vocal stylings to the Swedish female singers that were popular at the time. Was always fascinated by her choice to do that, but then for years people were emulating Americans.

There used to be a guy who was mostly outside John Lewis on Oxford St that would play random notes on a recorder all day. He appeared to be someone with learning disabilities and I think had a dodgy mate that may have been manipulating him. Not seen him for years so hopefully he's got a better life.