After a rather active pride weekend, Brighton and frew rather cold and cloudy days today we are lucky enough to get a Tuesday full of sunshine. The crowd is out, lots of tourists around. Thousands of people have already visited i360 and more keep coming ahead. When it comes to busking - it all sounds very promising with a potential to earn few quid...
I came to Pavilion Garden around 11:50am surprised to find out no one was busking yet. Garden seemed busy with constant flow of people. I set up right in front of the "Conservation Area" sign as usual and because I already had few kids waiting for me to start, I began my set with a "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Pretty much straight away I got the crowd around me and kids dancing and laughing in the middle.
Five minutes later Ben came around with his guitar. I kindly asked him to come back in one hour. Not long after Dave showed up with a big smile and camera hanging from his neck: "I got some pictures and DVDs for you!" He put them in my bag and stepped aside. Then my fiancee showed up for her lunch break and we had a little chat.
Today I had few rather disturbing experiences with the kids and one of them happened in the gardens. A girl came over to me and stood on my right side staring at me with a very serious face. I kept playing without saying anything. She was still there after some time, so I decided to offer her a "high five". Suddenly she made this hysterical scream and ran away from me as fast as she could. That was still a funny part. After that she came back, stood in the same position and told me "Zebras don't play piano", I kindly replied "I do!". After that she suddenly slapped my mask as hard as she could and announced "Zebras don't talk!" I was so shocked with her reaction I didn't know what to say - she seemed very annoyed. I just ignored her look and she walked away in a very angry manner. "Some kids are weird.." I thought...
After I finished my hour, Ben came around with a slim, blonde girl. At first I thought they'll busk together, but then he explained he is just showing her around Brighton busking spots the same way she once showed him around Bath. It's quite interesting to meet buskers from other towns, I would like to go around myself one day and see other places. I decided to sit down in the gardens, listen to her playing and have my lunch with Dave.
While I was eating my sandwich, I slowly browsed through the pictures Dave gave to me earlier. There were around 30 pictures he took from different days mixture of both color and black and white. What I thought of his pictures was they were amazing. Intentional or not - he always manages to capture the most genuine moments of what is happening when I busk. Dave has literally captured all my journey from when I only started busking to now and I am very grateful to him for these printed memories. Below is one of these pictures he gave to me today. Perhaps one day I can scan them all and make a gallery on my blog.
On my way out from the gardens, a lady stopped by and told me there have been thousands of people visiting i360 and perhaps while they are waiting in the que, I could provide them with a little entertainment. The whole i360 thing was very tempting for me, I thought if I ever want to find out if it's a good busking spot, there is no better time than now. I thanked the lady for the advice and turned my way to the seafront.
When I got there I found a very nice observation area right in front of the tower. I asked a staff member for a permission to busk, she wasn't really aware of any busking regulations on the site and advised to give it a go until someone says anything. I was feeling shy on the new spot unsure where to set-up, The spot next to the que seemed good enough to give it a go and I went for it.
It didn't take long until some kids came over and gave me some coins, bet adults on their own seemed not very impressed. Only very few stopped by and gave me a tip. The que on my left was very long, but the problem is even if I am entertaining them while they are waiting, they're not going to quit the que to give me money - too much effort telling everyone around they'll be back in a moment and trying to get out and back from enclosure. Besides after playing in the spot for 20 minutes, I got asked to move away from the site closer to the road.
I was puzzled weather it's going to be good busking here, but it took so long to get here, I decided to give it another try. The second spot I found was much closer to the que and the entrance of the ticket office. I played there for about 1 hour to really test it out. It wasn't going particularly bad, but it wasn't great either. At least I could see more people were listening to me and enjoying the music. Four kids came around and kept me company for more than 20 minutes. I treated them as my main audience and kept doing funny things to make them laugh. It helped to have them around - at least I didn't feel alone next to this massive que.
Would I go to i360 again? I am not particularly sure. Perhaps if I set up somewhere on the way out instead of the way in, people would be more appreciative and won't feel restricted coming along and giving me some money. After all - it wasn't too bad busking there, but generally I do better when I'm in town.
My last busking spot for today was East Street crossroads. I got there at 4pm, the spot was glittering in sunshine inviting me to play. I quickly set up and started playing. It felt like home again. People were stopping by listening to my playing, many people taking pictures and videos, kids greeting zebra and laughing. It all made sense again and I felt really relieved. Until...
Another disturbing kid experience happened here when bunch of kids stopped in front of my piano and a little boy kept asking me "if I am gay?". I had to stop playing and hit some low notes to show I don't like his persistence, but he kept on going. It took some time until his mom finally came over and told him off "it was very rude thing to do".
Later on my fiancée brought me a sandwich and right the the same time someone was taking a video of me playing. This was posted in Instagram later today (you can see her standing on my right):
I finished playing at 6pm, happy to go to bank. After all it wasn't that bad at all, but hard to say how much exactly I made at i360 and how much elsewhere. Perhaps it wasn't that average after all, but who knows... Some things are there to remain a mystery.
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