A big day for Brighton - today was the opening of a world's thinnest tower, i360! People now can go 161m up in the sky in a special curved-glass pod that personally in my opinion looks like an UFO. I was actually waiting for this day a long time - such an event usually attracts a lot of tourists and I believe the buzz will go on for few weeks from now. This is all helpful when it comes down to busking. Perhaps one day I will try to find a sweet spot somewhere close to i360, but today I still went down to my favorite spot in Pavilion Gardens.
I went out later than usual, left home around 11:35am a little bit anxious of new garden regulations that have been put down in place recently. To be honest - I don't think it's really fair to the buskers and it only happened due to the disagreements between the fellow buskers with an African drum and saxophone (I should really remember their names by now) and the garden administration... The new rule states that if you have played for more than 1 hour in the garden and there is no other busker waiting (it's basically still a free spot), you still need to move on to another place and come back in 1h. I don't know the idea behind these regulations, but I don't think that playing for more than 1h creates any kind of disruption to the people. I believe it does frankly opposite.
In the garden I met Ben who was playing guitar at the time. I met Ben before, he's an average-build man with blondish dreads. When I see him, he often plays Spanish-themed tunes on his acoustic guitar. Always creates a nice vibe in the garden. It's easy to talk to him and we got some things in common. I'll ask him out for a pint one day (perhaps if he reads this blog - it's already an invitation, heh)...
Ben told me he only started playing recently, I could step in after 40 minutes, but that was no good to me - by the time I'd find another spot and set everything up, I will already loose 15 minutes. That leaves me with another 15 minutes to busk and 10 minutes to pack it all up and get back to the gardens. I offered Ben to play for a bit longer to give myself more time to busk in another spot before I come back. We briefly discussed the new garden regulations and left with the hope that they won't kick Ben out from there, so he can keep a spot for me.
To ensure it's all good, I had a quick chat with the guards on my way out - I always been treating them with respect and have built a nice, friendly relationship with few. It really helps on the way -whenever I go and play, I always bear in mind people working in the area. I treat them as my colleagues - same as marketing team treats the sales team, or same as waiting staff works together with the chefs. We work in the same public space and try to make most out of it...
This instance was another example - I don't know if I should tell exactly what guards told me, but we were left alone to do our own arrangement. The whole anxiety and worries about today's busking disappeared. It was such a relief I texted Ben "it's gonna be all good".
Another hour in Pavilion Gardens went as good as Bond street. The weather was great, the garden was full of people reading books, sunbathing, having pick-nicks... I was playing and thinking how beautiful this place is and how awesome it actually is to play here. Besides all the politics, this busking spot still remains my favorite place to busk in Brighton and I won't give up on it yet.
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Counting coins in the bank, I didn't expect much of few hours of play, but when receipt came out, I was pleasantly surprised - I managed to beat my hourly rate ever made busking already second time this month! Perhaps it was something to do with the opening of i360, perhaps I was just lucky... In the end it all comes down to the people appreciating what you are doing, your talent, the joy you are giving and music you play... As a reminder to that - a tweet of someone passing by:
Obv you can see the beauty of #mellowzebra in this photo from yesterday. But you can't hear how great his music is! pic.twitter.com/Dl1YMhmz16— Graeme Archer (@graemearcher) July 30, 2016
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