The past few days went extremely well; my wedding is coming up already next week and I decided to make the most out of it while I can. While Thursday I managed to push over 5 hours, today my plan got crashed by a dodgy wire connection... Hopefully nothing serious. Overall - very pleased with the result and happy about the sunny and cheerful weather in Brighton.
On Thursday I came out early around 10am, it was a cloudy morning with a cold breeze and garden was empty because of the water spray system set up for the grass. Not the best busking conditions, but I hoped I'll manage to get enough attention of people passing through the gardens. Also tourist groups are often already there at 10am doing tours around the gardens - at least you get them if no one else.
While I was setting up, Ben showed up looking sleepy with a paper cup of coffee in his hand. If he came only 5 minutes ago, he would have got the spot, but this time I was luckier. I invited him to come around after 1 hour and recommended Bond street as an alternative. He thanked me and left wishing me a good day.
As I started to play, suddenly a crowd gathered around me out of nowhere. I guess the whole zebra thing really brings attention. I should know it by now... Dave came along not long after, crowd changed and disappeared at some point, then again picked up and vanished almost like coming in waves. It was pleasant playing in the morning and witnessing the gardens gradually waking up.
Ben came a bit later and I had a chance to play for 15-20 minutes more. That little extra always helps. To my surprise he said he only made £6 on Bond street. I felt for him. Busking doesn't always work the same for everyone, I guess you need to find your own way, how and when it works for what you do. At least he could play after me in the gardens.
Another guitar player came at the same time and I took a nice photo of everyone including Dave - that's a little example of how busker's negotiations look like:
Busking on Bond street went really well - I was trying to get people's attention with comic, loud, happy tunes and then reached for their heart by following with very musical, beautiful peaces. And it worked. A family with parents and teenage girl set up opposite me in a pub and they became my main audience. I played all my repertoire to them until eventually I "ran out of material" and they left giving me a good tip. Eventually I played for 1,5h (because Tobacco shop didn't mind at all this time) and stopped to have a lunch.
I shared some of my healthy meal with Dave, we were sitting across the street and watching my piano with a zebra mask lying on it. It was funny to see people not noticing me at all without the mask even though I still had my zebra trousers on. Instead they were passing by and looking around wondering where did zebra go. At some point few teenage girls came to the piano, they were looking for the money (I put a zebra blanket across it), one of them lifted the blanket up and they dropped few coins in there. I thought it was very nice and thoughtful of them to come back and still give me money even though I wasn't there...
After a good lunch we moved to the gardens, but it was busy, so we went to East street instead. There I met Ben - he just finished his set. Unfortunately it didn't go well here either. And he didn't feel good competing with the Jazz Band just around the corner. We talked about how unfair it is to other buskers - they play there every day for the whole day. If you tell them you want to play after them, they'd say it's all booked from now on; other people are already coming after. Or it would be fair to say "joining in". Sometimes I see them having long hour breaks where other buskers could potentially come and play, but spot is literally still taken because they leave their instruments lying around there... It is not fair, but what can I do? What can Ben do? Unless we all start interfering in their daily routine and get an hour each, nothing will change. But is it worth the hassle? Someone will have to have "that argument" with them at some point and tell them how it should work to benefit all the buskers... To be that guy - you need to have some guts. And I don't think I am brave enough myself...
I played on East street for 2.5h with a half an hour break in between. I did very well. Halfway through I was having a back pain - it's not good to play for very long, but I really wanted to push it for the wedding. Here is little video and picture from Instagram feed:
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Today (on Friday) I came to the gardens surprised how beautiful and sunny it is. Many people were already sitting on the lawns enjoying the sun and constant flow of people was going through the crossroads. I happily set up just to find out my piano is not turning on... It took me some time to figure out what's the problem - the wire of DC adapter has gone loose. I did my best to fix it and it worked (for some time)...
After playing for an hour I had a little break to help my fiancee set up on the New road. She decided to give it another go and was more than happy to help. I ran back to my spot where I left all my equipment with the guards to find no one has come to take over yet. Very unusual for such a sunny day.
I kept playing and people were very responsive. One little French girl wanted to give me a kiss on a cheek. I told her it's my first kiss as a Zebra. Dan, one of my piano students, was passing by with his son and wife - that was a pleasant surprise. Few minutes later - my piano turned off on it's own again!
It sounded like amp is running out of batteries, because the keyboard was still on. But after I changed the batteries, piano started switching off on its own... I think it must be the wire. Unfortunately I didn't have a replacement on me, so I stopped busking after playing for 1.5h.
I called it a day and together with Dave we went to listen to Henriika's (my fiancee) busking. She wasn't doing very bad and it was very pleasant to listen to her singing. Generally it's not particularly great when there are another 2 buskers along the same street; considering this fact she did quite well for the day.
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I really enjoyed busking these two days before the weekend. The only downside is I got some annoying back pain now, but still happy. I beat my personal best on Thursday earning the most I ever did in one day. And Friday didn't seem less promising... If not the wire - it could have been very close, especially because Pavilion gardens were completely free. Until I fix the wire - no busking for me. Got to do it asap!!
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