[Harp-L] I love busking, too!

[Richard Sleigh <rharp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Steve, you have a brilliant strategy for collecting money for busking!

I have enjoyed the busking posts, and it reminded me of my heyday in  
busking. I was an art student in London in 1974, and at one point I  
went to American Express to get a wire transfer of money and it did  
not come through, so I was almost totally flat broke and that overcame  
my severe stage fright about playing on the street. I put my hat down,  
my last few coins in it and started blowing my brains out on my  
harmonica and in twenty minutes I had enough money to buy dinner, a  
pack of cigarettes, some beer and bus fare to another part of town. I  
was hooked. I had no strategy, no sense of show biz, all I did was  
play and hoped people would like it.

I ended up playing on the streets fairly often while I lived there,  
and had some great experiences. I was not one for talking much, or  
working the crowd like some of the best entertainers, but I did  
develop some great medleys. One time I saw some guys playing some jug  
band music for a line waiting to get into a theatre, and I started  
playing along because I knew the tunes, and they danced past me and  
without missing a beat or a lyric told me "we ain't givin you any  
money"....

I ended up traveling for a few months on a bicycle in Europe, Greece,  
England, Wales, and Ireland, and busking kept me from starving on more  
than one occasion. Plus I met some great musicians from time to time.  
There was one crazy kid I met from Columbia that was playing guitar in  
Heidelberg on the streets and in the bars that left town with Canned  
Heat. I can't remember his name, but the calluses on the ends of his  
fingers were so pronounced that they looked like frog fingers. He was  
an amazing blues musician. We ended up playing some in a bar called  
Bistro 2001.

Anyhow, thanks to everyone in this thread for kicking up some great  
memories!

Richard Sleigh

shop address:
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