I decided to go busking in Coventry today. It was a little overcast when I left home at about 10.30 this morning, but that didn't bother me at all. When I got to the city center, the sun had come out from behind the clouds and the temperature was on the rise.
The council have been quite strict where busking is concerned. First of all you have to pass an audition. This was simply a case of turning up and playing with a member of the council watching the reactions of the passers by and obviously their own opinion. Once you have your licence, there are five pitches, each has a red dot where you have to stand. If a pitch is full you have to move on. If they are all full you have to wait or go home.
Well today, my favorite pitch was vacant when I arrived, so I set up and within minutes I was playing. I was not really surprised when I saw how busy the city center was, after all it is the school holidays. I decided that today was going to be a good day. I'd only played a few bars of my first tune and the money started to roll in.
I'd been playing for about an hour and a half when a young girl, probably no more than about seventeen, dropped a pound in my case. She wandered off and I thought no more about it. After a couple of minutes she returned and placed an ice cold bottle of water beside me. Its funny, but that meant more to me than the cash. How kind was she to think about me like that? I had some lovely comments from loads of people, which is so nice and always very well received.
As the day wore on, I started to notice the groups of unsupervised children or should I say teenagers wandering about. I don't mind kids, as long as they were brought up with manners, well this lot, apparently, weren't!
The first wave was an airborne assault of Bang snaps First one or two, and then a few more. They didn't bother me to start with, but then they applied the final straw that broke the camels back. Two little children had asked their parents if they could drop some pennies in my box. The mums had diligently coughed up and the kids, holding hands, started to walk up to me. It was just then that the teenagers, now standing behind me, unleashed their worst attack. A large handful of these snaps came flying over and landed directly on these two children! I felt awful and they were terrified, they turned and fled as fast as they could!
Well the teenagers had.....upset.... for want of a family forum friendly word.... me! I spun on me heals and told them in no uncertain terms to go and play with the cars. Preferably the ones on the M1. It was their turn to flee!
Attack number two was a lot more daring and executed with thought, skill and bravery. This one happened right under my noes, literally! I had just been approached by a gent wanting to book me for a party, when I thought I heard someone drop something. I turned around but saw nothing. I returned to my conversation with the gent when it hit me! The stench that is. Click, the penny dropped and I turned and looked at the floor a little more closely. Yup, there it was, a little glass ampule, broken at one end but still full of yellow liquid. It was a stink bomb and they had had the nerve to walk within two feet of me before carrying out this stealth attack!
Thinking quickly I kicked the offending stink bomb as far as I could in the direction of the..... little cherubs........ and then I used the last of the water that I was given earlier, to wash the remaining liquid away. Their plan had been foiled, I was unfazed and my afternoons busking continued.
All in all, I had a great day there were no more "incidents" and it certainly taught me to keep my eyes open, just a little wider!
The council have been quite strict where busking is concerned. First of all you have to pass an audition. This was simply a case of turning up and playing with a member of the council watching the reactions of the passers by and obviously their own opinion. Once you have your licence, there are five pitches, each has a red dot where you have to stand. If a pitch is full you have to move on. If they are all full you have to wait or go home.
Well today, my favorite pitch was vacant when I arrived, so I set up and within minutes I was playing. I was not really surprised when I saw how busy the city center was, after all it is the school holidays. I decided that today was going to be a good day. I'd only played a few bars of my first tune and the money started to roll in.
I'd been playing for about an hour and a half when a young girl, probably no more than about seventeen, dropped a pound in my case. She wandered off and I thought no more about it. After a couple of minutes she returned and placed an ice cold bottle of water beside me. Its funny, but that meant more to me than the cash. How kind was she to think about me like that? I had some lovely comments from loads of people, which is so nice and always very well received.
As the day wore on, I started to notice the groups of unsupervised children or should I say teenagers wandering about. I don't mind kids, as long as they were brought up with manners, well this lot, apparently, weren't!
The first wave was an airborne assault of Bang snaps First one or two, and then a few more. They didn't bother me to start with, but then they applied the final straw that broke the camels back. Two little children had asked their parents if they could drop some pennies in my box. The mums had diligently coughed up and the kids, holding hands, started to walk up to me. It was just then that the teenagers, now standing behind me, unleashed their worst attack. A large handful of these snaps came flying over and landed directly on these two children! I felt awful and they were terrified, they turned and fled as fast as they could!
Well the teenagers had.....upset.... for want of a family forum friendly word.... me! I spun on me heals and told them in no uncertain terms to go and play with the cars. Preferably the ones on the M1. It was their turn to flee!
Attack number two was a lot more daring and executed with thought, skill and bravery. This one happened right under my noes, literally! I had just been approached by a gent wanting to book me for a party, when I thought I heard someone drop something. I turned around but saw nothing. I returned to my conversation with the gent when it hit me! The stench that is. Click, the penny dropped and I turned and looked at the floor a little more closely. Yup, there it was, a little glass ampule, broken at one end but still full of yellow liquid. It was a stink bomb and they had had the nerve to walk within two feet of me before carrying out this stealth attack!
Thinking quickly I kicked the offending stink bomb as far as I could in the direction of the..... little cherubs........ and then I used the last of the water that I was given earlier, to wash the remaining liquid away. Their plan had been foiled, I was unfazed and my afternoons busking continued.
All in all, I had a great day there were no more "incidents" and it certainly taught me to keep my eyes open, just a little wider!
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Thanks for the comments Bill, I'm touched (well thats what the wife says anyway! 
)
