1997 Celtic had just lifted the title I was doing a bit of busking in Glasgow and was moved on by the Polis eventually ending up at Glasgow Cross, which, as it turned oot, was a gift thankye Mr.Plod.
Hordes of fans where streaming doon the Road making their way ti the City Centre.
I was asked to play the Fields of Athenry..
OK no probs…money started coming…played another tune ..nothing…played the Fields of Athenry again..more money…Played another tune nothing.
Someone came up and asked me to play the Fields of Athenry ..
I told him I had just played it.. he said play it again so I did ..
again and again and again til I was sick of it.
At one point a beggar came up to me and asked for some dosh I told him to take some frae the wee pile in front o me and aff he went wi a smile.
After 1 hour ma heed was pounding and I was beginning to wish that someone should have ploughed up the Feckin Fields o Athenry long ago and turned it into a car park so I called it a day.
I loaded the small change into ma jeans and noticed that they were slipping doon o’er ma hips.
So hamewards trudged the lonely piper,humming Mozarts’ Clarinet Concerto 1st Movement by way of a change and to stop me going insane
Hame to bed.
Next morn I counted the dosh..£160 yes folks that wis when it wis $2 dollars to the £.
I hour + £160 in 1997
Oh how I love the haunting strains and melodic movement of that wonderfully evocative air The Greenback Fields of Athenry.
Uilliam
Addendum The Fields of Athenry is the Celtic Football Club Anthem & Greenbacks is slang for Dollars
Thanks for clearing that up Uilliam. Now can you translate the following terms:
Polis
turned oot
thankye
doon the Road
ti the City Centre
no probs
some dosh
take some frae the wee pile
aff he went wi a smile
ma heed
Feckin Fields o Athenry
slipping doon o’er ma hips
hamewards
Hame to bed.
that wis when it wis
I used to busk a lot (no!), let Heath’s story be a warning to anyone who doesn’t move pitches now and then.
My personal favourites are,
i - being asked for the time for the ‘next train to Leeds’ while busking in Kings Cross Underground.
ii- My dog savaging a passing by hound, while I played ‘Lament for the dead fox’ (yes)
iii- selling CD’s for a tenner each, then finding out in the evening they were all blank (sorry)
iv - having loads of rich Oxford residents walk past, then a homeless couple from Northumberland give me a £1 drop and then stop and chatted about pipes and pipng for ages!
v - Meeting Larry Rooney in Oxford Cornmarket and him playing a few tunes on my pipes for me and the passing crowd.
vi - how many radge gadgets came up in the middle of ‘colonel frazer’ and asked ‘is that the Northumbrian squeezbox’! expecting me to launch into fluid conversation mid triplet!
And how do ye know what he looks like? Hmmmm
Dave there is a whole gang of us frae the Thursday sesh going busking if’n the weather is good on Sunday @11am ootside Borders Bookshop Buchanan St.Glasgow.should be a hoot if’n your interested.
Uilliam
“vi - how many radge gadgets came up in the middle of ‘colonel frazer’ and asked ‘is that the Northumbrian squeezbox’! expecting me to launch into fluid conversation mid triplet!”
I bloody well hate it when people do that! Was at a session this past Wednesday and the flute player was faffing about, trying to start a tune. I was faffing as well, trying to lock onto him which was difficult at best as he was sorting out some timing issues. While this was going on, this woman standing behind me, with the flattest American Midwest accent, ever, asked me, “Are those bagpipes?” I ignored her, as I was trying to play this tune and she proceeded to say, with that escalating intensity in her tone of voice (as only Americans can do), “Excuse me, are those bagpipes? Excuse me! Excuse me!!” Finally I tried to say, “I can’t talk and play” but she couldn’t really hear it, so the banjo player repeated what I said. Undaunted, she asked, “And are those bagpipes?” At which point the flute player gave up on the set. Then crazy American tourist asked, “Can I take a picture of the pipes?” I let her take a picture of the chanter, but not before saying something along the lines of, “This better not end up on bloody YouTube.”
apologies to those who read this post earlier. There were certainly many difficult to understand sentences. I used my dictation program and neglected to proofread it what I wrote.*
For the first time I went to a place called Lincoln Rd. which located at the famous South Beach area in Miami. It’s not what you would call the “strip.” I guess you could say it’s a little bit more tame, but certainly not devoid of the many beautiful faces and bodies you might see on television representing Miami/South Beach.
Needless to say, it was very hot (temperature, folks). The humidity was perhaps 30% higher than what it is in my room. I went out equipped with a concert set, wooden regulator reeds, Tim Britton’s wooden dowel/cane tongues, and a cane chanter reed. It didn’t take too long before the heat/humidity combination took its toll on the drones. The next to go was the chanter reed which became weak (insert all things related to weak reeds). In addition, the amplitude of the general outdoor sound made my concert set appear quiet.
I’m sure many busking experts and non-experts alike, would agree that the volume of pipes in doors and outdoors are significantly two different things.
In retrospect, I should’ve of used the brass bodied/wooden tongued reeds… and perhaps a wooden chanter reed the next time I go out…IF I ever go out to SoBe (South Beach) again!
The flute and concertina faired quite well. I chose the pitch of those two instruments to be in Eb, knowing that they would be heard better.
I made $8 and virtually nobody paid attention (seven people, one of them giving me two dollars!), once again affirming what I have learned while gigging in this city; tthe majority of Miami’s constituents and many of the tourists that come here, have zero interest in anything culturally Irish.
oh well… what Miami does have to offer when busking, besides limited parking on the beach?
Unnaturally large portions of eye-candy! Is it possible to develop a “sweet-eye?”
I made £50 in an hour an quarter once and thought that that made me the title-holder
I also find it impossible to talk and play at the same time which is why when i’ve lead tunes in a session the other musicians have to wait to find out what i going to play next as i can’t shout out the name of the next tune during the last strains of the tune i’m playing
The recession is having a pronounced impact on me this year - I used to be able to make about £30 an hour most of the time, but I’m down to about £12-15
Last night an American man told me that i was like a ‘talented Eddie Izzard’, presumably because i have gingery blonde hair and a goatee and am carrying a fair amount of blubber ( and, hopefully because i’m not a bad piper too)
I might be the title holder for street busking with £160 for 1hour, with ,in addition, a large handful o dosh taken by a beggar bloke.
If’n ye can’t talk when playing and I certainly can’t then merely tell the other players whit ye intend to play (if’n they don’t know) aforehand.
Ah Yes the **RECESSION ,**at the mass busking session in Glasgow at which I was the only one attending ( the others failed to turn up presumably coz it was cloudy and there wis a few drops a water(wimps) or more likely they were hungover even bigger wimps) I still made £15 waiting the one hour for them to turn up.
if’n the American thought that Eddie isnae talented then I would totally ignore any further conversation with said muppet.
So I hardly ever busk on the pipes (once in a while when I’m in San Francisco or a bigger city). Well my wife and I were in London last week. (We’re on holiday right now 1 week in London/Oxford and 2 weeks in Ireland with friends). So of course the pipes come along.
So last Saturday afternoon, I left my wife taking a nap at the hotel, and caught the tube down to the Nottinghill Gate station. There is a place designated for music. We had seen a few people playing music in these places.
So I set up the pipes and started playing. I played some jigs and reels along with a few slow aires. In about 20 minutes, I made a little over 14 pounds. However, soon a cross-looking Underground worker came and asked me what I was doing. I replied that I thought this place was for playing music. The man responded saying yes, but that I needed papers to busk in public. So I packed it up and went back to the hotel.
It was amazing to see how many people go through that station in 20 minutes time. Thousands probably. It was a great bit of fun and paid for a cheap dinner.
While I didn’t make as much as some people on this message board, it was a very satisfying experience.
all the best,
I’ve never busked with pipes, although I did a fair amount of busking with flute and whistle, and once did a joint stand with my UP playing friend. However, at the time I was living at ground zero of a major ‘hollywood north’ boomlet. And you can tell the out of towners from the locals at such times. The out of towners are all agog, hoping to see stars, and the locals are all fed up with bossy 2nd ADs (Assistant Directors) and ‘security’ people blocking off streets, choking the allies & eating up parking, and and generally acting like self-important gits with a clipboard - in someone else’s home.
So I developed an ongoing ‘busking with GHP’ fantasy. The film crews had to get permits from the city, of course, but I already had a busking license, and I’d amuse myself with the thought of setting up to busk as close to the sound guy as I could get.
Other people did similar things, especially if their flat was in the background (Montreal plays Europe in a lot of films) by hanging big, bright flags, as embarrassing as possible, or whatever else they could do to be difficult while giving the filmfolk a token of our esteem.
Well that must have been some hangover if’n ye awoke on a cliff in Glencoe
Joseph ye were lucky a licensed busker didnae come on ye 1st. It may not have been such a pleasant experience for ye.To busk on the underground ye need to pass an audition and then ye are allocated a slot in time and is jealously guarded. Ye would do well to look up the local customs in the countries and Cities ye travel to afore ye get killed.
Dicky Deegan told me once that after a few hours of busking in Manly (Sydney), he was forced to pay for a taxi to get home as the ferrys were cancelled due to high winds and swell. The poor guy blew all his earnings from that afternoons busking thanks to mother nature.
Also reminds me of the time at the national folk festival when one of mr Deegan’s friends thought it would be funny to give him a large spoonful of wasabi. A sure way to remove a blocked nose.
Uilliam- thanks for the advice. Didn’t know how lucky I was! It would have been a bit tricky fighting off some guy with a saxophone with only my pipes. Although I’m sure I would have gotten in a few bass drone shots to the “heed”.
Not really planning on doing it again, but was a great bit of fun.
When I worked in London in the 1980s/90s I used to see a young fella playing the pipes in the underground stations. I stopped for a chat on one occasion at Holborn and, as we pipers do, I asked who made his pipes. “Leo Rowsome”, came the reply, and then, almost as an after thought “…my grandfather”. It was my first meeting with Kevin Rowsome.
yes folks that wis when it wis $2 dollars to the £.
However, soon a cross-looking Underground worker came and asked me what I was doing. I replied that I thought this place was for playing music. The man responded saying yes, but that I needed papers to busk in public. So I packed it up and went back to the hotel.
