'Buskers and street artists are often to be found in our cathedral cities and historic towns but much less so in our perhaps less celebrated urban locations where their presence may be more profoundly felt and enjoyed.'
I love busking (or street music to use perhaps a more modern term). I love its immediacy, it's simplicity and the ability of it's practitioners to brighten your day. The idea of an instant street level hit of musical culture delivered in it's most basic and simple form with minimal amplification is one of the best ideas anyone has ever had.
So here's the first in a series of posts talking about and paying homage to the wonderful art of street music and it's brave and talented artists.
On a recent trip to Grays town centre to visit my local supermarket and stock up on frozen ready meals, I came across a couple of guys strumming guitars and singing. They were using a small Roland busker amp. The level was very sensible and a rather excellent rendition of Whisky in the Jar could be heard. No real crowd at this point. I stayed and watched and listened for a while. I dropped a couple of 20ps into their case and went to do my shopping. As I entered the supermarket the first mournful bars of Stairway To Heaven could be faintly heard.
Now grocery shopping is not really my thing. In fact I hate it. Food really is not my thing. I know lovers of DIY gastronomy and keen cooks probably love it. But not me. Shopping for food and eating is a chore I take part in reluctantly, knowing I could be doing something more interesting and productive. But as I entered the supermarket it kinda struck me how much better I felt about it having stopped and had a short little burst of musical culture. A little blast of art. Definitely a small but not insignificant serotonin hit.
After shopping, I wandered outside and a small crowd had gathered around our intrepid entertainers. They'd been joined by a couple of girls who were now singing, clapping and encouraging the small audience to join in. The song, on this occasion, I didn't recognise. Some indie anthem I wasn't familiar with. But what a great atmosphere. Friendly, fun and really rather enlivening.
Anyone who knows Grays town centre will probably tell you that it's a little bit uninspiring. If they're being polite. It has suffered somewhat from being just down the road from that monument to the consumer society, Lakeside Shopping Centre, although it does have an outdoor market on weekends. These guys had managed to transform a rather humdrum, everyday shopping centre space into a little microcosm of entertainment, music and culture. Everybody enjoyed it, nobody was inconvenienced and, to be fair, there was no sign of any body interfering or attempting to stop the fun. More power to them.
As the day progressed it occurred to me that maybe street music and street entertainment could play a significant part in reinvigourating perhaps our more forgotten and less illustrious town centres and commercial spaces. That councils and authorities should really be encouraging these little artistic injections into our lives, rather than repressing them and legislating against them. Buskers and street artists are often to be found in our cathedral cities and historic towns but not so much in our perhaps less celebrated urban locations where their presence may be more profoundly felt and enjoyed. The contrast of the commercial, the everyday, the sometimes struggling, and the aesthetic, the artistic and the cultivation of the artistic pursuit.
The perfect addition to the pound shops and charity emporiums that have already done a great deal to preserve these precincts.
Perhaps more could be done to help and encourage our heroic street warriors. Busking pitches where they know they won't be hassled, busking 'days' on special weekends were busking is positively encouraged, and maybe even some kind of busking pop-up 'festivals' once or twice a year. The organisation and managing of busking may go slightly against the whole principal of the artform but I'm sure that these additional ideas could be implemented alongside the current basic rights and freedoms we all have to express ourselves.
To me, busking and street entertainment is an all round 'win-win' situation. Street merriment can increase shopping footfall and commercial viability, improve the overall environment and atmosphere of our urban spaces, enrich our lives culturally as well as providing artistic satisfaction and a modest stream of income for it's practitioners. And it doesn't need masses of expensive, specialist equipment and/or technology.
Street musicians........we salute you.
Useful links:
Developed for London, but can be applied to just about anywhere.
Resources and information for buskers worldwide.
More famous and established artists doing a bit of busking around London.
Australian busking festival.