Nick Broad: How did you come to busk?
Lena Walker: I started busking because music is my passion and I’d recently been inspired to master the guitar. Ever since I was a little girl I’ve been enchanted by buskers. Also, I saw it as a challenge, trying to make busy people stop in their tracks and pay attention to my music.

I wanted to improve my singing, build up my repertoire and boost my confidence, so taking to the streets seemed like the perfect solution. When I got the all clear from my local council, I chose a sunny Saturday and went to town early to avoid competition for pitches. You can’t argue with Gold man & Silver lady!

NB: So, what was the first time like?
LW: Nerve racking! I had a set of 8 songs to play on a loop but it kept me going to think of the local charity I was supporting. At first I received comments like, “you’re gonna have to sing louder than that love!” so I upped my game. After half an hour, my voice had warmed up and I wasn’t so self conscious. I sang as loud as I could and got such a buzz from the crowd.

I stayed as long as my fingers could hold out and left the high street after 2 hours, with almost £40. Oh! And a bag of samosas offered by a little Indian lady to sustain me! It was a fantastic first experience busking and I knew I’d be back again to entertain my best critics – the people of Leicester.

NB: As a solo female artist, did you ever have any trouble?
LW: At first, my friends laughed when I told them I was going to go busking, I think because you’re really putting yourself out there, and doing so can make you feel vunerable. But now, I have a whole troup of mates that are happy to sing and shake buckets by my side and I even have a group of friends that have started busking independently.

During my early busking days, a friend jokingly came up to me and took a pound from my guitar case. Seconds later, he was grabbed on the shoulder by a well-built gentleman who asked, “Is there a problem here Miss?” It turned out that security in a nearby shop had been keeping an eye on me whilst I was playing. I laughed and said he was a friend but it was very reassuring to know there were people watching out for me in case there was ever trouble – especially being a lone female busker. I’m pleased to say, no one has taken a penny out of my case since!

The reactions I received from people who stopped to listen was straight & pure – without any hidden agenda. When you get such genuine feedback, you have your own instinct and if a comment seems to fit, then you can take it as constructive critisism. Being told to “belt it out” by people I didn’t even know spurred me on.

Busking has hugely increased my confidence. I’ve already exposed myself to hundreds & thousands so the sky’s the limit! I still get nervous, of course, but they’re good nerves, and I never let them hold me back.

NB: You went out to raise money for charity — tell me about it.
LW: So far, I’ve raised nearly £1,000 (and still counting) for an admirable charity called ‘Tilinanu’ – an orphanage set up in Malawi by a lovely Leicester lady. It’s heart-warming to know I can use my talents to help others. Every single penny goes to the children, so everyone who shows their appreciation makes a real difference to their lives. That’s what motivates me to carry on doing what I do. www.lovetilinanu.org.uk

NB: How would you say it has affected the lives of you and people arund you?
LW: It’s easy to get wrapped up in the tasks of everyday life and rush from A to B without taking in our surroundings, or to stop when we see or hear something beautiful. It happens to us all at some point, so I really enjoy slowing people down, making them stop, take a deep breath and smile. I get to be part of the soundtrack to their day!

With all the charity work I’ve been doing lately, I’ve thought more and more about setting up my own charity. Music is an outlet for me – a way to express myself and forget everything else that’s going in my life and focus on the sounds I’m creating. I’d love to help disadvantaged children and young people all over the UK who want to learn an instrument but cannot for whatever reason. If I could provide instruments, teachers, a safe space to learn and above all encouragement, I would not only be revelling in my passion, but igniting it in others!

Lena

I now live in the south of France, have freedom, self confidence, am my own boss, entertain people every day, get asked to perform at festivals, have traveled to an average of 15 countries a year for the last 3 years, get paid only when people like what I do, have a beautiful Italian girlfriend who I would never have met if I hadn’t been busking, and am recognised by people in the streets of my home town, even when not busking.

I have played music with fantastic musicians from all over the world, been hosted on the floors and couches of wonderful people in all sorts of places, opened my horizons more than I could ever have imagined and so on. I’ve picked up two new languages in which I am now fluent… what HASN’T busking done for me?!

What has busking done for your art?

Practicing four hours or so every day in front of a live audience, and knowing that you’ll only get paid if you’re entertaining them, certainly helps to make you a better artist. I’ve become a better guitarist, better singer, better songwriter, better interpreter of other people’s songs, better at communicating and better at projecting myself. Perhaps best of all, I have learned how to play the trumpet, mandolin, clarinet, charango and ukulele, and have invented and built my own instruments.

Busking has given me a career. Before, I had a dead end job and two failed businesses behind me. Now I have an internationally known profile as a one man band, I have bookings in Serbia, Italy, France, UK, Germany, Luxembourg, Austria and Slovenia for this summer, and I will be supporting Joan Armatrading on her tour of the UK.

This has all come about because I decided to become a full time street musician. In my old 9-5 job, I simply didn’t have the time to do any of this. But busking has made it possible to earn a living as a musician without following the depressing route of underpaid gigs, or sending demo tapes to disinterested record companies. I’ve even started to do workshops for street musicians and for building instruments, working with children, the elderly and the disabled, as well as adults wishing to continue learning!

What has busking done for your Audience?
I play in front of literally thousands of people every day. If people like my act, they take a picture, stand and watch, give me a tip, or buy a CD. This is the best way to gauge an international audience’s appreciation. In the days I was in a band, playing at venues that charged an entrance fee, getting that many people to hear my stuff/buy my cd’s etc was impossible. The audience must like what I do or I can’t eat, it’s as simple as that.

Why is busking important?
For all the above reasons! I never understood who it is that wants busking stopped. It can’t be the people who take pictures, watch, laugh, dance, buy cd’s and merchandise, or go to street festivals — and in my experience that’s the vast majority of people.

Who are the small minority who think it’s a good idea to restrict it? It provides entertainment, colour, life and vitality outside of the drab and uninspiring world of television; it gives people inspirations and aspirations; it allows people whose talent is not necessarily aligned with that of mainstream culture and media an opportunity to display their talent to a public, who, on the whole, appreciate it; it enables artists to develop and find out where their strengths and weaknesses lie; it alleviates poverty; it opens up travel opportunities; it gets people meeting each other, and swapping creative ideas; it has helped SO many people pick themselves up from broken or dysfunctional situations; it’s an alternative to sitting at home watching TV; it has started many careers; it is an outlet for creative people who don’t necessarily want to be stars…

Fergus McKay, one man band.
www.bandolino.co.uk

I went to that city hall hearing tonight and the ordinance was struck down, thankfully, with another hearing scheduled for next week. It will be an exploratory hearing, or possibly there could be another vote on a new ordinance, depending on how fast the jerks put one together. The ordinance was a piece of crap. You can read it here.

Columbia has never been the most busker-friendly city. Or, at least, street performance hasn’t traditionally been one of the things people think of first when SC’s state capitol comes to mind. But, there’s been a lot of talk recently about the growing presence of street performance in the city and what to do about it, how to ensure its health and protect its artists, but also how the city can capitalise on it, and how (if need be) it can be regulated.

C. Neil Scott, Musician and Busker in Columbia

Over the past couple of weeks, mayor Steve Benjamin and City Center Partnership held a series of meetings. Natalie Brown, a local performer and founder of Alternicirque, a circus group in Columbia, attended the meetings along with street performer and founder of Columbia Hoop Troop and Luna Trix Performance Group, Gina Wolfe. Musicians Matt Falter and Neil Scott were also there, and all artists came away from the initial meetings with mixed feelings.

Natalie Brown says busking in Columbia has never officially been defined. It’s never really been clear whether or not it was allowed. There have always been laws against panhandling, but clearly, street performance is different than standing on a street corner shaking a coffee cup for spare change. Still, buskers in Columbia were being carted off by the police.

Over the past few years, though, through the success of groups like Alternacirque, Luna Trix, and Fire in Motion, and with the growing popularity of First Thursdays on Main, the city of Columbia started to take notice of the street art scene and decided it might not be a bad idea to give street performers incentive to stick around. Buskers bring pedestrians into commercial areas, they beautify the city, add culture and art and a sense of community. So, why not figure out a way to legally protect them? CCP decided it would be good to pay them to perform? Sounds like a good idea, right?

But legitimising busking in this way requires laws and regulations. And writing a busking ordinance that everyone can agree on is a difficult thing to do.

Natalie says this about CCP’s efforts to subsidize busking in the city:

“So CCP took their idea to the city legal department and the licensing department, and the city beancounters tore it to shreds. For the first time, they were looking at the legality of busking, and the way it came back, buskers were about to get hosed: if you were performing in any way for money on the streets, you had to have a business license, which starts at $60 if you live within city limits, and goes to $120 if you live outside city limits; then they freaked out over liability and decided that you could only perform if you had insurance or were performing for an organization that would cover you under their insurance; then they decided that tipping was illegal anyway under panhandler rules.”

Luckily, discussion about busking and how to legitimize it in the city didn’t end there. A year and a half later, the idea of a permit system had emerged. Permits would cost $15, and could be obtained through an application process. CCP would essentially be granted quality control. They’d be able to decide what kind of performances occurred and when.

But what about travelling buskers? What if an artist is just passing through? Would she have to jump through red tape just to be able to perform on the sidewalk for one afternoon?

And there was still the idea of CCP paying buskers for their performances. With a real wage and permits, no one could argue with a performer’s legitimate right to be on the sidewalk, doing her thing. But, fifteen dollars an hour was the suggested rate and no tips in addition to the pay would be allowed. Most talented buskers can make more than fifteen dollars an hour on a good night. And only those granted permission to perform under this ordinance would be allowed to do so. Independent busking would still be illegal.

And then there was the 10 o’clock curfew.

Gina Wolfe, an active busker in Columbia who uses lights as part of her show, is especially affected by the curfew. She says,

“City officials were worried about noise levels in residential areas and that is why they wanted to shut it down at 10. As a busker in this particular city though, I know the crowds aren’t out until AFTER 10pm. It would also compromise any type of LED light performance as it doesn’t get dark in the summer until after 9:30pm.

All of these ideas were written up in a tentative ordinance and presented at yet another formal meeting with CCP, Mayor Benjamin, and a number of Columbia’s street artists.

Natalie Brown says the city’s overall attitude was one of support.

“City Council started addressing the CCP ordinance by itself, but then the mayor pivoted and opened up the conversation about a wider busking ordinance. He broke the rules and allowed me to come up and address the council, and I politely told them that the CCP ordinance by itself would screw over the busking community at large, and that a busking ordinance with reasonable boundaries was needed to settle everything. Three members of city council–Mayor Steve Benjamin, Leona Plaugh and Belinda Gergel–were outspoken in their excitement and support of busking. They grilled the city legal representative for a while about the roadblocks he was throwing up, and they decided to talk about a real busking ordinance on Tuesday, April 17 at 2 PM at an Arts and Preservation Committee meeting.”

Dave, Fire in Motion

So, Tuesday rolled around and the debate continued. At the meeting, concerns about the curfew, permits, restrictions on types of performances, and the official way in which buskers are allowed to ask for money were discussed.

Gina says,

“They agreed that a busker may ‘passively’ request contributions of money or property at a performance, provided that no sign requesting contributions shall exceed 12″x18″.

Issue from my stand point: Define “passive”.

Answer from counsel: no verbal component, box/ hat/ etc. only.

I explained the busking process by which we build and maintain an audience, create our set, and then form a pitch which asks for money. The pitch is important. A verbal cue for the audience that the show is complete or building to something fantastic. I explained we will not be hounding people or chasing them down. Anyone is free to walk on. The busker doesn’t leave their station. Another community member in the gathering suggested the terms Active verses aggressive for the revision and it seemed to go over very well. It is my opinion that council will change passive to active in the draft and include a line about what defines aggressive. (ie chasing or hounding the by-passer.)”

And because of her work with Fire in Motion, Gina was concerned about restrictions on “dangerous materials.”

“The one issue which is still very cloudy is the use of dangerous objects and fire. As it stands, the council has ruled them out entirely. Questions were asked and a variety of types of compromise were spoken of. Ideas were discussed. We are hoping to continue these talks of fire and other “dangerous” arts being allowed in certain areas, maybe through a second system of management. Ideas included possibly having a system by which the busker could prove insurance and safety record, maybe a peer review for permitting, rules set for regulating a safety zone, and of course, fire code requirements. None of this was resolved but we weren’t shut down immediately on the request either (a good sign for now). It helps to have a Blacksmith on the council who understands working with fire can be done safely. We are keeping our fingers crossed for future positive results.”

Gina Performing in front of Columbia Museum of Art

So, even if the city and buskers seem to be moving closer to a resolution that the majority can agree on, there are still a lot of concerns. Musician Neil Scott recently reminded us that At this point in the draft of the ordinance, playing without a permit is a maximum fine of $500 &/or 30 days in jail!!!

And Matt Falter, a drummer in Columbia, is still worried about the innovativeness and spontaneity of Columbia busking. Too many rules can kill the magic.

Natalie Brown tends to agree. In her recent blog post about the activities surrounding the CCP ordinance, she writes,

I would like to see newcomers, kids and unknowns get a shot at exposure and experience, but as independent artists in control of their own destiny.  I’d like to see inspiration, innovation and knowledge bounce from street corner to street corner and back again, as performers grow chops and push each other to get better.

C. Neil Scott and Matt Falter

So, Columbia has a long way to go before the perfect compromise is reached. At least the arts are healthy enough in the city to garner the attention and enthusiasm of the authorities. Let’s just hope that attempts to establish street arts in the city don’t end up doing more harm than good.

Also, here’s an article in the Free Times about the recent events.
Here’s more about Columbia Hoop Troop and Luna Trix.
And here’s Fire in Motion‘s facebook page.
See this link for info about Alternacirque.

This is an email sent to us by “Sarah”, who tells how she came to appreciate buskers. Well, one in particular.

After 2 stressful days of dealing with the Indian Embassy, finally completing all the paperwork and providing the “acceptable” size passport photos, my visa was being processed. Saturday I decided to do the tourist thing and see what I ought to see, without feeling unappreciative of where I was. I walked to the Sydney Aquarium. Then along the harbour. Then into The Rocks.

If you’re at the right age and watched a lot of teenage angst American crap back in the 90′s, then this will mean something; I heard singing and it was so emotional that I honestly thought I had stepped into a Dawson’s Creek episode.

I hung around for a bit, dropped some money into his case and picked up a few CDs, wondering how he could afford to get CDs produced if he was busking. Error #1. He was cute, he had a website, and I planned to check it out when I’d got back to the hostel.

I continued my way down to Circular Quay. Passing a few guys playing the Didgeridoo, I came upon the last pitch. No musical instrument (finally!). Nope, this guy had just started his “show” and had a few beats playing. Being a massive techno-head, I naturally stopped. He began doing all sorts of robotics, then into handstands. Held for what felt like an eternity to the unbalanced spectator. Natural with the audience, I decided to stick around.

He juggled, he was obviously an extremely talented dancer, and could play with fire. All fine attributes to look for in a future partner, no? As I came forward at the end to drop my donation (which to his standards was probably shameful — I am a poor traveller remember), I realised I quite liked the look of him.

1st day Sarah, keep your head on your shoulders and out of your pants. And anyone else’s for that matter. And besides, he is a street performer. There’s a reason he is doing this and hasn’t got a “proper” job. He is obviously homeless. He obviously has a crack habit. He is probably gay on top of that and married to another homeless person, who also has a crack habit.

After the musician in The Rocks and now this guy, I felt like I was on some mission from the good Lord to “save” these tortured souls, and “give” some Sarah-love. In the form of a damn good seeing to. This could turn out to be a charitable day.

I walked to the Opera House, around the harbour, into the Botanicals where I found a pre-party for Mardi Gras in full, unadulterated, gay, sweaty swing. I lay on the grass next to the fenced-off area and stole what I could from the party, without paying for the over-priced ticket. On the way back to the hostel, I re-traced my steps back to Circular Quay, where Mr. Juggles was wrapping up another show. I stayed to perv.

Then I went home to email the Musician and sing his praises. Sunday, after a night of thinking more about Mr. Juggles, I went for a Tarot reading in The Rocks. I went for a run, purposely passing the last pitch, where Mr. Juggles was performing again. I didn’t hang around this time, but I DID decide to come back after the run, looking a little more passable as a female. So, after lunch, I came back down on the free 555 bus.

Mr. Juggles, sporting his very worn (grrrrr) black jeans, his black vest (grrrrrrr) was just starting up another 45-min show. Thirty minutes in, I have the strongest gut feeling that I need to act on. But what to do? I can’t introduce myself after the show, too confrontational. So I head off to the nearest 7/11 and chose my weapon. Chocolate or sweets? Sweets. Chocolate will melt in the bag. Which sweets?

Suddenly I was faced with yet another predicament; what would these sweets say about me???? I had originally gone for the Lion bar (too intimidating), then the Skittle Sourz (was I bitter and tangy?) – Jesus, this was harder than I thought. I went for the Berry Skittles in the end. Simple really. I don’t like the yellow or green Skittles, there was a good chance he didn’t like certain colours, and everyone loves the black and red ones.

So, there I was, armed with bait. Now what? I went to the nearest souvenir shop. Asked to borrow a pen. Then some card. Then some Selotape. Mr. Souvenir man was grumpy because I hadn’t bought anything from his shop. I wrote my Facebook name on the card with the simple message “I WANT YOUR ASS XXX”. It’s quirky, to the point, and very me. A little bit like a cat leaving a dead mouse; NOTICE ME!

I then wondered how to give it to him without him seeing me do it. I could ask a child to do it for me. But that could go horribly wrong. Fuck it, I will do a hit and run. As all the kids an parents and the rest of the throng came forward to drop more money into the Harry Potter Sorting Hat, I disguised my skinny hand with everyone else’s and dropped in the Skittles. And ran. I stood well back from the pitch. And waited. Then distanced myself further, and hid.

I snuck behind bins and pillars and fat people, wanting to see him find the Skittles and gauge his reaction. This went on for THE LONGEST 5 minutes. I was getting dodgy looks from security and parents, and yet an audience member had struck up a full-blown conversation with Mr. Juggles. I needed to leave before I got moved on by the law. Remembering he advertised his Facebook page during one show, I decided to go hunting when back at the hostel. Just for good measure, so that I could have every angle covered, I left a comment (a clean comment) on his wall. Children read this for God sake. “Please teach me how to do a handstand without a wall”. Simple. Lets see if he reads his wall…

The next day, my dorm mates all had a laugh at my expense. Apparently I should have made my intentions even clearer; forget the sweets. Condoms and Poppers were the way to go. However, Mr. Juggles had responded to my comment! “You’re on Sarah, but only if you wear the Bumblebee outfit!”. This Bumblebee outfit had caused me no end of problems since wearing it for Halloween 2011 in Peru. So, was he flirting with me? And if so, fucking Hi 5. He then added me to his other Facebook page. Suddenly I was being let into an exclusive club. I am now jumping. Unsure of whether he realised I was the Skittles girl, I responded to the earlier thread and asked if he had enjoyed them. He obviously hadn’t put 2 + 2 together.

He came back an hour later with “OMG, I have just found Skittles in my bag…Sarah!”. Hehehehehe, we are now in business. I tell him about my other prop of the condoms and poppers. He tells me he actually does get condoms with spit in them. What is wrong with some people?????!!!!!

We eventually started chatting on FB and it turns out that the timing was off. He had just come out of an 11-year relationship and was in no state of mind for anything, even a quick shag. I was gutted. I told him I understood and signed off. I then sulked. A lot. I went for a run and, not one to be beaten or take “no” as an answer, I emailed him again and suggested he come out for a drink Thursday or Friday night. Or both. I knew I was pushing it and he could tell me to back off or not even reply. But I had to give him a gentle nudge. I had to meet him, end of.

Thursday afternoon, I got a reply. “Yes, I think you’re right. How’s Friday?” More jumping and booty shuffling in the hostel kitchen. That evening I met up with a friend and his work colleagues in the Paragon Hotel in Circular Quay. I told them I was going on a date the next evening. This is how the commentary went for the next 3 hours:

Them: Where did you meet him?
Me: He’s a street performer.
Them: Sarah, he’s homeless.
Me: No, he’s not.
Them: Sarah, why would he be street performing if he had a house?
Me: He DOES have a house.
Them: Sarah, he is a busker. He lives in a tunnel.
Me: He doesn’t! He said he was renovating his house!
Them: Sarah, he means he’s got new tin foil for his roof.
Me: No! He’s moving his bathroom and kitchen.
Them: Which means he doesn’t have a bathroom anymore, and has taken to pissing himself.
Me: Fuck off.
Them: You do realise you’ll be paying for the drinks the whole night.
Me: I’m sure I won’t.
Them: Sarah, he BUSKS, he cannot afford to buy drinks in a bar! And what will he be wearing??!! I bet he wears what you met him in.
Me: He can’t be that poor, he emails me.
Them: Yeah, using the FREE wi-fi in McDonalds. When the bill comes, he’ll pull out a smokescreen, “boom!” and he’ll disappear. Or, whenever it’s his turn, distract you with a juggle: Ooooh, look at this (juggle)…. But watch (juggle)…..
Me: But the money he gets from busking, that has to go somewhere.
Them: He has a crack habit! Sarah, he’s gonna murder you. You won’t be seen again after Friday night. So, where are you meeting him?
Me: Ummmm. He asked me to meet him at his pitch.
Them: (Much hysterical laughter) OMG, see! Coz his pitch IS his home! Sarah, you really are a disaster.

To be honest, I wouldn’t have cared either way. I wanted to get to know him, however brief. And maybe he needed a beer to cheer him up, homeless/crack head or whatever.

Friday night came, and I was late. As usual. But there he was, waiting patiently, on his pitch. Wearing different clothes. He smiled at me, and he had a beautiful set of teeth. Crack had no hold on this guy. We went to the Opera Bar where HE paid most of the night. There was no smokescreen. No distraction juggling. And it turns out that all the stigma attached to his profession was utter shite.

I’m sure it runs true for the few, but this guy has a Caterpillar truck. A great house. 3 fucking boats. AND he takes his show around Europe. He has a passport, woo hoo!!!!! I had an awesome evening with him. Best night I have had in years in fact. Which didn’t end until Sunday afternoon when he eventually had to drive me home so I could catch my flight.

The craziness hasn’t ended either. Those 72 hours were so precious that 2 days later, whilst chatting to him from Singapore, he booked a flight to meet up with me in India. A week later, he arrived in Goa. And, as of this moment, we have spent 9 days together so far. He has not murdered me. Yet. We still have another week left, but if I do come to a sticky end, it won’t be because of his psychopathic tendencies. It will be more like he couldn’t endure my rabbiting on, any longer…. :0)

Oh, and one more thing. Last week, the Musician Mark emailed me thanking him for my kind email regarding his music. Too late dude! I threw my pennies (and pants) in another hat….. ha.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ever since I first expressed an interest in street performers, people have been sending me links to Pearls Before Breakfast, a Pulitzer Prize winning article by Gene Weingarten. In it, he describes how Joshua Bell, one of the most famous violinists in the world, busked using a $3.5 million Stradivarius in the Washington D.C. subway system.

Reading that, you might think (as I did) that a brilliant musician playing a fabulous instrument would surely draw a crowd. And yet Joshua Bell — who normally packs out concert halls selling tickets for hundreds of dollars each — made just $32.17, and barely anyone stopped to listen.

The experiment could lead us to some conclusions: that we can’t recognise beauty out of context; that commuters are too busy to appreciate genius; that we are too closed minded in general; even that the average Washington D.C. commuter is a philistine.

However, although the writing in the article is good, a brief look at the details of the experiment shows that it was based on false assumptions and was executed poorly. The questions raised are interesting, but the answers given are unreliable at best, obnoxious at worst. And I can prove it: I lived with a subway violinist, Chen Cong, who goes against everything this article stands for.

But we’ll get to Chen later. First, the experiment’s flaws…

The wrong time, the wrong place, the wrong song

The experiment took place at 7:51 a.m. on the cold morning (4ºC outside) of January 11th, a time of year that is traditionally terrible for street performers (due to the post-Christmas pinch). Restrictions in the subway meant Weingarten was forced to place Bell in the small gap between the top of an escalator and a doorway, giving passersby not much room to stop and listen.

Then there’s the song choice. Bell didn’t try to appease the sensibilities of his audience. Instead, he chose to play as difficult a song as he could. Here’s how Weingarten describes it:

“Chaconne” is … considered one of the most difficult violin pieces to master. Many try; few succeed. It’s exhaustingly long — 14 minutes — and consists entirely of a single, succinct musical progression repeated in dozens of variations to create a dauntingly complex architecture of sound.”

If you’re sitting there thinking “that’s exactly what I want to hear on my morning commute!“, you’re in the minority. Buskers all over the world intentionally play music that people can relate to in a short period of time. That’s all the time they’ve got.

The Prejudice of Prestige

“In a demographic as sophisticated as Washington, the thinking went, several people would surely recognize Bell.”

If we rephrase the above quote, taken from Pearls, we get: “unsophisticated people do not listen to classical music,” or even “unsophisticated people can’t appreciate classical music.” And if you think that this sounds ethnocentric, Weingarten went on to say in emails to disgusted readers that he didn’t accept that people from different cultures and backgrounds could have different ideas about beauty. In other words, beauty is objective, and Weingarten knows what it is.

Still more tellingly, he describes the one man who seemed to appreciate Bell’s music fully as the “cultural hero of the day”, as if the other commuters should be looked down upon. Weingarten comes across like a Victorian scientist watching in disbelief as monkeys ignore a golden banana.

It makes my skin crawl. Below is how the experiment should have been done, and the results he would have found.

Chen Cong

Quite simply, he should have filmed Chen Cong.

Many years ago, when Chen was still a budding young violinist in China, Chairman Mao began his ruthless Cultural Revolution. All forms of Western music were banned, and Chen’s classically trained family (all musicians and dancers) were turned into trench diggers and pig farmers. At one point he was so destitute he was secretly teaching people how to play the violin in return for heads of cabbage, and riding his bicycle from village to village, telling people stories at mealtimes in return for food.

His father, who knew someone who knew someone, managed to smuggle a cassette tape of Chen’s playing to Mannes College of Music in New York, where he was immediately accepted. Chen escaped China, did a masters in performance in The Big Apple, and got very good reviews.

However, after he’d graduated he decided that if he wanted someone to tell him what to play or how to play it, he could go back to China for that — no need for an orchestra here. So instead, he decided to make his money busking, playing whatever he liked.

After some exploring of both his own tastes and the sensibilities of the New Yorkers around him, he chose the fairly quiet platform of the F train’s 57th Street station as his concert hall. It wasn’t busy, and in the afternoons and evenings he would make the most out of the long silences between passing trains. Here’s my first video of him, taken years ago (please excuse the quality, but the response at 2:27 is so cute from the crowd!)

Click here to view the embedded video.

At one point people were taking deck chairs and newspapers down to the subway to listen to Chen play. Both times I filmed him people stayed for over 30 minutes to listen (some for an hour or more), and both times people in the audience actually wiped away tears. People of all ages, races and genders also danced, laughed, clapped, cheered “bravo!” between songs, made eye contact with each other, felt calm and relaxed…in fact, they acted privileged to have experienced the music coming from Chen’s cheap violin.

Had Weingarten studied this humble and warm musician after his debacle with Joshua Bell, he might have been surprised at how well Chen did, both with the audience and with his donations. On most days, Chen connects with dozens of people, and brings home between $200-$400.

Click here to view the embedded video.

But would that have taught us anything?

Well, no, but Chen’s story does show that skill, fame and pomp are no substitute for experience when it comes to street performing. Oh, and perhaps that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I think it’s important not to judge humans on how they treat any one person in any one setting. After all, New Yorkers also have the unnerving habit of ignoring dead people in the subway. Or, as has been my own experience, for defecating and attempting to solicit fellatio in the subway. Well, maybe that does sum up the city.

“This guy always draws a crowd and it’s really amazing to see him create a big sound. The song is Secrets by One Republic. You can buy his music on this site. Check it out!”

Bryson Andrews, proving you don’t need a million dollar violin to impress people in the street. Buy his songs at reverbnation.com, or contact Jean Pollard at (907) 764-7464 / jean.pollard@gmail.com.

This is the first video that James Hancox has made, and it’s made me quite jealous. Impressed, too! Especially considering the quality of the music. Here’s the description from under the video:

KJ is just 14, & has already topped a couple of competitions. Wow.

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I was wandering home, & heard a Jimi Hendrix solo growling away from across the street. Naturally, I looked… & there was KJ. A young guy with his guitar & an amp (iPod connected for backing), just going for it on the streets of Auckland. Playing flawlessly.

No really. The kid wasn’t missing a thing. Extraordinary skill.

I don’t tend to carry cash, but I *always* have my camera on me (Canon 7D if interested)… So I hoped I could help him out in another way… One take. Not cuts. No special equipement. Shot, handheld, by a photographer who only just learned the video settings on his 7D. No external mic either… this is how the camera captured it. Imagine being there.

I hope he’s back next time I’m walking down Queen Street. You should look out for him too… and give what you can to support KJ’s incredible talent.

Rick Lewis: I began performing on the street in 1987. My main living nowadays is as a speaker and entertainer for corporate events (www.breakarule.com), but I still work the street when I can for the love of it.

I’ve rolled much of what I learned about people, human behaviour and performance into a message for organisations and it’s been very successful, mostly because there is so much juice in interactive and street style performance and corporate culture is dying for something real. I see myself as a bridge between the sanity of the street view and today’s business world.

I have authored a book that is regularly used in corporate development work that sums up what I learned and the insight I gained on the street. The title is 7 Rules You Were Born to Break. There are hidden rules in our culture that undermine the possibility of excellence. My mission is to champion the need for Intelligent Misbehaviour in the world.

Nick Broad: And busking has given you the insights needed for that mission?

RL: Busking is the most honourable form of business there is, where the product and service is generously given away and the customer is free to give back exactly what they have received in value.

There is no form of profession with a more demanding skill base. It requires the busker to be proficient in sales, marketing, branding, theatre, psychology (how individuals think), sociology (how individuals think and behave when in groups), customer service, risk management…the list goes on. People think of buskers as beggars rather than understanding that a skilled busker uses a public pitch out of choice, and that the ability to draw, hold and please a crowd necessitates mastery in a broad range of skill sets.

Street performing ought to be part of post-secondary curriculums, especially for business degrees. Busking operates as a meritocracy – if you don’t have the skills you don’t last in the profession, no matter what kind of politics you play. I love that about the profession, you can’t hide, you can’t fake it, you can’t get paid if you don’t show up and provide value to others. I wish every job operated by the same built in ethics.

And busking is culturally important, too. It is a public forum to consider society’s danger points, imbalances of attitude, behaviour, thought, habit, politics — and these are addressed through the most gentle form of necessary feedback and mirroring: humour. While digital advances abound people’s need to be directly addressed, inspired, entertained, informed and touched is only growing.

The busker reminds us of this, of the need for relationship, for spontaneity, for group experience, for team play between strangers, for laughter, for basic respect, and for doing the right thing.

NB: I love that idea — street performance taught to business students. We once had a reporter for the Wall Street Journal interview us for an article on NYC subway busking. I thought it might start a neo-liberal cultural revolution…

Anyway, playing devil’s advocate: circle shows might need all of the skills you’ve mentioned, but most buskers are musicians or statues who do little of that. Some are highly skilled and passionate, but others aren’t, barely interacting with their audience. Is that removed, bland style of performance so distant from begging? Do you see regular busking and circle shows as being in two different groups? Or should they be thought of (and treated) the same?

RL: I have seen street musicians who have moved me to tears based on the passion and feeling in their expression. I have also seen circle shows that have bored me to tears based on their lack of originality, authenticity, and willingness to risk anything of themselves. To quote the bard, “Full of sound and fury, yet signifying nothing.”

So to answer your question, yes, there are two separate categories of buskers. However, they’re not divided by circle shows and non-circle shows, but by those who are doing what they love and those who are doing what they hope somebody will give them money for.

NB: Okay, let’s move on. Gigs have been largely replaced by technology: the radio, the TV, records, CDs, youtube, file shares, and who knows what’s next. People aren’t as motivated as they once were to see “live” shows. Add to this the increasingly bland products of commercial success, and you get an idea of how important the streets are, both as a venue for artists otherwise looking for somewhere to create art, and as a vibrant, edgy space in which audiences can see “real” content, not made-for-TV rubbish.

I guess my question is: “Intelligent Misbehaviour seems as important now as it was in the 50s. Occupy everything seems like a step in the right direction. Could buskers, too, unite in some fashion, and bring on an arts revolution?”

RL: It seems to me the revolution is one performer at a time standing for his or her vision and offering the finest art they can to public audiences. Organise or unite? It’s one of the beauties of busking, that the artist trades paperwork, meetings, red tape, permissions, schedules, and organisation for the chance to focus on their art and spontaneously share it.

Organisations and organising can work wonderfully for some things, but I’m not so sure it suits the heart of the busking tradition. I guess the question is, “Do we really need an organisation to make a difference?” I think most people want to make a difference, but it’s also a scary proposition. Unfortunately, I think there is a tendency to turn to organising as a way of avoiding what we are already free to do and to accomplish as an individual.

NB: But in a world that’s organising daily in favour of commercial interests, what’s the buskers’ best defence, if not to organise themselves?

RL: Sure, we can throw out the word “organise” and say “Yes, let’s do it” but the problem is that there is not going to be agreement on what that would look like. Then who is going to decide what we are organising for exactly, what the core issues are, who we’ll elect to represent those issues to the public, and who stands to gain in what way from the organising? So then you suddenly you have a political body and to run it you need a leader, but that leader ought to be a true artist who is passionately dedicated to the essence of what busking is, but the true artist doesn’t want that desk job, they just want to do their art, and the person who takes the job (not such an artist) then winds up misrepresenting his or her constituents. Just look at any political system, the more “organised” it gets the more removed it is from the purpose of its inception.

My vote is to stay unorganised, or as loosely organised as possible. Your project is a great start to that as long as it remains a celebration of diversity and not a call to standardise approaches. We need to diversify our approaches rather than agree on them, because that puts every artist out there on a different front, attempting to reach through a different gap or loophole that the establishment of “commercial interests” as you have called them hasn’t closed yet. If we pool our approaches, agree on a focus, then its too easy to shut us down, because we’re all standing in one place when the corporate bomb hits.

The power of our movement, if we can call it that, is that we aligned in spirit, not in practice. Busking is an underground movement, if we try to surface it, we’ll just be snuffed out. We are organised when we each individually take responsibility for finding, creating, stealing, sneaking, negotiating, charming our way into a pitch – somewhere, anywhere, and just keep offering what we have on an individual basis.

Busking around the world is the traditional way. Not for these two. They needed to raise £450 in cash before getting on a plane to do a gig in London. In one day.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Definitely worth the watch! This video seems sped up until you see the lady walking along in the background. A smooth and highly-polished show.