I normally respond by pulling out a pack of cards or a contact ball, and trying to distract everyone's attention to that instead. Sometimes those things are out already.
For those of you who have never performed in anything - I recommend you try before you criticise. Even something like a renegade stage at a juggling convention is intensely nervewracking. I have the utmost respect for anyone who can get up on stage and do stuff.
It's not that I think they're not good, and it's certainly not that I think I could do better.
It's that I'm trying to get from A to B and I don't want noise in my head. I'd gladly give up every good busking I've ever heard if it meant I didn't get the ones I don't want when I have a headache. Even more so if they'd take the Big Issue sellers too.
I was thinking about this at lunchtime (with reference to telesellers who try to bully you into phone contracts you don't want). People who importune you hoping for your money ought to have to pay you for the headspace it takes to decide whether to give it to them or not. I bet that's a calculation which would usually come out negative.
I normally respond by looking firmly into my book and if that doesn't work on the begging round, just saying no.
But it's the difference between a performance and begging - the ones in the corridors are performing, the ones in the trains are attempting to hold the carriage's collective good natures hostage.
I've performed in public - never really had much stagefright if I was performing. Lot more nervous about getting up as myself without anything to hide "me" behind.
To clarify: I like the proper authorised buskers, not the ones who leap onto the Tube carriage and subject you to accordian music when you've a hangover.
Well, no. I don't think that has anything to do with it at all.
I like street music. I like live performances by talented people.
I don't like people who are aggressive or who behave in a dangerous fashion (e.g. leaping onto trains as the doors are closing, or moving between carriages when the train's moving). Unfortunately a lot of the buskers who work train carriages are like that.
I'm neutral to them, with an angle towards positivity. I will sometimes hear terrible ones but then you're in transit, you'll be past them in a minute, and sometimes they're marvellous and put a spring in my step.
I've never encountered buskers on trains in London; they're much more prevalent in Paris.
In corridors, I like good ones and despise bad ones; on trains I like exceptional ones and despise any that weren't at least very good.
At least we don't yet get in London the kind of panhandling I found most wearisome in Paris: a guy works his way through a carriage handing out photocopied fill-in-the-gaps sob stories ("I am a refugee from and I have children to feed", etc.). This meant people had to actively refuse to give them money when he came back to retrieve his slip of paper.
After a while, I got wise to this and started refusing to accept bits of paper proffered at me on the Metro by Africans. This worked well until I met a pushy Algerian who dropped the paper in my lap anyway; I tore it up and gave it straight back together with a piece of my mind.
Everyone else in the carriage stared at me as though I was British or something.
Oh, we've had the panhandlers - complete with kids. They don't bother with notes, they just stand in front of you with a tired kid and shove a hand in your face. Again, I either ignore them or say no.
And then I report 'em to the station staff. While it's too late to catch them at that station, it can help in figuring out which stretch of the line a gang is targeting.
I have also been subjected to the Paris-shove-hand-in-face method. I just calmly make eye contact and say "no" or should that be "non". This does in fact work.
When abroad in some countries I have noticed that people find the UK method of not wanting to say "no" and doing so by looking away puzzling. They genuinely assume that if you have't said "no" you must be interested making up your mind. Whereas in many places it's normal to ask if you want something, and everyone who isn't inclined will say no without feeling embarassed/guilty/whatever. A smile and "no thanks" seemed to be very effective... (although on the tube I'd give the smile a miss...).
I would imagine the auditions would have improved the quality, yes. (And the more formalised structure has encouraged some to busk who have never done so before.)
I am neutral in that I like GOOD buskers, in the corridors. Good buskers get money from me. Crap buskers get nothing. There are lots of musically talented folks, however if you are tone deaf, then perhaps, busking is not your calling.
I dislike buskers in the trains themselves but will make an exception for a really good one.
I use my consumer power: crappy or otherwise irritating buskers don't get my money.
I've busked on the London Underground since the licensing scheme started in 2003. Before that I did some busking in Bath (and still do occasionally).
As a music student, it's one of the few jobs I can do that contributes toward my musical education and my income at the same time. It also has reasonably flexible hours, which is important.
I get annoyed at buskers who busk illegally (anywhere other than approved pitches), and also at buskers who turn their amps up far too loudly, and also at buskers who play the same damn song over and over again (you think it's bad for you? You should hear the station staff complaining), and also at buskers who play very poorly, partly because it's just unpleasant, and partly because they give me a bad reputation. I'm a little more likely to be lenient in my attitudes toward buskers who merely sound a bit bored or tired - I know how I feel on a day when the only song anyone responds to is "Danny Boy" and I already had a rehearsal and it's nearly the end of a two-hour pitch... two hours without a break is a long time even for a professional musician. However, I generally only give money to buskers if I really enjoy something about what they are doing.
Things that piss me off: -people who take my photograph without asking and without giving me any money -people who talk to me while I'm playing. If I stop to reply I ruin the piece, if I keep playing some of them get quite abusive. Usually I keep playing, because if they really want to talk to me they'll wait. -people who probably couldn't recognise hard work if it came up and bit them telling me to, "Get a real job." -people who steal money from my hat. No, I'm not joking, this happens. It happens less if I take the larger-denomination coins out on a regular basis and hide them out of sight. -Bank station being impossibly dusty; I won't play there any more -Only being allowed to play certain pitches because the Horn is a brass instrument, therefore it is 'loud' - but believe me, if I'm playing for two hours I'm not going to be belting it the whole time, and most of the 'loud' pitches are near escalators and platforms and it's impossible to hear myself think, let alone for anyone else to hear me clearly. Quieter pitches like Charing Cross are reserved for 'quiet' woodwinds. -getting up early to get to the 8am commuter pitches that are most profitable for me -wealthy-looking people sorting carefully through their abundant pocket change, in full sight, and giving me 2p. If they had any sensitivity they'd do the sorting where I can't see it.
Things I like: -When people smile, laugh, or otherwise respond positively to my playing -I get to play music, and people give me money for it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
damerell at 04:21pm on 26/04/2006
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<Neil Gaiman>My father was Lear, you insensitive sod!</Neil Gaiman> :)
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For those of you who have never performed in anything - I recommend you try before you criticise. Even something like a renegade stage at a juggling convention is intensely nervewracking. I have the utmost respect for anyone who can get up on stage and do stuff.
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It's that I'm trying to get from A to B and I don't want noise in my head. I'd gladly give up every good busking I've ever heard if it meant I didn't get the ones I don't want when I have a headache. Even more so if they'd take the Big Issue sellers too.
I was thinking about this at lunchtime (with reference to telesellers who try to bully you into phone contracts you don't want). People who importune you hoping for your money ought to have to pay you for the headspace it takes to decide whether to give it to them or not. I bet that's a calculation which would usually come out negative.
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But it's the difference between a performance and begging - the ones in the corridors are performing, the ones in the trains are attempting to hold the carriage's collective good natures hostage.
I've performed in public - never really had much stagefright if I was performing. Lot more nervous about getting up as myself without anything to hide "me" behind.
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I like street music. I like live performances by talented people.
I don't like people who are aggressive or who behave in a dangerous fashion (e.g. leaping onto trains as the doors are closing, or moving between carriages when the train's moving). Unfortunately a lot of the buskers who work train carriages are like that.
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In corridors, I like good ones and despise bad ones; on trains I like exceptional ones and despise any that weren't at least very good.
At least we don't yet get in London the kind of panhandling I found most wearisome in Paris: a guy works his way through a carriage handing out photocopied fill-in-the-gaps sob stories ("I am a refugee from and I have children to feed", etc.). This meant people had to actively refuse to give them money when he came back to retrieve his slip of paper.
After a while, I got wise to this and started refusing to accept bits of paper proffered at me on the Metro by Africans. This worked well until I met a pushy Algerian who dropped the paper in my lap anyway; I tore it up and gave it straight back together with a piece of my mind.
Everyone else in the carriage stared at me as though I was British or something.
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And then I report 'em to the station staff. While it's too late to catch them at that station, it can help in figuring out which stretch of the line a gang is targeting.
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When abroad in some countries I have noticed that people find the UK method of not wanting to say "no" and doing so by looking away puzzling. They genuinely assume that if you have't said "no" you must be interested making up your mind. Whereas in many places it's normal to ask if you want something, and everyone who isn't inclined will say no without feeling embarassed/guilty/whatever. A smile and "no thanks" seemed to be very effective... (although on the tube I'd give the smile a miss...).
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I dislike buskers in the trains themselves but will make an exception for a really good one.
I use my consumer power: crappy or otherwise irritating buskers don't get my money.
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1. A massed band of steel drums is impressive. One on its own is just rather sad.
2. Learn something other than Fur Elise. Fur fuck's sake. .
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Generally, I don't like them, General exceptions are good ones and a specific exception is pink-haired horn-playing Canadian ones.
Unlicensed buskers and train hoppers are without exception loathsome.
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Flip side of the coin
I've busked on the London Underground since the licensing scheme started in 2003. Before that I did some busking in Bath (and still do occasionally).
As a music student, it's one of the few jobs I can do that contributes toward my musical education and my income at the same time. It also has reasonably flexible hours, which is important.
I get annoyed at buskers who busk illegally (anywhere other than approved pitches), and also at buskers who turn their amps up far too loudly, and also at buskers who play the same damn song over and over again (you think it's bad for you? You should hear the station staff complaining), and also at buskers who play very poorly, partly because it's just unpleasant, and partly because they give me a bad reputation. I'm a little more likely to be lenient in my attitudes toward buskers who merely sound a bit bored or tired - I know how I feel on a day when the only song anyone responds to is "Danny Boy" and I already had a rehearsal and it's nearly the end of a two-hour pitch... two hours without a break is a long time even for a professional musician. However, I generally only give money to buskers if I really enjoy something about what they are doing.
Things that piss me off:
-people who take my photograph without asking and without giving me any money
-people who talk to me while I'm playing. If I stop to reply I ruin the piece, if I keep playing some of them get quite abusive. Usually I keep playing, because if they really want to talk to me they'll wait.
-people who probably couldn't recognise hard work if it came up and bit them telling me to, "Get a real job."
-people who steal money from my hat. No, I'm not joking, this happens. It happens less if I take the larger-denomination coins out on a regular basis and hide them out of sight.
-Bank station being impossibly dusty; I won't play there any more
-Only being allowed to play certain pitches because the Horn is a brass instrument, therefore it is 'loud' - but believe me, if I'm playing for two hours I'm not going to be belting it the whole time, and most of the 'loud' pitches are near escalators and platforms and it's impossible to hear myself think, let alone for anyone else to hear me clearly. Quieter pitches like Charing Cross are reserved for 'quiet' woodwinds.
-getting up early to get to the 8am commuter pitches that are most profitable for me
-wealthy-looking people sorting carefully through their abundant pocket change, in full sight, and giving me 2p. If they had any sensitivity they'd do the sorting where I can't see it.
Things I like:
-When people smile, laugh, or otherwise respond positively to my playing
-I get to play music, and people give me money for it.