Life on the streets with Scotland’s buskers
TO CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL BUSKING DAY THE SUNDAY HERALD’S JODY HARRISON SPENT YESTERDAY WITH THE STREET ENTERTAINERS WHO BRING A LITTLE COLOUR TO OUR CITIES
IT may be the lowest rung on the ladder to fame but it worked for Ed Sheeran, Eddie Reader, below, and Justin Bieber. The odd knockback and a deportation from Spain didn’t do much to inhibit the career of Rod Stewart either. They all started their careers on the streets, performing for spare change, although they were clearly engaged elsewhere yesterday for the first International Busking Day, when more than 100 cities round the world hosted and highlighted the quality of street artists.
Glasgow, renowned for its love of music, was in the forefront. So, armed with a tape recorder, a notebook and a pocketful of coins, the Sunday Herald set out to check the talent and hear the tales of those who spin their tunes on the city’s streets.
PAUL Howie, 20, from Stevenston, Ayrshire, is a selftaught one-man band who sings, plays guitar, and taps out the beat on a cajun drum with accompaniment from a tambourine tied to his foot.
He brings along a portable amplifier, powered by two car batteries and uses a microphone to get his songs out to passersby.
He said: “I’ve been busking for roughly three years. I enjoy it otherwise I wouldn’t do it – I get to come out on the street and play music and make money.
“It’s great fun, people like it and I seem to get a lot of event bookings from it, weddings, birthdays and things like that.
“My worst moment was when someone came up to me and gave me a sign telling me to get a real job. They took the time out of their day to do that, but I wasn’t bothered.
“One of the nicest things that ever happened was someone gave me a coffee from Cafe Nero. He didn’t speak any English so he got the barista to write ‘you have a beautiful voice’ on it in English.”
He added: “In the street I play chart music. I play the odd old song, Johnny Cash and the like, and sometimes my own stuff, but it doesn’t make as much money.”
SAXOPHONIST Aleksander Papier and guitarist Jarostaw Jewuszewicz, from Poland, and double bassist Maria Bloom, of Spain, were a huge hit with crowds outside the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, one of the city’s top pitches for buskers. The trio have been playing together for more than a year. Aleksander and Jarostaw came to Scotland together, performing under the band name BobbieSentUs, and met Maria on their first day in Glasgow when she saw them busking in the street and asked if she could join in. Aleksander said: “We are professional musicians full time. Aside from this we play in clubs and do events round the world.
“Glasgow is a good city to busk. People are very kind, and those who live here love music. I had heard it was the best city for buskers in the world because of the people, and because you don’t need any permission or permits to play on the streets.
“We are the only jazz band buskers at the moment and we get only a good reception from the public.
“I love playing in front of the crowd on the street. There’s a good vibe and people will come up and take cards, invite us to parties and book us for weddings. And we have time to work on our own music.”
PIPER Kristina MacDonald, 21, from Glasgow, is a former pupil of Glasgow’s Gaelic School, who is now training to be a primary schoolteacher. She is a former member of Glasgow Schools Pipe Band, who started learning the instrument when she was eight, and is using the money she earns to pay her way through college, hoping to graduate debt-free.
She said: “I also have a part-time job down at Frasers but you make so much more money doing this, so I’d much rather be here. I started busking when I was 11. It was on Argyle Street around Christmas and me and my best pal went out, and it was so good. It was just an amazing experience.
“I go to football matches at Hampden, and get a tremendous reception there. I hadn’t been doing it for a while, but I was working at Gap and they used to get me in to perform when there were events on like St Andrew’s Day, and that got me back into it.”
She added: “It can be difficult to get a pitch and it can be quite fierce. You do get other buskers coming up and saying ‘you’re too close’, but the pipes are a loud instrument. It takes a lot to get out here – my mum and dad are like ‘go and busk’, encouraging me. I don’t want to be in debt when I leave university, so this is like my student fund.
“But it is hard to get out on the street and I have the greatest respect for buskers. But everyone is so supportive. I used to have a guy who would come up and tune one of my drones, and it ended up very nice and we became pals.”
She added: “I had a woman ask for The Dark Island once and it obviously brought back memories for her and she started crying. People do get emotional when they hear the pipes, sometimes.”
BORN-AGAIN Christian Michael, who did not want to give his full name, said that a spiritual experience convinced him to go and spread the word of the Lord with his guitar on the streets.
He said: “I was running nightclubs, I was an actor, I would do anything to make money. I was brought up with no belief in God, but then I had a supernatural encounter with Him and now I do none of those things. He gave me a little push to go and play in the street. I would never have had the confidence to do this otherwise.
“I used to play the guitar before I met God, but he gave me a blessing and songs to sing and now I’m out here singing about Jesus and heaven and the truth.” He added: “People hear me and they get touched. They come to talk to me and I share my testimony and talk about God, Jesus, heaven and hell. It’s all real. The devil exists as well, and if you are out singing on the streets about God you can be sure that the devil ain’t happy about it so you get shouted at.”
YOUNG pop duo Rianne Downey, 16, and Dylan Thomas, 20, both from Glasgow, were performing along with a small huddle of other buskers outside the Apple store, with each musician taking a turn to sing a few songs.
Rianne has been busking for a year, while Dylan has three years as a street performer under his belt.
The pair, both from Bellshill, sing pop songs along with crowd-pleasing favourites, covering golden oldies as well as more modern songs. Dylan said: “It’s like any job, there’s a lot of factors involved. Sometimes it’s raining so you can’t play or you’ll get your equipment damaged, others it’ll be hot and you’ll be melting. Some days you can come out and make £80, some days you’ll make £15. I’m in a band as well and busking gives me experience playing in front of thousands of people every day. It helps when you have gigs.”
Rianne added: “Plus you have to come out at really mental hours. We were in at six in the morning today to get this pitch. I’ve had a few people come up to me crying, asking me to sing certain songs. It makes you feel good, and a bit guilty because you don’t want to make people cry!”
MANUEL Corsetti, 22, is originally from Venezuela but has lived in Scotland for eight years. He mixes busking with performances at weddings and other events, playing everything from his own songs to Ed Sheeran covers.
He said: “One of the great things is there’s a whole busking community, and you get to know the other guys performing on the street. There’s a great sense of camaraderie. The relationships we make are a big thing. I love performing and it’s probably the best feeling I know. If people like it then they give stuff, if they don’t then they walk on by and it’s no problem.”
Manuel’s performance once moved one spectator to offer him a gig playing in England, complete with a complimentary hotel stay and a sizeable fee. But he has also fallen foul of a Glasgow hen night in full party mode, and lived to tell the tale.
He said: “I’ve gone out at night at the weekend when there’s a lot of drinking going on, but you never get any hassle. The only time anything bad happened was when a group on a hen night came up and the bride to be basically took over the microphone.
“She wasn’t a bad singer but I couldn’t get it back off her until I had played about three songs. Her mother kept asking me to play more. And she broke the microphone stand. But that’s the worst thing I’ve ever experienced playing on the streets.”