London's buskers: a qualitative audit

First, I don't care how skilled a musician you are, if you play with a backing track you're shit and I hate you.

London Bridge tube has some excellent buskers. The chap who plays an 8-string stick (whom I saw again just now) is phenomenal, my favourite. He did an interpretation of Little Wing last time out, fucking killed it

The Queensway double-bassist is also classic, obv

Marble Arch has terrible buskers. Careless Whisper Saxophonist, fuck off. Trust Fund Cheeky Strummer Who Plays 'Get Lucky', go jump in sewage

This will be an onrunning audit and you are all encouraged to add

There's a woman I've seen a couple of times late at night at Newington Green. She sits on the ground and plays a penny whistle. I like the sound of it echoing around and made a recording of her once. https://soundcloud.com/dubmill/busker-at-newington-green

A busker I really don't like plays reggae with backing tracks. I've seen him at Covent Garden and also on the South Bank, although not recently. His rig is quite loud and you can hear it from a long way off but the music is not very good and he can't really sing.

The Queensway double-bassist is keen - I saw him on Christmas day last year.

I generally don't approve of amplification or backing tracks.

https://twitter.com/Domalomalom/status/404045598602825729

haha oh god, the cancer spreads

wait A FEDORA!!!!

Aged-yet-perky melodeon player with giant moustache and genuine 1920s Hohner at Green Park who played me a jig and explained the intricacies of various accordion-type instruments, rock on brother

He's not changing the word, but Leicester Square shredder who always seems to be playing One by Metallica often cheers me up quite a bit.

Leicester Square tube that is, possibly piccadilly line?

I used to work by Piccadilly Circus and there was a bloke who always played One by Metallica there about 3-6 years ago. Doesn't he get bored?

ah sorry yes i do mean piccadilly. must be him.

Himalayan looking dude on the bridge between Charing Cross and Waterloo. Uses a biro to strum an ultra-battered acoustic guitar in infinite one-note minimalist fashion. Chants a bit too. Kinda hypnotic.

the hungerford hypnotist

they seem to have different ones at euston northern line but they're all unbelievably loud and dreadful and murderable. careless whisper saxophonist was definitely among them

quite recently tho i came down the stairs at old street one friday nite to find the surreal scene of a cool dude boho busker picking out jay-z 'i just wanna love u' and a super hyped punter in front of him hollering GIMME THAT SWEET THAT NASTY THAT GUSHY STUFF

i was too tired to find the joy in it and walked on by

ignoring the siren, a most homeric rtc

http://www.thair.net/superproduct/index.php/2011/02/13/the-mystery-of-londons-pyramid-hat-man/

not a busker but this chap (of whom i was not previously aware) was in front of me on the escalator today

http://i.imgur.com/qRsTdXO.jpg

couldnt resist :/

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FAjiUSS7S4M/Ul0w-cZh-EI/AAAAAAAAJRY/Bqiok6Koqe4/s400/jamesbrownwithpyramid.jpg

HOW EARTH IS CHANGING
Pyramids are becoming increasingly important now because the earth is shifting to higher vibrations and its gridlines are going into progressively higher octaves. – See more at: http://www.adversityuniversityblog.com/the-making-of-a-copper-pyramid/

Roma quartet (2 x trumpets, accordion, dude standing about and occasionally playing the tambourine) at corner of High Holborn and Kingsway last week was great. Unfortunately, I think the police have moved them on and told them not to come back. Feeling quite positive that Romania being fully integrated into the EU free movement system will lead to a marked improvement in London busking standards.

Anatolian accordionist outside Harringay Green Lanes station, A+

Old guy with white beard?

Tappy delay guitar dude at Embankment station, learn some songs, 'cause if the battery goes on your delay pedal son, yer fucked.

Strummy cunt at Marble Arch was playing Blurred Lines just now. Nearly flipped him the finger

theme from the godfather on or around hungerford bridge every evening ever

Marble Arch, just now: a wonderful surprise! Two-stringed East Asian banjo-type thingy, played with what looked like a paint scraper. One quid.

http://i.imgur.com/8Ysnjrc.gif

on a tangent to my route so I didn't go over & pay dues but an uncommonly melodious whistler at Green Park today

Aged-yet-perky melodeon player with giant moustache and genuine 1920s Hohner at Green Park who played me a jig and explained the intricacies of various accordion-type instruments, rock on brother

― VENIET IMBER (imago), Wednesday, January 8, 2014 12:52 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy is at Oxford Circus all the damn time now

London Bridge tube has some excellent buskers. The chap who plays an 8-string stick (whom I saw again just now) is phenomenal, my favourite. He did an interpretation of Little Wing last time out, fucking killed it

― veneer timber (imago), Friday, November 22, 2013 4:39 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy is at London Bridge all the damn time as well

they're both good buskers tho so I shdnt complain

literally the worst beatboxer ever outside charing x

The power trio outside Waterstones Tralfalgar Square on Saturday evenings get an impressive audience.

under Southwark Bridge, midnight last - an opera singer, howling with melodious mournfulness and beauty as my new girlfriend and I walked by, arm in arm. £1 each, probably should have been more

Green Park whistler was back the other day - tall, burly man, somewhat Eastern European in appearance, with a blind stick. utterly arresting. alas the wrong way down a passageway for me to reach, but his xmas carols were so melodious

argh the previous post had 'melodious' in it too. repl. w/ 'sonorous' idk

Not busking as such but the pianos at St Pancras are a nice touch, both because it's rare for something interactive to be provided that you don't have to pay for and because it's even more rare for the public to be trusted to use nice things for their intended purpose rather than vandalising them or causing a nuisance. Coming off Eurostar to a bunch of Spanish kids serenading iPad-filming tourists and a spaced-out homeless guy was a nice way to return to th city.

girl doing some electronics at Kings Cross was reasonably ok but then started singing and it was awful

Watford underpass (not London) just now: frenzied acoustic version of 10.15 Saturday Night. Too far away, otherwise would have coughed up

Decent beatboxer in Piccadilly Circus right now, a bit dubstep even

Spotted the melodeon player at Marble Arch latterly, made a sweet change from the worst saxophonist ever

That stick player is just everywhere now

Everywhere but mostly London Bridge. And almost everything he does is a Little Wing interpretation

A busker I really don't like plays reggae with backing tracks. I've seen him at Covent Garden and also on the South Bank, although not recently. His rig is quite loud and you can hear it from a long way off but the music is not very good and he can't really sing.

― dubmill, Friday, 22 November 2013 17:19 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Is this the fucker who plays outside the Marble Arch Sainsbury's basically every night now?

Guy on the Jubilee line tunnels at Waterloo testily mucking about with some envelope follower part of his multi fx unit that plays percussion and drum sounds along with his guitar, sounded a bit like Neubauten from a distance

Chapman Stick player at Southwark, playing the most fragile and vapid new age music I think I've ever heard, it was like angel's hair, but in a very bad way.

I have my headphones in but as near as I can tell in Cambridge today there is some sort of Latin combo playing "I wanna be like you" after the los lobos cover of same, and a trio of gifted children playing stuff like kings of Leon and George Ezra; latter group irritatingly playing outside the cafe I want to drink outside

Guy outside work on Brick Lane has cut up like 30 drain pipes, arranged them like drums and makes it sound likea crazy synthesizer. A+

That stick player presumably the one I always see at London Bridge

I used to like him but I'm sick of him now, as my posts throughout this thread night attest to . Did he have a sizeable beard, MaresNest?

Ah good, the annual (amplified) buskers competition has started up outside the office again. Someone in an ear hat playing Death Cab.

Cutty Sark, right now: middle-aged man playing Silver Machine on semi-acoustic with slide and harmonica. One pound

I used to see the pyramid hat guy all the time as he must have lived nearby and would alight in the same places as me, but not for years, hope he's okay and not accidentally teleported somewhere.

Oh and earnest, looping-voice, KT Tunstall wannabe at the Exhibition Rd tunnel, please stop.

Buskers blasting out songs on loop across Leicester Square on a daily basis has been compared to “psychological torture” by a judge, as he ordered Westminster Council to pull the plug.

District Judge John Law has now ruled that the council failed to act to stop the “nuisance”. “While the volume [of the music] is the principal mischief, it is clear that the nuisance is exacerbated by the repetition and poor quality of some of the performances”, he said.

“As I observed in the hearing, the use of repetitive sounds is a well-publicised feature of unlawful but effective psychological torture techniques.”

otm m'lud

a mix between psychological torture and nuisance with the principal mischief of Oasis

Not London but, in my youth, I used to see Tanita Tikaram and (to be honest, more so) her brother busking in the underpass approaching Basingstoke station.

Anyway, back to the present day, there's a bloke in Oxford who sings/shouts songs he's reading from his phone over backing tracks and ... he seems to be a phenomenon (and once claimed in the local paper that he was earning 40 grand a year from it). It's not good.

Sorry ... back to the Big Smoke.

That guy in Oxford is the worst.