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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

... to think if you are a busker you should vary your material or move on occasionally.

33 replies

5Foot5 · 04/08/2014 13:28

Don't get me wrong. I am generally quite sympathetic to buskers. They often make me smile and, if they are good, I am happy to give them something. But I think if their repertoire is limited they should bear in mind that not all of their audience has the option to just move on.

There is a group of buskers who have been playing in the street near our office for about two hours now. Initially they sounded quite jolly and entertaining and I guess on a sunny day like this they invoke bit of a party atmosphere for passers by. However, they seem to know only about three or four tunes and they keep playing them over and over and over. It is starting to get very annoying...........Angry

OP posts:
limitedperiodonly · 04/08/2014 13:41

They have a repertoire? You don't know how lucky you are.

I've been driven away from my favourite cafe by an accordionist who plays the theme from The Godfather and only the theme from The Godfather.

squoosh · 04/08/2014 14:08

I'd like to pass a law banning buskers from singing Wonderwall.

You're not a wonder wall, you're a shit wall.

I.HATE.WONDERWALL.

Perspective21 · 04/08/2014 15:00

My FIL was once plagued by a particular busker underneath his office window and was trying to have client meetings all day. His office was right in heart of a tourist hotspot. He popped down and gave the busker £20 on the condition he clear off for the day, not bad price 15 years ago!

SaggyAndLucy · 04/08/2014 15:11

Oh GOD ! Buskers! I'm a market trader when I'm not on mat leave.
I spend 7 or 8 hours at a time on the high street.
Some of the buskers are DIABOLICAL!
There's one, who has a classical guitar, who plays spangly 'elevator' music. It sounds like songs you know but isn't! its also VERY downbeat and depressing!
After a couple of hours I want to kill one of us! There's also an opera singer who only knows 5 songs!
The ABSOLUTE worst is the chap with the guitar and the paintbrush! Grin he hits the guitar with the paintbrush and 'sings' well known songs... In a monotone voice...which is off key...

Although, on the plus side, there are also some crackers! There a 'Sinatra alike' who has an amazing voice, and a south American pipe and drum group who are fabulous! There's also a very good Ed Sheeran type lad who is excellent.
The trouble is, after 6 hours, most of them drive you mad!
I have been known to make a sneaky call to high St security causing a very sympathetic officer will come and move them along! Wink

Frogisatwat · 04/08/2014 15:15

Its the carol singing buskers that piss me off. Anyone and everyone who has ever learnt a Christmas song tries their luck where I live. That combined with the now thats what I call xmas blasting in every shop. The buskers are the final straw.

Stinkle · 04/08/2014 15:31

YANBU

We have a big event going on with lots of street entertainers/buskers, etc and I was helping with a charity collection thing.

We were subjected to FOUR bloody hours of bloody bagpipes!!!

Original poster
5Foot5 · 04/08/2014 15:58

Stinkle Four hours of bagpipes is surely infringing on your human rights or something.

SaggyAndLucy Actually I have a very low tolerance threshold for South American type pipe music but maybe that is just me. But yes, anything wears a bit thin when you have to listen to it for hours on end rather than just catch a few minutes in passing.

This lot have just shut up in the last half hour. The relief!!

OP posts:
Stinkle · 04/08/2014 16:02

He actually played them quite well and for the first five minutes I was "oh, bagpipes, it's quite nice"

Then it went on. And on. And on.

I wanted to shove them up his arse after half an hour.

After 4 hours I was ready to kill him

Minisoksmakehardwork · 04/08/2014 16:41

There's a man in a town near me who plays the guitar. Even though it's got no strings!

Nomama · 04/08/2014 16:54

Round here there is a council bod who, during peal tourist times, wanders the hot spots and moves people on every hour or so. Most of them have a street license, it was a bit mad a few years ago.

I remember the 2 young boys with guitars who had the prime spot under Cav House canopy and they weren't moving on, sadly they weren't any good either. A regular busker asked them to move pitch and they responded with a stream in invective that was quite shocking (I was having a cup of coffee and nearly spluttered it down my front).

The busker made a phone call and a woman in a suit came and asked them for the license, no... not got one of those....move on or I will fine you.... "You can't do that the streets is free... do you know who my dad is?"

Amazingly, it seemed she did, as she made a phone call and handed her phone to said snot... who packed up and left. The genteel ladies who take tea/coffee in Cheltenham cheered and clapped as they left - me included Smile

zukiecat · 04/08/2014 17:32

Here in Aberdeen we have a lady who is fondly known to all as "Guitar Wifie"

She sits and strums on her guitar, and the only words to her songs are "La La La La La!

All Aberdonians love her though Grin

VampireSquid · 04/08/2014 17:54

I saw our local busker on our local bbc news a bit ago. Apparently he's got a recording contract now Hmm he's technical,y a good singer, he does have original talent and all that, but the repertoire he has is filled with the most annoyingly cheerful songs I've ever heard.

limitedperiodonly · 04/08/2014 17:56

perspective Is your FIL in Bath? I remember reading that the Bath Chamber of Commerce or some such rose up against street jugglers and puppet shows ages ago.

They were being portrayed as kill-joys but they were just trying to earn a living. If you have a business, particularly a staid business, I can see how it would really anger you to have meetings interrupted by noise in the street by people who aren't contributing to the economy of the city.

People who lived in the beautiful crescents got pissed off by tour parties too. I accept that the streets are public, but I'd get a bit fed up of people on an open-top bus gawping through my windows on the hour, every hour to a mega-phoned commentary in summer.

Obviously they could get nets.

RumPunch · 04/08/2014 18:01

Yes! They need to learn there are more bands out there than Oasis at least!

limitedperiodonly · 04/08/2014 18:07

I hate pan pipes and one day that reedy, new-agey crap might be the soundtrack to a bloody slaughter.

I love Rome and like to wander around the Forum/Colosseum bit. All right, so I'm imagining what it might have been like to be Messalina before her sticky end Grin

It's ruined by fucking pan pipes that aren't even being played, just broadcast, and those men in gladiator costumes tricking tourists into posing for photos and then nastily threatening them for money.

I've warned people not to go for it but I wouldn't dare intervene once they've been trapped. Those men are really nasty. It's a disgrace that the police sit in their cars watching it go on.

I hate living statues too. At least they're silent, but they can be really aggressive too, usually against a big target like a tiny Japanese teenager.

Acornbutter · 05/08/2014 12:34

You've got to realise, the buskers are sick of those tunes too. If I was asked to move on by a shop I was busking outside I sympathised with them and just moved on. As a lone busker that was no problem but moving a big band might be a different issue.

PandaNot · 05/08/2014 12:38

When I had a Saturday job in a shop many years ago now, there was a fantastic busker who used to set up just outside the door. It made Saturday mornings pass so much more quickly. But he had a big repertoire, it would have been terrible if he'd only known four songs.

limitedperiodonly · 05/08/2014 18:04

Acornbutter On a long ago Spanish beach there was a very accomplished busker with an acoustic guitar. I didn't mind him at all. I don't remember what he was playing but it fitted with that beachy mood.

But one man kept badgering him: 'Do you know Ritchie Blackmore?'. It wouldn't have been at all suitable or even possible - not that I'm a guitar player.

I've been dithering about whether to post this, but what the hell? He was German and very earnest. At least he was polite.

EduCated · 05/08/2014 18:11

I was in Sheffield recently and saw entirely the worst busker ever known. A lone bloke with a tambourine, belting out cheesy songs in the least tuneful voice I have ever heard, at volume. He was sat in te doorway to Mothercare. I honestly looked round for hidden cameras, it was so bad Grin

When I worked in a shop we had a fire juggling chap outside every Saturday through the summer. Used to make the shop stink of paraffin Confused

StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes · 05/08/2014 18:15

my DS and some of his friends did a 'busker dance thing' recently in aid of palestine. I was rather proud of him, he is a really good break dancer and teamed up with some others to do it.

Nomama · 05/08/2014 18:21

The man may have known more than you think - Blackmore is an accomplished guitarist and with his wife plays a beautifully intricate acoustic set... and they are huge in Germany Smile

UncleT · 07/08/2014 11:15

Sick to the back teeth of idiots playing the accordion loudly and badly on my journey to work, such that even some of the most expensive, large headphones on the market are powerless to defend my peaceful enjoyment of the radio or my own choice of music. They can bugger off.

limitedperiodonly · 07/08/2014 13:39

My mistake nomama. I've googled Ritchie Blackmore and never knew there was so much more to him than hard rock.

I thought the German was asking for Deep Purple songs. But now I realise he probably thought the busker's style was similar to Blackmore's.

Nomama · 07/08/2014 13:45

Smile Having been subjected to prog rock and NWOBHM from a young age I have a lot of very unfashionable music in my head and house. DH really isn't a fan though Grin

limitedperiodonly · 07/08/2014 13:50

Our nice holiday bar was plagued by a charmless fire eater. He used to do a few quick breaths and there was nothing else to his act, like patter or other tricks. Then he'd aggressively demand tips.

And yes, the whole place would stink of paraffin afterwards so that was all you could taste in your drink.