DAY ONE - LONDON CALLING...

July 8, 2006.

I've never busked London before. Always thought it too big for me somehow, too massive and fast-moving for people to pay attention to a mere acoustic singer-songwriter busker.
BUT the times they are a-changing, and now that I'm surviving on this music thing I think I better get out there and start warbling.
I'm staying in Earls Court at the 'Olave House Millenium Lodge' (pretty flash name for a ten pound dormitory bed...) so as soon as check out time hits, I'm out of there and on my way over to LONDON BRIDGE.

Position: my back to the sun. A backdrop of the Thames behind me, various statues to my front. At about 11 a.m I begin to sing... Ahhhhh, I love it. Singing has ALWAYS been such an amazing release for me.. the best way I express myself I guess. I begin with Joni Mitchell's 'California', as usual, and as the first coins start to hit my glittery-scarf bedecked guitar case (three cheers for Indian paraphernalia!) I know I'm going to be allright. On this, my first day back on the streets, nothing very out of the ordinary happens. I feel like I'm back in India almost, when a few Indian passers by stop to have their photo taken with me - that's another mantle piece around the world that I'm on, I think... a few children stop and stare, but mostly today people stop for a while, smile, fish in their pockets for loose change... one young Turkish boy asks for 'Comfortably Numb' by Pink Floyd and 'Losing My Religion' by R.E.M - I always like getting requests that I know how to play so I don't mind at all.

One and a half / two hours or so later I stop for a break - my stomach is grumbling and I count
£22.12
10 c Euro
1 c American
in my case.

It's a good start- not great, but enough for the minute. I don't want this to be just about the money (it won't be!), but I think I'm going to continue to keep a record of exactly how much I make, if only just for interests sake.

Later, on KING STREET near COVENT GARDEN I play for twenty minutes and make a fiver, plus am given a can of sugary grapefruit juice that I don't dare to drink from a teenaged girl. I leave after a short while as it's too noisy and people aren't really stopping to watch - I could have busked in the the Covent Garden market of course, but there are just too many great human statues to watch and not really enough space for a late-coming guitarist.

At WATERLOO, near the LONDON EYE I make £8.82 in half an hour until a policeman politely asks me to move along as it's private land or some such thing... a shame, as I have a small crowd of Polish tourists watching me at this point. Ahh, this is busking for you... anyways, I'm kinda beat and it's time for me to prepare myself for a night bus journey to Edinburgh so I'm ready to chalo anyways....

LOGISTICS OF TODAY:

Total income: £35.28 British pounds
10 c Euro
1 c American
1 can sugary grapefruit juice

That's it for now. I'm updating this from a friend's house back in beautiful Edinburgh, where I gave myself a day off to catch up on sleep and friends after five months away ( I used to live here). Tomorrow I'll hit Middle Meadow Walk, my old busking haunt, and see where the day takes me...