Street entertainment

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 1:10 pm

I walk through Trafalgar Square to and fro work at the moment. Its full of tourists and street entertainers during the day so on my way to the station in the evening I'm spoilt for choice.

The hovering wizard. A half decent guitarist with a fair voice. A few pavement artists of varying talent. A sitting statue, which seems very lazy to me.

The two wonders, by far are the homeless, clearly worse for wear, man who sits on the floor, "doo doo dooing" through a traffic cone with an often empty coffee cup in front of him and a kilted Scotsman doing a pretty poor rendition of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" and the customary "Flour of Scotland"

I always smile at the man with the traffic cone

FourPart · Post by **FourPart** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 1:59 pm

I sometimes feel saddened that busking, without a licence, is illegal, not only because of local Council regulations, but because of performance rights (of course, if the songs are the performers own originals, that's not an issue), but I see Street Entertainers, of all sorts as being one of the backbones of our heritage & many of our leading entertainers often began their careers as buskers.

Bruv · Post by **Bruv** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 2:12 pm

I have spent many happy hours people watching , some welcome the idea of being watched with an upturned hat for donations.

Covent Garden and Leicester sq and the artists that used to frequent outside the portrait gallery top of Trafalgar sq are normally well worth a couple of hours entertainment.

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 2:25 pm

I like the idea of London Underground having areas in tunnels, like little stages, that artists can use for set times. A wealth of talent on show and it now extends beyond the ubiquitous guitarist to violinists, opera singers and I've even seen a harp player.. I've never seen it as an imposition. You would only have to endure it for a minute or so if it did offend....like the bloke with a kazoo

FourPart · Post by **FourPart** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 3:11 pm

That actually reminds me of a story my mate, Ebe was telling me once.

Now Ebe is disabled with Polio, with calipers on his legs, so one day, whilst in London he was waiting for a train & being the gadget junkie that he is (if he sees something that takes his eye, even if he doesn't know what it is, and the person tells him at's a bargain, he believes them & suddenly he neeeeeds it). Anyway, for some reason he had bought a Mouth Organ & was sitting on the floor, waiting for his train whlst playing with his new toy (as opposed to playing it - just sucking & blowing it), when he suddenly realised that people passing by had been dropping coins on his coat.

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 1:13 pm

I love to see street entertainers and I do always give very generously because I admire the bravado.

However, I want to see those silver statue's In the City of Bath banned. They have no business standing there like a statue and then suddenly moving when the elderly walk by frightening the life out of them and making them drop their shopping along with making babies cry.

These people

Living Statues from the Streetentertainers Agency | StreetEnts.co.uk

OK after a few trips to Bath you get used to them and can preempt them but for tourists, I think we should ban them.

AnneBoleyn · Post by **AnneBoleyn** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 2:31 pm

I love Bath & Wells. So pretty.

FourPart · Post by **FourPart** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 2:32 pm

We've got a few in Southampton as well. I never saw the attraction to be honest. Imprsesive make up though.

Mind you, I must say that first one in your link (the Gold one) certainly looks quite impressive. How the hell is that pose possible?

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 3:26 pm

AnneBoleyn;1466033 wrote: I love Bath & Wells. So pretty. I live a 15 minute car ride from Bath... I love It... the serenity, the Georgian architecture, the little windey streets with antique shops and curio's... the tea houses, the pavement cafe's, the street entertainment, ahhhh bliss

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 3:28 pm

FourPart;1466034 wrote: We've got a few in Southampton as well. I never saw the attraction to be honest. Imprsesive make up though.

Mind you, I must say that first one in your link (the Gold one) certainly looks quite impressive. How the hell is that pose possible? In Bath It's so damn Irritating... there you are quietly minding your own business window shopping only to have the peaceful air broken by sporadic screaming from tourists after these statue's have lunged at them.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 10:39 am

Snowfire;1465994 wrote: I like the idea of London Underground having areas in tunnels, like little stages, that artists can use for set times. A wealth of talent on show and it now extends beyond the ubiquitous guitarist to violinists, opera singers and I've even seen a harp player.. I've never seen it as an imposition. You would only have to endure it for a minute or so if it did offend....like the bloke with a kazoo

The advantage of the fixed busking points on the Underground is that the artists have to audition before they are allocated a spot - you get a better class of busker that way.