Busking Report – Waterloo (Pitch 1)
Today the lovely folks spending time in Waterloo on a Friday afternoon were kind enough to give me £12.59, mostly in the form of 20p coins. So, £6.30 for me and £6.30 for Crisis.
Since I was there for over two hours, that makes my hourly salary £5.72. This is the 3rd-worst hourly rate I’ve ever earned busking (the worst was £3.37, at Southwark).
Waterloo’s first (WL1) pitch faces two passageways to the Bakerloo line, one of which is an “out” passage and one which is an “in” passage. To the left, there’s an escalator leading to the main Waterloo underground concourse. It doesn’t get a lot of direct footfall, but plenty of people will see you at WL1, from afar. Acoustics are pretty good, too. It’s a high-ceilinged wall so even a large chunk of people in front of you won’t dampen the sound too much.
Some notable moments
Well, I was half an hour late to this one because I was watching Ready Player One at the cinema, so I interrupted another Busker’s marathon six-hour session. They weren’t too disappointed to have been kicked off, but they did remark that they’re also not too keen on the possibility of contactless payments for buskers - something I’ll talk about in another blog post - because it’d make it more difficult to avoid “the taxman” - something I’ll talk about in another blog post.
But more…
- Someone going “well done” and giving me a bit of applause.
- Someone approaching me about their business, trying to get more buskers more bookings for weddings etc.
- A friend of mine walking through the hall where the pitch was twice.
- Being questioned on whether I’m meant to be there by the station staff, because I’d lost my sign-in sticker (they aren’t very sticky!).
- Someone asking “would you take my dog as a tip?” Obviously, I would.
- I played Alanis Morissette’s Ironic on the tube for the first time. I didn’t do a very good job of it, but I’m glad I did it because I do quite enjoy playing it and it’s very well-known, I think.
- I actually played five original songs, and one of them, Bored Bored Bored, earned me about 50p. Not great, but not terrible either. Inevitable plug:
The first & biggest tip
It was a rainy day, and the empathy of the second song was not lost on the commuters that day. Why does it always rain on me? touched the heartstrings of two people who gave me about £3.50 in total. Thanks! Off to a good start, but sadly the generosity didn’t last.
The best performance
I did a pretty good performance of Torn towards the end. It didn’t get me much moolah, about 50p, but it was full of energy so - oh well!
How to improve
Practice Ironic! Also, there’s a few songs that have fallen out of my set like Fat Bottomed Girls and Trouble, which I’d like to reincorporate so I need to practice those too.
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