I dream of Berlin every night.

I dream of Berlin every night –

I feel so sad to be away from that incredible city.. Amstrerdam feels a little dead in comparison.  Berlin is like one big festival, music everywhere, a Berliner Pilsener and falafel are never more than 100 metres away.  You just find a busker you like and sit and listen and meet people.  Amsterdam has no real street music scene, and it is strange playing here after feeling so proud and welcomed to play on the streets in Berlin.  Niz said to me, “The reason I love Berlin so much is that I feel  proud to play on the streets with all these great musicians”  Not only that, but the German people really appreciate it and sit and listen and buy up all your CD’s, we sold around a hundred in just over 2 months!

We managed to jump the Metro’s most of the time, but also paid a little for a monthly ticket and that was our main transport.  We wished we had bikes because it is a very bike friendly city, but would have been hard to ride with all the stuff and go all the way from the West to the East.  But when we come back we will have bikes for sure.  I was caught without a ticket once, and managed to charm my way out of a fine, but usually they are very strict and there is no way to know when they are going to get on the train.  They were plain clothes, around 3 of them get on and wait for the doors to close and then say “Fahrkarten Bitte!”

The city was just so welcoming and warm to us, like we have never experienced in any city before.  We were staying with the most beautiful family and we were truly a part of their family.  Anja is an incredible woman; a natural and wise loving mother with a strong German heart and way of getting things done that need to be done.  Her daughter Leyla is a child genius in languages and art.  She is teaching herself Japanese and drawing all the time perfect faces and people and all kinds.

The two boys Lada and Bada were my best buddies while I was there; they just really seemed to love me.  As soon as they would get home from Kindergarten they would shout ‘uncle!’ and come looking for me.  They are very beautiful boys, like Indian princes, Lada is the very smart one, is almost fluent in English at 5 and asks very deep questions about the origin of life and all kinds, that I would always do my best to answer to which he would think for a few seconds and then say in a very agreeable way “Ahaaa”.  Bada is the very sensitive and adorable one, he has a heart melting way of asking things in a beautiful half English half german crackly voice, sometimes when he was tired or just waking up he would sit and stare and look like he was thinking so deeply about the wonders of the world.

                                                                    Me and Bada
 One morning they came into see us and wake us up and we spent 2 hours just talking about an imaginary castle we would make, with all the guards and dragons and all kinds what food we would need.   For weeks after they would say “Uncle, speak von da Castle!”  And we would talk more about all the stuff we would make there.  They are such imaginative children, they love to play with Lego and build things.  They are allowed to blossom so freely and creatively by their ever-loving mother.
Anja asked if we would help them learn how to ride their bikes, so we took them out one day and started to help them ride.  We would hold them at first and then let go and then catch them again till they could go half way round on their own.  They were so excited and filled with determination to do it.  Lada learned first being a little older and could push himself and start on his own.  Bada, being a little younger couldn’t reach the floor all the way so I would have to push him.  Seeing Lada doing it without help made him so proud and determined to do it on his own himself.

                                                                        Me and Lada
After a few weeks of me pushing him, he said “Uncle, you not help me today, OK?”  in his adorable crackly voice.  I said “OK, mate..Let’s do it!”  He picked up his bike and got on, he could only reach the floor with his tip toes and would push a little and then fall.  He did this for around ten minutes pushing himself and falling and getting back up, and I was saying “Come on baddy!  You can do it mate!”  The he tilted the bike a little bit so he could get his feet down further, gave himself a big push and almost started peddling.  I was shouting “Yes!  Come on Badaaa!  You can do it bud”  The bike shook a little but he steadied it and then he was in flight peddling away with the biggest, most satisfied smile I have ever seen.  That’s the great thing about them boys, they really push eachother.  They are very competitive lads, and that is great for them in many ways.

Nizha would sing with Leyla, they would do the Indian scales and practice harmonies and it always sounded so beautiful.  Leyla is an amazing girl, wise beyond her years  and a real ability for teaching herself languages.  Anja, being the mother of these amazing kids is no less wonderous herself.  She knows the value of the saying “If you want a job doing right, do it yourself” She singlehandedly found and started to contract the building of a new kindergarten, organizing a massive one day festival of multi culturism in Berlin, doing a diploma course in creative writing, working freelance doing a companies paperwork and all in between running and maintaining a very beautiful home with 3 kids and Niz and I. This two months staying with Anja and the kids made us feel like part of the family and bonded us with them very closely, and we will always be thinking of them and missing them.

Warschauer Strasse was the main place to be for the buskers, it isn’t a great spot really.  It’s very noisy and has a lot of traffic of all kinds, but if you can draw a crowd from it you can fill your hat.  But 80% of the buskers never really drew a crowd there, and made between 10 and 15 euroes in an hour.  We played there a few times and did OK, first time 25 euroes in half an hour, and then the next time just as we were drawing a crowd the police came and stopped us.  It’s very sad to see the police stopping musicians because that is what makes the city so great.

We found that playing the markets was the best for us, especially one market in particular was always so warm and welcoming to us.  We would make between 80 and 140 euroes in an hour.  Hackesher market was also very good for us, but we had to compete with a lot of other buskers, but we found a good routine, we would let the girl who played the restaurants do half an hour then we would do half an hour to an hour.  We would be happy with taking home around a hundred after 3 sets.  The guy at the restaurant behind us was very welcoming also, our first busk there he brought us some coffee and said you can plug in your amp here if you like.

                                                               Busking at Hackescher

That was the beauty of the city, music on the streets and public places was mostly welcomed with open arms.  You would get a few people who would grumble, but if there was a building with 100 people in and 1 person complained, they would carry out the wishes of that one person and not the majority of the people who don’t mind it and enjoy it.   We always stepped lightly though, we didn’t overdo a spot and always kept it quiet when we needed to.

There was this one guy at Schleisches Tor who had just set up everything, his percussion, guitar pedals, amp, an array of other instruments, it wasn’t just a basic set up he had spent nearly an hour setting it all up.  He had just put his sign out and was about to switch on his amp when the police said he couldn’t play there.  He looked devastated and gave them a sad look, and then slowly started to pack all his gear away.

Where is the crime?  How can street music be a crime, if the majority of people enjoy it and feel it is an important part of the city, why should they stop it?  But it’s not just the streets that are filled with music, the bars in the city all have live music also, we went to see a lot of gigs there and they were all very intimate, they would put the hat round at the end, and it would be a very cosy atmosphere, there was a piano in all of them.  The East was the best place, it was just so alive.

On one of our first days there we were trying to find an old bridge where we had played when we were here the year before, we found it and as we approached I seen a familiar face.  Dave Gaffney who I knew a little from busking in Liverpool and the Lomax was there.  We exchanged greetings and reasons for loving Berlin and said we will meet up for ‘ein Berliner Pilsener’ soon.  Dave became a good mate during our Berlin adventure and it wouldn’t have been the same without him.  He took us to some great bars, introduced us to all the buskers and was just a great positive energy to be around.  We went a little further up the bridge and there was another guy playing, this guy was from Crewe, so we set up a little further down and realised that the whole bridge was held by English buskers!

                                                            With me good bud, Dave.
Warschauer was my favourite place to be though, we went past there on our first night and seen a row of buskers lining up to play so we knew it was one of the top spots.  Most nights after we had busked in the day I would take the bronze money, head so excitedly on the U-Bahn to Warschauer.  When I got off I was almost running to see who was playing and what was happening there.  I would get a beer, take my favourite seat on the steps and wait for someone to light a joint and share it with.  Spend the night listening to great music, meeting all kinds of people from all walks of life and feeling like I was at the best party in town.

I just really loved the German people, language, patience and everything.  Especially the beer!  One day when we were busking at our favourite market a guy came up and said he had a bar in the West and would we like to come and play there that night.  We said sure thing!  And that night went to the very cosy and beautiful Casablanca Bar.  Alex welcomed us like stars, would not let our glasses go empty had got all his friends to come to the bar that night.  It was only a tiny place and not many people would come, but he made us feel like we were playing to a full house.  One of his friends came who was a TV producer for a channel, he really loved us and took us out afterwards.  We went to a whisky bar in Schoneberg and drunk until sunrise with many beautiful people, who just all seemed to love us and welcome us .

                                                          Niz and Alex at Casablanca Bar
One night I set out to Warschauer as usual and seen that the brilliant Alice Phoebe Lou was waiting to go on, it was quite windy but I was sharing a joint with a funny German guy and talking about life, waiting for the Phoebe Lou to start what was always an incredible set.  The Germans all seemed to love my accent and whenever I was talking people would turn round and start talking to me.  This guy came past me once, and said “You know, the weather will be getting very hot in the next few days, the Northern air is meeting the continental air (or something scientific like that)”  I said, “Nice, I will be looking forward to that”  He then just went and a couple of minutes later he came back and gave me some more random information about the weather, he did this again and on the fourth time round he tells me he is an artist, and if he could show me his work’  I said sure thing buddy!

He takes out all these canvases and they are really good!  He says hes selling them for ten euroes.  I say I only got about 3 euroes to me name.  He says I can have one for that, so I happily take one.  And then this triggers another guy to buy one for ten!  He seemed very honoured that I bought one and he says I am going to get a couch and a joint and when I come back we smoke a joint together, I say sure thing, buddy.  After half an hour Alice Phoebe Lou is just starting to set up and the main event begins at Warschauer.  Just as she started the artist came back carrying a couch and a joint!  We set the couch up right in front of Alice Phoebe Lou, smoked a joint and listened to her wonderful set with the best seats in the house!

                                                         The Brilliant Alice Phoebe Lou
Another night at Warschauer there was this girl playing the piano, it was quite sad and a little low in volume and was struggling against the traffic, then all of a sudden techno music started blasting out from the bridge beneath us!  I went down to investigate and it was a very cool van set up as a DJ booth, with loudspeakers and the works.  I thought ‘Yesss’  and started dancing the old faithful Birkenhead 2-Step.  After an hour the police sadly came and shut it down.  Again, it was in the middle of a place where no one could possibly complain, there was no harm being done just people having a nice time and they came and pissed on that bonfire.

After nearly 3 months in Berlin we were getting ready to depart.  It was hard because on one of our last nights at Warschauer Alice Hills was playing, my buddy Dave was there and there was this van of Becks Beer giving away free beer all night.  It was like a promotional thing for trying all different types of brews.  We had empty crates to sit on, and free beer and great music all through the night.  We knew we were going to miss the place, the people, the music, and especially our dear Anja, Leyla and they boys.  But after such an intense, wonderful experience we were excited to spend 10 days in a candlelit garden house in Amsterdam before we set off to Galway and the next part of our adventure.

Download the fanastic album 'Where The Days Have No Name' and pay whatever you wish..

The Buskers Survival Guide - Busking in Liverpool

Liverpool is a very rich musical city and very welcoming to buskers, it has one law regarding playing on the streets...Find a spot, play as loud as you want for as long as you want whenever you want!  The police will never hassle you, but instead ask you if everything is ok.  The people really love street music and especially on the weekends the streets are very lively.  You will have to bang out wonderwall once or twice, but it's worth it when the whole street is singing with you.

You find street music everywhere in Liverpool, but Church Street is the main place to play day and night with an amplifier.  Be prepared to turn up loud though, as people will set up a few metres away from you and start playing.There are lots of Romanians, mostly with solo intruments i.e accordion, but sometimes they group together with drums, keys and brass and hold the spot for 8 hours they claim to not speak English so sometimes communication is hard, but you can still space yourself enough to hold your ground.

Acoustic busking is still possible, but being surrounded by amps and the noise of a busy city it can sometimes get lost, but there are places you can play and enjoy the benefits of playing old skool busking.  The subway at Lime Street that leads to the Wirral Line is a great spot, and this is where I started out as a busker.  It has a great reverb and bursts of passing traffic.  You can get by here and make your beer money and train fare, but it's not likely to make more than 20 or 30 quid.

Another good quiet place for acoustic is in Bold Street, this was my favourite place to play with an amp also, it has a nice quiet to the place, and a narrow walkway with walls both sides, so the sound really bounces back and you can hear yourself, even with an amp in Church Street it can get lost, but Bold Street has a very nice acoustic to the place, and acoustic buskers do almost as good here as amplified buskers.  You have your Big Issue sellers, so it's best to keep on good terms with them.

Liverpool One is a great place to play, and the only place in Liverpool that you need a permit to play, but alls you have to do is send them a link to a youtube video and they accept you.  Then you email them and book on a slot for 2 hours maximum per day.  This was a great way of doing things for us, because you could look at it like a routine and a job.  It takes the random element away of someone being in your favourite spot and you having to look for another one.   When you know you have 2 hours in a good spot at the same time every day you can start to make a good living as a busker.

Whitechapel is another place to play, but it doesn't have a narrow walk way and people walk behind you and the sound just doesnt bounce back so it's hard to hear yourself sometimes, but it was a good back up spot if Bold Street was taken for us.  There are other spots in and around this area, but those are the main ones.  You can get by good in the day and make a good hat, but to really fill the hat you have to do the night times.

The best thing about Liverpool is that they are happy drunks, there is a great electric atmosphere on the streets at night and you feel a part of it when you are singing their favourite songs and they are all emptying their pockets in your hat.  Between 6 and 9 on a Friday and Saturday is the calm before the storm, people are getting a little drunk and the drops are steadily flowing, then just after 9 the night switches, buskers crawl out from every corner, the drunks are getting louder and drunker but this is the golden time to play.  Get there at 6 to secure your spot, and if you have the stamina to play till eleven you can really make a good living as a busker here in Liverpool.

Download the fanastic album 'Where The Days Have No Name' and pay whatever you wish..

Goodbye Blue Sky

I love Spring, I think it’s my favourite season.  It’s when life comes back to everything after a cold dark Winter and the flowers and colours blossom under a clear blue sky.  But quite often my love turns to anger and frustration as I watch the beautiful blue sky turn grey under the smear of aeroplane trails.  What are they?  Even if they are ‘harmless’ contrails that are naturally emitted from planes they leave a beautiful blue Spring sky look so dirty and full of grey smog.  

When I was in Argentina there was never any chemtrails like this, the skies were bright blue every day.  I feel I have to apologise to my girlfriend who is Argentinean for the mess in the sky.  We wake up in the morning and it’s such a beautiful early morning. You open your eyes and look out the window and everything is sparkling in the natural sun, you snooze for another hour and then it all turns grey.  Little by little the smog from the planes fills and fills the sky and paints out the beautiful blue with military grey.

I can never hold my tongue when I see the dirty skies, I speak to people I sit next to when I am traveling and say ‘Wow, look at the mess in the sky from the planes, isn’t that awful’ 80% of the people say it’s beautiful and natural and see nothing wrong with it.  I say ‘But can’t you see the blue fading behind that mess?’  No it’s just natural from the planes they say.  Sometimes I ask myself if I am crazy, if I see something that isn’t there.  But I know deep down that whatever it is isn’t good.

As a busker I rely on a beautiful warm sunny day, it is the best ingredient for a good busk , and when I know that a blue spring sky waits behind the grey smog emitted from the planes it makes me so sad and a little angrier each day.   My gut feeling tells me that it is something bad they are doing, maybe weather modification or cloud seeding, maybe they just want to block out the sun, it could be anything and I will never know for sure possibly in my life time.  Even if it is just water vapour from harmless passenger aircraft it is still filling the whole sky and that is a crime against nature.

The hard thing to deal with is to feel so powerless against it.  What can you do to those planes that never seem to land and spray the whole morning and evening sky in criss cross formation?  You talk to people and they say you are mad.  I even say it in the most non crazy way.  Not shouting (like I used to) ‘The military are blocking out the sun, and changing the weather!’  I just say in a calm way – ‘Wow look at those skies, does that seem strange to you?’   I say it in the hope that they start to notice it more and more after I have mentioned it.  I remember when I first became conscious of Chemtrails it was through an alternative news article, and from that moment I couldn’t help notice them everywhere and almost every day.  

  I am so happy when the skies are blue and there are white fluffy clouds giving moments of shade, no painting can ever capture the beauty of nature which is everywhere – from the forests to the sunrises to the colours of her flowers always in harmony with eachother.  When I see that beautiful sky just get blotted out I know deep down that it isn’t right and would do anything to stop it.  I think more and more people are becoming aware of it now, it’s been in news stories and some people I speak to say they know all about the chemtrails mystery.  I just hope something happens that exposes them and gives us the real reasons.  

In hundreds of years from now the history books will be full of the things that the rulers of this age have tried to hide, they will look at and judge our actions and though they see an evolution in technology and warfare and weaponry and communications, there has been a dangerous devolution of our balance in nature and the care we give to this planet.  If you keep shitting and pissing all over the house where you live, pretty soon it will become unliveable.  Even if it is massive, sooner or later it will stink and rot and you won’t be able to live there anymore.  I quite like this little blue and green house I share with all my brothers and sisters of the world and don’t want it to become full of shit and un-liveable.  

Download the fanastic album 'Where The Days Have No Name' and pay whatever you wish..

THAT London

We had been getting so excited to leave England, it had been 6 months together here and NINE for me!  I never thought I would have been back in England for that long, and sometimes it was hard for me to be back in ‘me ol home town’.  When you are travelling - you are discovering, your senses and mind are open to new things, new tastes, new cites, new languages.  When you are at home you have the stuff  that you know so well, the people, the places the language.  You are in a rested and secure state of mind rather than the exciting adrenaline rush of being somewhere new, with new people to meet and new buskers and busking spots.

When I first got back from Argentina I spent a month between Amsterdam and Berlin working the festivals, sleeping the streets, busking and partying but it was torture without Niz.  When May and June had arrived in Argentina I knew the sun would be out, the cities will be buzzing and life would be returning to everything.  I wanted to get back there, and I got there, but without Niz it felt wrong and lonely.  I headed back to Liverpool, lived at my mums and busked every day to save as much money for Niz’s ticket.  All my desires of being in Europe busking in the sun were empty without Niz with me.  It took 2 months to get the ticket and another month till she arrived.

Those 6 months passed and we got through it, it was a hard test for us, me being back at home, the cold streets.  But we did it and now our adventure in Europe could begin together!  The day we were leaving we played a little gig at the very special Back Bone night, which is like a little taste of Amsterdam in Liverpool.  With all our stuff (2 big suitcases, guitar, 2 violins, amp and stands) we made our way to the Caledonia for a few real ales before our 2am bus to London.  I love that feeling!  When everything you own is being pushed, pulled or carried with you every step of the way and you are on the bus for up to 12 hours.  I think that’s why I like taking the Megabus, because it makes me feel like I am travelling far away from home!  1 hour on the plane is nothing, 2 days and 3 different busses makes you feel like never going back.

We got on the bus and after the nights consumption, we slept easily but still always painfully and arrived in London to just see the city waking up.  We had a few missions when we got there. I love calling things you have to do ‘missions’ it suits the exciting and challenged mentality you are in.  Our main mission was to sell Nizha’s old violin and then get to her friends in the evening.  We found a coffee house that had the wifi and I found the location of a cash converters  that was a few miles away.  I phone them up and they tell me that I need a letter with my address on it, I only had my passport but realised I could print a bank statement from online.

Niz waited in the horrifically noisy Victoria Station with an Orwellian female voice spitting orders and Newspeak on a loop while I found a place that printed.  I printed our tickets and the statement then needed to find a way to get to Elephant and Castle tube station.  Niz’s Oyster card was minus in money and I stuck a tenner on it in the hope it would get me there.  The money was flying out of our pockets, coffee, printing, oyster cards, breakfast everything was chipping away at our hard earned pounds.

I arrive at this tube station and walk for about 40 minutes through a very poor area.  There was an old woman with intense staring eyes holding a cup for change pushing it in your face saying ‘mama, mama help me’.  I chucked her 10p and kept walking, the market aromas and sounds all changing every few steps.  I arrive at the Cash Converters and wait in a long line of people selling Ipads, Hifi’s and Phones.  I wait nervously in the hope that they buy it after the journey I had been on to get here.  Things are always harder, heavier and slower after a night on the Megabus Hotel.  I smile at the Slovak looking girl behind the counter and watch her colleagues carry all the goods they buy for buttons to a big dark room behind a locked door. ‘I’m selling this violin’ I say, ‘it did us great on our album we made in the desert!’  Without a word or a  glance she picks up the violin and types the serial number into the computer.  After it loads she looks at me and asks me how much I want. ‘A hundred would be great I said’.  She says that brand new they are going for 240...I smile but try not to look too shocked, and then with a few more taps on her keyboard she says that second hand they are going for 60.  She tilts the screen to show and say that mine in particular is going for 53.  I say ‘Go on, how much will you give me then?’  She softens her eyes and says ‘40’.  I tell her she has a deal and sign my name thankful that she even took it.  

I take the long walk to the station again, but this time stopping for what was a lovely egg and bacon butty from a greasy cafe.  I was so tired and getting irritated by London, the butty helped a fair bit.  After 3 hours I get back to Niz who has been waiting in a Mcdonalds  at the station, falling asleep and being woken by the police telling her to be careful and watch her stuff.  We are both really tired and feeling a little drained now.  There was still no word from her friend who we were staying with that night so we made our way to the internet at the coffee shop, with one of the main missions complete.

We make contact with her friend and get the directions.  You can’t pay on the busses with money anymore, you need an Oyster card.  I queue for an hour in a slow moving and sighing line of tourists with Mrs Newspeak on a loop right down my ear.  There are 2 tills out of the 5 open and people are getting irritated more and more.  The balding men behind the glass sneer and talk patronisingly to the sad eyed Italian family who have to spend 125 pound on a day or two of tube travel.  I finally get to the till and it takes me seconds.  A little angry and irritated I head back to Niz.

The sad thing was, we didn’t even need that Oyster card.  It is easy to bunk on the busses!  Subways no but busses yes.  Another little jab from a London I was becoming sick of.  We find her friends stop in Hackney and walk to her place.  She is a lovely girl, an Argentinean Tango Singer Songwriter called Corina Piatti. We spent a nice few hours of chatting and drinking mate.  She was going to spend the evening out so she gave us her bed for the night and we get ready to sleep Horizontal for the first time in 2 days.  I head out to get us some food, and there was a very nice vibe to the city.  When you are out of that noisy busy and bustling centre it’s a different place, and walking past all the multi cultural shops to find a nice Indian - a little bit of love came over for me for London, which started to heal the days inflictions.

We set the Alarm for 4 am and slept restfully cuddled together between the hot water bottle and our  tired legs.  After a short warm dreamy sleep the alarm buzzes and we pick ourselves out of bed to get all packed and ready to leave again.  It is an hour to the centre and our bus leaves at 7.  We bunk the bus and sell our Oyster cards to a couple of Chinese tourists and start the 12 hour journey out of England and into AMSTERDAM!

Hello Spring

I really can’t believe it’s took me this long to even attempt to write a chapter like this.  Writing has only been a small part of these last five months really.  I think my last entry was still about busking enough to get Niz here. Well... we did it and we have had the most incredible last five months becoming a really brilliant and as close as can be duo in Love, Art, Music and everything else.  We have been playing lots of gigs, busking, writing and learning lots of songs.  Spring is awakening, and the daffodils signal a fresh new year has begun, life returns to everything and everyone.  Those first breaths of Spring - a sunny, yet chilly early Spring day puts such a big smile on my face and in my heart and mind.    Perhaps that’s what has given me the urge to get writing this and turn the winter into a chapter of memories.

The busking was going great in Liverpool.  For the first few months there it was still summer season and what a good summer it was.  Endless weeks of Sunshine and blue skies, I was still on such a high from Argentina.  I was in a great frame of mind and so focused on getting Nizha here.  The goal was to raise £1000 and get her ticket as soon as possible.  I was busking hard and saving hard and doing my best, even when it felt so hard to busk.  

Whenever you do a lot of something you can get tired of it.  And one of the main elements of busking is enjoying it.  If you are, other people will.  It was also hard to go back to playing on my own after having such a great set with Niz.  I did it though, the only thing that got me through was the thought that she would be here soon.  That was enough to get me out nearly every day of the week and make the most of the weekends.  I will write a buskers survival guide on my Liverpool adventurers as a busker soon.  Liverpool is a very generous city to buskers, it is woven into the culture of the city and it was a pleasure to be a part of it.

I had saved over 400 quid, and Niz had managed to get about the same amount and we were getting ready to get the ticket!  It was all in the bank and we were so close to reaching what we had been working so hard for and wanting so much.   Once we got it, then the wheels were in motion.  It’s still another month until she takes the flight, but it’s happening!  I still busked, but I took it a little easier after that.  I needed a little break from too much day busking, but still made sure I got out at the weekends.  The weekend busks were the best.  

I would buy 4 bottles of real ales (Speckled Hen/Bishops Finger/Abbots/HobGoblin) and enjoy the night.  Things would get noisy and buskers would be battling but the banter on the streets is the best.  Liverpool just has such a good energy and people.  A very vibrant city and I never had one bit of trouble or scuffle or harshly bad interactions.  They love buskers in Liverpool and the buskers love Liverpool.  I did and do, don’t I though.

Even if you hate the song ‘Wonderwall’ when you are playing it and the whole street is singing it with you, murdering it with all their love for it it can be quite touching.  After the second ale I am usually nice and warmed up, volume and energy has cranked a little higher as more and more buskers emerge into the night to earn a hat of gold coins.  The Romanians are the problem, no speak English and no care playing ten feet away from you.  When you can’t turn up the volume any higher to drown out the brass you start to sing so loud and with everything you have.  How much energy can you put into the song?  It would sometimes feel like a battle, I would put everything I had in and really crackle my voice and scream the songs, and mostly I would ‘win’.  There was a few nights when I just couldn’t or didn’t want to compete and banked what I had and left a little early. 

By the the 3^rd and 4^th ale you are in a good flow with the songs.  You bounce off the energy from the people you interact with.  It was these experiences that would shape the night.  You could always feel it turn, sometimes you get calm quiet spells and you really enjoy your set and give the city your heart in music.  Then it turns, and late night in town can be like a jungle full of wild animals.  But it’s a rich jungle and the drops are big if you have the endurance  and strength for it.  I loved it.  Going home with a full bag of gold coins, a belly full of good ales, and a heart full of good experiences of interactions with people as you play music in the streets is a great feeling.

The day before Niz was due to arrive I had been busking a bit in the day and was finding it hard.  I had nothing to eat, I was shaking a bit, I was so zapped of energy.  Trying to find the energy to sing in the streets was proving too much.  But I set up on Bold street and just about managed a version of wish you were here and made 7 quid, enough for something to eat and a few beers to do the night shift.  I ate some chips but still wasn't feeling much better. 

 I set up to play at the bottom of Church street and already had competition from the black guy who just pretends to play guitar over a CD of songs, with a very loud P.A.  But I had to carry on, I needed to make some money to take down to London to meet Niz with.  I was playing and just not having much energy, but the more and more I played the more energy I got!  It is the energy from the people you interact with as you play (as well as a few beers perhaps) that puts you on a high.  I ended up having a great night and making over a hundred quid to take to London and see my girl after nearly 4 months apart!

I climb the escalator to the airport lobby and there she is!!!  I run and grab her and lift her up and pulling her close we kiss and hold eachother feeling so happy that we did it.  We had a little walk around London, said hello to the Queen and sat and watched the Autumn leaves drip and drop around us.  We had missed the summer months, but an Indian Summer was waiting just for us.  We took the bus to Liverpool and GOD did it feel good to be back with her.  

It was a couple of days until we went busking for the first time, we had a little practise in the greenhouse before we set out.  It was still quite warm but a cold wind was creepin’, we looked and found our spot close to St Johns Precinct.  The sound wasn’t that great, the e.qs and levels were muffled as there was a lot going through the amp, but people all around were stopping and gathering, people were throwing in lots of paper money and giving us wonderful compliments.  We made 85 quid in just over an hour, got 2 gigs from it and it felt great to be back!

One of the gigs was at a birthday party in Maghul, they wanted us to play some Liverpool Irish tunes for it.  We had a few under our belt and started to listen to and learn lots more.  We had planned a little trip to Ireland once Niz had got here, but Liverpool really seemed to want us here and it felt right to stay for a bit longer.  But Ireland has been a part of our time here.  We have been finding some great songs to play by listening to lot of The Pogues/Dubliners/Christy/Orthadox Celts and watching all of the Father Teds and many films about the Republic and the music.  It was our own little dose of Ireland before we go there.  And there are also so many Irish in Liverpool, some say it is another city of Ireland.

It was nice to be making a nice little bit of money with Niz, to be playing and sounding great.  England had saved some sunshine for us, it was the warmest October and November ever.  We were having some great experiences from busking in the city.  We had saved a bit of money and we started to buy some stuff we had always wanted - A very decent camera for Niz, with good quality video and photo because Niz is a great photographer and we can make some music videos and document our journey together in a creative way.  I got a portable studio ZOOM recorder.  This thing is incredible, 2 built in condenser mics, 2 extra XLR inputs, multi tracking and also acts as an audio interface!  All in the palm of your hand and battery operated, so now we have a studio and good photo and film wherever we go.  We can record all the street music of the world.

It was approaching December and it was turning a little icy.  We had been saying that we really need a booking agency, someone who will get the gigs and already knows the people and the bars.  After a slow and cold busk in Chester we went round every pub and cafe in the city asking for gigs.  The last one we went to took a chance on us and gave us a gig.  A few days later we were busking and enjoying the set when a guy came up and put a card in our hat and said ‘If you are after any work, then give us a call’.  It was a booking agency!  Once again what we had visualised had come true.

We gave them a call and the gigs came in thick and fast, we were only using the little busking amp and it just couldn’t cut it at the bars, so with the help of the lovely Johnny Ackroyd we got a nice little PA for the gigs, it was sounding much better and the gigs were making us rehearse hard.  We were learning lots of new songs and becoming much tighter as a duo.  Christmas came and went and a cold grey January awaited us, the first few weeks are always the hardest, it is the hangover after Christmas, no one has any money and the streets are like a ghost town.  After a very cold busk we went to our dear friend Michael Phoenix’s.

We meet Michael back in November when we needed to get Nizha’s violin fixed, we instantly loved the man.  The way he spoke with such love and knowledge about violins was inspirational; we knew we had met someone special.  He is full of positivity and generosity and makes a perfect cuppa tea.  Whenever we felt down and cold it would only take a cuppa tea with Mike to fill us with inspiration.  He believed in us and our music and got us regular slots playing on Radio Merseyside, he fixed my guitar, gave me a big bag of clothes, fed us when we were hungry, filled our hearts with warmth and became a very special friend to us, and was a true angel in our life and journey. 

January and February passed and we started to get excited for Spring.  We had been doing lots of gigs and getting by nicely.  We booked a ticket to Amsterdam for the 5^th April and started to see Spring awaken with daffodils and Spring Blossom trees.  The busking was going really good and the last 5 months of playing together were showing its rewards, we were feeling and sounding great!