So after the Reggae album, I was a bit detached from recording, I just wanted to busk. As did Dominik, who had given up his job, spent his last bit of money on a portable PA system and loop station. We became a team, and we were getting a good set together. We never rehearsed once, we just went straight to playing. We had a golden ticket with the busking permit and the equipment to put on a real show. We didn't want to waste a second, and all through that miserable March month, we gave Amsterdam a shine with our music.
It was a Friday, and I looked out the window in the morning and there was some nice blue skies, it was still bitter cold, but I had a good feeling about it. We met at Central Station, smoked a joint and drunk a coffee and was about to set up when a dark grey cloud carrying some snow unleashed itself on us. Dominik is a very determined lad, and was still eager to set up and play. I worried about the equipment and said maybe we should play just at the entrance to the station. It was unheard of in Amsterdam, you cant just set up a PA inside the station and play, but we did, and the police came on us in a second and once they seen our permit wished us good luck.
We had just set up, and then we heard a voice coming from the station, 'You can't play music here' it was Virgillio! The brilliant percussion and drummer from Italy who had been involved in the reggae album. He had just come back from a trip to London and was with his guitarist friend. They played the set with Dominik and made a nice chunk of money, I felt a little left out just watching but left them to it.
Although it ended badly with the reggae album, I had good feelings towards all the people involved except one. Raffa, he was poison and a con man who pretended to have cancer and couldn't walk. But people had saw him walking. The rasta was a legend, but turned on me because of Raffa. Virgillio was just an amazing musician and guy, lot of respect for him, and his guitarist friend. Even Gabriel Cage who funded the whole operation was a good guy at heart, with all his mad characters. Dominik was a good friend though. I liked his mentality to just steam roll ahead and do it. After their set, me and Dom went for a smoke, then went back to Central at the same place and played a set. We did great and made even more than what they made just before.
It was snowing all day, and biting cold, but we still stuck at it. We had 3 days a week we could play on the permit, and so we were not gonna waste a session. We started to overwork the spot though, playing there 3 or 4 times a day, then the spot starts to reject you. There is this woman, who sells a magazine like the big issue, and she constantly says this 'Dog daaa, dog do daaa' or something like that. But her words could not be heard over our playing. We seen her say to the police and point at us, so then came 2 officers who were hunting for blood. They looked at Dominiks permit and said that Central station is seperate to the city, and the permit has no ground here. They then came to me, and said that because I have no permit, they will be arresting me. I had no ID or nothing, as they routed through my wallet they found my BBC ID, some business cards, letters, photographs, but were still intent on arresting me. I tried to be as charming as I could and said how much I love the city and stuff. After a while they backed down, and said they would let me go, but we cant play together anymore, and especially not at central station.
I was starting to question busking with the PA and stuff. I felt it was taking me away from acoustic busking, and the road I had set out on. It seemed like Amsterdam didn't like loud music, and it was creating a bad energy. Plus the bike we would carry the gear on was massive, it would hold up all traffic, run into people, and was so heavy to ride. After playing just acoustic on quiet street corners, and feeling that the city really did love that, to blasting out a PA with a trumpet and disrupting the city I was doubting wether it was the right thing for me. It attracts the police in a second, it stops the homeless from selling their mags, it just felt like it was the wrong energy for Amsterdam.
We were making quite good money though, but we were spending it as fast as we could make it. Enjoying the Amsterdam ride. I had kind of moved in with Maud and said I would pay her some rent, as I really thought March would be the start of making good money from busking and the tourists would double. I was still busking with Dominik, but told him about my doubts. I was feeling we were not respecting the city and it was starting to reject us. I thought of how me playing at Waterlooplein even in the winter would sometimes look after me with like 30 euroes an hour, I always felt I had to respect the city, not be a burden or a noisy disturbance. Amsterdam is such a quiet city, and they like it that way.
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