There are many odd things that one sees when wandering the streets of London. There are shops that you won’t find in the States, a wide assortment of people, restaurants to satisfy every sort of craving, and street musicians. Lots and lots of street musicians. You can’t walk down Oxford Street without hearing some type of music blaring from the sidewalks. People set up their instruments and place a bag in front of them, asking for a small amount of coinage for their talents. After that, they play like nobody (or everybody) is watching.
There are a huge variety of street performances I’ve seen while in London. On Oxford Street there’s almost always a rock band with full guitar, bass, and drums playing outside of the tube entrance. A few nights ago it was a Beatles tribute band playing a great version of “While my Guitar Gently Weeps.” Today, it was just one guy with a drum machine and an overdriven electric guitar playing a slow, bluesy solo. In that exact same spot yesterday there was a pair of twins, one with a drum and one with a guitar playing some great acoustic music and singing. Further down the road I saw a man playing a sitar. Near the Globe Theater there was a string duo featuring a stand up bass and a violin, playing hauntingly beautiful melodies. In that same spot on a different day there was a man playing some really groovy Bob Marley songs and singing.
It seems as if the street performing world is it’s own culture in and of itself. There’s a schedule—certain people get to play certain places on certain days. In London, as I’ve found out, you have to have a special license in order to solicit money by street performing. There’s this entire culture of musicians and artists that have a delicate system worked out. My friend Noah and I talked about doing some street performing: taking our guitars out to a street corner and playing and singing for some money. We don’t have the proper paper work to do so, but we were willing to risk it. The thing stopping us, however, is the culture and of musicians that already exists. Every musician has their turf—the area in which they would play. Messing with that delicate balance seems like trouble that we don’t want to deal with. Noah and I don’t want to stumble into a veritable turf war over a couple of songs.
