A busk, a busk, my pound coin for a busk! Second to the fact there are three ‘Subways’ in a one mile radius, a vibrant busking scene is one of my favourite personality traits of the city of York. I much prefer walking down the cobbled streets and seeing a middle-aged man simultaneously playing a violin with a dancing devil than I do stumbling up the stairs to Willow. Cello, who wouldn’t? Well, most.
Coming from a Catholic performing arts school, playing a musical instrument was as highly encouraged as putting Biblical quotes into an assembly PowerPoint. It was a service to the school, in a place where your typical ‘band geek’ didn’t exist. We had the orchestras, the concerts, and the musical banter (sadly, that is a thing. Even more sadly, it was mostly that infamous American Pie reference); but we were missing something – spontaneity.
Busking was a rare breed of entertainment from what I remember. This one time, at sixth form, I took my violin to the people. Vinnie (we’ve all done it), my friends and I spontaneously busked in the common room to raise some shrapnel for a good cause. There was a quick pianissimo of the buzz as people awkwardly shuffled past us to get to the canteen and held a certain taboo about clapping between performances. In all honesty, doing it in my underwear would have been more comfortable!
Instead, I wish we were encouraged to be a bit more spontaneous than I remember; heck, even chuck a dancing devil into my lessons to give it some flare. Coming to The University of York, there are staples of that freedom I’d always wanted as a musician (did somebody say jazz nights at V bar?) and I can understand why our music scene is so respectable. Though fiddle me this -why is it that some of these musical legends I’ve seen on campus I’ve also seen busking outside Debenhams near that guy playing Mad World?
What drives them all the way out there? More cash, less quacks? Personally, I wanted to keep up the violin alongside my studies but, like Sweet Brown, I didn’t have time for it, nor the bus fare in cash for my town travels. It’s a bit of a pipe dream, but to see ‘busking spots’ across Heslington West and East areas would be a great way to provide some spontaneous on-campus entertainment, earn some cash and rid ourselves of ‘Mad World’ on a loop in our heads.
From watching Sherlock series one to present in the space of a few weeks, it hit me more than ever that even high-functioning sociopaths can pick up an instrument and strum away in the hope of achieving amateur status. Having some friendly faces around campus rather than shunning them into town or V-bar might give that spontaneous flare I as a musician have hoped for… if I can pick up the violin again and make a devil dance on my own campus, then I’ll be very busking happy.