A Guide To Busking According To Adi Cox

12th April 2015

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Adi Cox at Leeds Trinity Shopping Centre, England.

There is a great sense of freedom to be able to go busking in so

many cities and towns at any time that you like. There is no

interview and no licence needed to work the streets. There are many

problems encountered though. Here in England we have alot of cold

and windy days and rain fall. Just to clarify:

England is a part of Britain. Britain is the island that is

divided into England, Scotland and Wales. Great Britain is Britain

plus Northern Island which is part of the Island next to the island

that is Britain and all these places are part of Europe. So I am

English, British and European all at the same time, but I digress.

So if we are lucky enough to be going out busking on a nice weather

day then we may encounter other buskers plying for a pitch to play.

The best place to set your pitch is in a medium sized town with a

padestrian precinct commonly known as a pedestrian zone in other

countries. This is as opposed to those shopping centres/shopping

malls that are privately owned and have security. These shopping

centres are usually indoors and have music playing anyway through

their own sound system, but sometimes these private shopping areas

are outdoors and so not part of the public domain and the right to

busk is for the owners of the site to decide. The security guard

usually tells you to move on because you need written permission

to play here. In some cases it may only be a step away before you

are on public domain and so different laws then apply.

The police are in charge of the public domain and they only move you

on if there are complaints about you and your playing. Some buskers

use amplification and can be quite loud. I tend not to amplify

myself when I am busking. It is frustrating when other buskers are

so loud that you can hear them five blocks away because they take up

all that space and so you become limited to where you can play.

Bagpipes are loud they even trump the trumpet for volume but some of

these guitarists with amplifiers are the loudest.

Parking is always an issue. It costs alot of money to park your car.

I tend to park away from the town/city centre to where it is free to

park and then walk in to the city centre. There is also a charge for

going to the toilet in some places. The local public library is

usually free to use their toilet facilities.

A letter I received from a local neighbourhood watch:

Even if you manage to get a good pitch on a good weather day and

there are many pedestrians walking past you as you play, in my

experience there is not much money to be made. Now that my be

because I do not posess the X factor. I do posess the Y factor and

the Z factor though because people wonder why I bother and then I

send them to sleep with boredom. No, I am joking, I am quite good

at my craft really! : )

At the time of writing this the places that I have busked in are:

Barking, Greater London.

New Street, Birmingham.

Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester.

Altrincham, Greater Manchester.

Sale, Greater Manchester.

Pilrig Park, Edinburgh.

Fargate, Sheffield.

The Moor, Sheffield.

Leeds.

Wakefield.

Long Row, Nottingham.

Clumber Street, Nottingham.

Arnold, Nottingham.

Beeston, Nottingham.

Derby.

Hull.

Macclesfield.

High Street, Lincoln.

Mansfield.

Doncaster.

Rotherham.

Barnsley.

Scunthorpe.

Retford.

Worksop.

Ilkeston.

The equipment that I use for busking:

Martin Smith Acoustic guitar Model 401E-N

(I usually only use the guitar above and sing without a mic, but

sometimes I use the PA amp below to amplify my singing)

Sub Zero PA81 portable PA system for ipod

(I do not have an I pod)

Some of the songs that I play are:

House Of The Rising Sun

Wonderwall

Golden Brown

Princess Of The Street

No More Heroes

Hanging Around

Should I Stay Or Should I go?

London Calling

Guns Of Brixton

English Civil War

Hersham Boys

Hurry Up Harry

Rat Trap

Like Clockwork

Knocking On Heavens Door

Nights In White Satin

Ever Fallen In Love?

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Down In A Tube Sation At Midnight

Boulavard Of Broken Dreams

Forever

People Are Strange

The One I Love

Keep On Rocking In The Free World

White Wedding

Sound Of The Suburbs

Monster

Class War (own original song)

The Miners'Song (own original song)