Wednesday, June 19, 2013

The Wild Rover

The Wild Rover
19.06.2013, Crewe


     Ok., I did it. I busked in Crewe. Now I have huge hangover and will spend all day in bed reminiscing the stormy events of yesterday.
     When I went to the streets, first I approached a lovely blond police officer (I love those funny “clockwork orange” hats) and asked if there are any regulations for the buskers here (well, I wouldn’t ask normally, but she looked so harmless and cute, that I thought it wouldn't hurt to start with positive vibe and building my self-confidence). She smiled broadly and said that as long as I play pretty, she doesn’t mind.
      So I found a spot, took out my ukulele and started shyly with some Manu Chao songs. It was my first street performance since few years and the first ever with ukulele (before I used to play accordion) so I was bit nervous. People walked by, not parting with their crisis money, nonetheless stopping and cheering. I guess they really don’t have much busking here. Only when I started to play some Irish tunes I got few pounds. It was funny that Brits seem to enjoy the Irish stuff so much, even when I was openly scorning them in the name of all Irish rebels. Well, of course it was done jokingly, no harm done.
     After getting around fiver in the case I was about to go home when Paddy (short from Patrick as he kindly explained) joined me on the bench. Guy over fifty, bit downtrodden by life as I could see from his face. He was a little tipsy and loved my music. He asked if he could join in with the singing. I didn’t mind. We sang Whiskey In the Jar together, then we started Dirty Old Town. I hadn’t practice this one much before, so it sounded really rough, but I guess that’s how you should sing it, because we got a small cheering crowd.
     Then Paddy asked me if we should grab a drink in the nearby pub. So we went. The pub was quite full, so we joined two girls at their table outside. They eyed my ukulele case.
     “Are you going to give us a tune?” – one of them asked jokingly.
     “Yes, he is!” – Paddy picked up enthusiastically. – “He is an amazing player! Come on, Martin” – he turned to me. He was so loud that all the tables turned to us and started to encourage me. I blushed like a little girl and tried to divert everyone’s attention from myself, but to no avail. So I poured my pint down the throat to get some courage and started to play. Soon enough I forgot about my stage fright. People joined in with chorus and even guests from inside the pub started to come outside to see what’s going on. People were clapping, thumping and laughing. After the first song the drinks started to show miraculously on my table. Paddy got up, pointed at me and said:
     “This is Martin from Poland, he arrived yesterday, give him some applause!”
     “Why would you come to this shithole?!” – someone shouted, but he was silenced by the rest.
     I had no control over the situation whatsoever. So I decided to go with the flow. And like this it went for a while. More drinks and more music, then some more. We filled the air with Irish drinking songs and pretty quickly half of the guests started to reveal their Irish roots. I got an impression that in reality Crewe is an Irish colony in the heart of Cheshire. Who would think?
     Eventually when the world started to be too hazy, I gathered the strength and took my leave greeted cordially by everyone present.
     This was my first day in England.

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