January/February in the Mix

Great news about this blog - the lovely people at local magazine "Culture Hub" have given me a full page in their monthly publication.  It's a free guide to everything culture-wise going on in the North and you'll be able to pick up a copy from various bars and cafes.

January and February have been interesting months for the busking scene.  Post-Christmas blues and biting cold air meant a lot of the seasonal buskers chose to put their instruments down for a while, but there has been a resurgence in the last few weeks of street performers doing their thing.  This is in part to the Belfast Telegraph's busking competition.

I've got to say it's an interesting coverage of some of Belfast's best buskers, but I was a little bit miffed - I felt as if my idea had been stolen.  Whilst I'm not the first person to film buskers and in fact, there's a few excellent series of busker videos - (the buskers of Belfast, Wonder walk etc. are all worth a view if you're a busking enthusiast) however, part of me wondered had the popularity of either my youtube channel, or this blog inspired them to run the competition.  It would seem unlikely but they've removed two attempts at promoting this blog in their comment section, which is a little bit frustrating.  I don't want to have too big a dig at them, who knows when they're looking a journalist with my particular set of skills or expertise, though I'm not really sure if they'll get that desperate any time soon!

So which act did I enjoy the most over the last few months?  These new guys were definitely front runners.

These fellas were friendly and chatty.

Corn Market saw a few group acts taking centre stage - southern pop/rock/indy band Key West jammed away in part to promote their upcoming Mandela Hall gig, on the 6th March.  Here's them perform their last song on that particularly cold Saturday afternoon

Guitarist Glover explained how the band came to be, their influences and their hopes for the future.

One of the Telgraph's favourites also appeared on the streets, the day after their competition began.  Young Buddy Holly look a-like Hugo Boitel-Gill whipped out some neat guitar work.

We also saw some old favourites.

That's all for now!

Christmas Recap Part 2

Well the weather outside was frightful, but the jazzy music made it a little bit more brightful (this is why I still haven't got a job working for the Sun, my puns aren't up to standard)

Over the course of the Christmas period, I often came into contact with buskers who busked for other reasons.  Some may not have been the most gifted of musicians or that their circumstance prevented them from performing them at the highest level, but their presence was none the less appreciated, just like Liam's.

Others like Nathan Miller showed us incredible talent, playing three instruments in harmony at once.

He took time out to tell us of his influences

Christmas Recap part 1

If you've followed this blog so far, you may have been under the impression, just as I was that my ineptitude with computers plus festive merriment caused me a great inconvenience and videos recorded in the festive season had been destroyed.  Thankfully I didn't so much lose the files but merely misplaced them.  As luck would have it, just as I accidentally misplaced them, I accidentally found them.  As there were so many of them, I'm going to spread them over two installments. So check back here in a week

If you were around Belfast city centre at Christmas time you would have found it incredibly difficult not to notice the talented Romanian traveller bands, belting out carols and Christmas tunes on Royal Avenue.  Here's one of them:

Perhaps you also heard young acoustic guitar playing singers like Declan Hayes, giving renditions of Elvis or Johnny Cash classics.

He offered up some of his time to tell us about his experiences.

Lastly, you might have also seen one of Belfast's talented music men, Chris Mercer playing two instruments at the same time, or singing and playing.

Just like Declan, he was happy to fill us in on his busking life.

Disaster: Failure to Upload Files Correctly

I have a confession to make: like many of us around the festive period, or just in general - I am fond of a drink or seven.  One evening I attempted to upload a whole bunch of videos from my trusty iPhone 4 to my PC as it takes a lot less time to upload to youtube from a PC to than it is by a phone.  I also deleted the files from my iPhone in doing so.  This meant that some great footage has been irretrievably lost.  Fantastic music men like Chris Mercer, Nathan Miller, Declan Hayes as well as two of the Christmas carol jamming jazz bands were all recorded performing, with the former three graciously giving interviews.  Somewhere in the drunken haze of the last three weeks these have all vanished into the cyber-aether and I say this with much regret.  Due to working a couple of jobs, engaging with a few other hobbies and maintaining a healthy level of alcoholism, any chance to record films is gleefully taken.  On top of this, I now don't have the same amount of change coming into my pockets like I did from Christmas tips, which I used to pay some small tribute to the performers.  That's not to say this blog is finished, just the updates may become a lot less frequent.  I'd like to apologize to all of the artists who shared their time and energy performing or talking to me, expecting to be able to watch a video of their performance only to have downright idiocy rule the situation.

I'd also like to refer you all to a great youtube channel, not started by me but by a busker who I filmed.  I'm not the first person to have thought of the idea of filming buskers in Belfast, though I can attest that I was inspired only by seeing artists perform and nothing else.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmniCk1bMMG28tp12cHIxgA

Above is the Beat of Belfast, a channel which hosts over eighteen different.  I heartily recommend checking it out if you are interested in the local busking scene.

In the mean time, I'll give you some house party jams - performed by a deep lunged Scotsman who seems as fond of the devil's nectar as I am:  Georden Williamson.  A fantastic character, I'm sure you'll agree.

Live from Pottinger's Entry

As anyone who frequents Belfast's town center can attest, if you want to find buskers you're most likely able to find success heading towards Ann Street, or the Corn Market Area.  Here's a veteran busker who politely declined an interview but gave a great cover of Bob Dylan's 'Make You Feel My Love'

A few days later, I made the trip in town again and heard this fantastic voice.

Though she makes a few mistakes due to nerves, I feel this only makes her more human.  After all, nobody's perfect. 



Orla took some time to gave me an interview.  If you get a chance, be sure to check out her show with legendary actor Ian Mcilhenny

I later went looking for her brother, couldn't find him but found another talented musician.

Philip plays in a band called The Echo Raptors and told us a little about his busking experience.

A Cold Dry Day in December

I managed to get these videos taken on Thursday the 5th December.  First off, we got a great display of football juggling skills from Jamie Knight, who really takes "keepy-upsies" to the next level.  This was an absolutely mesmerizing physical performance.

Jamie kindly took time out to give me a brief interview and answer a few questions about his trade.

Secondly, Conor Scott another young rising star, famed for his achievements on BBC One Talent Show "The Voice" delivered an absolute belter of a tune.  His voice is undeniably powerful, the twenty year old singer/songwriter has a resonance that's truly present.

Conor also gifted me with a short interview, displaying his easy going, down to earth, naturally charismatic nature.

That's all for this week.  Any comments/inquiries please e-mail zeromalarki@gmail.com

Introduction and A Canadian Busker

I've taken a passing interest in live music and buskers for a while now.  I've always felt a lot of them are more talented than they are given credit for.  They are real people, making music not looking for fame or fortune via way of talent shows but by performing in more hostile environments, braving heat or cold to make a few coins here and there.  Sometimes they have good days, other days must be entirely crushing for their egos and self esteems.  Others may be incredibly scary, dealing with the risk of being mugged or threatened by the various lunatics that roam our streets.  To me it seems like one of the oldest professions out there - akin to the Medieval court jester or Pied Piper of Hamlin.  Since returning to Belfast I thought I'd make more of an effort to showcase some of the buskers on the local scene.  Filming them, with their permission wherever I could.  This may not amount to much but a little more respect for a few but I consider this an experiment.

My first entry will be the Canadian busker Riley, whom I met on Thursday night around 1 AM on Botanic Avenue.  He lives and works in Vagabounds Hostel, where (I'd imagine) he receives food and board for working reception and doing various chores but not too much else.

To start here's a Jack Johnson cover.  Unfortunately I'm no pro with Audacity or the like, so will have difficulty editing the background noise such as traffic.  The camera I'm using is an iPhone 4 which at the time of shooting had little battery left.

Here's his CCR cover - Bad Moon Rising

Lastly here's one of his own songs, rudely interrupted by two drunk girls from Derry and their English friend.  It's an obvious danger of busking at night but he handles it exceptionally well, showing professionalism and a zen like calmness as they make absolute tits of themselves.

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That's it for now.  If you have any questions or suggestions for buskers to check out, please e-mail me at zeromalarki@gmail.com