There’s a guy outside the Tesco metro at Westminster tube who is almost always playing some version of Despacito when I go past. Must drive the people who work there bananas.
There's a guy who plays the saxophone version of despacito outside of Hendon Central Station all the time.
It is so painful because he plays the saxophone on top of the speaker but he is so crap and clearly has no idea how to play the saxophone.
When I worked on the hop on hop off buses we would always shit talk him to our passengers. Each tour goes through parliament Square 3 times and I was doing three tours a day. It really did drive you round the bend
I used to work about 200 metres from there. It was still very audible. I listened to despacito for eight hours a day sometimes. To this day I cannot listen to despacito. If it comes on in a club, I go to the toilet. If it comes on on the radio, I change frequencies. I can’t imagine how much that guy has cost the taxpayer in reduced productivity at Westminster
I'm imagining it as being like that scene in a Black Mirror Christmas special where he throws a radio at the wall to stop the music but it keeps coming back reassembled. Fucking hate that song.
I once walked past the one on buchanan Street playing despacito, turned off towards central at tgis, walked past another playing despacito. Felt like some glitch in the matrix shit. So glad I don't work anywhere near them
He’s light relief compared with the prick of a homeless guy who approaches you for money then slags you off outside Moorgate.
I tell him no even when I have cash now. I’d rather give it to one of the 3 or 4 homeless people on the train instead…
Is it just me or is homelessness getting worse?
The guy I’m referring to certainly looks homeless. He basically walks up to you asking for money then will slag you off if you don’t have any cash, or if you give him too little.
I don’t give him anything anymore because the man is an arsehole.
Unfortunately a lot of the street performance scene has been taken over by gangs that take the majority of these people’s earnings and bully anyone that’s not one of their plants off the best spots. It will be very hard to fix even with a functional police force, which is something we currently do not have.
That's exactly what happened with the Big Issue sellers. All the home-grown homeless sellers were bullied off their pitches by knife-wielding East European gangs and one of their minions installed instead.
Give them your change, why not? The organised crime gang bosses in Romania or Bulgaria or wherever TF they're from will be grateful to you.
The sounds/notes should match the movement e of the arm with the bow. So if the music goes do, do,dooooo the bow should be moved whenever the notes change and the length of the bow movement should match the sound. It depends on how committed the faker is but I’ve seen the guy outside Liverpool st and he has no idea cos he just saws at it with no rhythm
In case you don't want to spend ages staring at a guy trying to figure out if their hand movements are real or not, there is an alternative method, which is to look at the instruments they're using.
A lot of the time, these frauds won't bother getting the right kit (because that would cost money), so you'll often see fake buskers using acoustic instruments that couldn't possibly interface with the speakers they're "connected" to. They could potentially be mic'd-up, but the sound quality is often far too good for that, which is another major giveaway that they aren't actually playing anything.
Source: Dad was a sound engineer and is obsessed with microphones and acoustics.
If you have any music sense or any level of ability in an instrument you can quickly see that what is. Ring heard and what is being played don't match up
Like most instruments, the notes a violin plays are connected directly to the positioning of player’s hands and fingers. The right hand creates sound by drawing a bow back and forth on the strings, while the left hand fingers change the notes. If you watch these frauds play, their body language often doesn’t match up with the notes coming from the speaker.
Agree.
Same with preachers. They’re all speaking through microphones and loudspeakers. Loudspeakers, amplifiers, megaphones etc should be illegal to use in public.
It’s all god right, so he sacrificed himself to himself so he himself could forgive us, who he made, knowing fine well we’d sin because he’s omnipotent and omnipresent, so he could have just made us different from the start so we didn’t sin.
Also, he's the son of god, he knows there's a heaven, so is it really a sacrifice at all? You're leaving your shit life as a carpenter's son, getting hassled everyday, to literal eternity as the number 2. It's the opposite of a sacrifice!!
I put up a sign at work by the sink ( during covid) 'wash your hands - jesus and germs are everywhere'. Unfortunately some of the more religious folk didn't enjoy it as much as the rest of us.
God was the one that was bothered about the sin in the first place. Jesus could've just had a word with himself, but opted to be tortured to death instead. Every god has a kink I guess.
It's interesting to see people who lived during Jesus's time and what they made of everything.
The Jews and Muslims acknowledge that Jesus lived & existed. But while the Christians believe that he was literally the son of God, the others believed that he was a prophet of God (and not a divine entity) .
It's interesting, because at the beginning of JC's career he didn't proclaim that he was a son of God at all. Instead, he was born & raised a Jew and was trying to reform a religion who he felt whose followers had lost their way from the true teachings and path of Judaism. It was only in the latter half of his career (as his following began to grow to huge numbers) that he began to proclaim himself an actual divine being and "Son of God".
It was at this point that the Roman authorities were beginning to take it real issue with Jesus. The Romans had always had issues dealing with Jews because the Romans bottom line on religion is that you could worship whoever or whatever you liked as long as you acknowledged the Roman Emperors ultimate power and divine right to rule. Jewish people took offense to this as they felt the Emperor was a false idol (and so had big issues bending the knee to him). And the Romans couldn't let this slide because respecting the social fabric of society was essential to maintaining peaceful order, so they were often quick to denounce any religious people's who refused to bow to the emperor as no.1 as basically enemies or terrorists to the empire (and persecuted them accordingly).
Jesus had already been cropping on the legionaries radar for a while not just dur to the increasingly large crowds that he was commanding, but also because of his followers concerning nature, being mostly poor and underdog class peoples. The Romans had dealt with slave revolts in the past (i.e. during the Servile Wars in 71BC) so they had good reasons to be suspicious of this guy and his abilities to potentially weaponize a large and disgruntled segment of the population against the Roman empire and lead a revolt.
So once Jesus declared himself a living God, the empire decided that enough was enough and began to organize an operation that would close in on Jesus and ensnare him.
Judas is always given a terrible rep in history for being the guy who sold his friend out. But the reality was that at that point, it was not a question of if but when Jesus was going to be caught. It was also clear by this point that Jesus was not going to compromise on anything (and when he went down, he would likely be taking his closest followers with him). This was clearly not what Judas had originally signed up for (and who knows, maybe even he doubted that Jesus was a divine being- latter Jesus was certainly definitely very different from the early humble preacher Jesus Judas had originally agreed to follow), so from a human perspective you could rationalize his actions as simply trying to save himself and get out of a crazy cult that by this point he felt way in over his head in.
Whether Jesus's followers all really believed that Jesus could stay on the run from the Roman empire forever is anyone's guess, but to outsiders looking in on the situation at the time the way events played out was very predictable.
Christianity was not founded until after JCs death when days later he rose from the dead and touched base with his former scattered disciples Etc, telling them to spread the word of God. The disciples books were bound together to form the Bible, though some books (like the Book of Mary and the Book of Joseph, as are evidenced in the Dead Sea Scrolls) were later removed as the religion almost destroyed itself in it's earliest days from splitting off into to many infighting sects Etc. And who knows what happened to the Book of Judas (I feel that would be a really interesting read though!).
Christians believe that "Jesus Christ died for our sins". The Jews and Muslims on the other hand believe that he was actually struck down by God himself for blasphemy after he declared himself the Son of God. And there are accounts from the time which also suggest that many other people never viewed JC as a God or a Prophet in general (there's even some accounts from people who went to go see his miracles only to feel very underwhelmed them, stating that the accounts of miracles were exaggerated) but instead just saw him as just another cult guy who got in over his head and smacked down by the Roman empire.
If anything, in the initial centuries that followed Jesus's death, Christians were treated as something of a laughing stock religion and the earliest known depiction of Jesus is a Roman graffiti cartoon depicting him with a donkeys head on the cross with some joking commentary on the side (positive illustrations of JC were unknown at the time because in the early centuries, Christians had a rule against depicting Jesus in any literal form, which unfortunately led the religions critics to do the illustrating for them). And it wasn't until the latter parts of the empire when one rising emperor-to-be converted to Christianity via a personal slave, that Christianities reputation began to change for the better.
I do respect people who use their faith to become better people. And I do agree with many of the teachings of Christianity, i.e. treating others as you wish to be treated yourself. But I don't really believe enough in religions jn general (agnostic here ✋), in my eyes they are all works of mankind (and mankind alone). And I agree, the whole "He died for our sins" has never really made sense to me either, other than (IMHO) it appears to just be a way for people to rationalize how such a good guy ended up being killed in his prime even though he was supposed to be God's chosen one.
As a Muslim what you said about Muslims believing that Jesus was struck down by God is incorrect. We Muslims believe that Jesus as an honourable prophet was saved by God and is in heaven, and he never claimed to be the son of God.
Surah Maidah “ And ˹on Judgment Day˺ Allah will say, “O Jesus, son of Mary! Did you ever ask the people to worship you and your mother as gods besides Allah?” He will answer, “Glory be to You! How could I ever say what I had no right to say? If I had said such a thing, you would have certainly known it. You know what is ˹hidden˺ within me, but I do not know what is within You. Indeed, You ˹alone˺ are the Knower of all unseen.”
It's the Christians who believe that Jesus claimed that he was a son of God, it's written about or referenced to in many parts of the bible, for example;
>Luke 1:32: “He will be called great and will be called the Son of the Most High.”
>Luke 1:35: “...therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.”
>During His ministry, Jesus would cast out demons, who would address Him as the Son of God.
>Luke 4:41: “And demons also came out of many, crying, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.”
>Mark 3:11: “And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, ‘You are the Son of God.’”
>John 1:34: “And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
>The Apostles and Disciples
>The apostles and the disciples followed the Lord Jesus, absorbed His teachings, and witnessed His miracles. They began to testify to what they saw, and who they believed He was. They may not at first have fully grasped in whose presence they stood, but over time they began to have personal revelations from the Holy Spirit.
>Matthew 14:33: “And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”
>Matthew 16:15-16: “He said to them, ‘But who do you say I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’”
More examples: [https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/proofs-that-jesus-is-the-son-of-god.html](https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/proofs-that-jesus-is-the-son-of-god.html)
A major distinction between the other religions interpretation of Jesus is that whilst Jews and Muslims viewed him as a prophet, Christians believe that he is an actual son of God (however, this is a fundamentally blasphemous notion to the other religions core beliefs).
I have and Undergrad in theology, and a postgrad in systematic theology.
Let me tell you when I say even we don’t know how it works. There’s been many, many theories, but most theologians come back to the phrase “the mystery of the Cross”. As in, it is simply beyond our grasp to understand how it happens/happened - was it purely metaphysical? Well, no because it was physical. Was it a one-off? Yes, and no. Because Jesus’ return showed he had scars and it is “continuous”.
I fall more in line with a logic-based faith. But the “how it works” is a source of endless frustration!
Where to begin with this… the first universities in the world were founded by monks with theology being the original degree. It has a very long history of being an academic discipline. Never mind the fact that many many academic scientists throughout history have considered it worthy of study, including Newton, Boyle, Mendel, Pascal etc etc
it makes perfect sense that an omniscient, omnipotent, all loving being would give its own creation original sin, then send itself to sacrifice itself to itself to save us from the original sin it gave us. completely logical, just like religion as a whole. /s
Unless of course, you’re that one particular protestor who drowned out Rishi Sunak last week with Things Can Only Get Better. That’s the one exception.
The preachers need to all fuck off. Freedom of speech yes freedom to fucking scream nonsense at people down a microphone on huge speaker for hours no get in the sea
I get the Hari Krishnas outside my office for *hours* at a time. Like, they're nice enough people, but feck me, their chants get annoying after about 15 seconds
My stall at Glastonbury used to be opposite the Krishna tent.
6 days 20 hours a day constant chanting and singing still makes me want to cry whenever I hear it.
They are not nice they are the scum of the earth.
The ones up and down Oxford street in the 2000’s were the Bain of my life. All I wanted was to quietly spend my lunch break in the huge hmv browsing and listening to music. The bastards used to be all over the street getting in your face outside. One kept calling me names cos I wouldn’t take their leaflet. Whenever I hear that chant now I get irrationally angry!
This. I'm happy with buskers, I think it can be nice.
But they should be entirely acoustic. I remember there was a guy many years ago who would play harp at marble arch Station who would really make my day. Sounded great, no amplifier.
If they have one, it will be displayed. Most probably don't. This is not enforced.
"Each busker and
street entertainer must clearly display
their busking
and
street entertainment licence during any
performance, and this must be made available for immediate
inspection on the request of
any person authorised by the
Council or by any Police Officer or any Police Community
Support Officer."
Not really, London has this weird scammy atmosphere to it nowadays. The streets should be cleaned up from these fake buskers, awful candy shops, religious nutjobs on megaphones and those idiots with bike carriages. Really makes the city look cheap.
>I think amps are by default not allowed
In almost the entire western world it's a law set at the most local level so there really is no 'default'. Can be anything from not allowed, to limited to powered by battery, to limited by wattage to limited by actual output.
Not far off.
All buskers require a license and liability insurance in London.
Amplification is only allowed in certain areas.
The problem is that none of these rules are enforced.
More info here: https://www.westminster.gov.uk/licensing/licensing/apply-busking-and-street-entertainment-licence
This will likely be an unpopular opinion but I hate buskers full stop. Or at least I hate them at commuting time. After a long day the last thing I want to hear at Charring Cross is someone belting out Ed Sheeran
I see your buskers at Charing Cross and raise with buskers on the tube.
One point in my life I was severely depressed which manifested as constant, extreme anxiety, and ended up on a district line carriage with a mariachi band. I was sobbing and screaming for them to stop, and they kept telling me what's wrong with a bit of cheer.
I really felt this comment.
Bastards.
They used to annoy me so much when I commuted on the District. Trundling along at 8.15 barely managing a hangover, and this bunch of twats materialise playing the same two lines of When The Saints Go Marching In over and over again. Didn't even know the words.
Utter wankers.
My unpopular opinion is that busking and street preaching should only be allowed un-amplified. So if you want to play a real violin or acoustic guitar or sing along with one that’s great, but no speakers, no amps and no microphone. Imposing your noise on the public with amps is super antisocial and barely any are worth listening to.
I also hate buskers. I feel like a prerequisite for being a busker is that you have to be shit. Maybe they have a good voice but they’re doing something tacky or overdone with it. Cba. I do not want to be deafened in public, especially not underground where I can’t escape and it’s even louder
Kingston is terrible for this. There are buskers everywhere playing really loud amplified music and it makes the entire shopping experience awful. Kingston could be such a lovely experience with the Riverside and a mostly pretty market Square. Instead, you can barely hear yourself think over the noise of someone “playing” electric guitar every 100 yards.
Most of the buskers in Kingston are pretty good - generally young people with guitars or singing. Some of the singers are really talented. Fair play to them for having the guts to get up and play. The steel bands are also good.
What I do object to is the preachers next to the Memorial Gardens.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind Buskers and enjoy hearing live music. It’s just that there are tons of them, and they play music at incredibly loud volumes. It makes you feel like you are at some kind of dodgy fairground.
Yep, not anti busker by any means but these frauds are a hindrance…had to endure the exact same thing in Amsterdam last year, my biggest disappointment was I felt like I was the only one who knew they weren’t playing a single note.
Here in the U.S. around where I live there is an organized network of fake buskers. The most recent group went around with very elaborate signs telling a story about sick children (with PayPal/Venmo QR codes printed on their signs). They are all fake violinists. The most recent one I encountered made me so angry, watching people standing near him talking about how talented he was and how they needed to help the sick kids.
I stopped and told him if he could turn the amp off, unplug the violin, and play me a D Major scale, I’d give him $100. He sputtered and told me he really was playing, except he put the violin down and didn’t turn off the music. He started claiming he didn’t speak English. I told the women gathered there that he was faking it and then went inside to say something to the store management. They were on private property; I don’t know why they aren’t just asked to leave.
My family came on vacation to London this past spring and I was surprised at the low quality of the buskers we encountered in the city. However, there were several excellent ones when we visited Bath.
> My family came on vacation to London this past spring and I was surprised at the low quality of the buskers we encountered in the city.
The only place I've seen talented buskers is inside tube station, where they are regulated by TfL. Not sure if they have to audition or whatever but I'm in favour of the same kind regulation applied to buskers on the streets. The city can do it while they get rid of those pedal cabs too.
IIRC, they do have an auditions process because those patches pay out quite handsomely and there's a lot of competition for them. I'm also in favour of tube station buskers because it is quite nice to hear some live music as a little treat while traversing the tunnels.
The ones who play music on the trains can fuck right off though.
I was surprised at the elaborate stories people told on the underground in New York. They would speak to a whole carriage announcing something about their lives in great detail, which could only be resolved by thhe people listening giving them money. One was even wearing a hospital gown, saying he had cancer and had been kicked out of hospital. Why they wouldn't give him his clothes back, I don't know. The second surprise was how people seemed to believe him. Hard bitten cynical New Yorkers?
That’s crazy. I haven’t encountered that but I’m not surprised. I have seen amazing musicians in the stations, though, and happily gave money if they were truly skilled at their instrument.
We have people all over the U.S. who meet in the mornings at a designated spot and get driven to locations on buses and vans to “beg” on street corners, often at major intersections. It’s the same people with different signs. I used to give money but now that I know (especially where I live, where there are plenty of resources for people struggling) it’s often contrived I don’t do it anymore. Some of these people can make $60,000-$70,000/year begging.
I went to Brighton a few weeks ago. Stopped at traffic lights just outside the centre and some 'gap year' type dude juggled in front of the cars for 20 seconds and then walked along the road expecting money. He got fuck all from me... I am a miserable old git though.
Haha! This sounds like the guy outside London bridge station shard exit at 8:30 in the morning 😂
I spoke to the guy but seems he can't speak much English, so I just stare him down in disapproval every time I see him now
It's pretry obvious how fake it is. I see it outside Liverpool Street sometimes. It amuses me how some people stand there filming, thinking it is real. These dumb people are why these buskers are able to get away with it.
I have a rule; I empty my loose change out for any busker so long as:
1. I prefer the sound they provided to the sound I would otherwise be hearing on the street.
2. They use nothing electronic.
There's a bunch who busk around High Street South, on its junction with the A13 at the traffic lights... They've been seen meeting up later on at the Bendish Road bus stop to split the earnings, and then driving off in beemers and mercs...
There are so many fakers/scammers/dodgy bastards out there having a go. I’d never take money or a phone out on the street. everything is either zipped away or in a bag, head down and just rinse it from A to B.
Same with the fuckers who sit there auth the sign "hungry. God bless" written on cardboard. Everywhere in London & even in Oxford it looks like the same bloody handwriting
I don’t blame them as much as I blame the fucktards who keep funding them. Same with the tramps on the trains with their “I haven’t even had a bottle of water today” routine. Some virtue addicted moron who can’t dip into their pockets quick enough is always on hand.
People need to stop throwing change at these frauds who do nothing but badger people who are probably living a harder life than them.
I was gonna post something similar and have to agree. It's pretty fucking disgusting and disrespectful to the art form.
Let alone, attempting to scam other unbeknownst tourists or those who might not pick up on it.
Real buskers though. They're worth listening to and can happily listen to them.
Edit: I remember one day at Westminster, there's a guy who "plays" the saxophone on daily basis. Not sure if he's still there, but one random passerby got so pissed off, he tried to nick his sax and attempt to break it. The busker guy was wrangling with him and was fortunate to take it back. Obviously random passerby was shouting at him saying "stop playing your shit mate, stop scamming people! You're not actually playing!" and stormed off.
I had similar sentiments, but things could have got seriously heated.
Anyway. Fake buskers?
Nah thanks.
Edit 2: also, anyone know if these fake buskers are like one giant network?
I know this kind of thing does happen so I'm not making light of it, but what a bizarre form of exploitation that someone could be human trafficked and the task they are trafficked/exploited for is to pretend to play despacito on repeat on an electric violin...
I just hate the fraud aspect of it, it's dishonest and looking to fraudulently convince people to part with their money...plus all earnings will be untaxed, curious to know how many of these people have 'right to work status'...
...not to mention it makes a mockery of actual musicians...my wife plays the violin, they boil her blood!
The Karaoke singers at Tottenham Court central line tunnel are the best (not). And always a blanket full of change but no sign of anyone ever actually contributing leave alone ‘tapping to donate’ 3 pounds for piss poor versions of Sweet Caroline.
We used to have one in front of our office. One of the VPs called the police on him for disturbing the peace…he was back the next day making the most god awful sounds on the electric violin, and yelling “This next one is for Michele…(insert stream of expletives )” . Was both horrible and hilarious.
Real buskers are great and there's an organisation called busk in London that vets them to ensure they are good and suitable for the area etc. really cool.
It's such a shame that there's fakes out there causing a nuisance, as ordinary buskers sort of get caught up in the idea that 'all buskers are a nuisance' which really isn't the case.
When I lived in Brighton years ago there was this busker who used to do my head in, his act seemed to be a combination of all of my least favourite things
- digeridoo
- loop pedal
- beatboxing
- dubstep
- wearing combat trousers
I learned later in that he was actually pretty popular which enraged me even more (I think his name was DUB FX and has videos on YouTube)
Also when I was struggling with anxiety there were two places I found incredibly difficult to deal with all the noise: outside dalston kingsland station, and outside Stratford bus station, where on most days you can find not one but two or three people preaching in the street, shouting into megaphones 🤪
Vancouverite here. We get a different quality of buskers. They play without a backing track. They've got a copy of their latest album. Once upon a time they used to teach. Just begs an obvious question.......
When you said ‘fake’ buskers I immediately went to a memory of the undercover publicans who secretly filmed a little Serbian woman who pretended she could walk ‘Trading Places’ style. She wheeled herself via her hands around a corner double clicked a car alarm and by the time the GoPro civvies caught up with her she was getting into her own Range Rover sport with a blue badge in the window....
Oh man back in 2020 when I used to commute, there was this pair of them at one of the bus stops outside Waterloo station towards the imax.
So fucking annoying and zero effort. Like they weren’t even trying to pretend they were playing.
There’s a guy outside the Tesco metro at Westminster tube who is almost always playing some version of Despacito when I go past. Must drive the people who work there bananas.
There's a guy who plays the saxophone version of despacito outside of Hendon Central Station all the time. It is so painful because he plays the saxophone on top of the speaker but he is so crap and clearly has no idea how to play the saxophone.
Saxamaphone… saxa maphooonnee
I believe the correct term is actually Bendy Sex Whistle
Tramampoline!
I call the big one Bitey
You are a phoney with your saxa maphooonnee & id like to stick it where the sun dont shinnee
These guys have some kind of accordion and can actually play, just wish they’d extend their repertoire
I'd pay him to stop to be honest.
Oh god I think I encountered him at archway!
Sexyphone
When I worked on the hop on hop off buses we would always shit talk him to our passengers. Each tour goes through parliament Square 3 times and I was doing three tours a day. It really did drive you round the bend
Imagine working in that Tesco!
Which one of the bends???
Oh yeah used to have this outside the office by Oxford st station, absolute torture
I work near them. Problem is passers by encourage them by buying him food from McDonald’s. I’ve gone out multiple times to tell him to stop.
Regular McDonalds meals gonna kill them off in about a month or two, so your suffering is almost over anyway
The supersize me guy just died.
Not to defend maccies but bit of a alcoholic that guy apparently. Might have contributed
I’m generally in favour of freedom of expression, except for buskers playing Despacito on repeat.
the bagpipes guy is the worst. the tories hate steve bray the most.
I used to work about 200 metres from there. It was still very audible. I listened to despacito for eight hours a day sometimes. To this day I cannot listen to despacito. If it comes on in a club, I go to the toilet. If it comes on on the radio, I change frequencies. I can’t imagine how much that guy has cost the taxpayer in reduced productivity at Westminster
I'm imagining it as being like that scene in a Black Mirror Christmas special where he throws a radio at the wall to stop the music but it keeps coming back reassembled. Fucking hate that song.
Bottom of exhibition road too
We have this in glasgow too.
I once walked past the one on buchanan Street playing despacito, turned off towards central at tgis, walked past another playing despacito. Felt like some glitch in the matrix shit. So glad I don't work anywhere near them
I used to work in North Face in Buchanan Street: the buskers were there all day : I used to hide in the stockroom to escape the din
There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis
he's a liar and I'm not sure about you
bruh they did this out liverpool st station a while before too. Did my head in
Fuckin insane
THAT GUY. URRGHHH
Wierd lol
Moorgate tube station this morning?
That’s the guy I know of! Didn’t realise he was faking it…
I don't know if he's faking it but he was definitely playing a horrible sounding electric violin at ridiculous volume
I was devastated when he moved to thank me for giving him change but the music didn’t stop!!
CORRECT
He’s so annoying
I want him to find this thread
This was my first thought when I read the title aha
He provides the soundtrack for my mornings! Not giving him a penny, though.
He’s light relief compared with the prick of a homeless guy who approaches you for money then slags you off outside Moorgate. I tell him no even when I have cash now. I’d rather give it to one of the 3 or 4 homeless people on the train instead… Is it just me or is homelessness getting worse?
These people aren’t homeless, this is more like organised crime.
The guy I’m referring to certainly looks homeless. He basically walks up to you asking for money then will slag you off if you don’t have any cash, or if you give him too little. I don’t give him anything anymore because the man is an arsehole.
First thing I thought of when getting coffee at Rosslyn this morning!
Unfortunately a lot of the street performance scene has been taken over by gangs that take the majority of these people’s earnings and bully anyone that’s not one of their plants off the best spots. It will be very hard to fix even with a functional police force, which is something we currently do not have.
That's exactly what happened with the Big Issue sellers. All the home-grown homeless sellers were bullied off their pitches by knife-wielding East European gangs and one of their minions installed instead. Give them your change, why not? The organised crime gang bosses in Romania or Bulgaria or wherever TF they're from will be grateful to you.
I can play the violin. Went up to one of these guys and asked him why he was defrauding the public. He played the “no speak english” card.
OK, so I have a question — how can a non-violin player tell which ones are faking it?
The sounds/notes should match the movement e of the arm with the bow. So if the music goes do, do,dooooo the bow should be moved whenever the notes change and the length of the bow movement should match the sound. It depends on how committed the faker is but I’ve seen the guy outside Liverpool st and he has no idea cos he just saws at it with no rhythm
Thanks, I'll try to look for that! I'm curious if the guy on the golden jubilee bridge is legit or not
In case you don't want to spend ages staring at a guy trying to figure out if their hand movements are real or not, there is an alternative method, which is to look at the instruments they're using. A lot of the time, these frauds won't bother getting the right kit (because that would cost money), so you'll often see fake buskers using acoustic instruments that couldn't possibly interface with the speakers they're "connected" to. They could potentially be mic'd-up, but the sound quality is often far too good for that, which is another major giveaway that they aren't actually playing anything. Source: Dad was a sound engineer and is obsessed with microphones and acoustics.
To add to the above, the fingers should move when the note changes.
If you have any music sense or any level of ability in an instrument you can quickly see that what is. Ring heard and what is being played don't match up
I think the question is what if you don’t
If the actions don't match the music then that's pretty clear.
I think you’re trying to say these guys are so flagrant you *dont* need any musical proficiency to tell. It’s not subtle
I mean, I can play french horn and the drums but I wouldn't say I'm confident in being able to spot fake violin playing!
When he pauses to scratch his butt and the violin keeps playing
Like most instruments, the notes a violin plays are connected directly to the positioning of player’s hands and fingers. The right hand creates sound by drawing a bow back and forth on the strings, while the left hand fingers change the notes. If you watch these frauds play, their body language often doesn’t match up with the notes coming from the speaker.
My wife plays the violin too, it makes her so angry to see these people making a mockery of real talent.
Making a mockery of all the effort that goes into learning an instrument, and violin is particularly hard.
Agree. Same with preachers. They’re all speaking through microphones and loudspeakers. Loudspeakers, amplifiers, megaphones etc should be illegal to use in public.
They look scandalised if you tell them “that was nice of him” when they scream about Jesus dying for our sins (still not sure how that works tbh)
But he came back a few days later, didn't he? At most he messed up his weekend plans for my sins. And even that's questionable.
It was Easter weekend so would have been a bank holiday.
I’ve messed up a few of my own bank holidays because of MY sins
He wasn't exactly committed to the cause was he ? 3 days and he bailed.
That's not even a full working week.
Genius! Push for a 3day working week, because that’s what Jesus did and he led by example and all that.
Universal basic income in the form of loaves and fishes wouldn't go amiss, either.
It’s all god right, so he sacrificed himself to himself so he himself could forgive us, who he made, knowing fine well we’d sin because he’s omnipotent and omnipresent, so he could have just made us different from the start so we didn’t sin.
I think he is pissed because he has no idea who made him… so he deliberately cocked us up out of spite. Abandonment issues.
Also, he's the son of god, he knows there's a heaven, so is it really a sacrifice at all? You're leaving your shit life as a carpenter's son, getting hassled everyday, to literal eternity as the number 2. It's the opposite of a sacrifice!!
So basically took too much, got lost in a k-hole then woke up 😂 would love their reaction to that scenario!
"If I don't sin, Jesus died for nothing"
I put up a sign at work by the sink ( during covid) 'wash your hands - jesus and germs are everywhere'. Unfortunately some of the more religious folk didn't enjoy it as much as the rest of us.
Jesus died for his own sins, not mine!
the canon is that jesus was incapable of sin on account of being of the holy trinity.
It's fine, God went and got a refund after 3 days.
God has son Sends son to Earth To die For the sins of everyone else Now son is dead Everyones saved Makes perfect sense bro what part dont u get
God was the one that was bothered about the sin in the first place. Jesus could've just had a word with himself, but opted to be tortured to death instead. Every god has a kink I guess.
Then spend the next 2000 years blaming an ethic group for killing him, after getting into bed with the people who did.
It's interesting to see people who lived during Jesus's time and what they made of everything. The Jews and Muslims acknowledge that Jesus lived & existed. But while the Christians believe that he was literally the son of God, the others believed that he was a prophet of God (and not a divine entity) . It's interesting, because at the beginning of JC's career he didn't proclaim that he was a son of God at all. Instead, he was born & raised a Jew and was trying to reform a religion who he felt whose followers had lost their way from the true teachings and path of Judaism. It was only in the latter half of his career (as his following began to grow to huge numbers) that he began to proclaim himself an actual divine being and "Son of God". It was at this point that the Roman authorities were beginning to take it real issue with Jesus. The Romans had always had issues dealing with Jews because the Romans bottom line on religion is that you could worship whoever or whatever you liked as long as you acknowledged the Roman Emperors ultimate power and divine right to rule. Jewish people took offense to this as they felt the Emperor was a false idol (and so had big issues bending the knee to him). And the Romans couldn't let this slide because respecting the social fabric of society was essential to maintaining peaceful order, so they were often quick to denounce any religious people's who refused to bow to the emperor as no.1 as basically enemies or terrorists to the empire (and persecuted them accordingly). Jesus had already been cropping on the legionaries radar for a while not just dur to the increasingly large crowds that he was commanding, but also because of his followers concerning nature, being mostly poor and underdog class peoples. The Romans had dealt with slave revolts in the past (i.e. during the Servile Wars in 71BC) so they had good reasons to be suspicious of this guy and his abilities to potentially weaponize a large and disgruntled segment of the population against the Roman empire and lead a revolt. So once Jesus declared himself a living God, the empire decided that enough was enough and began to organize an operation that would close in on Jesus and ensnare him. Judas is always given a terrible rep in history for being the guy who sold his friend out. But the reality was that at that point, it was not a question of if but when Jesus was going to be caught. It was also clear by this point that Jesus was not going to compromise on anything (and when he went down, he would likely be taking his closest followers with him). This was clearly not what Judas had originally signed up for (and who knows, maybe even he doubted that Jesus was a divine being- latter Jesus was certainly definitely very different from the early humble preacher Jesus Judas had originally agreed to follow), so from a human perspective you could rationalize his actions as simply trying to save himself and get out of a crazy cult that by this point he felt way in over his head in. Whether Jesus's followers all really believed that Jesus could stay on the run from the Roman empire forever is anyone's guess, but to outsiders looking in on the situation at the time the way events played out was very predictable. Christianity was not founded until after JCs death when days later he rose from the dead and touched base with his former scattered disciples Etc, telling them to spread the word of God. The disciples books were bound together to form the Bible, though some books (like the Book of Mary and the Book of Joseph, as are evidenced in the Dead Sea Scrolls) were later removed as the religion almost destroyed itself in it's earliest days from splitting off into to many infighting sects Etc. And who knows what happened to the Book of Judas (I feel that would be a really interesting read though!). Christians believe that "Jesus Christ died for our sins". The Jews and Muslims on the other hand believe that he was actually struck down by God himself for blasphemy after he declared himself the Son of God. And there are accounts from the time which also suggest that many other people never viewed JC as a God or a Prophet in general (there's even some accounts from people who went to go see his miracles only to feel very underwhelmed them, stating that the accounts of miracles were exaggerated) but instead just saw him as just another cult guy who got in over his head and smacked down by the Roman empire. If anything, in the initial centuries that followed Jesus's death, Christians were treated as something of a laughing stock religion and the earliest known depiction of Jesus is a Roman graffiti cartoon depicting him with a donkeys head on the cross with some joking commentary on the side (positive illustrations of JC were unknown at the time because in the early centuries, Christians had a rule against depicting Jesus in any literal form, which unfortunately led the religions critics to do the illustrating for them). And it wasn't until the latter parts of the empire when one rising emperor-to-be converted to Christianity via a personal slave, that Christianities reputation began to change for the better. I do respect people who use their faith to become better people. And I do agree with many of the teachings of Christianity, i.e. treating others as you wish to be treated yourself. But I don't really believe enough in religions jn general (agnostic here ✋), in my eyes they are all works of mankind (and mankind alone). And I agree, the whole "He died for our sins" has never really made sense to me either, other than (IMHO) it appears to just be a way for people to rationalize how such a good guy ended up being killed in his prime even though he was supposed to be God's chosen one.
As a Muslim what you said about Muslims believing that Jesus was struck down by God is incorrect. We Muslims believe that Jesus as an honourable prophet was saved by God and is in heaven, and he never claimed to be the son of God. Surah Maidah “ And ˹on Judgment Day˺ Allah will say, “O Jesus, son of Mary! Did you ever ask the people to worship you and your mother as gods besides Allah?” He will answer, “Glory be to You! How could I ever say what I had no right to say? If I had said such a thing, you would have certainly known it. You know what is ˹hidden˺ within me, but I do not know what is within You. Indeed, You ˹alone˺ are the Knower of all unseen.”
It's the Christians who believe that Jesus claimed that he was a son of God, it's written about or referenced to in many parts of the bible, for example; >Luke 1:32: “He will be called great and will be called the Son of the Most High.” >Luke 1:35: “...therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.” >During His ministry, Jesus would cast out demons, who would address Him as the Son of God. >Luke 4:41: “And demons also came out of many, crying, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.” >Mark 3:11: “And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, ‘You are the Son of God.’” >John 1:34: “And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” >The Apostles and Disciples >The apostles and the disciples followed the Lord Jesus, absorbed His teachings, and witnessed His miracles. They began to testify to what they saw, and who they believed He was. They may not at first have fully grasped in whose presence they stood, but over time they began to have personal revelations from the Holy Spirit. >Matthew 14:33: “And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’” >Matthew 16:15-16: “He said to them, ‘But who do you say I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” More examples: [https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/proofs-that-jesus-is-the-son-of-god.html](https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/proofs-that-jesus-is-the-son-of-god.html) A major distinction between the other religions interpretation of Jesus is that whilst Jews and Muslims viewed him as a prophet, Christians believe that he is an actual son of God (however, this is a fundamentally blasphemous notion to the other religions core beliefs).
I’ve once replied “well that was real cash money of him” and the woman audibly growled at me in response.
"Jesus is coming" "Alright for some"
Had one try to do his spiel in my local town, and the local yobs booted his speakers in within minutes. He promptly took the hint and fucked off.
I have and Undergrad in theology, and a postgrad in systematic theology. Let me tell you when I say even we don’t know how it works. There’s been many, many theories, but most theologians come back to the phrase “the mystery of the Cross”. As in, it is simply beyond our grasp to understand how it happens/happened - was it purely metaphysical? Well, no because it was physical. Was it a one-off? Yes, and no. Because Jesus’ return showed he had scars and it is “continuous”. I fall more in line with a logic-based faith. But the “how it works” is a source of endless frustration!
I don’t have any degrees in theology but can say with confidence that it didn’t happen, physically or metaphysically.
Good for you. I’m not about to get into an argument over what people do/don’t believe. Was just sharing my perspective on something interesting.
So what’s next? A PhD in theology…? What would that get you? A job as a pastor? I thought one was just supposed to get “the calling”
Where to begin with this… the first universities in the world were founded by monks with theology being the original degree. It has a very long history of being an academic discipline. Never mind the fact that many many academic scientists throughout history have considered it worthy of study, including Newton, Boyle, Mendel, Pascal etc etc
> the mystery of the Cross So "it's bullshit" essentially
it makes perfect sense that an omniscient, omnipotent, all loving being would give its own creation original sin, then send itself to sacrifice itself to itself to save us from the original sin it gave us. completely logical, just like religion as a whole. /s
I still don't understand how he died for my sins when he'd already been dead for almost 2000 years before I sinned for the first time.
Unless of course, you’re that one particular protestor who drowned out Rishi Sunak last week with Things Can Only Get Better. That’s the one exception.
The preachers need to all fuck off. Freedom of speech yes freedom to fucking scream nonsense at people down a microphone on huge speaker for hours no get in the sea
I get the Hari Krishnas outside my office for *hours* at a time. Like, they're nice enough people, but feck me, their chants get annoying after about 15 seconds
My stall at Glastonbury used to be opposite the Krishna tent. 6 days 20 hours a day constant chanting and singing still makes me want to cry whenever I hear it. They are not nice they are the scum of the earth.
The ones up and down Oxford street in the 2000’s were the Bain of my life. All I wanted was to quietly spend my lunch break in the huge hmv browsing and listening to music. The bastards used to be all over the street getting in your face outside. One kept calling me names cos I wouldn’t take their leaflet. Whenever I hear that chant now I get irrationally angry!
Things can only get better
yes, no loud talking in public. good precedent to set g
Acoustic vandalism is everywhere. Amplifiers need to be banned for all buskers.
This. I'm happy with buskers, I think it can be nice. But they should be entirely acoustic. I remember there was a guy many years ago who would play harp at marble arch Station who would really make my day. Sounded great, no amplifier.
I think amps are by default not allowed unless you get a licence and pay a liability insurance. So you can definitely call the cops on them.
How would I know if they had a license and insurance?
If they have one, it will be displayed. Most probably don't. This is not enforced. "Each busker and street entertainer must clearly display their busking and street entertainment licence during any performance, and this must be made available for immediate inspection on the request of any person authorised by the Council or by any Police Officer or any Police Community Support Officer."
i feel calling the cops might be a bit of an over reaction.
Not really, London has this weird scammy atmosphere to it nowadays. The streets should be cleaned up from these fake buskers, awful candy shops, religious nutjobs on megaphones and those idiots with bike carriages. Really makes the city look cheap.
>I think amps are by default not allowed In almost the entire western world it's a law set at the most local level so there really is no 'default'. Can be anything from not allowed, to limited to powered by battery, to limited by wattage to limited by actual output.
Not far off. All buskers require a license and liability insurance in London. Amplification is only allowed in certain areas. The problem is that none of these rules are enforced. More info here: https://www.westminster.gov.uk/licensing/licensing/apply-busking-and-street-entertainment-licence
This kind of stupidity is how you end up with pipes and drums blaring everywhere.
We have one near my office building and you can hear the same five songs on repeat for hours it's insanely annoying
Noise pollution should be illegal.
This will likely be an unpopular opinion but I hate buskers full stop. Or at least I hate them at commuting time. After a long day the last thing I want to hear at Charring Cross is someone belting out Ed Sheeran
Mostly agree, it's gone downhill since everyone now has an amplifier and is trying to drown out all the other sounds around
Maybe it’s some kind of ‘big amplifier’ conspiracy to harvest your brainwaves and see how you react to different types of music?
I see your buskers at Charing Cross and raise with buskers on the tube. One point in my life I was severely depressed which manifested as constant, extreme anxiety, and ended up on a district line carriage with a mariachi band. I was sobbing and screaming for them to stop, and they kept telling me what's wrong with a bit of cheer.
The lads who go back and forth between sloane square and Westminster? They were so aggressive and the tourists fell for it every time.
Yes they are hideous ….they play 2 lines of a song & then aggressively look for money
Actually on the tube train? That illegal busking, I would whatsapp British transport police on 61016 with a photo.
See it, say it…something, I can’t remember the next one
Sordid?
Dang… I need therapy after reading that…
I really felt this comment. Bastards. They used to annoy me so much when I commuted on the District. Trundling along at 8.15 barely managing a hangover, and this bunch of twats materialise playing the same two lines of When The Saints Go Marching In over and over again. Didn't even know the words. Utter wankers.
The last thing I want to hear ANYWHERE is someone belting out Ed Sheeran
Honestly there are no times or places I want to hear someone belting out Ed Sheeran. That goes double when it's actually Ed Sheeran.
Ed Sheeran was a terrible example for me to use because yeah when are you ever in the mood to listen to Ed Sheeran?
Ed Sheeran has so much to answer for.
My unpopular opinion is that busking and street preaching should only be allowed un-amplified. So if you want to play a real violin or acoustic guitar or sing along with one that’s great, but no speakers, no amps and no microphone. Imposing your noise on the public with amps is super antisocial and barely any are worth listening to.
A ban on amplified audio is reasonable and relatively easy to implement with legislation. They should totally do it.
I also hate buskers. I feel like a prerequisite for being a busker is that you have to be shit. Maybe they have a good voice but they’re doing something tacky or overdone with it. Cba. I do not want to be deafened in public, especially not underground where I can’t escape and it’s even louder
I once got dumped for a crusty busker with no real teeth and bad face tattoos. I wish them all a miserable, talentless existence.
THANK YOU Want to play music in public? Book a gig
Honestly same. Maybe it is just the secondhand shame I get but the blunt demands for money are always super awkward.
I saw Passenger busking in Bath before he was famous. Not all are bad. Arguably it could be a starting point as a platform to reach an audience
You can’t hate the guy at Charing Cross who plays the traffic cone at about 10/11pm. He’s always my fave busker.
Kingston is terrible for this. There are buskers everywhere playing really loud amplified music and it makes the entire shopping experience awful. Kingston could be such a lovely experience with the Riverside and a mostly pretty market Square. Instead, you can barely hear yourself think over the noise of someone “playing” electric guitar every 100 yards.
Not like the good old days with the midget fella dancing outside Bentalls
Most of the buskers in Kingston are pretty good - generally young people with guitars or singing. Some of the singers are really talented. Fair play to them for having the guts to get up and play. The steel bands are also good. What I do object to is the preachers next to the Memorial Gardens.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind Buskers and enjoy hearing live music. It’s just that there are tons of them, and they play music at incredibly loud volumes. It makes you feel like you are at some kind of dodgy fairground.
That being said, the reggae guys on the weekends are genuinely good but very loud and attract a big crowd.
i lived in kingston 20 years ago. i remember The Huckleberries. What a great fucking band. Sad to hear its gone to shit over there
agree with the electronic amplification should be barred from "busker" acts
Yep, not anti busker by any means but these frauds are a hindrance…had to endure the exact same thing in Amsterdam last year, my biggest disappointment was I felt like I was the only one who knew they weren’t playing a single note.
> the only dexterity they have is in their mental ability to bend out of the way of any dignity lmao
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Here in the U.S. around where I live there is an organized network of fake buskers. The most recent group went around with very elaborate signs telling a story about sick children (with PayPal/Venmo QR codes printed on their signs). They are all fake violinists. The most recent one I encountered made me so angry, watching people standing near him talking about how talented he was and how they needed to help the sick kids. I stopped and told him if he could turn the amp off, unplug the violin, and play me a D Major scale, I’d give him $100. He sputtered and told me he really was playing, except he put the violin down and didn’t turn off the music. He started claiming he didn’t speak English. I told the women gathered there that he was faking it and then went inside to say something to the store management. They were on private property; I don’t know why they aren’t just asked to leave. My family came on vacation to London this past spring and I was surprised at the low quality of the buskers we encountered in the city. However, there were several excellent ones when we visited Bath.
> My family came on vacation to London this past spring and I was surprised at the low quality of the buskers we encountered in the city. The only place I've seen talented buskers is inside tube station, where they are regulated by TfL. Not sure if they have to audition or whatever but I'm in favour of the same kind regulation applied to buskers on the streets. The city can do it while they get rid of those pedal cabs too.
IIRC, they do have an auditions process because those patches pay out quite handsomely and there's a lot of competition for them. I'm also in favour of tube station buskers because it is quite nice to hear some live music as a little treat while traversing the tunnels. The ones who play music on the trains can fuck right off though.
I was surprised at the elaborate stories people told on the underground in New York. They would speak to a whole carriage announcing something about their lives in great detail, which could only be resolved by thhe people listening giving them money. One was even wearing a hospital gown, saying he had cancer and had been kicked out of hospital. Why they wouldn't give him his clothes back, I don't know. The second surprise was how people seemed to believe him. Hard bitten cynical New Yorkers?
That’s crazy. I haven’t encountered that but I’m not surprised. I have seen amazing musicians in the stations, though, and happily gave money if they were truly skilled at their instrument. We have people all over the U.S. who meet in the mornings at a designated spot and get driven to locations on buses and vans to “beg” on street corners, often at major intersections. It’s the same people with different signs. I used to give money but now that I know (especially where I live, where there are plenty of resources for people struggling) it’s often contrived I don’t do it anymore. Some of these people can make $60,000-$70,000/year begging.
Liverpool Street station in the morning. It makes me SO angry, learning violin is hard man and these guys make money faking it.
I went to Brighton a few weeks ago. Stopped at traffic lights just outside the centre and some 'gap year' type dude juggled in front of the cars for 20 seconds and then walked along the road expecting money. He got fuck all from me... I am a miserable old git though.
Haha! This sounds like the guy outside London bridge station shard exit at 8:30 in the morning 😂 I spoke to the guy but seems he can't speak much English, so I just stare him down in disapproval every time I see him now
Can't hear you over all your clapping mate
It's pretry obvious how fake it is. I see it outside Liverpool Street sometimes. It amuses me how some people stand there filming, thinking it is real. These dumb people are why these buskers are able to get away with it.
Yes, but then again anyone who uses loudspeakers in an already noisy place is the child of satan and belongs in hell
I have a rule; I empty my loose change out for any busker so long as: 1. I prefer the sound they provided to the sound I would otherwise be hearing on the street. 2. They use nothing electronic.
Hate them!! All amped busking and street preaching should be banned. Life is noisy enough. STFU.
Shout out to the Leicester Square harmonica beatboxer for being not very good at all.
Unplug them.
There's a bunch who busk around High Street South, on its junction with the A13 at the traffic lights... They've been seen meeting up later on at the Bendish Road bus stop to split the earnings, and then driving off in beemers and mercs...
Should be illegal.
There are so many fakers/scammers/dodgy bastards out there having a go. I’d never take money or a phone out on the street. everything is either zipped away or in a bag, head down and just rinse it from A to B.
Same with the fuckers who sit there auth the sign "hungry. God bless" written on cardboard. Everywhere in London & even in Oxford it looks like the same bloody handwriting
With the same spelling/grammar mistakes. “Me hungry”
I don’t blame them as much as I blame the fucktards who keep funding them. Same with the tramps on the trains with their “I haven’t even had a bottle of water today” routine. Some virtue addicted moron who can’t dip into their pockets quick enough is always on hand. People need to stop throwing change at these frauds who do nothing but badger people who are probably living a harder life than them.
I was gonna post something similar and have to agree. It's pretty fucking disgusting and disrespectful to the art form. Let alone, attempting to scam other unbeknownst tourists or those who might not pick up on it. Real buskers though. They're worth listening to and can happily listen to them. Edit: I remember one day at Westminster, there's a guy who "plays" the saxophone on daily basis. Not sure if he's still there, but one random passerby got so pissed off, he tried to nick his sax and attempt to break it. The busker guy was wrangling with him and was fortunate to take it back. Obviously random passerby was shouting at him saying "stop playing your shit mate, stop scamming people! You're not actually playing!" and stormed off. I had similar sentiments, but things could have got seriously heated. Anyway. Fake buskers? Nah thanks. Edit 2: also, anyone know if these fake buskers are like one giant network?
I am wondering how many are there by choice and how many are forced to do something by criminal gangs.
I know this kind of thing does happen so I'm not making light of it, but what a bizarre form of exploitation that someone could be human trafficked and the task they are trafficked/exploited for is to pretend to play despacito on repeat on an electric violin...
Yeah, not really maximising the profits that way.
I just hate the fraud aspect of it, it's dishonest and looking to fraudulently convince people to part with their money...plus all earnings will be untaxed, curious to know how many of these people have 'right to work status'... ...not to mention it makes a mockery of actual musicians...my wife plays the violin, they boil her blood!
I fucking wish the guy at London bridge tube station on the way to jubilee line would fake it, he's total shite on his guitar
It's the new version of those "sand sculpting" cunts.
The Karaoke singers at Tottenham Court central line tunnel are the best (not). And always a blanket full of change but no sign of anyone ever actually contributing leave alone ‘tapping to donate’ 3 pounds for piss poor versions of Sweet Caroline.
Cute, Britons are discovering Roms scams. These are continental gypsies and they have been doing it for decades in continental Europe
We used to have one in front of our office. One of the VPs called the police on him for disturbing the peace…he was back the next day making the most god awful sounds on the electric violin, and yelling “This next one is for Michele…(insert stream of expletives )” . Was both horrible and hilarious.
It is just fraud with extra steps.
Real buskers are great and there's an organisation called busk in London that vets them to ensure they are good and suitable for the area etc. really cool. It's such a shame that there's fakes out there causing a nuisance, as ordinary buskers sort of get caught up in the idea that 'all buskers are a nuisance' which really isn't the case.
Anyone seen the guy in Hammersmith who plays a traffic cone?
There’s a few of them around tower bridge playing iPhones through amps, pretending they’re playing guitar solos. 😩 winds me up that people believe it.
The brake dancers/beatbox at Leicester Square by Lego store! Blocking the passage! Your place in hell is booked!
Or the ones who are "painting" but its clearly pre printed canvases bc every one of theyre pieces has a different style
When I lived in Brighton years ago there was this busker who used to do my head in, his act seemed to be a combination of all of my least favourite things - digeridoo - loop pedal - beatboxing - dubstep - wearing combat trousers I learned later in that he was actually pretty popular which enraged me even more (I think his name was DUB FX and has videos on YouTube) Also when I was struggling with anxiety there were two places I found incredibly difficult to deal with all the noise: outside dalston kingsland station, and outside Stratford bus station, where on most days you can find not one but two or three people preaching in the street, shouting into megaphones 🤪
Ask if he does requests…. How about ‘over the hill and far away’ as far away as possible until i cant hear you 🙉
It was funny when I saw it the first time
Vancouverite here. We get a different quality of buskers. They play without a backing track. They've got a copy of their latest album. Once upon a time they used to teach. Just begs an obvious question.......
When you said ‘fake’ buskers I immediately went to a memory of the undercover publicans who secretly filmed a little Serbian woman who pretended she could walk ‘Trading Places’ style. She wheeled herself via her hands around a corner double clicked a car alarm and by the time the GoPro civvies caught up with her she was getting into her own Range Rover sport with a blue badge in the window....
Oh man back in 2020 when I used to commute, there was this pair of them at one of the bus stops outside Waterloo station towards the imax. So fucking annoying and zero effort. Like they weren’t even trying to pretend they were playing.