Antonio Lulić

Posts Tagged ‘busking’

  • Performing Right On

    Saturday, 21st June 2008

    This from the folks who orchestrate us buskers on the London Underground:

    “As you may know, the PRS have been fully involved in the implementation of the Licensed Busking Scheme. Just like anywhere where music is played in public, all the pitches have PRS Licenses, which have to be paid for. The revenue for these payments needs to be distributed to writers of the songs played and this is where we need your help. Please contact us if you feel you are owed money for playing your own songs. We are currently trying to devise a way off providing the PRS directly with an overview of the material played each week, so that they can then pay the correct fees on to their Members.”

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but this gives me the impression that I get paid for playing my own songs, myself. If so, busking just got a whole lot more lucrative. Now, I just need to join the PRS. Unfortunately, membership costs a mean £100. I wonder how many times I’d have to Sober Up before it pays for itself…

  • There’s Always One

    Friday, 20th June 2008

    To the man in the green t-shirt with headphones on, and a cassette walkman in his hand, who stopped in front of me this morning while I was busking at Liverpool Street, waved his hand in front of my face to get my attention, then give me the thumbs down, please come back on Monday to collect your refund. I’m very sorry if the performance you were audience to for fifteen seconds was not up to the standard you might expect for the £0 you paid to see it. In future, I’ll ensure that whatever I play compliments nicely whatever you’re listening to a tape of on your way to work.

    Perhaps if you’d stopped to listen, you might have found that I’m more than capable of performing something that you find enjoyable – like the small crowd that gathered towards the end of my pitch did, or the tens of people who stopped, took money out of their purses or wallets, and put it in my guitar case did. In fact, if you’d spared another fifteen seconds this morning, we might have been able to have a brief but illuminating conversation about what your hand signal meant. Unfortunately, though, since you were too preoccupied with listening to your portable stereo, you didn’t hear me stop and say “What?” after you’d thumbed me down. Were you rating my performance or the choice of song? Telling me to turn it down? Were you, in fact, being sarcastic?

    Most importantly, though, why did feel that it’s your job to let me know how bad you think I am? Do you do this to every busker you see? To your lover, in bed? Isn’t there enough misery being spread, thick like wet clay, over the lives of London residents – particularly on fifth morning commute of the week through a rush hour tube station – that your contribution is redundant?

    Come back on Monday and I’ll buy you a smoothie and give you a hug, you miserable cunt.

  • Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch…

    Tuesday, 26th February 2008

    After a couple months without an update, you may have assumed that I’d died, or at least that I would owe you an apology. I’m afraid the real truth is neither.

    Since I last wrote, a bunch of exciting stuff has been happening:

    • The London Busking Competition saw me pitted against 200 of the Underground’s finest raw talent, and after a fiercely faught first week, that saw me at #1 for a few days, I finished 14th. While this doesn’t qualify me for any prize, it did get the attention of…
    • Yes! Entertainment, for whom I auditioned last week. It went pretty well, despite some unnecessary last-minute nerves, and looks promising for some good, old-fashioned covers gigs in the near future, as well as …
    • The Great Indoors, a new night starting up in Dex in Brixton in March. I’m negotiating a headlining gig at this beautiful private club sometime in April. Watch this space.
    • I’ve been nominated for the Indy Music Awards 2008, after a great gig at the 3one7 Bar on Finchley Road. It’s judged on votes (again!) so please spare a minute to push the button over on their site.
    • Finally, next week sees the start of a series of studio sessions I’m plotting in the run up to the launch of The Album sometime in April. The songs are all falling into place, and I’m really looking forward to getting the opportunity to get them put down onto disc. I’m trying to organise a party/gig at the Bedford in Balham for the London launch.

    In other news, the fantastic Rosie Doonan is returning to the nation’s capital in March, and gigging the hell out of it. I’m doing some guitar accompaniment and support spots at her gigs, so take a look at her MySpace if you wanna hear some dynamite singer-songwriteressy goodness.