Interview with a busker on the District Line
What’s your name?
- Michael. You spell it with a “k”.
Oh right, like Mikael.
- Yes.
Where are you from?
- Moscow!
Cool, I’ve been there. It’s great. How are you finding London?
- Really, you’ve been to Moscow? Ha! I don’t meet many people who’ve been to Moscow. London? It’s good. I can’t complain, the people are nice here.
Speaking of people and your playing on the tube, how do you find people react to it? Do they actually give you some money?
- Oh yes! People here are very nice. You saw, I just played and most of the people gave me something.
You do realise that on this train, at this time, most of the people on it are not really English; they typically are tourists.
- Oh yes, I can pick up from all the languages that I hear that they are not from here. But that’s ok. I do sometimes play on like a Saturday morning and then there are more English. I don’t go on the trains when it is - how do you say…erm
Rush hour?
- Yes! Rush hour. [chuckle]. It’s a good way to describe it. Rush hour. Everybody is rush, rush….
How long have you been in London, and did you come here knowing you were going to busk?
- Busk?
Erm, play your guitar, sing etc and then get ask for tips.
- Ah ok. Yes, I came here after trying to do the same in Moscow. It’s really difficult in Moscow. People don’t have money to give, or they are not that friendly and the police is always chasing me away in Moscow. Here it is easy. A friend told me about doing this in London. I came here at the beginning of February.
Your English is quite good, did you speak English before coming here, I assume?
- You are joking! My English is terrible. I only know how to say “Good day Ladies and Gentleman, please don’t mind me singing”! Well, ok, I know a little bit more than that. Yes I learned English in Russia and have a few friends from Germany and other countries who I speak English with in Moscow.
Do you have any problems with the Undergound staff or transport police for busking without a license?
- Sometimes. I’ve heard about this license you can get, and I have seen some guys play at those spots in certain stations, but those licenses are very hard to get. I just stay away from the centre and it’s fine. This (District Line) train is good, there are very few police on here and nobody seems to mind.
Do you make enough money doing this?
- You never make enough! But yes, I cannot complain - I collect enough. I can even go out at night and have a few pints as you call it.
That’s cool. What’s your favourite song to play, or rather, which one is the favourite with people?
- It is different for different times of the day. At night, when people are a bit drunk, “Red, Red Wine” works well. They sing along! During the day, I just play anything but it does not matter, people do not sing along in the day.
With that, Mikael had to rush off as we were approaching central London and he wanted to get back out to “the safer parts”.
Mikael plays mostly on the District line west of London, after rush hour.
- Riaan
London
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Thats the beest post in ages. Cheers Riaan.
It’s interesting that he finds London easy to busk in. I’ve tried it a few times and found it really hard in comparison with Paris, which served me well a long time ago.
It’s fascinating the kinds of people we walk past every day (and usually ignore). Great post.