Before our son was born and when my wife was working weekends, I used to head into Central London on Sundays and take photos of the buskers. Long gone are the days when musicians could just rock up and start playing wherever they felt like. Today you need to pass an audition and then secure one of the highly sought after time slots in a sanctioned location. In one sense the musicians were a diverse bunch, from all over the world and playing everything from South American Jazz to African flutes, classical violin to beat boxing. The one thing virtually all of them had in common was they were men. I’m not sure why – I learnt it’s not uncommon for their takings to be robbed and so perhaps it’s to do with personal safety?
The other thing they all had in common was their good natured tolerance and patience with me, for which I’m very grateful. I did entertain the idea of putting an album of their music together with a book of accompany photos but when our son was born the project got canned.
