Dan Hough

Busking Report – Southwark

Published 12 April 2018 in London, UK

On Thursday I took a day off from my day job to do some busking! My first stop was Southwark, a pitch where I have fond memories. I filmed my YouTube busking video there. I sometimes tell people it’s my “favourite pitch” because the acoustics are great, it’s a very open space and you can really belt it out there. But on the flipside, it’s really quiet. No matter what time, no matter what day, it just doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic. And even if it did, the busking pitch is maybe 5 metres away from where people walk at their closest spot so people need to go out of their way to give you money.

Plus, Southwark station isn’t a huge tourist area either.

So, Southwark is not a money-maker. In fact, I’ve been to Southwark three times now and my average hourly intake is £5.64 - which is very poor. But it’s a good place to practice new stuff in a low-pressure environment and the staff there are really friendly. Plus, for me it’s extremely convenient as I live only two stops away on the Jubilee Line.

Anwyay, let’s do the numbers.

Today the lunchtime punters at Southwark on a Thursday afternoon were kind enough to give me £10.52, mostly in the form of 9x £1 coins. So, £5.26 for me and £5.26 for Crisis.

I was there for 1h50m, which makes my hourly salary £5.84. 🙃

Some notable moments

Hmm. Erm. I played Coldplay’s Green Eyes busking for the first time. That’s about as exciting as this pitch got I’m afraid.

I guess I could say that after the session I went to Ma’s Rotisserie and had a delicious toasted chiabatta with mozzarella, tomato and avocado so… check them out next time you’re in the area!

The pitch
The pitch

The first tip

Our old friend Torn got me my first £2 tip, which was very nice since it was also the first song of the day and my voice wasn’t quite warmed up yet.

The view from the pitch
The view from the pitch

The best performance & biggest tip

The only one which I logged as “Amazing” on my spreadsheet was Breakfast At Tiffany’s, which incidentally also gave me my biggest tip!

How to improve

Actually, this was a good stop. I went for less than an hour, it was a good opportunity to warm up - by the time I got to my next pitch, at South Kensington, my voice was well and truly warmed up! Now read about South Kensington (Pitch 1)!

Heckle me on Twitter @basicallydan.