Encyclopedia Brumica - The Birmingham Busker

Since I started making ventures into Birmingham without the supervision of a parent (Somewhere between 1986 and 89) I remember this chap being there. Little fella, I remember he used to have longish sort of frizzy hair and a high soft voice that would carry quite well so you knew when he wasn't far off. He always used to sit on the floor on a coat or a blanket. He would usually be playing something by Simon & Garfunkel or sometimes the Beatles.

20ish years later he's still at it, I saw him yesterday. He sits on a chair these days (Which is fair enough, he must be getting on) and his voice doesn't carry quite so well. I'm not sure if this is because it's not as powerful as it once was or because the city centre is busier but I see him often enough to assume he's there somewhere most days. You can often find him outside the HSBC on New Street if you fancy going to look for him. At one point he used to have a little yellow plastic sign like a bus stop that said Busk Stop, for a while he seemed to disappear not long after that (I was a little worried about him at the time) but reappeared a few months later minus the sign and has continued to be a consistent feature of the city centre ever since.

Other than what I've said above I know nothing about this guy but weirdly find his prescence in the city centre immmensely comforting and is pretty much part of the furniture in my perception of the place. If you see him, go a bit closer so you can hear him and throw him a bit of change. He's put the hours in after all.

(I took a sneaky picture of him on my phone but now it's playing up and won't download onto my PC. I may go and try and get a better one anyway as the quality was a bit shoddy)