What are my prospects re. busking in Spain at this time of year? Which would be the best places to try it? Whats the Costa del Sol like over the winter?

not to sound totally foolish, but what is busking??

Yeah! It sounds :o ....errr .... unknown! :p

oh you know busking,
a little music, a little singing and hopefully the tinkling sound of euros in your hat when passed round.

BUSKING - think it stems from meaning making up as you go along, improvising.

But in this case I think what James means is playing music (outside, in Metro etc) in the hopes of making tips because what he does makes people feel good and happy, and they want to show their appreciation.

miche! I should have thought - that's how we can finance our next visit.

Only prob is between us we can't sing or play anything . Erm, what about miming Larios drinking? Or just pointing out the beautiful stars to everyone. Or maybe we could take a small pet with us? We could train it beforehand.

Hmm, no, think perhaps we'd better just save up .

Jo

I wonder how good a musician you are--in Spain you need to be really good. All the street musicians I have ever heard in Spain are superb. If you're really great, go for it. Let us know how it turns out. Good Luck.

Nice one Jo!!
James, I hope you give it a try, that's the beauty of busking, though I'm sure you're good, a busker does not have to be brilliant. A clip of music whatever music it is lifts the soul, and makes me - that's the point-
What is good? What I believe people appreciate about buskers is that they go out there and DO it, they change the way space is used when we travel from point A to B, they are like a (nice) blot on the landscape and brake the hum drum mundane rhythm of a city's movement.
There was this Spanish couple in Navarra singing and playing Brit stuff on their guitars, one of them sang out of key and the other couldn't quite get the chords together, add to that the heavy Spanish accents but what the f***- everyone loved them - if it's British stuff you're gonna strum, they'll love it mate.

Jo,....there's an art to pointing out beautiful stars and drinking Jarras of Sangria!!!! and how about offering a 'podiatry' service, we got pretty good at blasting those blisters huh!
Guuuaaayyyy idea!! |||||x||||Michelle.

So "Busking" is a street entertaining?? Imagine MY surprise over Semana Santa last in Santiago de Compostela when my ladyfriend and I were walking back to our hotel at around midnight from a beautifully illuminated Cathedral and a near-full moon (mmm... so romantic) and after listening to some tunas singing... we left the square and there was a man, in his 30s, leaning up against the cathedral walls playing the guitar and singing an old Simon & Garfunkel song in PERFECT English.. We stood and listened for a while, dropped in a couple Euro coins, to which he kept playing, stopped singing, and said, "Hey, thanks man." The guy sounded like a Californian or something! I was a bit suprised! We saw him there a couple times during the day too and had a beautiful voice and played quite well too.

Soooo.. HE was "busking"??

Saludos, MadridMan

wow... so this is busking...!
well, they do a lot of that at plaza mayor, huh?

Good luck busking - as long as you don't do it outside my window. I've been going insane this summer listening to the accordion orchestras which gather in the plaza outside my window and play Besame mucho, Why Why Why Delilah and Those were the days my friend. It seems every group of buskers has a repertoire of just five songs, so I hear them all about 50 times a day every day! It's maddening. The only one who does anything different is one poor chap who tries to play The Flight Of The Bumblebee for 20 minutes on the saxophone. It's just excruciating. So, please remember us poor residents, who might not like your music or might the first time round but not the 1001st!
Phew. It was nice to get that off my chest!

This thread brought back vivid memories of a guy with dreadlocks in Frankfurt, singing "I shot the sheriff" with his own unique style--every other word in the song was "f---ing," so it came out something like:

"I shot the f---ing sheriff, but I didn't shoot the f---ing deputy..."

Hey, I always thought that song could use a little more oomph.

Noooooo!

Tara, he wasn't swearing, bless him, he was just sucking his false teeth back in before the important words .

Jo

Hi James, As long as it's not Blaydon Races! (I'm Sunderland :p ) You should do okay on the CDS, as there are very few buskers down here. One of the nice things for me about Malaga city centre on a Saturday morning is walking round, stopping to watch and listen to the street entertainers.

I would think that in the small side streets leading to and from Orange Square in Marbella and also around Puerto Banus you should make enough for your tapas and San Miguels with no problems There are also plenty of restaurants who may be interested in a bit of entertainment for their diners.

One of the best buskers I saw was in the quiet lane leading from the Alcazaba in Sevilla to the Barrio Santa Ana. He was playing fantastic Spanish guitar and the notes floated round the corner and captivated everyone walking towards him. His guitar case looked healthy, with a lot of coins lying in there.

By the way, what's "American English" for busker?

Anchovy,

Pan-handling - It's part of the, "Buddy can you spare a dime?" routine from the great depression, and the song by that name.

Actually we refer to them as "Street Musicians." But remember, we also refer to garbage collectors as "sanitary engineers," and those pesky sales people who call us to try to sell us siding for our house as "customer service representatives."

What's next? Do we start referring to taxi drivers as "transportation specialists," or be politically incorrect?

I'm afraid we've become overly conscious as to what we call ourselves, related to our jobs. I've always thought about the guy who rode around on the back of a garbage truck, and emptied the trash cans into the mix as "tail-gunners." I suppose that's never going to work.

Wolf (Who no longer wants to be called an "old fart." )

Wolf's post made me reminisce about my first week as a librarian. Sitting proudly at the Reference desk, wearnig my new name tag that proclaimed me as "Librarian," I was approached by youngster who asked : Are you the booklady? Then I realized that in the world of concrete thinkers, I would always be a Booklady, and stopped calling myself, Librarian!

Booklady,

Please don't get offended if I call you "Bookie" once in a while. A friend of mine who runs a library in a major university had that put on her desk plate, and it's brought a ton of smiles from visitors, especially freshmen/women, who find the whole thing intimidating until they find someone who hasn't had their funny bone removed. From your picture, I'd say you offer up the same smile as she does, when newbies show up and wonder where Dewey is, and how his decimal system works.

When I was an engineer I called myself a gear monkey. Everyone wondered what it was, but my first job in the field was designing gears, and I decided I'd hang onto that like a tattoo that says "Mother." We really have to learn to laugh at ourselves. I see it developing in Spain. A dear friend who is just about to become an architect calls himself an "Arky," and a friend of his, who is a automobile mechanic picked up quickly on the "grease monkey" idea. That's what he tells everyone he is - in Spain. He gets lots of puzzled looks, but more than not, people just shake their heads, and nod. They just don't want to ask -

Wolf

Wow, This is a great idea, this "busking for dollars", er...euros. I can breakdance! So her's what I'm thinking. We get a group together, hold up signs that say "will breakdance for food" and tour the country breakdancing to "I shot the F---sheriff, but I didn't shoot his F--= deputy> How about it? Any takers? I'll supply the cardboard, for the sign as well as a smooth place to pop.

Wolf, of course you can call me Bookie, as a matter of fact, I would feel proud!