Busking - the second week

Okay, I got Public Liability Insurance to the tune of $10million on Tuesday (AAMI and GIO won't even take the risk on - getting other quotes proved quite tricky). I have my GCC Busker's Permit. So I'm now all legit. APRA don't licence artists directly to perform covers - they license the venues and businesses directly. So they've basically told me to not worry about copyright at all (which is strange as I thought they'd do a flat busker's fee, but no).


After all that, I thought I'd practice Book 1 on Wednesday, plus go through all these new Xmas songs I've added to repertoire this week. Then I thought blow it, I'll go out to Terrigal again. So for 3 hours PRACTICE I came back with ample reward! And what a place to practice - looking out on to the beach at Terrigal, beautiful weather. My No3 song in Book 1 is James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James" and the chorus line "Deep greens and blues are the colours I choose", and I looked up and that's exactly what I was looking at, and I found it hard not to weep with joy and finish the song.

So tonight I went back ready to go with 15 (new to me) Christmas Songs, and 6 others (yep, I charted and learnt 21 songs this WEEK).

Was an interesting night. Had a dickhead (pardon the French, but I'd have to use a stronger term to properly describe him) come up halfway through "Rudolph" (where there were about 8-9 guys joining in and having a ball). He obviously decided he'd lend a hand, so he just came out of nowhere and landed a huge kick at the music stand. It goes flying up the footpath, a page rips out of the display book, and my pegs (absolutely essential at Terrigal) went everywhere. We found 3-1/2 pegs (yep, one was badly damaged) I bent the music stand back into shape (it's not good - poor old thing it is, too, it'd be 30 years old) and carried on.

One guy immediately gave me a $20 note, and then everyone started whacking in shrapnel. It helped a bit, I must say, but I still went really well anyway. Come 9:30-odd I started to get tired, so played another couple of songs (and I am always finishing now with Abba's "Thank You for the Music" - which again moves me to tears at the moment) and packed it in.

I've found I can play for four hours straight now, but I need to avoid going longer than that. I am sorta "saving" myself for Saturday night, as the two consecutive nights do end up bringing out all the joint pain. My left hand middle finger (the one I FIRST got arthritis in back in 2004, is quite sore this week. I just hope that it behaves itself). But I need to be out between about 7 & 10 on Friday and Saturday nights - it's my prime time. And I'm not sure I'm going to find a better spot than Terrigal.

I was worried tonight, as my favourite spot near the Commonwealth Bank was already taken by a harmonica player with an amplifier and microphone. I setup about 50 metres away and thought he'd take revenue from me. But no, I took more tonight than ever before. I think I did even better as I reckon I was putting on a much better show, and they'd compare the two of us, and I'd win out.

I just can't believe tonight's revenue. I'm definitely getting better, and my singing has just improved to no end. I've discovered my lower range, and if there's a song by (say) Abba or another band with a female vocalist, I can generally leave it in the key as written and sing it an octave down. If I'm hitting the notes (I was tonight) sometimes I'll go up for the final verse/chorus and actually sing at pitch with the female vocalists. If I give it plenty of air I can get some pretty high notes, too. Kasey Chambers's "Am I Not Pretty Enough" is one song where I do this. And I can hit the notes more accurately than Kasey herself, anyway (but that's another issue)!

PS: Have lost 14 kilograms since discharge from hospital on 27 August. Down to 106kg now, and still decreasing.... Have averaged 2kg loss per week, as I didn't reduce weight for the first month after getting out.