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Amplified buskers

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  • 22-06-2019 12:22pm
    #1
    the beer revolu
    Registered Users Posts: 16,785 ✭✭✭✭


    OK, it probably me being an old fart but is anyone else sick of really loud, amplified buskers?

    Some of them play at gig volumes. Those rebel, folky balladeer are ridiculously loud - I could still hear them playing outside BT from the bottom of Patrick's Hill, one day.
    Then there are all these karaoke singers with microphones and backing tracks. Please go on x factor and leave me in peace with your 'great voices' and excessive volume.
    Many really loud singer songwriters with plugged in acoustic guitars and amped up, reverbed voices. Book a gig, please.

    And don't start me on that fella with his ginormous drawing taped to the footpath and his crap music blaring.

    They're all just too loud. Unnecessarily loud.
    I like music and I like buskers but the availability of cheap, portable amps is turning the city into a blaring, crap gig. If I want to hear loud, amplified music I will go to a gig.

    There are, of course, some buskers that use amplification as in integral part of their sound and play at a reasonable volume.
    Harmonica player, blues acapela guy, guy with trumpet, guitar and loop pedal and others play interesting stuff at reasonable volumes. I like the guy with the piano.

    So, anyone else sick of the really loud, (imo) crap buskers (some are quite good, just way too loud)? Or am I the only cranky old fart?


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    #2
    Oasis1974
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,077 ✭✭✭Oasis1974


    Wasn't Allie Sherlock busking in Cork for a while I mean look at the calibre of her. I reckon all the good ones are in Dublin now we're left with junkies looking for fix money.


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    #3
    the beer revolu
    Registered Users Posts: 16,785 ✭✭✭✭the beer revolu


    Oasis1974 wrote: »
    Wasn't Allie Sherlock busking in Cork for a while I mean look at the calibre of her. I reckon all the good ones are in Dublin now we're left with junkies looking for fix money.

    While that youngster clearly had some talent, I don't want to be subjected to her semi professional gigs on the street. She was way too loud, imo, for a busker.


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    #4
    Mardyke
    Registered Users Posts: 576 ✭✭✭Mardyke


    I'd tend to agree. There should be no amps allowed.

    Also, those religious freaks should be banned from the streets. Nutbags.


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    #5
    whisky_galore
    Registered Users Posts: 15,818 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    Legalised begging imo.


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    #6
    ofcork
    Registered Users Posts: 5,362 ✭✭✭ofcork


    There is a youngfella always around now sings to backing tracks I agree though they are loud must be annoying working in a shop listening to that.


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    #7
    Oasis1974
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,077 ✭✭✭Oasis1974


    Better off going the Dublin root with licences and 1 hour time limits bring the lot of them down to earth.


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    #8
    _Kaiser_
    Registered Users Posts: 28,717 ✭✭✭✭_Kaiser_


    Was wandering around the town yesterday myself and noticed this alright.. Don't ask me for street names (I'm a regular visitor, not a local) but from the park where Hillbillys is on one side to the other end where the Bus station is there was practically one on every junction - guy with a sax playing Jazz (not bad to be fair), some lad with a guitar, bunch of students wailing Californication - way too much!

    The Jesus freaks on Patrick Street and the massive 1916 drawing (with rebel music) outside Brown Thomas seem to be a regular feature as well.


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    #9
    Hangdogroad
    Registered Users Posts: 4,924 ✭✭✭Hangdogroad


    ofcork wrote: »
    There is a youngfella always around now sings to backing tracks I agree though they are loud must be annoying working in a shop listening to that.

    That tall skinny fella with the beard?


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    #10
    steinbock123
    Registered Users Posts: 609 ✭✭✭steinbock123


    Well I’m just back from London where the place is infested with them. On the tube, they play in the tunnels leading to the platforms, the amplification is so bad ,as in high, that I had to hold my ears passing some of them. It’s made worse by the arched ceiling and confined space. Don’t get me started on backing tracks being used. I thought that the point of busking was to show off your own talents, not those of a recorded band !!!
    Ban all amplification and backing tracks immediately I say. If you can’t entertain a crowd with your own talent in its natural state , be that singing or playing, you should give it up as a career choice.


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    #11
    Nigel Fairservice
    Registered Users, Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 2,184 Mod ✭✭✭✭Nigel Fairservice


    I don't mind so much if they're good. I saw a guy very recently who was excellent. He was playing acoustic guitar where Winthrop street meets Patrick Street.

    Not too fond of the the opera guy. Don't think opera guy is plugged in, just has a very loud voice.


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    #12
    Oasis1974
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,077 ✭✭✭Oasis1974


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yxevUvfdBo


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    #13
    Peatys
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,881 ✭✭✭Peatys


    Mardyke wrote: »
    I'd tend to agree. There should be no amps allowed.

    Also, those religious freaks should be banned from the streets. Nutbags.

    I don't like seeing them either, but priests and nuns have to get around somehow


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    #14
    mean gene
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 875 ✭✭✭mean gene


    The guy outside brown Thomas who brings a rolled up poster and sticks it on the ground and starts pencilling around it as if he just painted it -music blaring
    I find this so annoying and wonder how he gets away with it


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    #15
    the beer revolu
    Registered Users Posts: 16,785 ✭✭✭✭the beer revolu


    mean gene wrote: »
    The guy outside brown Thomas who brings a rolled up poster and sticks it on the ground and starts pencilling around it as if he just painted it -music blaring
    I find this so annoying and wonder how he gets away with it

    I always want to walk across his sh1te chalk drawing but I don't want to get into fisticuffs on Pana!


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    #16
    Hangdogroad
    Registered Users Posts: 4,924 ✭✭✭Hangdogroad


    mean gene wrote: »
    The guy outside brown Thomas who brings a rolled up poster and sticks it on the ground and starts pencilling around it as if he just painted it -music blaring
    I find this so annoying and wonder how he gets away with it

    He's been doing that for years. I remember him "painting" the Titanic when the movie came out and that was over twenty years ago.


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    #17
    zilog_jones
    Registered Users Posts: 6,641 ✭✭✭zilog_jones


    I thought there was talk a few years back about imposing rules on amplifiers? I guess that never happened. I'm fine with ones that don't use them.


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    #18
    seefin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,079 ✭✭✭seefin


    mean gene wrote:
    The guy outside brown Thomas who brings a rolled up poster and sticks it on the ground and starts pencilling around it as if he just painted it -music blaring I find this so annoying and wonder how he gets away with it

    Never saw him setting up. If gave it any thought, assumed he had actually done the painting there. Feel totally conned now.


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    #19
    Twenty Grand
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,452 ✭✭✭Twenty Grand


    Oasis1974 wrote: »
    Funny busker in Cork

    I really don't think that's Cork...


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    #20
    Hangdogroad
    Registered Users Posts: 4,924 ✭✭✭Hangdogroad


    Twenty Grand wrote: »
    I really don't think that's Cork...

    I'd say OP googled funny buskers in Cork and randomly picked it without watching it.


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    #21
    ofcork
    Registered Users Posts: 5,362 ✭✭✭ofcork


    Hangdogroad wrote: »
    That tall skinny fella with the beard?

    This guy is only 15 or 16 id say only seen him the last few months in vicinity of opera lane.


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    #22
    uptherebels
    Registered Users Posts: 1,586 ✭✭✭uptherebels


    Mardyke wrote: »
    I'd tend to agree. There should be no amps allowed.

    Also, those religious freaks should be banned from the streets. Nutbags.

    Imagine working in a hotel and trying to move them on from outside the property at two in the morning. (Buskers with amps, no religious freaks thankfully)


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    #23
    the beer revolu
    Registered Users Posts: 16,785 ✭✭✭✭the beer revolu


    An update on this.

    The guy with the big chalk drawing has been replaced by two guys selling laminated prints.

    Obviously, the best way to sell cheap "art" is to dress up as leprechauns, play high volume pop music and bang spoons-like instruments on your knees.

    What does this add to the streetscape?

    They cause serious noise pollution.
    Create an obstruction on the path.
    I assume they don't pay vat or income tax.
    I assume the prints are unlicensed bootlegs.

    Why are they allowed to set up an illegal shop on the street? I really don't understand this.

    I'd understand a blind eye being given to some person quietly selling their wares, tucked out of the way..... but these guys??


    Still plenty of "way too loud" buskers around, imo too. Some are quite accomplished performers - just way, way too loud. If I walk around the corner from a busker, I don't expect their sound to follow me and keep following me for minutes.

    With people forced to queue for shops and dine outdoors, these performers can be extremely intrusive.


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    #24
    Level 42
    Registered Users Posts: 326 ✭✭Level 42


    the beer revolu wrote: »
    An update on this.

    The guy with the big chalk drawing has been replaced by two guys selling laminated prints.

    Obviously, the best way to sell cheap "art" is to dress up as leprechauns, play high volume pop music and bang spoons-like instruments on your knees.

    What does this add to the street scape?

    They cause serious noise pollution.
    Create an obstruction on the path.
    I assume they don't pay vat or income tax.
    I assume the prints are unlicensed bootlegs.

    Why are they allowed to set up an illegal shop on the street? I really don't understand this.

    I'd understand a blind eye being given to some person quietly selling their wares, tucked out of the way..... but these guys??


    Still plenty of "way too loud" buskers around, imo too. Some are quite accomplished performers - just way, way too loud. If I walk around the corner from a busker, I don't expect their sound to follow me and keep following me for minutes.

    With people forced to queue for shops and dine outdoors, these performers can be extremely intrusive.

    hes one of them


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    #25
    opus
    Registered Users Posts: 4,972 ✭✭✭opus


    the beer revolu wrote: »
    An update on this.

    The guy with the big chalk drawing has been replaced by two guys selling laminated prints.

    Obviously, the best way to sell cheap "art" is to dress up as leprechauns, play high volume pop music and bang spoons-like instruments on your knees.

    Spotted & heard that carry on earlier, wonder what audience they think they are appealing to?


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    #26
    corks finest
    Registered Users Posts: 8,636 ✭✭✭corks finest


    Level 42 wrote: »
    hes one of them

    Must drive the poor shop workers barmy,live next door to a guy with issues who used until a few months ago blared all kinds of crap sometimes for 5/8 hours regularly, from rap, traffic reports to country, constantly roaring banging and hopping channels , but he’s got an excuse, noise pollution in town isn’t on


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    #27
    Hangdogroad
    Registered Users Posts: 4,924 ✭✭✭Hangdogroad


    That rebel ballad/folk bunch outside Debenham get on my wick. They have the same prerecorded backing drum track to every single song. Don't get me started on those two gobshytes dressed as leprechauns with the spoons. Isn't one of them the guy who was doing the "paintings" for years at the same spot.

    Edit: just saw comments confirming its him


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    #28
    Level 42
    Registered Users Posts: 326 ✭✭Level 42


    Hangdogroad wrote: »
    That rebel ballad/folk bunch outside Debenham get on my wick. They have the same prerecorded backing drum track to every single song. Don't get me started on those two gobshytes dressed as leprechauns with the spoons. Isn't one of them the guy who was doing the "paintings" for years at the same spot.

    Edit: just saw comments confirming its him

    they are a pain in the hole those guys as is the old fella down one of the side streets off pana -I dont want to listen to their crap music

    2 young fellas outside brown thomas yesterday one with electric guitar other with drums just pure rubbish noise i had a pain in my head as I walked by


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    #29
    iffandonlyif
    Registered Users Posts: 561 ✭✭✭iffandonlyif


    +1 from Dublin. Mediocre buskers the length of Grafton Street, all amplified, because if any weren’t they’d be swamped by the noise of the others.

    Some people must love it, because they generate a circle of people around them, obstructing one of the busiest streets in Dublin. But I find it an incredibly artificial experience to be continually leaving one busker’s bubble of sound and entering the next. I’d rather hear city noise.

    Cork-export Allie Sherlock now sings there, too. Her contingent leaves a microphone and camera on the ground and has several industry-sized gear cases lined up behind her. That’s a mini gig in the street (from which she earns thousands on YouTube) and simply should not be allowed.


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    #30
    TheChizler
    Registered Users Posts: 9,426 ✭✭✭TheChizler


    Never noticed how loud buskers were before reading this thread, was in town yesterday and it's all I noticed, thanks guys!


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    #31
    banoffe2
    Registered Users Posts: 421 ✭✭banoffe2


    Would love to hear Cuan Durkin or Allie Sherlock how would I know day and time to hit Grafton St, is is always Saturday


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