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Amplified buskers

the beer revolu

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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Herb Powell

I mean.........this really just strikes me as things to be expected in a city?

I'd much rather live in a place where people are free to do this than a hyper-restricted approach. Rarely do I enjoy the buskers but that's not really the point.

Just walk on and get over it surely? I think ye're all being a bit dramatic/precious about it, honestly.

[Deleted User]

https://www.galwaydaily.com/news/buskers-slam-busking-bylaws/
It was restricted in Galway in certain areas.
Not sure how it is playing out since then.

zilog_jones

A lot of them are unnecessarily loud. Many do not need amplifiers at all.

And there are people with hearing and other issues who can't just "get over it" - they shouldn't have to put up with this every time they go into the city centre.

the beer revolu

Herb Powell wrote: »

I mean.........this really just strikes me as things to be expected in a city?

I'd much rather live in a place where people are free to do this than a hyper-restricted approach. Rarely do I enjoy the buskers but that's not really the point.

Just walk on and get over it surely? I think ye're all being a bit dramatic/precious about it, honestly.

It's not the existence of buskers that annoys me, it's the fact that the average volume is multiples of what it was 10 or so years ago.

Prior to the cheap availability of good portable amplification, I thought buskers absolutely added to the atmosphere of any city, whether I personally likes them or not.
No they are just noise pollution, imo.

Herb Powell

I get you, and I didn't know how to frame my point without looking combative/smarmy, promise that's wasn't what I was going for.

I just find it's very fleeting. Amplified as they may be, they're no louder than a car generally, which we've no bother with. I'm not sure if it's reasonable to be going into a city expecting a low level of noise, that's all, and they're definitely limited to a few spots in my experience.

the beer revolu

Herb Powell wrote: »

I get you, and I didn't know how to frame my point without looking combative/smarmy, promise that's wasn't what I was going for.

I just find it's very fleeting. Amplified as they may be, they're no louder than a car generally, which we've no bother with. I'm not sure if it's reasonable to be going into a city expecting a low level of noise, that's all, and they're definitely limited to a few spots in my experience.

I didn't take it that way at all. I know that there are things that really get to people that don't bother me in the slightest - we all have different buttons.

I suppose my point is that with current common volume levels, it's not fleeting at all you can often heat the one busker for several hundred meters. My op, tells of being able to hear that awful ballad group at the Start of McCurtain Street when they were playing outside Brown Thomas.

Comparing the volume level of some of these buskers to a car driving in the city is miles off the mark. If buskers were playing at the volume of passing cars, I never would have started this thread. The volume is usually multiples of the noise from a passing car.

To be clear, I would not like to see busking banned but I think it's come to the stage that we seriously need some volume control.
I completely get it that others don't agree and that it makes me look like an old fart.

Thing is, I am very into music and I play in a band. I like to play noisy and loud. However, I wouldn't, in a million years, inflict my noise on anyone who didn't actively chose to listen to it.

Meursault

I was in the city centre last Friday. Lovely day and nice atmosphere around the place. As I approach BT and the site where Debenhams used to be, I see two characters dressed up in cheap leprechaun suits, one of them hammering the daylights out of a tambourine while some awful music is being blasted out through an amplifier. To say it was cringeworthy is a gross understatement. They were flogging some pictures.

This is not busking. It is an embarrassment.

Further up the street, nearer to Marks and Spencers, there's a traditional band, again blaring the trad music while playing along to it with a full live set up - amps, mics, etc.

I guess these lads could play at least but it was like a stand off with the characters down by BT, with one group trying to drown out the racket from the other group.

If I was one of the retailers on that end of Patrick St, I would lose my mind, I think.

I'd love to know who supports these "buskers"

I appreciate that musical tastes are relative, and we all have our opinions, but regardless of what is being played, surely the standard could improve before they decide to inflict their tastes on everyone else.

Meursault

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 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.

Just saw this post now. I'm glad I am not the only one who finds this sh*t annoying. I can't believe they are allowed to get away with it. That's Ireland though isn't it? Do what you like, and nevermind how it impacts anyone else.

Imagine these lads trying the same in Germany or France, or wherever. They wouldn't last two minutes before being moved on by the police

Dbu

That grey haired fella playing the guitar and pretending to be an opera singer has to be one of the really bad buskers in Western Europe

the beer revolu

Dbu wrote: »

That grey haired fella playing the guitar and pretending to be an opera singer has to be one of the really bad buskers in Western Europe

Oh and only relatively recently, he's gotten an amplifier!

TheChizler

the beer revolu wrote: »

Oh and only relatively recently, he's gotten an amplifier!

Didn't mind him before, thought he was a bit quirky. Now it's just noise.

Pen Rua

At the height of the pandemic where Tesco in Paul Street used to have queues outside, a busker would pitch up outside the Wetherspoons and blast away. The noise would ricochet between the buildings. I used to try call home while waiting the in the queue, an it was impossible to hold a conversation.

Hangdogroad

Dbu wrote: »

That grey haired fella playing the guitar and pretending to be an opera singer has to be one of the really bad buskers in Western Europe

The guy who sings with a bizarre yodelling falsetto?

corks finest

Pen Rua wrote: »

At the height of the pandemic where Tesco in Paul Street used to have queues outside, a busker would pitch up outside the Wetherspoons and blast away. The noise would ricochet between the buildings. I used to try call home while waiting the in the queue, an it was impossible to hold a conversation.

Only in dopey paddy land would this noise pollution be tolerated,buskers without amplifiers no problem but those using them just make noise

the beer revolu

Hangdogroad wrote: »

The guy who sings with a bizarre yodelling falsetto?

He had two 'acts'.

He does his operatic type singing with just a cane. I haven't seen him do this in a while. It's pretty funny.

His other act is a sort of charismatic singer songwriting where he strums an acoustic guitar and sings oddly. He seems to have acquired an amplifier for this endeavour.

Up unit his amp purchase, I didn't mind this guy - he was an odd bit of colour and character on the streets. But I guess if all the other buskers have amps, he needed one too!

Herb Powell

Amp might change the game with him alright!

I think the first time I came across him I was like WTF and was a bit annoyed but I can't stay mad at him. it's too funny.

the beer revolu

In an interesting development, a couple of Gardaí were going around telling buskers to turn down today.

Bit of a pointless exercise, really, because as soon as they are gone, the fcukers turn up again.

Dan Dare

Meursault wrote: »

Just saw this post now. I'm glad I am not the only one who finds this sh*t annoying. I can't believe they are allowed to get away with it. That's Ireland though isn't it? Do what you like, and nevermind how it impacts anyone else.

Imagine these lads trying the same in Germany or France, or wherever. They wouldn't last two minutes before being moved on by the police

I read somewhere that Syd Barrett and David Gilmour were busking in France before Pink Floyd existed, and were arrested and held for a few hours. Hmm.

Meursault

I know taste is subjective - even though the consensus here suggests that the buskers around cork aren't great, (to say the least), but surely the Gardai can step in when the amplifiers are turned up to 11.

They must be making some money, so somebody must like them, but the guys taking up all that space outside BT, who aren't even playing an instrument should be moved on, at least. They're a nuisance.

Hangdogroad

Bunch of fellas sometimes outside Dunnes on Pana usually on a Saturday, mostly all they're doing is playing folk ballad cds (not their own stuff, Jim McCann etc) while sitting around chatting and holding instruments that they never seem to play.

the beer revolu

Meursault wrote: »

I know taste is subjective - even though the consensus here suggests that the buskers around cork aren't great, (to say the least), but surely the Gardai can step in when the amplifiers are turned up to 11.

They must be making some money, so somebody must like them, but the guys taking up all that space outside BT, who aren't even playing an instrument should be moved on, at least. They're a nuisance.

I only posted yesterday that the guards were, in fact, telling buskers to turn down. But it's a waste of time as they just turn up again.

While repeating myself somewhat, it's not about the buskers being good or bad - it about volume and noise pollution and backing tracks.

the beer revolu

Out in force yesterday.

That trad ballad band with the drum machine playing way too loud outside Debenham'ș.

Then the leprechauns blasting it out. There are actually people who enjoy this display. There were a couple of women videoing it who appeared to be loving it. The mind boggles.

Then you had the really awful, also very loud, general ballad band, incorporating the terrible sax player and the shrillist tin whistle imaginable. They were on Prince's Street.

That's a whole lot of noise on that side of Patrick's Street.

The other side was less offensive volume wise.
There was a young woman in white by superdry playing guitar and singing - mic ed up and amped, of course. Volume here wasn't too bad, though.

And by Opera Lane there was another young woman playing keyboard and singing. Again amped up but not the worst for volume.
Interestingly, this girl appeared to have a roadie.
I passed a little later to find a guy packing up her gear and no sign of the performer!

Between the five of these performers, there's no escaping the noise on our main street!

rebs23

It was bad on Saturday as above the guys outside Debenhams were truly awful and the two idiots outside Brown Thomas should be just charged with some public order offense or even assualt on the ears and eyes!

Hangdogroad

Is that hippy-ish woman with the amplified guitar still around? She's kind of the spiritual fore bearer of all the current bunch, she was at it for years usually on Oliver Plunkett St. Wouldn't mind so much but she has the most monotonous droning singing voice.

the beer revolu

Hangdogroad wrote: »

Is that hippy-ish woman with the amplified guitar still around? She's kind of the spiritual fore bearer of all the current bunch, she was at it for years usually on Oliver Plunkett St. Wouldn't mind so much but she has the most monotonous droning singing voice.

I haven't seen her around in ages.
Yes, she's the early adopter of amped busking in Cork. She must have been dragging a car battery around with her at one time. I don't ever remember her being terribly loud, though.
Now we have volume inflation.

LapsypaCork

Hangdogroad wrote: »

Is that hippy-ish woman with the amplified guitar still around? She's kind of the spiritual fore bearer of all the current bunch, she was at it for years usually on Oliver Plunkett St. Wouldn't mind so much but she has the most monotonous droning singing voice.

Yep, she’s still around, at her usual perch outside Minehans Chemist. I work nearby and out of all the noises to get into your brain, it’s her wailing voice. I’m so serious when I say this, but the constant sound of her voice while your trying to work has led people to cry. I’d sure love to meet the person who told her she could sing…

whisky_galore

The demented yowling out of her. She's wodeous.

Meursault

LapsypaCork wrote: »

Yep, she’s still around, at her usual perch outside Minehans Chemist. I work nearby and out of all the noises to get into your brain, it’s her wailing voice. I’m so serious when I say this, but the constant sound of her voice while your trying to work has led people to cry. I’d sure love to meet the person who told her she could sing…

Don't the owners of these businesses ever complain? I don't understand how you could put up with this constantly.

the beer revolu

LapsypaCork wrote: »

Yep, she’s still around, at her usual perch outside Minehans Chemist. I work nearby and out of all the noises to get into your brain, it’s her wailing voice. I’m so serious when I say this, but the constant sound of her voice while your trying to work has led people to cry. I’d sure love to meet the person who told her she could sing…

Whatever about the likes of me getting annoyed walking around town, workers in town must be driven demented by the noise.
Shows how subjective it is, too. While I've never enjoyed that busker, she's never particularly annoyed me, either, yet she's brought others to tears.
You can't legislate for taste but you can for volume, very simply.

the beer revolu

Interesting, my neighbor arrived home from work on Friday and, completely unprompted by me, started complaining about the noise pollution from buskers in town.
Same woman is really, really into music and has much broader taste than me.