While not a busker, that screaming African preacher woman with the microphone whos outside the library on Grand Parade every Saturday is solid proof that there has to be legislation on amplification in the City centre. She is utter torture.
Their spot outside debenhams has been taken by supposedly homeless roma!!
The crazy loud balladeers with the drum machine have relocated from Debenham's to by the robot trees in front of Murray's. They seem even louder, now!
Seen some more karaoke singers, too. People used to pay to do karaoke, now they hope people will pay them for doing it!
X factor and its ilk have a lot to answer for.
Passed by yesterday and they were deafening.
Gotta catch the Easter weekend crowd!
Quick edit: I loathe and despise amplified buskers with every fibre of my being, whether they're good or bad.
The leprechauns were back today in their usual spot!!
New one young enough down by bodhran where the opera singer guy usually is .fairly bad
She sounds like an old hand, the howler monkey with the guitar and the cds no-one buys?
new wan across from the brog wailing out zombie amplified could hear her all down the street dreadful stuff especially on a monday -that irish trad group outside debenhams get rid of them noise pollution awful makes people uncomfortable
IF they were any good, they wouldn't need amplification. Best I ever saw was a girl singing opera, a great voice no speakers.
Spotted him again over the weekend, no this fella isn't blond. Grey, thinning hair. He's probably late 60s early 70s.
Not sure if he's blond, but yes usually wears sunglasses. Always wears a hat, maybe a fedora rather than cowboy hat but one of those wide brimmed hats.
Blond guy wears sunglasses a lot?
There's an old lad who wears a cowboy hat and "plays" the guitar around town. He can neither sing nor play to save his life. He's regularly on the same bus as me, always jumps to the top of the queue and all through Covid/lockdown never once did I see him wearing a mask on the bus. Feel like hopping the fecking guitar off him whenever I see him.
Ballad group moved across the road outside old savoy now,they are loud.
Was in a European city over the last few days… very few buskers , I saw one guy with a guitar on a corner, who moved after a few mins. I asked a colleague what the story was with buskers there. They have a rule, 15 minutes of public performance is allowed. Any more than that and there’s a fine of 5000 euro. So because electrical gear takes so long to set up, it’s usually just a singer or a guitar and they move along quickly.
For Aisling Murphy RIP
Whats the story with the flowers etc on the ground near bt door where buskers used to play.
Noisy, drum machine backed rebel ballad crowd in Debenhams doorway are back to the full line up and louder than ever.
Yes, far too many in town yesterday, heaps in Patrick street, and they were so loud walking past them actually hurt our ears. It was just noise pollution.
We were buying a couple of donuts on Oliver plunkett street, the guy in the shop couldn’t hear us, we couldn’t hear him. With masks you can’t lip read. The busker stopped and the shop guy said Oh thank god that’s over, that has been going for hours.
Between the visual noise of signage and dilapidation, the physical noise of sandwich boards, that lighting with the huge pavement footprint, robot trees , street furniture , the audible noise from the buskers, plus the smell of the place, it’s quite a wallop on the senses in there. I find it annoying to navigate town at the moment and I’m an able bodied person.
Problem is there are too many around these days.
I'd call playing in public for monetary reward, the very definition of professional!
"Professionally" is stretching it, no? :)
Someone banging a tamborine while begging for scraps on a street corner isn't actually a profession, more of a hobby.
I suppose your right but one would have thought that if you have absolutely no sense of rhythm, perhaps you might consider not playing the tambourine professionally!
I never give money to amplified buskers.
Plenty of people can't hold a beat, or don't have rhythm, it's not natural for everyone. Similar to being tone-deaf or people who can't match or recognise a note. Probably helping out some friends.
If I'm cynical about it, being on a street for years, rather than getting a few gigs probably indicates the standard.
There's a group who play on Prince's Street near the entrance of the English Market.
The volume they play it isn't remarkable, nor is their questionable ability. What is truly remarkable is that the same person has been shaking a tambourine with them for at least 2 years, now, yet she is completely unable to play the tambourine.
Really, who can anyone not be able to play a tambourine? She, literally cannot or will not keep any sense of a beat, at all.
And it's the same drum loop for every song, it seems.
Thankfully the leprechauns have taken a break (for now). Folk ballad crowd now seem to have downsized to just one guy who's at the usual spot outside Debenhams every time I pass. Big fella with a guitar, it seems that he's largely responsible for their "sound" which involves playing one repetitive note on the guitar over and over to an equally repetitive drum machine beat, all amplified to near deafening levels.
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