At the Royal Albert Tube

One day you get up in the morning and you say to yourself: today I'm going busking.

I honestly don't know if it happens like that or not - street music has never been something I dared to explore. I remember playing on the street, but the busking attitude was not there. Probably I never thought I was good enough to go out there and blow my art to the four winds expecting some change in return. I have to admit though, I admire and applaud musicians that stand on a corner and do their thing. Whether it's about performing Bach with a cello or Dylan with an acoustic guitar and some weird machinery that moves a puppet that hits a tambourine to the sound of blacks (have you seen those?), I think the world needs more street artists.

There is, however, a theory I've developed after years of carefully listen to street artists. It's not even a theory, it's more of a mere recommendation; not even that, it's a simple a request, a desperate call to common sense: if you are going for tube stations, please please please make sure you have mastered your instrument beforehand.

Think about this: people don't have too many things to get distracted down there. That is why tube ads have these never-ending copies that you WILL read, whether you are interested in losing 3 stones in a week or not. A similar thing happens with the music from tube artists: for a few seconds or maybe even minutes you are their hostage: you are there and you have nowhere else to go. So unless you go through life with those noise cancelling headsets the airport workers use on landing fields to show the pilots where to go, 'this way, yes, come closer, just a liiiittle bit more, now slightly to the right... well done mate, you're all done here', you will have to listen to the performance. There is no street-crossing, no wind taking the dissonant notes to France, no traffic horns to mask a chorus that was too challenging from the beginning. Just the sound of footsteps and music. Moreover, most of the times the acoustic down there is so bad that it would make you think even a Steve Vai solo is sounding 'a bit dodgy'.

It can be very rewarding as well though. Loads of people, not many things to get distracted with, tourists with big wide smiles in their faces and that fantastic 'wow, I'm in London' expression. My hypothesis is that the underground environment is almost like the Royal Albert Hall of public locations. But with exposure comes responsibility... beware my fellow violinist: a Paganini Capriccio can make your blood boil, but it might as well make you feel like being stabbed to death by 10,000 tiny needles.

I was recently in Barcelona where I listened to this guy trying to get across a decent version of Knocking On Heaven's door. With an acoustic guitar. Not a great show I must say, especially with the 40 degrees inside, that would have melted Batman's mask, armour and courage. Come on, A minor is not that difficult! But a week after that, I was doing the classic Piccadilly-Northern line combination at Leicester Square and suddenly I hear the voice of an angel: a guy playing Elton John’s ‘Your Song' with his keyboard. Ok, it’s been done to death, but this dude was absolutely absorbed by his music, eyes closed , doing the whole Stevie Wonder routine and all, and he was absolutely brilliant. What a role model, I wished the guy from Barcelona had been there, that would have encouraged him to emerge to the surface and practice a little more.

So my point is: if public spaces are part of your game, aim for the tube, but make sure you know what you are doing. Potentially you could be the main character of that story we tell our friends a couple years from now, in the middle of show at the very Royal Albert Hall: 'you know... I saw this guy playing on the tube once...'

This video is quite old, but these guys are still busking today in London and Cambridge. They are called Fernando's Kitchen and they also play in really good venues all over the place. And great music by the way...