Preparing for London - The Nitty Gritty

Busking in a London Market with all my stuff

I thought I’d write about all of the preparation that I have to do before going to London for 1 or 2 nights every week or fortnight. It’s something I get asked about quite a bit. I’ve gone so many times now that I have a regular routine. Usually if I’m busking locally (in Lincolnshire or Nottinghamshire) I only need to think about what equipment I need to do my job for a couple of hours. When I go to London there’s a lot more to think about because if I forget something I can’t just nip home and grab it. It’s a much bigger deal.

2 Weeks Before
As I may have mentioned in previous posts, I book my busking pitches every Tuesday morning. This is for pitches in two weeks’ time. If I’m very high up in the queue (60th place or less) then I’m likely to get good pitches and it is worth going. If I end up somewhere like 150th place then I don’t bother waiting to book anything and I take a break that week. While I’m booking I need to have my calendar open, plus a screenshot of the document which tells me which pitches are most popular, which are acoustic, etc. Sometimes I also have to google the busiest times for certain stations as well. I have a good idea from experience which pitches work for me. But sometimes I just have to take a chance and try out a new place. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t and I learn from that.

Once my pitches are booked and the dates are in my calendar, I need to figure out the cheapest way to get there. Sometimes I’ll decide to leave on a Wednesday night after my Irish dance class. For that I have to book my train ticket leaving from Newark-on-Trent. I drive there from Lincoln and park for free near the station. Those tickets are pretty cheap. If I want to go in the day instead, I usually book the 10:36 from Lincoln. It gets me there in time to do a 2 pm pitch. It’s usually £5 more than the evening single ticket. However, if I go the night before then I have to book an extra night’s stay (and I get there really late). On the other hand, that means I have more hours to busk the next day. So this is something I have to weigh up every week.

For the return journey I usually book the last train either to Newark or Lincoln as that’s the cheapest. They never check the tickets at that time though. Sometimes I wonder why I spent the money! *cheeky wink* If I return on the weekend I can sometimes find cheap tickets back, but usually I have to book a National Express coach for the cheapest price. 5 hours on a coach does get a bit tiring though, especially if the coach is delayed for any reason. The only time I buy train tickets for a different time at a higher price is if I need to be back home by a certain time. Sometimes this could be to play a gig or to party with friends. It’s rare that it happens though.

After my transportation is booked, I look for accommodation. I’ve been using Airbnb lately because I just find it’s the cheapest way to get either my own space or only share with a few people. Sometimes I book a room for 4 people (in a proper hostel but still through Airbnb) but I get lucky and they put me in my own room instead. I love it when that happens. After my last experience though, I don't plan on booking anymore London hostels. I need my sleep!

In total my expenses reach about £65 max when you include using the tube or bus and food while in London. I can usually cover this in the first 2-4 hours of busking. Then everything I get after that is income.

The Day Before
There are a few things I need to prepare before I actually go down. The most important thing is to charge all of my AA batteries for my amp. I have 2 sets of 6 so it can take several hours depending on how much I’ve been using them. Generally I try to plug in my amp whenever I can so I have less to worry about when it comes to charging my batteries.

I also have to charge all of my devices. This includes my tablet, phones, card reader, and my power bank. Then I have to make sure everything is turned off so I don’t drain the batteries.

Sometimes I pack my overnight bag the night before. In the beginning I definitely used to spend more time packing everything than I do now. I needed that extra time to think about what to bring. If I was really prepared I’d have gone shopping the day before for things I can take with me to eat on my trip. I’m not so organised these days so now I just sort out everything the same day.

Don't ask what's in these, clearly it's a secret!

On the day
I used to have to get up early to pack and get ready, but now a lot of what I bring is organised in separate zipped bags. So for most things I can just grab all the little bags and throw them all into one big bag. Only thing I have to fill up each time is my clothes bag. I also need to check my medicines in case something needs replenishing. Even my day pack fits in there if I want it to. But I usually want that bag while I’m on the train and it’s really cumbersome to dig it out from the bigger bag so I keep it separate for easy access.

Before I had those bags I found it really difficult to find things, especially when I’m setting up to busk. If I am doing the 2pm slot right when I get into London I’ll have everything with me still. So it becomes important to be able to grab all of the cables and things that I need without having to show everyone my pyjamas. I now have one bag for medicines, one for electronics, one for shoes, one for clothes, one for dirty laundry, a wash bag, and a makeup bag. It’s all very efficient. However, once everything is packed it does seem like quite a lot of stuff.

I have to use a lot of my equipment daily for gigs or local busking so I don’t necessarily always have it in the same place. I try to be as efficient as possible though. For instance, the cable that I use to plug my tablet into my amp is small enough to keep in my violin case. I can also keep my signs, business cards, spare strings and spare violin batteries in there. I need to keep it light though because I don’t want anything to go flying in there and damage my violin.

Artsy photo of the inside of my case

I keep a spare lead in one of the pockets of my big backpack so I usually just need to grab my main leads and pack them. Since I’ve adjusted my shoulder rest I can’t keep it in my violin case anymore as the shape is awkward so I need to always remember to grab it. I keep one set of 6 AA batteries in one of the pockets of the backpack and the other set is either in my amp or my electronics bag. One problem I’ve found is that the Roland Mobile Cube turns on easily with a button. So if it’s in my bag I can accidentally turn it on and drain the batteries. I tested it where I flip one of the batteries the wrong way but it still turns on! So I have to take one out and keep it separate when I’m travelling.

Other things I have to pack include all of the devices I charged, the phone holder that I use for the card reader, and general necessities like my wallet, water, etc. I used to pack a proper lunch with a sandwich, fruit, and snacks, especially if I’m taking the national express but now I just pick up things along the way as it saves me time. However, I do find that on the trip back from London I tend to bring food for the journey.

Once I have everything I just need to make sure I get myself to the station with enough spare time to collect my train tickets. It takes me longer to walk when I’m heavy laden with stuff so I always have to keep this in mind.

What if I Forget Something?
Last time I came down with my acoustic violin instead of electric (a future blog post is coming comparing the two) and that case is not big enough to carry very much at all. So I forgot to bring a shoulder rest which I really need to be able to play because I have such narrow shoulders. So I had to run around London trying to find one that works before my busking slot. The first one I just bought in the shop without trying it out. Big mistake as it was absolutely rubbish. Didn’t fit my fiddle at all and kept sliding off while I was trying to play. So I had to go find a different one. Eventually I found one at Yamaha I think it was, and this time I did test it in the store and it was fine. So then I had to return the other one. Was quite a palaver running back and forth.

There was a point in the summer where I also didn’t have all the spare strings I needed. One of them unravelled and it got to the point where it was unplayable and I had to change it, but that meant I had no more of that string spare. I really worry that while I’m performing I don’t have everything I need. If a string breaks I can just change it and carry on playing, but I can’t do that if I don’t have the strings. I have to stop playing and go find a shop. So as a matter of urgency I bought the one main string I needed for spare at the nearest violin shop I could get to. (It was kind of a hefty price because it was a very small privately owned shop, not a chain). However, some of my other spares are really cheap and low quality so soon after that I bought a proper pack of strings for something like £50 at Yamaha. Luckily I haven’t broken any strings since then anyway.

Travelling all the time means I worry about leaving my stuff at various places as well. There was one time I was on the train back to Newark-on-Trent. We were all sat on it for ages because it was delayed. Then suddenly they said it wasn’t going anywhere and we had to quickly gather our things and move to another train before it left. I had already settled in which meant I had various bags open and in use. So I had to try to gather everything as quickly as possible, but I was last off the train. Then when I got on the other train it was completely packed. And when I started digging in my bag to look for one of my smaller bags, I couldn’t find it and thought I might have left it on the other train. I thought maybe it dropped out in my rush to shove everything in my bag. So I ran out to ask one of the workers if there was time to go back and check for it and they said there’s no time because this train was leaving. So I had to go back on the train and hope I could retrieve it later. Eventually after digging in my things for about half an hour I found it!

Also more recently I had to leave a hostel I was staying in while people were trying to sleep.

I had to pack in the dark which always makes things more difficult. I couldn’t find my medicine bag anywhere. I heard something fall in the night so thought it might’ve gone to the bed below or wedged itself somewhere. I couldn’t find it in my bag or anywhere so I just asked the staff to keep hold of it if they found it. Well when I got home and emptied all of my bags in the light I finally found it buried under everything. Panic over.

Is It Worth It?
I get asked this a lot. I go to London because I can play in the warmth and security of the underground. This is very handy, especially for the coming winter months. It also keeps things fresh when I’m not playing in the same old cities all the time. In London there’s a lot more people going by constantly so I don’t feel like I’m boring anybody by being in the same old pitches all the time. Plus I get a lot of opportunities by busking in the underground. For instance, the other week I did a recording for a radio documentary about busking. It’ll come out in a couple of months so I will write more about it then. You never know who is passing you by!

I do have some problems carrying a lot of equipment around (plus coins sometimes). When I’m late to a pitch it’s much easier to have everything on my back so I can navigate through the crowds and get there as early as possible. But lately this extra weight has affected my shoulders, even though I have a backpack with hip straps. The hours of playing plus lots of weight causes me a lot of pain. So last time I went down to London I used my stair climber trolley again and it definitely saved my shoulders but I got to my pitches later. Luckily there were a couple of times where I was playing and the next person didn’t show up to their pitch or they were late so I got to play the full 2 hours or longer.

Moneywise I do ok by going regularly so it is worth it. Sometimes I can go into a town like Newark or

Using the stair climber trolley for my belongings while my fiddle is on my back

Lincoln where I live and earn less than £5. But other days I can earn a lot more in the same amount of time. So it’s much more hit and miss where I live; whereas in London the tips are more consistent once you work out the best times and locations to play in. You just have to get through the steep learning curve first. Plus if I don’t go to a city or town for a long time (like Louth or Nottingham) then suddenly decide to busk there I earn more when I go because I’m more of a novelty then. Busking in London gives me the chance to be somewhere regularly without having to worry about whether or not anyone will tip me. At least I can get the minimum I need to survive!

My First Bubble Tea

Generally I enjoy travelling, so going to London is a bit of a weekly adventure for me. I get the chance to try food I don’t normally try and see things I wouldn’t normally get to see. I'm glad I have this experience.

And now I’m interested in hearing from you. Do you know anyone who travels to busk? Do you think I’m crazy for doing this all the time? Write your thoughts in the comments below!