Busking in Leeds

Leon Burton-Davies always wondered why there were so many buskers in Leeds, so he decided to find out …

One of the most striking things about the centre of Leeds is the number of buskers around. On a summers day there seems to be one literally on every street corner.

I always wondered why this was, I did some nosing around and spoke Mark Durham, a project Co-Ordinator for the City centre management team. He explained that busking is something that the council actively encourages. Whereas other cities have a system where people who want to busk have to apply for a licence, Leeds City council simply has a code of conduct.

He explains: “Leeds city council has a policy of welcoming buskers. In some cities potential buskers have to register, instead in Leeds there is a code of conduct they have to keep to. This includes not blocking doorways, not play the same tune again and again.”

The code of conduct for buskers has been in place for four years and codified what was previously an unofficial code of conduct that musicians were encouraged to follow.

I asked if working with buskers was an aspect of the job he enjoyed: “We like buskers and busking in the city centre. I feel its adds vitality and energy to the city”

On a cold and bleak day recently there were still a number of buskers playing in the nearly empty streets who were happy to let my four year old dance to their singing and to chat to me.

One of them was called Danny. He looked to be in his early thirties and was playing a pretty astounding version of Oasis’s “Wonderwall”. He told me that he always busks in the same spot. He plays Oasis song’s outside the Leeds’ branch of Liam Gallagher’s “Pretty Green”.

“People seem to like it.” He says “ I can make thirty five pounds an hour. If I’d thought about it ten years ago I’d be rich!”

He was so good I assumed he was some sort of session musician but he informed me that only busks on Saturdays and works during the week as a charity fund-raiser.
I asked him how he started busking: “I fell on hard times and needed the money. I tried it out one Saturday a couple of years ago and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

I asked him if he enjoyed it.

“I do.” He said “I like playing music and it brings in a bit of extra income”

How long did he intend keep on busking? I asked, and is it something he’ll do until he finds a better paying day job?

“As long as I have a guitar and a street, I’ll keep on busking!” He told me.

Outside Boots was another busker, playing a version of Playing Damian Rice’s “Cannon Ball” that, despite my aversion to pop music, was so beautiful it almost made me break down in tears on the street corner.

His name was Thomas Harley. He is nineteen and lives in Beeston, He has been busking every day for three years and has a side-line as a wedding singer. He began because: “I was skint and needed the money. Then I found that I loved doing it and it was a good way to build my profile as performer.”

He says people around Leeds recognise him. He says he likes it, he’ll be in the pub or at parties and people will come up to him and say “You’re that busker guy! …It began as a way of making some money but it became about more than that. I’d rather people just sat back and listened and appreciated the music”.

I asked him if busking is one of his long term plans:

“I want to keep on busking till the day I die, it fills a space inside me that nothing else can fill”. He smiles a self deprecating grin,

“People normally laugh at me when I say that!”