10.30am, 10th July 2013
Last night in Rennes was amazing again. We sang, had lots of dancing, lots of singing with locals. We met a lovely new friend Sven who bought us Belgian beer and was our translator for the evening. Also met some cool girls out for a birthday party who stayed for ages and even sang!
The next morning was all spent packing up the van etc. It took us ages as...well, I don't know why. The guys just don't seem to move very fast. And it is annoying getting past one another. We really need to have a list of things to be done when we need to move and split them up. But sometimes I sound too German. Das Collective.
We drove to Nantes, which took far longer than expected as it was difficult to leave Rennes on the correct side. I didn't mind though - I slept the whole way on my bed. Gotta love campervans sometimes. Dara and I went into the city to check out the busking spots while Finbar went to do a graffiti piece. We saw a really good singer with a guitarist and so hung around til the end of their set to chat. They were really nice. Told us we shouldn't use amplification without a license though, so think we're gonna have to go acoustic in this town. Though we'll probably try amp up anyway. Fuck it. I played a little bit on my own, just 20 minutes or so. Got a few euro and a Canadian dollar, which I think is worth more than a euro, but gonna have to find a Canadian to make it into real money. Then we drank with some locals for the evening. It was really fun, but jaysus it was expensive. I spent a good 20. Got to talk to a deaf guy though, that was really interesting. Is it called talking to a deaf person? Signing?
Funny though, 20 euro is the least I'd spend on a night out in Galway, and yet now it seems like a fortune. Relativity's funny, huh?
It's coming up to 11am now, the lads are still asleep so I'm going to just go in on my own I think. Get some food and start trying to busk. I'm not really loud enough on my own yet, but sure feck it, it's practice, and if we can pull in ten or twenty each on our own, we're golden!
10.30pm, 10th July 2013.
That was a long day! A fun day, but man my voice is fucked. I went into town and spent a while hanging out near the castle and playing some of my own stuff to warm up, then set up on the main shop st. 10 minutes in the cops arrived, and I feared the worst, but they were really nice. They explained that it's fine to busk, once you move every 20 minutes or so - to not-annoy the neighbours. This is perfect though in a way - it means you can play your highest-paying songs in every set without annoying anyone. I played "Don't Worry Be Happy", "Stand By Me" and "Wonderwall" about a million times today. But they pay. It was my first time properly busking on my own without Dara or an amp and microphone, so it took me a while to get into it, but I spent about 3 hours in total. Had a nice day too, with lots of breaks - though my body is wrecked now. You have to sing so much louder, it really takes it out of you! I'm getting better at the evening time stuff too. You play 4 songs near where loads of people are sitting drinking outside in a bar, then you walk around with the hat. Then you move onto the next bar, and if you're me, you play nearly the same four songs. First time I used the hat it was the scariest thing I'd ever done. But it's how they do it here. I'm still quite shy - I don't want to impose on anyone, so I just walk around smiling with the hat not looking at anyone directly and people call me or stop me. That way at least I know they don't feel pressured or anything. Made 40 today - great! If we could make 60 between us a day we'd be doing perfectly. The lads didn't have as good a day though, Dara couldn't find any decent traffic lights in Nantes for his show, and Finbar didn't make it down til it was too late for facepainting - he's trying to arrange to go painting while he's here. When I went off for the evening busking session we agreed the others would see about getting us a show in the campsite, or teaching the kids juggling etc. Some way of staying for free. And they did it - we're staying free tonight and tomorrow night in exchange for doing a show tomorrow night in the campsite. Awesome. I'm looking forward to it, too - I like busking but my favourite part is when it draws a crowd. I love attention. 5 star campsite too, which is 8 euro each a night, so it's a big saving. Might try and do a little bit tomorrow for food or wine money but certainly easier than today - otherwise my voice will become like Tom Waits' (amazing) and my right shoulder will fall off (not amazing).
We may go to La Rochelle on Friday, we're waiting to hear about a festival happening there. Hold your ears.
Last night in Rennes was amazing again. We sang, had lots of dancing, lots of singing with locals. We met a lovely new friend Sven who bought us Belgian beer and was our translator for the evening. Also met some cool girls out for a birthday party who stayed for ages and even sang!
The next morning was all spent packing up the van etc. It took us ages as...well, I don't know why. The guys just don't seem to move very fast. And it is annoying getting past one another. We really need to have a list of things to be done when we need to move and split them up. But sometimes I sound too German. Das Collective.
We drove to Nantes, which took far longer than expected as it was difficult to leave Rennes on the correct side. I didn't mind though - I slept the whole way on my bed. Gotta love campervans sometimes. Dara and I went into the city to check out the busking spots while Finbar went to do a graffiti piece. We saw a really good singer with a guitarist and so hung around til the end of their set to chat. They were really nice. Told us we shouldn't use amplification without a license though, so think we're gonna have to go acoustic in this town. Though we'll probably try amp up anyway. Fuck it. I played a little bit on my own, just 20 minutes or so. Got a few euro and a Canadian dollar, which I think is worth more than a euro, but gonna have to find a Canadian to make it into real money. Then we drank with some locals for the evening. It was really fun, but jaysus it was expensive. I spent a good 20. Got to talk to a deaf guy though, that was really interesting. Is it called talking to a deaf person? Signing?
Funny though, 20 euro is the least I'd spend on a night out in Galway, and yet now it seems like a fortune. Relativity's funny, huh?
It's coming up to 11am now, the lads are still asleep so I'm going to just go in on my own I think. Get some food and start trying to busk. I'm not really loud enough on my own yet, but sure feck it, it's practice, and if we can pull in ten or twenty each on our own, we're golden!
10.30pm, 10th July 2013.
That was a long day! A fun day, but man my voice is fucked. I went into town and spent a while hanging out near the castle and playing some of my own stuff to warm up, then set up on the main shop st. 10 minutes in the cops arrived, and I feared the worst, but they were really nice. They explained that it's fine to busk, once you move every 20 minutes or so - to not-annoy the neighbours. This is perfect though in a way - it means you can play your highest-paying songs in every set without annoying anyone. I played "Don't Worry Be Happy", "Stand By Me" and "Wonderwall" about a million times today. But they pay. It was my first time properly busking on my own without Dara or an amp and microphone, so it took me a while to get into it, but I spent about 3 hours in total. Had a nice day too, with lots of breaks - though my body is wrecked now. You have to sing so much louder, it really takes it out of you! I'm getting better at the evening time stuff too. You play 4 songs near where loads of people are sitting drinking outside in a bar, then you walk around with the hat. Then you move onto the next bar, and if you're me, you play nearly the same four songs. First time I used the hat it was the scariest thing I'd ever done. But it's how they do it here. I'm still quite shy - I don't want to impose on anyone, so I just walk around smiling with the hat not looking at anyone directly and people call me or stop me. That way at least I know they don't feel pressured or anything. Made 40 today - great! If we could make 60 between us a day we'd be doing perfectly. The lads didn't have as good a day though, Dara couldn't find any decent traffic lights in Nantes for his show, and Finbar didn't make it down til it was too late for facepainting - he's trying to arrange to go painting while he's here. When I went off for the evening busking session we agreed the others would see about getting us a show in the campsite, or teaching the kids juggling etc. Some way of staying for free. And they did it - we're staying free tonight and tomorrow night in exchange for doing a show tomorrow night in the campsite. Awesome. I'm looking forward to it, too - I like busking but my favourite part is when it draws a crowd. I love attention. 5 star campsite too, which is 8 euro each a night, so it's a big saving. Might try and do a little bit tomorrow for food or wine money but certainly easier than today - otherwise my voice will become like Tom Waits' (amazing) and my right shoulder will fall off (not amazing).
We may go to La Rochelle on Friday, we're waiting to hear about a festival happening there. Hold your ears.
Couldn't you just start driving when you were ready to go? You live in a campervan, what exactly is slowing your ass down?
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday David! Hope you have an awesome day,
ReplyDeleteThought of you today and was just getting myself updated with your adventures,
The blog is awesome buddy keep it up !!! I'm finding it well entertaining.