London is more than deserving of its title as the live music capital of the world. To earn it, it established a serious system of selection for artists who give up to 90,000 hours of performance each year.
With over 270 stations spread out across the city and more than 3.5 million daily passengers, London Underground, more famously known as the Tube, is one of the biggest icons of busking culture in the world. The fact that ‘busker’ is originally an English term also says a lot.
London first began operating an underground transport system in the 19th century and there are close to 400km of rail tracks – more than enough space to house a variety of different musicians. Just for the sake of comparison, if we add the two largest metro system networks in Brazil, that of São Paulo and of Rio de Janeiro, we end up with just over 100km transporting nearly four million passengers every day. The enormous difference speaks for itself.
To give you an idea, at the most popular busking spots of the British capital, such as Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus or Leicester Square in the centre, authorised pitches are constantly in huge demand, proof that busking isn’t just a game for the professional performers there. There are even equipment hire companies that stay open 24 hours a day.
The London Underground Busking Scheme was introduced in 2003 to regulate live performances on the Tube network. Since then, applicants to join the scheme have participated in a gruelling audition process, involving performances in front of a panel of music professionals, scouts and metro employees, who assess the performance on talent, ability and to ensure the scheme reflects the diversity of London’s music scene.
By the end of the process, less than 20 percent of applicants are awarded an annual licence to perform on the Tube.
Each performer can book a two-hour slot on a busking pitch to give performers the opportunity to perform on some of the most popular pitches. The final outcome is a positive one and passers-by, musicians and the authorities all seem to be happy with this system.
There are also competitions such as Rhythm of London, which awards ten promising young buskers with a licence to play. You can watch the finalists’ performances here. The winner this year was 22-year old Noemie Ducimetière, who can be seen in this video.
In the middle of all this, you can always find unexpected occurrences. One busker was asked to play at a passenger’s wedding, another uses a vacuum cleaner as a saxophone and there are musicians such as Steve Aruni, who has been playing for 25 years, and even some who have had the biggest honour of all – playing in front of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, at Buckingham Palace (or Buskingham Palace, for the comedians out there).
More recently, buskers from the scheme have been booked to perform at London’s Ideal Home Show and in front of Prince Charles at a special charity event for the Prince’s Trust held at Kensington Palace Gardens.
With so many great stories to tell, the city sets an example and accomplishes what it proposes: a representation of the city’s musical diversity via the buskers.
It’s a characteristic that can’t be ignored when you visit, and if nothing else it offers the biggest live performance venue in the world, away from the cold and grey climate that surrounds that part of the world.
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