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Buskers of Glasgow - Three years on
May. 14th, 2021 10:51 amOn the 12th June 2021 the Instagram page will be three years old.
The last narrative update was August and we had a patchy time through the Autumn and Winter with lockdowns and tier systems that no one really understood. When it was still possible to have an audience to play for, then the buskers of Glasgow were out, but lockdown on the 26th of December meant a cessation of all activity.
Until Ross and Kieran started to play in the park. Some of the others joined in park busking and I did park livestreams and started park and city walk arounds. That was just to give me something to do and give the fans an explanation for why there was no videos for them apart from occasional reshares and saved vids from Christmas. It was difficult collecting content at this time as I really only live close to a couple of parks that were being used. I could only really go to the others at weekends and days off, but I still managed to get some great videos. With the arrival of Spring we had some great afternoons in parks in the sun.
After a couple of new viral videos (Gary with Brown Eyed Girl and a resurge of Kiera Marks’ Son of a Preacher Man video) the page has a new lease of life. We currently have 51K likes and 87K followers. We also have 17 subscribers and stars are enabled on the page. The reach peaked at this time at 2.37M.
During May I handed out the collected money to the buskers and have so far distributed £400 and there is money coming in every month.
Live music indoors is allowed from the 17th but indoor gathering s are still small. The weather is not good enough yet for garden parties but I have had enquiries on the page for buskers for a few outdoor events. At the time of writing large groups are still not allowed to gather outside but that is due to change in May. There have been rumblings that indoor live music at full capacity will start in September and the others are hopeful that their pub and restaurant gigs will resume then.
Personally I have recorded a podcast with Bobby Hamilton and David Walker which has not yet been released. There are no other broadcast opportunities at this stage and it sounds like the Saturday Jam session at Celtic Music Radio is dead completely as the radio station is giving up the studio space to downsize.
We had a fraud account set themselves up called “BusketsofGladgow – give” and facebook wouldn’t take it down. I had to report them for copyright violation as they had stolen my logo and one of my pics so that they looked like me. I was very disappointed with facebook’s lack of response to a profile that was clearly set up to fool people. It’s still there, but at least it doesn’t look like my page anymore.
We have no events planned atm and no plans for the future. Although the page is stronger than ever from a likes and followers perspective, I feel it has no direction and there are no promotion opportunities at the moment. And despite the monetary handouts I’m not sure I’m doing any good at all. I do still meet new buskers all the time and I still enjoy what I’m doing and I hope that what I do is making some difference to some people. I have no current association with any venues or promoters. I don’t know what the Summer will bring, but hopefully with the return of tourists and the office workers it will revitalise the busking trade as it’s very hard to make good money right now.
The last narrative update was August and we had a patchy time through the Autumn and Winter with lockdowns and tier systems that no one really understood. When it was still possible to have an audience to play for, then the buskers of Glasgow were out, but lockdown on the 26th of December meant a cessation of all activity.
Until Ross and Kieran started to play in the park. Some of the others joined in park busking and I did park livestreams and started park and city walk arounds. That was just to give me something to do and give the fans an explanation for why there was no videos for them apart from occasional reshares and saved vids from Christmas. It was difficult collecting content at this time as I really only live close to a couple of parks that were being used. I could only really go to the others at weekends and days off, but I still managed to get some great videos. With the arrival of Spring we had some great afternoons in parks in the sun.
After a couple of new viral videos (Gary with Brown Eyed Girl and a resurge of Kiera Marks’ Son of a Preacher Man video) the page has a new lease of life. We currently have 51K likes and 87K followers. We also have 17 subscribers and stars are enabled on the page. The reach peaked at this time at 2.37M.
During May I handed out the collected money to the buskers and have so far distributed £400 and there is money coming in every month.
Live music indoors is allowed from the 17th but indoor gathering s are still small. The weather is not good enough yet for garden parties but I have had enquiries on the page for buskers for a few outdoor events. At the time of writing large groups are still not allowed to gather outside but that is due to change in May. There have been rumblings that indoor live music at full capacity will start in September and the others are hopeful that their pub and restaurant gigs will resume then.
Personally I have recorded a podcast with Bobby Hamilton and David Walker which has not yet been released. There are no other broadcast opportunities at this stage and it sounds like the Saturday Jam session at Celtic Music Radio is dead completely as the radio station is giving up the studio space to downsize.
We had a fraud account set themselves up called “BusketsofGladgow – give” and facebook wouldn’t take it down. I had to report them for copyright violation as they had stolen my logo and one of my pics so that they looked like me. I was very disappointed with facebook’s lack of response to a profile that was clearly set up to fool people. It’s still there, but at least it doesn’t look like my page anymore.
We have no events planned atm and no plans for the future. Although the page is stronger than ever from a likes and followers perspective, I feel it has no direction and there are no promotion opportunities at the moment. And despite the monetary handouts I’m not sure I’m doing any good at all. I do still meet new buskers all the time and I still enjoy what I’m doing and I hope that what I do is making some difference to some people. I have no current association with any venues or promoters. I don’t know what the Summer will bring, but hopefully with the return of tourists and the office workers it will revitalise the busking trade as it’s very hard to make good money right now.