Leeds Busker: Rich Powell from The Daisymen Band

We meet Singer and Busker Rich Powell from The Daisymen Band who reveals what it’s like to perform in Leeds City Centre.

Transcript

00:00 I'm Rich Powell, I'm a care worker but I'm also a singer. I do stuff in bands. I've got

00:08 a band called the Daisy Men. We're a punk band based here in Leeds and Bradford which

00:12 is pretty awesome. I come out busking whenever I get a chance to as well. It's a decent time

00:17 and the people in Leeds are really nice as well with it and generally like to be able

00:21 to give you their opinions on the way past. Negative or positive, either way is good.

00:26 You can learn a lot. From the age of 18 I was an entertainer in the holiday parks. I

00:31 only started going out busking really when I hit about 21, 22 and by that point I'd been

00:36 on stage so much that it was just natural. It was a bit strange because obviously when

00:41 you're on a stage people come to see you and if you're on the street people aren't expecting

00:45 you so it's a bit of a shock at times, especially with some of the music that I do. But they're

00:51 always appreciative and they're always happy with it and yeah, generally that's the way

00:56 I found it is different. I didn't find it nerve-wracking as most people would, I just

01:00 found it as a change from the stagecraft that I'm used to. If it's pouring down with rain

01:04 a lot of us buskers won't go out. I'm not one of them. I will go out in all rain, all

01:09 shine, it doesn't matter as long as I've got an umbrella to keep my speaker happy I'm happy.

01:14 And generally you do pretty well in the rain because people feel sorry for you so it happens

01:19 a fair bit. But we are kind of an all-weather group buskers because when you've got to make

01:24 the money you've got to make the money, you haven't got a choice. A lot of musicians should

01:28 consider coming out on the street and just doing your craft down here because if people

01:32 come to a show to see you they already like you, they already know the music that you

01:37 do. If people are on the street they don't know you, they don't like you, they haven't

01:42 got a clue what you're doing. So if you get positive comments from people as they're walking

01:48 past or just someone chucking 50p into your pot or something and saying "oh it sounds

01:52 lovely, it feels great" but you also get a lot of constructive criticism from people

01:57 on the street as well where people are coming up and saying "oh that was alright but I'm

02:02 not such a fan of the one that you did there" and you can kind of gauge an idea of what's

02:06 popular, what's not popular and what to do going forward into the future with your own

02:10 music as well. I was doing some Guns N' Roses at some point and I had a guy with a guitar

02:16 on his back that pulled it off and started playing with me immediately and then we had

02:20 another guy come up with drumsticks and started banging stuff around as well and so we just

02:25 turned into a band in about 5 minutes for one song and then everybody disappeared again

02:30 and it was a complete refresh. It was amazing, it was a great experience. All the buskers

02:34 down here are just so nice, we all talk to each other, we all get on. Generally we try

02:40 and swap spots so if somebody's in a spot for a bit they'll say to someone "hey come

02:44 and take my spot and I'll go somewhere else for a bit" because sharing is caring in this

02:48 day and age and there's no point in dragging each other down as musicians, you've got to

02:53 bring each other back up. It's such a difficult industry as it is, you don't need any more

02:57 battles fought, you need support and that's what we try and give each other here in Leeds.

03:01 [MUSIC PLAYING]