Is Leeds safe for buskers? City performers give their views
Buskers have entertained city-centre crowds throughout history, with many famous faces starting out on the streets. But with the music industry going digital, fewer consumers carrying cash - and increasing fears about safety – how is the artform faring?Last week, Jason Allan announced he was no longer setting up his pitch in Leeds after a number of violent incidents.He also cited the move from cash to card payments as a reason playing on the streets was increasingly difficult."It was a couple of things that happened in a very short period of time," he said."People have less money, you know it's gone from cash to card so I think it was difficult from the get-go but I could handle that, it was just more that when the threat of violence came in, that's when it became a little bit too much for me."Mr Allan's recent confrontation with some teenagers went viral last week with more than 17m views.While busking around the UK – including in London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Newcastle – Mr Allan films his performances for his Instagram and TikTok pages.His approach as a musician is to use busking to promote shows inside venues and meet new people."I give myself a month to promote the show," he said."I'm meeting lots of new people on the streets, building a bit of a community, selling tickets, telling them about me and my music."Leeds was a bit more difficult this time and I think that it's just become more difficult for all buskers."
Bradford-based Jake Keating, 28, also busks in Leeds. But he does not stream his performances to TikTok and is "not looking for a viral video either"."I understand the way the music industry is geared up," he said."A significant portion of breaking into the industry is in and around online content."I busk to connect with people. I personally choose not to stream because I'm not looking for a traditional career in the music industry."
'A welcoming city'
Mr Keating is a leading member of Keep Streets Live, a community group set up to support and protect buskers.He said a lot of the group's work was about promoting the benefits of art in public spaces."Performances in public spaces are a really important foundation and cornerstone of our national identity," he said."I can see all aspects of society come together, whether it's people who are sleeping rough, people who are out on the town having a night out - they all come together and dance or party or enjoy an experience and a lot of people respect that and really appreciate it."I'm really sorry to see the interaction Jason had and it wasn't a positive one this time around."I want to reassure people that Leeds isn't a dangerous place. It's such a brilliant city and it's a safe city, it's a really welcoming city. "
But on the streets of Leeds on Wednesday, busker Katie Gittins described a recent incident in which her takings were stolen."He literally took everything I'd made that day and I'd only made like 15 quid," she said."I was pretty hungry at the time and I was trying to get the money together for a gas and electric bill."When it is most of your income, it does weigh on you a hell of a lot more. Buskers like Jason have the luxury of having income from another place."Ms Gittins has been busking for about three years, mostly in Leeds, but also in Leicester, Wakefield, Bradford, Newcastle, Sheffield and Richmond.While we're talking a busker approaches Ms Gittins to warn her that another performer has had their sound equipment stolen."In the last couple of months, that's the second load of someone's musical equipment that's been stolen," she said."This whole week has just felt weird. I don't know if that's the result of all the tensions that fizzled over during the heatwave."But to me, the altercation I saw that Jason caught on video. Honestly, that looks like a regular Saturday night."She blames the increasing difficulty of busking on streaming and lack of music education in school."Withdrawing the funding from the arts has meant young children are not introduced to music or taught to respect it," she said."The modern streaming system means everybody can just download music for free."A lot of my friends are independent artists. It just seems like they're not getting anything back for the effort they're putting in and it's not just them."A spokesperson for Leeds City Council said any safety concerns should be reported to the police."We are proud to support busking as a vibrant part of our city's culture," they said."Keeping people safe, and ensuring they feel welcome in the city, is a priority for us and our Safer Leeds team works in partnership with other organisations across the city, including emergency services, to achieve this."
How do buskers take cashless payments?
Nick Broad is co-founder and former CEO of The Busking Project, which is behind the busking payment platform Busk.co.Busk.co allows performers to get tipped via Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal."There are fewer street performers today because of cashless payments," he said."The cost-of-living crisis and gentrification push struggling artists out of city centres and add to that the rising inflation, street performers need to be earning more than ever before but they are earning less."But despite backing the revolution in digital payments, Mr Broad is wary of encouraging buskers to push their art online."I can't stand the digital landscape," he said."During lockdowns people set up online and put time and money into looking good for Zoom concerts. That's all good but then we came out of lockdowns."If you create music and upload it to platforms like TikTok or Spotify you're competing with an algorithm for views and it's not always about artistic integrity."Busk.co works with artists in Australia, the US, Canada and the UK. And safety is not a concern Mr Broad regularly hears people complain about."Busking is the one part of outdoor city life that has lasted from ancient times until now. The hawkers, market traders, kids playing games, news callers and so on have all been eradicated," he said."Street performers are still there for a very good reason: there will always be demand for entertainment, and people will always be willing to support a good show."
Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
21 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
As Sir Rod Stewart prepares to play Glasto, the veteran rocker says the country is 'fed up' with Labour and the Tories and should 'give Nigel Farage a chance'
He didn't quite say he'd found a Reason To Believe in Nigel Farage. But when Sir Rod Stewart steps on to Glastonbury 's Pyramid Stage tomorrow afternoon, fans may ponder his plea to 'give Farage a chance'. The 80-year-old singer's teatime set comes the day after he claimed the country was 'fed up' with the Tories and that Labour was trying to ditch Brexit. He accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer of giving Scottish fishing rights 'back to the EU', although the Government insists it has simply renewed an existing deal for European boats. His views represent a second volte-face given that he appeared to support Labour at last year's election – despite previously backing the Conservatives. Asked where Britain's political future now lay, he told The Times: 'It's hard for me because I'm extremely wealthy, and I deserve to be, so a lot of it doesn't really touch me. 'But that doesn't mean I'm out of touch. For instance, I've read about Starmer cutting off the fishing in Scotland and giving it back to the EU. That hasn't made him popular. 'We're fed up with the Tories. We've got to give Farage a chance. He's coming across well. What options have we got? I know some of his family, I know his brother, and I quite like him.' Asked what Mr Farage stands for aside from Brexit, tighter immigration and controversial economic promises he replied: 'Yeah, yeah. But Starmer's all about getting us out of Brexit and I don't know how he's going to do that. 'Still, the country will survive. It could be worse. We could be in the Gaza Strip.' Sir Rod also seemed unconvinced that Sir Keir was going to fully address one of his personal pet hates. Three years ago, the singer donned a hi-vis jacket and rang around friends asking for help filling in potholes outside his Essex house. 'I took me Ferrari out. Nearly lost the f***ing wheel,' he said. 'And before I did in the Ferrari, I saw an ambulance that couldn't move, the wheel stuck right in there. 'So I took me mates out, and we knew what to do because I had builders in the house. 'We filled in a considerable length of the road, actually.' He added that potholes were still present 'all over Britain' in contrast to Europe.
Daily Mail
21 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
TALK OF THE TOWN GLASTONBURY SPECIAL: Did Sophie Turner and her aristocrat boyfriend Peregrine 'Perry' Pearson seal their revived romance with a proposal?
Two months after it was rumoured that they were a couple no more, Game Of Thrones actress Sophie Turner and aristocrat Peregrine 'Perry' Pearson put on a very public display of affection at Glastonbury. What's more, my spies at the festival saw the willowy actress wearing two rings on her ring finger, raising the question of whether Perry could have popped the question when they reconciled their differences? Either way, the glamorous couple looked very much in love in Glastonbury's VIP hospitality bar, holding hands and laughing with friends. Sophie, 29, had reportedly told friends she was single in April, after unfollowing 30-year-old Pearson on Instagram. The pair first sparked rumours of a reconciliation last week when they were spotted having lunch together in London – news apparently confirmed by their 'smitten' behaviour at Worthy Farm. Pearson, a property developer, is the heir to the 16,500-acre Cowdray estate, in Midhurst, Sussex and to the title Viscount Cowdray. As the daughter of a nursery teacher and a pallet distribution company worker, Turner had more humble beginnings. She shot to fame as a teenager after she was cast as Sansa Stark in Game Of Thrones. The actress and the artiso were first seen together in Paris in October 2023 as Turner was going through a bitter divorce from American pop star Joe Jonas – father of her two daughters, Willa, five, and Delphine, three – after four years of marriage. Jonas and Sophie wed at the elegant Château de Tourreau in Provence – but perhaps a ceremony at Cowdray House would prove even more glamorous… Matt's Crown of hair returns The last time I saw The Crown star Matt Smith – at Kensington Roof Gardens, no less – he was sporting a controversial Mohawk haircut. He told me then that his friends 'wouldn't stop teasing him' over the punk look he'd adopted for a movie role. But now, after seeing him stride through Glastonbury, I'm glad to report he has grown his hair out. Have his pals stopped the mockery? 'Yes, finally,' the Doctor Who star laughs. It's just how glam Sam Cam jams... I spied former Prime Minister's wife Samantha Cameron sitting pretty with some bright young things at the Park Stage's VIP bar. Dressed in a £340 green V-neck dress from her label Cefinn, Adidas Superstar trainers and a bum bag, left, she looked worlds away from the hallowed – if rather stuffy – halls of Westminster. Her husband, meanwhile, was nowhere to be seen. 'Glastonbury is not really his vibe,' an insider tells me. 'He prefers Wilderness.' The festival, taking place near his Oxfordshire home next month, is so well-to-do it's been dubbed 'Poshstock'. How very apt... Cara Delevingne is back at her beloved Glastonbury, but this year she's sober – and skipping the selfies. The model politely turned down a fan photo at ultra-lux glampsite The Pop-Up Hotel, declaring she wasn't wearing make-up... although she has posted pictures au naturel before. But surely she won't make it through a whole festival without being snapped? Adele's party palace Glastonbury isn't the only place pop stars can let off steam. A music industry insider tells me Adele has bought a new multi-million-pound house on the beach in the Turks and Caicos Islands to add to her four Beverly Hills properties and several more in London. Rumour has it that the Grammy-winning star's latest mansion is famous for hosting wild parties. Though I hear the 37-year-old singer has one very strict house rule: leave your phones at the door. If you don't, she won't go easy on you, baby… Romeo Beckham's ex, Mia Regan has appeared in plenty of glamorous photoshoots over the years for the likes of Gucci and Prada. But that's not how new boyfriend Henry O'Sullivan likes to picture her. My Glasto spies saw him wearing a badge showing Mia ungraciously eating corn on the cob... although finding somewhere to pin it proved difficult, right. While the couple looked loved up, Romeo was missing in action – apparently laying low after his split from Kim Turnbull, who may be doing a DJ set at the festival. From Becks to decks! Cool it, Joe! He's the nation's PE teacher and king of pandemic workouts, but I hear Joe Wicks wasn't exactly in a jolly mood backstage at Glastonbury. After leading his annual fitness session at the Park Stage on Friday morning, Joe popped to the nearby bar and asked for ice – only to be told they had none. 'He scoffed and stalked off,' said one flabbergasted onlooker. 'Rude and arrogant. He was awful. I hope you don't cross paths with him!' Bit of an icy reception, Joe…
The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Trauma is messy, but music will come of it': Jessica Curry on her new album, Shielding Songs
For the fortunate among us, the Covid lockdowns have, years later, become a memory – if not distant, then certainly ever-so-slightly faded. We have had a few years now, to get out there, to rebuild careers and relationships, to travel, to live in the world again. That's not the case for everyone. Award-winning composer Jessica Curry, who crafted the beguiling, elegiac soundtracks to games such as Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and Dear Esther, has only just emerged. Diagnosed with a degenerative disease in her mid-20s and seriously immunocompromised as a result of her condition, she began isolating at the start of the pandemic, and for the next five years barely left her home. While there, unable to work or write, her world began to collapse. 'Like many people I had an extraordinarily painful and difficult pandemic,' she says. 'I watched my dad die on Zoom, and then my auntie and more family members. Then they found a tumour in my ovary, and I had major abdominal surgery, but the operation had gone wrong, so I nearly died in 2022. While I was recovering from the third operation, the roof of our house fell in. It felt like a metaphor for everything. If a novelist had written this, no one would believe the story. And things just kept going wrong. So I wasn't writing music, I wasn't even listening to music. All of a sudden, I couldn't bear it. I'm still trying to work out what that rejection was about – I was just in too much of a mental crisis. I wasn't even feeding or dressing myself.' One day last year, however, Curry made the decision to start listening to her music again. Not yet ready to compose, she began cataloguing her work instead, putting it in some sort of order after years of manic productivity. The result is Shielding Songs, an album mostly made up of new versions of her favourite pieces, arranged as lusciously ethereal choral works featuring the acclaimed London Voices choir. 'Shielding Songs is a kind of gathering together, almost like a manifesto. I was thinking, what do I believe as a composer? What is my legacy? And I have to say, I did think it was going to be the last thing I would put out. And I was like, if it is going to be the last thing, I want it to be good. And I want it to say the things that I feel are important.' Among them are four pieces from Everything's Gone to the Rapture, a game about the apocalypse from the point of view of a tiny English village that won Curry a Bafta for her soundtrack. Created by developer The Chinese Room, of which Curry and her husband Dan Pinchbeck were co-founders, it drew praise for its lavish bucolic setting and highly emotional score, heavily inspired by Elgar and Vaughan Williams. It has been some of her most popular music. 'I still get emails about it 10 years later,' she says. 'So many people have Rapture tattoos – I often get emails that say, I only listen to death metal, but I love this soundtrack. That game has stuck with people, but I wanted to reimagine the music. The Mourning Tree is not the most played track on the score, but it's the one that people write to me about. Lots of people have played it at funerals. And I thought, there is something beautiful I can do with a purely choral arrangement here.' Another reason Rapture is so prominent on the new album is the parallel between its story of growing isolation at the end of the world and the experience of the Covid years. 'The game is about what it means to be human, what does it mean to love?' she says. 'And interestingly it has a lot of tie-in with a global event like a pandemic and how we cope with that.' Curry has described Shielding Songs as an exploration of what it means to love and grieve in isolation, but it is also a hopeful study of human endurance. Four of the tracks come from her anti-war requiem Perpetual Light, first performed in 2011 – a response to the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, undercut with a sense of hope for the future. A piece from Chinese Room's VR sci-fi adventure So Let Us Melt is included too. The titular track is a wilting choral work inspired by John Donne, but the other tracks on the score are more experimental and hint at where she is heading musically. 'You can tell it's mine, but it's a kind of weird mix of Baba O'Riley with minimalism, with a classical bent, but it also sounds like it's from a film,' Curry says. 'It's got that sort of epic space opera feel, and everything for me coalesced into that score. I loved the sound.' Curry and Pinchbeck (to whom one beautiful new song on the album, Rest With Your Dream, is dedicated) sold The Chinese Room to Sumo Digital in 2018; Curry departed, Pinchbeck stayed on as creative director, overseeing Bafta-winning oil rig horror adventure, Still Wakes the Deep, but left in 2023. Now the duo have formed a small new studio, and are working on fresh concepts. 'Maybe we're insane,' she says. 'But I think we are good at making games, me and Dan. We have things to say.' Curry is still sick, and she still worries about going out, especially now that some people have become aggressive toward those who wear protective masks. But she is composing again. 'This is the first time in a long time that I can hear music properly, in my head,' she says. 'I didn't think it would happen again, and I think it is going to be something new. It will be Jessica Curry, but I'm not the same person that I was. When really bad things happen to you, you don't go back. The ground doesn't just solidify again. Trauma is messy and it's exhausting, but music will come from it.' Shielding Songs is out now via Bandcamp
