The Journey Begins...Chris and Rob

The Wellington Railway Station was not where I had planned to begin the journey that is this project. I had planned to start on the street that I consider (along with every other Wellingtonian I'm sure) to be the cultural capital of the cultural capital city.  Unfortunately (which later revealed itself to be a case of good fortune) no-one was out playing on Cuba Street when I wandered by.

Disheartened by the lack of performers out in the middle of a sunny Saturday morning on THE street to perform on, I strongly considered calling the day a loss, having lunch somewhere and jumping a bus back home. 

Naturally, I ended up at the railway station. I reasoned that on the off chance someone was playing down there, I’d be able to kick this project off and if not, I’d conveniently be right by a bus stop.

As I descended the steps to the station and walked through the corridor towards the platforms, I came across Chris (On the left in the photo) sitting against a wall with a guitar in front of him. He looked friendly enough for my first ever Buskers of Wellington feature so in one of many “fuck it” moments I'm sure will come throughout the course of this project, I opted to strike up a conversation.

“You on a break?”

He nodded

“Mind if I sit down for a chat?”

“Na.”

I gave him my first ever “pitch” and quickly explained what the project was about

“Basically I think a lot of people are a bit phobic towards buskers so I want to start up a blog featuring 

buskers from around the city to introduce them to people and just create a level of personability between buskers and the public.”

His eyes widen and he looks at me with intrigue.

"We’re not like, legit buskers though. We’re just homeless.”

At this point I was unsure of who he was referring to as “we” but I decided to go into follow-up mode. Through further conversation I soon discovered that Chris was just minding the guitar for his friend Rob (On the right in the photo). He assured me Rob would be back within a half hour so I decided to stay in the hopes of also talking to him.

I'm inclined toward initial disagreement with him as to whether or not he is a “legitimate” busker so I decided to put his modesty to the test.

“Can you play anything?”

 “I broke the string.”

“What were you playing when you broke it?”

“Only To Be, by Six 60.”

With this, my earlier suspicions were confirmed.

To me, anyone who is able to perform a piece of music in a public setting, with some sort of case or container out for optional donations, without causing any sort of trouble or offense is absolutely a legitimate busker, regardless of their living situation.

I hadn't been in conversation with Chris too long before Rob showed up. Despite being a little bit taken aback by the mishap with the string, he was equally interested in my work and equally willing to share a few words with me.

Before I managed to get any out though, Chris flagged down a passer-by carrying a guitar case and asked him if he could fix the string on Rob’s instrument. As it turned out, the string had not broken but come loose from the guitar, something I would've noticed if I hadn't just taken Chris’ word for it being broken and also something I could've fixed myself for them. Fortunately this man passing through was equally happy to stop and fix it up for them.

With the guitar string fixed and Rob a little more settled, the time seemed right to get a bit more conversation going with him.

“What’s your favourite song to play?”

After a brief moment of deeply considered thought he responded with

“What people like…”

For myself, this would have been a plenty sufficient response but for the sake of interesting reading I opted to badger him a bit further and see if I couldnt get a specific song name.

“No Matter What.”

“Who’s that by?”

“I'm not sure… maybe Boyz…Boyzone.”

I took his word for it and took my cue to shut up and let the man play.

I stayed for the most genuine rendition of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” I’ve ever heard. The man had smoked just enough cigarettes in his life to have the perfect husky tone whilst still having a voice. He barely made a sound beyond a rasp when he spoke but HOLY SHIT could he ever belt that tune. That’s a sound that’ll stick in my head for a long time.

Having witnessed what I came to see and having received much more than I ever bargained for from what was essentially a friendly “hey, do you mind if I sit here and talk to you?” I left the two the standard donation I told myself I’d leave for every busker I approached during this project (regardless of whether they end up agreeing to participate in the project) and headed back up toward Cuba Street to see if I couldn’t find myself some performers over that-a-ways now that it was a little later in the day.

If you want to see Rob in action (trust me,you do) he told me he’s out pretty much every day down at the railway station from around 7am to 12pm and sometimes later in the afternoon as well. If you find yourself in the area, consider tossing a buck or two, or three or four or five+ into his case and be sure to ask him to sing “What a Wonderful World” for you!