GUMPTION

One of the things I did see, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say saw and heard, in town recently, and something which I thought must have taken a heck of a lot of gumption, was the girl who stood all alone in St Ann’s Square in the centre of a big city on a Saturday afternoon, belting our operatic arias for the general amusement (or otherwise) of passing strangers.

Strolling around town with that slightly purposeless “I know, I’ll head to a bookshop” air you sometimes have when you’ve been abandoned in favour of a haircut, I turned into the square just as she was finishing singing one, so I only got the last couple of bars, and, to be perfectly honest with you, I’d assumed it must have been some kind of P.A. system until I spotted her standing there all alone at the base of one of the statues.

I paused for a moment, but she stood there for a moment looking slightly awkward before turning around and looking for all the world as if she’d finished for the day, given an attempt at some spontaneous street theatre her very best shot and had decided to give it all up and go off to grow Begonias or something.

Perhaps I ought to explain; “Going off to grow some Begonias” is my own default position for implying that I should perhaps be doing something else rather that whatever it might be that I’m currently doing. I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t be any better at growing Begonias than I am at any of the other many things I demonstrate supreme inadequacy at doing, but it remains a handy “get out” phrase. For all I know, our budding opera star was also a prize-winning Begonia grower, but I don’t suppose I’ll ever know.

A direct line to something almighty... presumably.

Anyway, as I barged my way through the Saturday shopping crowds towards Waterstones, and passed the very subtle advertising hoarding now almost completely concealing St Ann’s Church, she started singing another, and her voice was both beautiful and breathtaking as it cut through the gabble and the traffic noise of a busy old Saturday lunchtime.

I paused for a moment, as a tear almost formed in my eye at the sheer beauty of her voice and that moment, and I resolved to bung a quid into whatever hat or paper cup she was using to collect her cash in as I headed back in the other direction, but by the time I did that, she had gone, melted back into the crowd, and been replaced by two kids and a beatbox which didn’t have quite the same emotional resonance with me.

You could argue, of course, that if she’s going to be a professional singer one day (assuming that she isn’t already one) that standing up in front of a crowd of strangers is something that she’s going to have to get used to anyway, but I think that it would probably be far more easy to do that in the intimacy of a concert hall than in the high street where the passers-by are less likely to show restraint if they don’t like what it is you’re doing.

The cynic in me, of course, sensed a certain amount of opportunism. After all, was it not one of the “Footballing Cup of the World” tournaments that brought opera to the masses once upon a long ago by blurting out snatches of Nessun Dorma at every opportunity…?

And whilst we’re at it, have they not finally sorted out this Footballing Cup business yet and worked out who’s best at it once and for all...? Looking at it as a bit of an outsider, it seems a very indecisive business to me…

There were a heck of a lot of buskers that day. It must be a sign of the times, I suppose. A chance to use whatever skill it is you might have to amuse and entertain and (hopefully) make a few bob. After all, we all know that times are tough financially, possibly never more so for the students and the other youngsters, so if this is what they choose to do with their Saturdays, and people are prepared to give them a little something for their trouble, then why not? If nothing else, if they are planning upon having a career in the entertainment professions, then it’s probably pretty good experience for them, too.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that, even if I could sing (which I can’t…), I don’t think I’d’ve had the gumption to do something like that. Mind you, I still wonder how the singer in a band has the gumption to stand up in front of his mates and claim to be able sto sing, either… so well done to you if you’ve ever managed to do that, because you’re a far braver soul than I’m ever likely to be…