Liverpool tightens its grip

New sites for busking in Liverpool revealed by city council (MAP)

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/in-the-mix/2012/03/16/new-sites-for-busking-in-liverpool-revealed-by-city-council-map-100252-30548721/#ixzz1qUkBTJmi

Good news? Or not? The Liverpool Echo reveals that buskers must pay a £20 registration fee before busking. 

And we can expect to have to take out Public Liability insurance in case there's a legal action by a passer-by who trips over your bag.

Is discretion the better part of valour?

Is it better to be out there and risking it? Or to tootle away discreetly from a distance?
I like to tuck myself away in Monmouth, down the accoustically excellent passageway that leads to the Co-op, dog food and pasty shops. I suspect the money outside Waitrose would be better tho.
I took the discretionary course this Saturday, the first warm session since last year. And it was good. Sometimes I struggle to remember my children's names, but when it comes to playing along to any of my 23 back tracks from Blues in F (Effin' Blues) to El Ceilo Canto, it just rolls along.
No, the money was not brilliant, but the music rolled.
Umm. Nice.

The organ grinder's fate

Victorian cartoonist John Leech's take on dealing with undesirable street musicians. Much the same fate could be in store for Liverpool's buskers as the City Council considers plans to regulate street music.
Now, how do those words "regulate" and "music" go together?

Liverpool's hardworking buskers

Smiling Roma men with their sand sculptures vie with Liverpool’s city centre buskers for a few coins. 

While London promises to beef up its busking sites, Liverpool puts it to shame with half a dozen top performers putting the hours in on the street.

Too many to talk to but check out www.wetheundersigned.co.uk (left) for starters.