Buskers, Street Entertainers in Southend, Essex*

Places to find public entertainment

You can tell us more about Southend.

Buskers, Street Entertainers

• gay guy with a pink guitar called jonathon
• Lew is always doing something stupid while wasted!
• grahem the tramp is a legend. the fat ginger busker slag who only plays "losing my religion" is a fucking pain. the jamaican guy who asks everyone for 50ps and even says sorry is heaven. i would say that i am a local character, you may know me in the hamlet court road region of town...
• local character of the century is franco always outside the sunrooms waitin for the pint you dont finish, he is a local bum always pissed and shouting some sort of unrecognisable language, but is harmless and is good entertainment with ya pint
• Penny Picker Steve, bless him, he has OCD... The weird pedo clown guy, the "blind" owl man.
• The arrival of East 15 in the town will see all manner of professional street entertainment hot the high street. However there's plenty to see already if you look closely enough. My personal highlights would be : Commonly spotted: Salvo. A particularly venal looking clown who looks like he could kick seven shades out of you with his big shoes. Bends balloons for the kids. Owlman- He does what it says on the tin. Stands in the high street with two or three owls which he transports in what looks like a hot dog stand. Has added a very small owl to his repetoire recently. Pennyman- A hobbitish figure who scurries the high street and collects discarded coppers from the floor, car park ticket machines and so on and carries his street earnings in a bucket that has been covered in successive layers of gaffer tape leaving a small oening for the coins. He isnt actually homeless- he works at the florists booth. Rare species: Robinson Crusoe. A man witha dishevelled beard who carries aboat on his back and wanders town. Honest. Cockney Duet. Rubbish pearly king and queen occasionally appear near Christmas to perform 'bolied beef and carrots' etc. Poetry lady. Carries a placard bearing soom poorly written poetry. Probably tena penny in Camberwell, but a Southend one-off. Growler/Jeremy Beadle. I've only seen this chap nce but others know hin well. Not officially a showman but he looks from a distance like he is wearing a comedy 'groucho specs with moustache' combo and some padding under his coat just like Beadle in disguise. Up close you realise its just his face. What can I say? That's entertainment.
• Beadle (real name Michael) with the beard and hat, really smells, recently been hanging round leigh on sea, gets a cab to station road to get his giro. he likes to rant about people talking about him and reporting people to Davis Amess cause people caught him round the wind pipe in your town(southend) years ago!! catch him on a good day and he will leave you alone, on a bad day he goes on and on. One of the wonders of southend.

• chinese muscle man who walks round rayleigh in a vest
• Penny picker always worked on the flower stall in the high street. Many a happy day chucking pennies at him!!
• Penny Picker STEVE! hahaha. Also, even though it IS noted, the big issue guy still makes me giggle, even though I feel bad because it's about poor people, but if he could say the word correctly then it might not bother me as much!
• under the train bit in the high street. loada shit though.
• Sahil, he doesn't busk himself, although he does have a penchant for dancing with the buskers.
• Owl Man. Bagpipe man - seen on his motorbike. Disababled Verbal Poetry Women. Hanksy. Jesus - seen walking on water - Beedle.. Paul Carrol. Thebloke who looks like Trigger from only fools and horses who runs Carmel Records
• BLACK DAVE THE NOSE BAG FIEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Ian Huntley himself 'Liam Cousins' hangs at south east essex college. penny picker steve is a legend. everyone knows him in southend
• Hi all, 1 person said that they were getting annoyed with all the oasis and verve buskers in southend... well i am the the bongo player who busks dwn the town and we dont actually play the verve my brother nick (the good singer) might now and then but its mostly jimi hendrix, pink floyd, led zepplin etc etc there is a lil oasis but only on requests which is always at night on the weekends from bout 12-3am well you have heard it from a real busker lol, every1 take it easy and try and check me out sometime im sure i could make you dance lol, by the way the buskers dwn town are... James Goulding more beatles type music (lead singer of bad-ego, Nick Farmer singer and guitar mostly every sort of music (very good singer) and luke he does more hendrix pink floyd etc one of his fav is stairway to heaven (led zepplin) i mostly busk with him as we have the best jams together and he is rythm guitar of bad-ego im the bongo player and there is another and we call him G (a big german guy bout 6ft 5... our band is 1 of the best in southend also signed check the website out www.badego.co.uk bye for now hope to c you dwn twn lol Bongo Matt.
• theres this gyppo bitch who plays this shitty little tin whistle, get a life or a job
• get rid of the lousy guitar players and singers under the rail bridge in the highstreet, they are an embarrisment to human life
• ahhhhh! NO, NOT SALVO THE CLOWN!!! he's an evil lil bastard!! and calls themself Salvo!? that means Death in Latin!! DEATH THE CLOWN!!?? who would let their kid get a balloon dog of DEATH the clown??!!........ahem.
• Under the bridge down town usually has some good uns although that fat girls always with them. The bloke selling the Echo round boots is quite a kool bloke as well by the way.
• STEVE, HE DANCES FOR FOOD
• Bunny - the godfather of the alternative scene
• That Jeremy Beadle bloke cos he really stinks!
• mad poem woman in electric wheel chair, she hangs outside the post office in town
• What happened to the bloke with the owl?
• Our local MPs. Tory boy David Amess (southend west). After the last election the prat drove through the whole town with a megaphone saying 'this is david amess thanking you for electing me again'. This is also the plank that was caught by the Brass Eye 'cake' drugs spoof and asked questions about it in parliament (seems these comments have been removed from Hansard AFAIKT). He was MP for Basildon (his win in 1992 kind of pointed to a narrow tory victory). He legged it over to southend for the 97 election when it was obvious he was going to loose there. Teddy Taylor (southend east - the scummy part of town). Now strangely silent. During the 90s when the tories were in power with a very slim majority, TT was always to be seen on the news beating the govt over europe (he is anti-EU). Lost the party whip at one stage I believe (or was close to it) after not following voting with party whip on europe. I remember reading in 'Punch' many years ago: "Teddy Taylor would swim through shark infested waters to get near a microphone"
• http://www.amazingdarts.com/bobfish.html BOB Fish lead singer of DARTS
• Al Vosper (from Beveryly knight, Lulu, Chris de burgh) http://www.alvosper.com Wendy roberts - session vocalist - http://www.janemusic.info/rcms/image/showImage/15 The late Michael Bettell - drummer with ANTI NOWHERE LEAGUE http://www.michaelbettell.com
• Terry Ball - u know him! he wears green wellies and a big camel-coat in all weathers. what a sad little man... shoot him and his family, and friends... and their friends too!
• Bunny - The GODFATHER club-meister of RAGE in elmer approach
• Hop skip and jump was a strange character who came from Shoebury and renamesd because he would hop skip and jump instead of walking.I once saw him hop,skipping and jumping down Thorpe bay broadway at about ten in the morning wearing only an old,and far from clean,pair of Y-fronts.
• Who is that old woman who sells poetry in Southend High Street? Very scary when drunk!
• That homeless guy with the dog! He's cool. And that flute guy that appeared when some guy died. He played a happy song :)
• Street entertainers eh?...got to be 'Penny Picking Steve'...or that weird clown dude under the bridge in town on a saturday...Ever wondered just how much money steve has in that bucket?...me too....
• when i leave southend i will remember, the poetry wheelchair woman, the blind man with the owls, and that bizarre fat man known as "karoke man" who plugs his stereo into a power point and mimes to a compilation tape. Oh, and what happened to that guy who stood on his head, in a bucket on the high street in between savers and gap (tesco at the time)?
• Always some busker guy under the bridge in the middle of the highstreet, oh and a scary clown outside Claires who is NOT funni.
• He stands outside WH Smiths. Music playing, microphone in hand, miming the words to the song!!!!!
• under the bridge
• oh my god, buskers suck! We've got loads of new buskers and hobos (tramps) hanging bout Southend now cuz they got news that Southend was a good place to go, so they all come down from London to plague us! Sickening really...
• sh!t man i cant get over how many homeless ppl there r!
• Aside from the clown by River island , we've not had any decent ones in a while (Those Patagonians have moved on)
• Daisy the local mc on his mini beat box!!!!!!!
• under the rail bridge is a must. occasionally u get sum people up by the square bench places with the plants along the high street doing chalk drawings.
• there is the fitest busker called nick who play down southend near clares accesaries he is a great singer aswell i think buskers are great shame the good ones are not getting noticed
• nah.... in southend theres that wicked geezer thats got a barn owl thats older than he is n he's pushin on a bit y'know?
• Under the railweay bridge in the High St is usually good for a laugh
• UNDER THE BRIDGE
• SORRY GUYS YOUR CRAP YOU MAINLY ALL LIAM GALLAGHER WANNABES AND LETS FACE HE CANT SING OR MUCH ELSE REALLY. GET YOUR OWN STYLE
• UNder the bridge, down the arches
• under the bridge(not chillis or ass saints)
• Have to add to this list the old man with the owl who walks round the high street pretending to be blind when really all he wants to do is get hold of some little children, given that he is a known paedophile!!!
• November 2001 - The young dude who plays (mostly) under the railway bridge - wears a brace & has to be the most vocally talented I've heard in 18 years of walking down the high street. No, I don't know him, but i'd give him a record contract tomorrow. Whoever you are geezer, you're a star!
• Christiana the crusty eco warrior plays delights such as greensleeves on her recorder. She has a dog on a string. There aways seems to be some other geezer pounding passionately on his guitar when I walk under the bridge. Eurgh lets not forgt Salvo the clown. Clowns are evil, Salvo is not exception.
• under railway bridge
• SINGING PSYCHO, SHIRTLESS IN MID-WINTER, OFTEN SEEN BIKING NO HANDED DOWN THE A13 IN EITHER DIRECTION, BANDANA AND WALKMAN CLAD, WAILING LIKE A BANSHEE.
• FLEX, CONE-HEAD OF WESTCLIFF MUSCLE VEST CLAD COME SUMMER OR WINTER, FLEXING HIS PECKS, KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR HIS HOT SISTER (WHAT A BABE)
• any wher down town!
• the verbal busker is a phony!
• The bloke with his Bontempi keyboard who busks under Southend central train bridge. He just plays pre-set tunes and the mugs of Southend give him cash for it, Suckers...
• THAT BLOODY CLOWN!!!! Stands in the middle of the bloody high-street inflicting misery and psychological torture on us all.
• The high street. Or canvey , considering everyone there is some sort of picky busker.
• Yes, unfortunately Southend does have buskers. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against them being a musician myself but...... How many times do people want to hear the same verve and oasis songs. I, personaly wish I'd never heard them. We do get the occassional drummers there which I enjoy but more often than not it's those same songs again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again, well, you get the point.
• THE VERBAL BUSKER! £1 for sheet of poetry! All the proceeds go on fags for herself. She is a disgrace! Read on of the poems without buying and prepare to be abused!! Father Jack- Small old man, always drunk walks round shouting and swearing at anything, including blind dogs!! Bomber Man- Walks up and down the town all day at speeds that defy belief! Only stops when he spots the police. Never wears a shirt even in sub-zero temperatures. He is a nutter but also a hero. LADYBOY. -Used to work on market down the town selling fruit and veg. Her crys of 'Stawberrys' could be heard far and wide. Sadly hasn't been seen for over a year now!
• Right underneath the train station in the centre of town, and near some phone shop.
• those mexican type geezers
• James the busker rocks. He seems to be the busker of the moment under the railway bridge. As he's always there!
• always someone with Bongos hanging around the Railway bridge at 1-2am
• ha ha i saw someone wrote about an old guy playing flute. that's miles he's in is late twenties and he cant play a single tune. it doesn't matter to him 'cause "it's my art man...!" he's not half as bad on the flute as he is on the guitar though hahahah
• A bloke I know only as daddy long legs appears under the railway bridge every so often. There was also stu the oasis bloke, but he disappeared (?)
• There is this odl guy who plays the recorder under the railway bridge, I haven't figured out yet if he is actually playing a tune or it's jsut made up. But it's a laugh all the same!
• Underneath the railway bridge in the High Street is the place the hear some marginally talented guitarists. However, for a real laugh, further up the High Street you get to see "Los Pedros del Andes" (or something - how many of these groups are there?), "very tall black man in a space suit pretending to be a robot to Wham! and Spandau Ballet!" (don't ask), and the incredibly loud, but slightly insane "Jesus Freaks" telling you that your life is empty so there!
• The crazy jazz guys - one on guitar one on sax. They're ace. The only good buskers I've seen in Southend at any rate, save for the mad banjo puppets guy under the railway bridge (you have to see it).

Search Knowhere for something else:

Credits

Last updated: 2008-10-14