- [Steve] Interesting start to the day.
(transient music)
So far, I've arrived in Leicester Square,
and it is very, very dead.
Bank Holiday Monday, and this is what we're dealing with.
It's Bank Holiday Monday, so it should be really busy,
although it's only 10 a.m.
However, it's worryingly quiet right now,
could be pretty terrible.
Are you going to actually, you gonna go work South Bank?
- [Blond Man] Yeah.
- [Steve] Is everyone there?
- Well Jon's heading there, Matt's heading there,
it should be fun, you should come.
- [Steve] I'm so tempted.
We'll say bye to Marcello,
"Bye Marcello! We're going. Have a fun time!"
(transient music)
You're kidding me.
- I think it's not working because they don't
want people to come up because there's another way
to cross and find the fulcrum.
- [Steve] More stairs for us, more stairs for us.
This was originally going to be a day in the life
of a street performer video, just performing
in Leceister Square, as per usual, but we've had
a bit of a change in plan.
Yesterday the guys were chatting about opening
up a new pitch, so today we've come
to South Bank, where there are street performers,
but we want to go somewhere else where people
don't perform and perform there.
It's going to be an interesting day.
The reason why this might be a challenge is:
Street performing is legal in the UK in public space;
you're totally covered, you're allowed to do it.
However, obviously you're not allowed to street perform
in a private property; If someone's got a garden,
you hop over their fence and get in,
you're not allowed to perform.
Where it becomes a bit ambiguous
is spaces like the South Bank,
which is a public space, but it's also privately owned.
It's still public space, and we should be able
to make reasonable use of a public space,
but it's privately owned.
I think we're alright to do it, but I don't think
the security are going to agree with us.
What were you saying, Tom?
- Matt will be here in 10 minutes.
- [Steve] 10 minutes, nice.
- He said to me an hour ago.
- [Steve] Morning, Morph.
Interesting day is definitely an understatement.
- [Morph] Police shut some people down already.
- [Tom] Yeah but their not busking.
- Busking politics.
- [Steve] Tell me about it. You don't mind being
filmed, do you? I think it would make a fun video.
This day will
- The name's uh, Dwarf.
- [Steve] Dwarf?
We can do shows against this. These trees are annoying.
- [Morph] This could be alright.
- [Steve] Oh, this is okay. It's opening up a bit
- [Morph] This place looks alright.
- [Tom] This place is essentially alright.
- [Steve] They already have a musician spot here,
apparently.
Hello man, yeah I'm good how are you?
Give me a hug.
- [Top Hat man] You're alright? So let's go to the pitch.
- [Steve] Where is the pitch?
- It's down here.
- Play anywhere along here, and as long as you're in eye
shot of us, as soon as the security gives you a hassle,
what they're going to do is come up to you and say,
"This is private property, you can't be here",
so your choices are to say okay, I'll pack up,
and then you pack up and you just move somewhere else,
just pack up your gear, wait till they f**k off
and start again, or you can be indignant,
you can say no I will stay.
- [Steve voiceover] This is Matt.
Remember Matt? He was the guy I went to cannon
with, and he got dragged around by security.
- In a public space we should be free, yes?
Yes?
In a public space...
- [Vlogger voiceover] Happy times.
Matt was saying some really important things,
but it was really windy so, just know that Matt
is 100% sure that what we are doing is completely legal.
(soft EDM music)
- Matt's about to start off doing the first show
of the day. It's not really a case of if we get stopped
by security, more of a when.
So it's likely that we'll get stopped pretty early on,
when Matt starts now, and then if he can have a discussion
with them and get things smoothed over,
they'll probably leave us alone and then we'll be good
to go for the rest of the day, we hope.
Not quite sure, this is such an interesting day,
I really don't know what's going to happen.
We'll see how it goes.
- So, hello everybody, how are you doing?
My name's Matt, I'm an entertainer,
I'm gonna begin a show, nothing to be afraid of.
Try and get a few people here before I begin,
cause if I start the show without a crowd,
I kind of look like a loser.
Oh my God, look at this, it's like Dawn of the Dead.
Darling, pass me the racket.
Look over there.
Jesus Christ!
- [Steve] How was it, man?
- S**t.
- [Steve] Didn't get stopped by security though.
- I didn't get stopped by security,
and do you know what the annoying thing is?
If I would have got stopped by security,
it would have been an amazing show.
Trust me, I would have doubled my crowd,
that's all I was waiting for,
all I wanted and they didn't come; yet.
- [Steve] Hey, the day is early.
How weird is the shot that you're doing right now?
Do I look really strange? Yeah, thanks Matt.
- [Matt] You look like you're kind of looking up
to a headmaster.
- Yeah it's something like that, Matt stood on a bin
with the shot there. Alright, I'm going to give a show a go.
Probably going to go terribly, but got nothing to lose.
We're about to begin a show.
- [Someone] Whoo!
- Thank you, that is the enthusiasm I expected
on a lovely Easter Monday. Thank you very much sir,
how are you doing?
Good stuff, I love how your kid is pulling you
toward the show, that's good.
(transient music)
That is 11, yes?
Feels like 11, yes?
Smell it for me, miss. Smell like 11? Yes?
Put it to your ear for me, miss.
No one's ever done that before.
Now the king of spades, if this is the king of spades,
that'd be pretty impressive right?
But if this is the exact same piece of card
that lines up perfectly, that'd be impossible.
Emma, take a step over here, look.
Not only is this the king of spades,
but more importantly, this is the very same
piece of card that lines up perfectly.
Guys, go wild for my volunteer Emma. Take a bow.
So, I just did two shows back to back.
The first show was very difficult
and the hat was very small. The second show
went a lot better. It's still really challenging here,
and I'm really surprised that no security guards
have come out. Maybe because it's Bank Holiday Monday,
I was sure we would've been stopped by now.
But, all the other buskers that were here before
have all gone to a different spot, 'cause they didn't
want to wait it out because it's quiet,
so now it's just four of us, on rotation doing shows.
It should be okay, really.
Also, nice to have a change of scene.
What up?
What happened?
- [Murdo] So I'm out, just to tune my guitar,
just tuning the top two strings,
and security come out, said,
actually he was mad as my shoes, he said,
"You're busking here, do you have a licence?",
and I said "No", I said "He's busking here",
He went, "He's gonna move him," so he's gonna go
up there and come back down with help.
- [Steve] Really?
- I just cannot with.
(Matt singing and playing)
- [Matt] I don't think you understand what I've got
to get out. I say this honestly.
I said I was going to give you five pounds.
Should I give him the five pounds?
(crowd cheers)
So they said no.
- Okay, so Matt is killing it right now,
Murdo is killing it right now.
Security came by and spoke to Murdo before,
I really think it's just a matter of time now,
they're doing a patrol. When they come back
they're probably going to try and shut them both
down. Yeah, it's going to get interesting.
Looks like they're already here.
Well I don't know how you want to handle this.
- I don't know, this is pretty funny.
- [Steve] Do you want to pack up?
- [Security] Yeah, that's your last time in here? Alright.
- Well I thought, I could've been better.
- Murdo just was like "Don't worry, that was my last song",
and they were quite nice to him there,
but now they're going straight over to Matt,
as Matt's towards the end of the show,
this is going to be very interesting,
this is where things are going to kick off.
- Hey guys, how are you doing?
I don't need a licence, this is a public space.
- It's not public.
- This may be privately owned, this is a public space.
Are you telling me now, that the South Bank Centre,
Hey, high five little B!
Are you telling me now, that the South Bank Centre,
government funded trust, to enable arts,
is not allowing me to do my art in this public space?
- This is not public, this is all privately owned.
- What you don't understand is, it's privately owned,
but it's still a public space. You have no fences,
there's nothing stopping me from entering
this property, so you telling me, just to get this clear,
that the South Bank Centre, publicly funded trust,
to enable arts, is trying to stop me, from doing my art?
- Yes, without a licence, yes.
- Well, I refuse, and I'll be here all day.
- That's up to you, but we're going to have to keep
coming back, obviously.
- Please do, by all means. That's fine.
- You're good by the way.
- Thank you.
- [Steve] Can we just take a second,
to appreciate how relaxed that interaction was.
- Yeah they were nice, they were nice.
- They were so nice. Yeah, they are nice people,
and they were like, you were good by the way,
but they were still just trying to do what they believe
is their job.
- Well, the thing is, it's their job.
I don't think they necessarily want to come stop us,
but they believe they have to.
- Matt, I'm really disappointed, because this video
is going to be way worse if you're not being dragged
off and nearly thrown in the river,
which is what I was kind of hoping for.
- The day isn't over yet.
- Give it time.
(sound checking)
- How are you guys? We're gonna begin a show here,
live at the South Bank, right now.
We're getting a few people stopping,
want a little bit of a crowd.
Hi sir, toilet's that way, it's fine.
(transient EDM)
That show was, I think it was good.
Do you think it was good, Anna?
- [Anna] Yeah, I thought it was great, yeah.
- Thanks, nice.
- [Anna] Yeah, no, it was fun.
- Yeah it was good, I tried to,
made that one last a lot longer, and am it.
At the end of the show, this guy,
towards the end was like, if you can let me cut open
the lemon, I'll give you twenty quid,
and then I was like, all right man,
'cause he wouldn't shut up, and I brought him on,
and then he cut it open and saw his card and then
he had to do it, so that was fun, yeah.
- [Security] So I'm just having a word with you that,
just move hide and further down,
beyond there, see some pillars, there are some pillars
there. Just move beyond there, or move
further down there, and then that will be fine.
- So between those two trees?
Uh-huh.
Can you here us outside the venue?
So, well I think you got all that, but basically,
that argument about public space, and yada, yada, yada,
I was like "I'm not breaking any rules",
he goes "No, you're not breaking any laws",
but then, "we can move you".
"Well, not if I'm not breaking any laws",
but yeah, we can, that was weird.
Alright this is gonna be fun. I'm happy
with that show anyways so.
- [Taller person] However, when you're aggravating.
- No, no, aggravated trespass means I'm stopping them
doing their business. Now I'm not stopping them
doing their business, am I?
- You are, you're being sufficiently loud,
- Well, hang on a minute.
- [Steve] Yeah, just to finish up on this video,
my last show went really good, and then the camera kind of
died, so I'm on my phone right now.
Then Matt did a show, which went really good.
Some police officers came over,
had a chat. You kind of saw what happened there.
But they've gone, so that's the end of that.
I think we're gonna call it a day. Good.
Thank you.
(Transient EDM)
Probably a bit far there Matt.