Keswick buskers are out of tune with a visiting musician who claims they are “aggressive” and prevent him from playing his clarinet for charity at a “lucrative pitch” in the town.
The town’s street performers say 77-year-old Philip Lowe is hitting all the wrong notes over his claims that he is continually thwarted from playing his woodwind instrument in the underpass at the bottom of Lake Road because buskers “put their caps down next to me and loudly bawl me out.”
“There seems to be, amongst some of the buskers in town, a feeling that they own a certain spot – they monopolise certain spots and for anyone who interferes with that they can get very aggressive.
“I play for charity and I have offered that if we play together then they can have some of the money. They will not have that and some have been very unpleasant towards me,” said Mr Lowe, who mainly raises money for Cancer Research.
“I have tried to talk reasonably with these buskers but they are not interested,” said the retired piano tuner who lives at Stainton, near Penrith.
“They have upset me considerably. It’s incredible this can go on in England and just as incredible that it goes on in Keswick.
“If I can get to sit round a table with them, I would be more than happy to talk about it and say: ‘Let’s get on.’ I don’t think I’m an unreasonable bloke.
“I have stood in the tunnel on occasion to find out what it’s all about. I stood for one-and-a-half hours once and I took £70. I can understand why they behave like that when there is that sort of money involved.”
But busker Mark Devine, who has been performing in Keswick since 2004, says that Mr Lowe appears to be on a mission to harass street performers and goes out of his way to antagonise them.
“The busking rules are that you don’t go and sit near somebody else and interfere with their music but he ignores that,” said Mr Devine. “He has made it his mission to make the musicians of Keswick’s lives a misery.
“I have got a reputation of being a nice guy and cannot understand why he harasses people who are just trying to make a crust.”
Mr Devine said that there has only been one occasion that he made the kind of money that Mr Lowe claims buskers in the underpass are making and that was when there was a firework spectacular on Derwentwater.
He said that on Monday he played for five hours and earned £22.
“A lot of people are not carrying cash with them these days and many a time it is worth playing just to get a smile.”
Buskers and street performers have to register with Keswick Town Council. They will then be issued with a ‘Buskers and Street Performers’ badge.
It is obligatory to display this badge prominently at all times.
The town council guide says that musical performers should not inconvenience either the general public or shopkeepers.
The volume of music should be kept at a level where it does not unreasonably bother anyone. Loud music must not be played and the level should be in keeping with the tranquillity expected within a national park.
Performances must not be any longer than 40 minutes and there must then be a break or fallow time of a minimum of 45 minutes.
Only three performances per day from any one person are allowed.
