Local heroes (Tramps/Buskers)

Rotty said:
We had an old geezer in Nottingham who used to play a toy xylophone ( very badly ) , unfortunately he is now busking outside the pearly gates :(
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He can't be doing very well - apparently it's easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle than it is to enter the gates of heaven.

Poor guy. :(
 
I'm amazed how many people know about xylophone man. He has a placque on the ground outside H&M. Passed away in 2004 I beleive. RIP. There's sometimes a fellow playing his electric guitar outside there now, he's quite good.

Tramps, however, ARGGGGH... has anyone ever been unlucky enough to be badgered by the 'joker' round here??
 
Wolverhampton's tramps are generally of the desperate, angsty, pushy, rude begging-for-crack-money types not worthy of comment.

However, notable exception is the guy who lives in a couple of tents in the middle of the central reservation on the St Johns section of the Ring Road. Apparently he's a concentration camp survivor from Poland who has never re-adjusted to life following the war, being unable to find security living a 'normal' life, and as such prefers to live in a tent so he could move all of his belongings should the need arise. I'm told the council have offered to provide him with a house many times, but he's turned them down as he doesn't trust the state. He's been living on the road in a collection of very tatty tents for as long as I can remember.

Then theres Ezra, a black 5 foot nothing fundamentalist Christian preacher, generally found handing out small leaflets to anyone and everyone about the bible and shouting Jesus will save you in a rather manic fashion. Well known and actually completely harmless, despite his rather zealous demeanour. The teenage 'goths' around the man on the horse in Queens square like to taunt him by telling them they worship satan, at which point he freaks out and starts running away, shouting devil child and generally looking in fear of his life.
 
All these people have interesting names people have made up for them. The only tramp that springs to mind for me is called Steve :o

Pretty much just your usual tramp. Constantly drunk, crazy and exposes himself too much. The latter of which has earnt him an ASBO since school girls on their way home don't appreciate it :p
 
Rotty said:
We had an old geezer in Nottingham who used to play a toy xylophone ( very badly ) , unfortunately he is now busking outside the pearly gates :(
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I saw the thread title and thought of him immediately!

He died? Man, I remember him, and I only visited Nottingham for a year when my wife (then girlfriend) was at uni there. Used to see him in town. He'd hit his xylophone "ding ding ding ding" and then wave the stick around and grin at everyone, then start over, same notes, same grin.

At the end of the year I went to the end of year party thing at the uni with a mate who was in the first year back then. One of the student bands had recruited the xylophone dude and had him on stage playing his little toy xylophone in front of everyone. Kinda weird. My girlfriend's ex was well hacked off because his band had knocked up a CD with him playing his xylophone as a secret track or something. They'd given him a pound to play into their tape recorder or something.

True story.
 
Mikol said:
I'm amazed how many people know about xylophone man. He has a placque on the ground outside H&M. Passed away in 2004 I beleive. RIP. There's sometimes a fellow playing his electric guitar outside there now, he's quite good.

Tramps, however, ARGGGGH... has anyone ever been unlucky enough to be badgered by the 'joker' round here??
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Yep I know the 'joker', the fella who uses a magazine as a microphone - just saw him a few weeks back in 'The Speakeasy', first time I'd seen him for over two years. His jokes aren't too bad once you've had a few.
 
Putty said:
Yep I know the 'joker', the fella who uses a magazine as a microphone - just saw him a few weeks back in 'The Speakeasy', first time I'd seen him for over two years. His jokes aren't too bad once you've had a few.
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Haha, yes, that's the one. Annoying thing, he catchs you off guard, you laugh as some are genuinely funny, then you feel obliged to pay him :(
 
kalanium said:
Can't forget Dougie and Maureen I used to see them all the time whilst in Hillsborough and usually on the Supertram. For those of you who don't know them Maureen would go up to everyone and by everyone I mean EVERYONE asking if they've got a light and if you didn't she would hit you with her handbag (which used to have a brick/stones inside a lot of the time). Dougie would walk around picking up tab ends to smoke I always wondered why they never teamed up.

Theres also the guy who hangs around malin bridge drinking Cider and singing the whole day. I would sometimes be on my way to school at about 8:30 and would see him drunk already then at 3:30 I would walk past and hes still there with a load of empty bottles beside him.

But I haven't seen any of them for a good few years now.
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maureen actually used to scare me...my mum once lit a ciggy whilst at the middlewood road tramstop and she actually ran across the road and clambered up onto the tram platform to get a light...my mum didnt give her one so she kinda just stood there and stared at us for about 5 minutes until the tram came
 
Balddog said:
Theres a blonde beggar woman in sheffield that seems to be known by half the world...
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does she look like she COULD be late 20's? wanders round town center all day?

saw her with a crutch the other day, picked it up ran over to her "boyfriend/pimp/dealer" then used it and limped :confused:

there used to be a guy who used to sit bang next to the cash machine half way up west street as well asking for change LOL
 
Gerard said:
More info needed on "pornstar tramp" morbid curiosity. :p
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When I was about fifteen, my 'local' was Trillians in Newcastle (despite living about 70 miles away) and Porn Star Tramp would lounge on a bench outside there, lying on his side, resting his head on his hand, looking sultry....and covered in bits of bin-detritus and with long matted beard and hair.

*n
 
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006430707,00.html
john 'dr who' clews
our local eccentric
everyone knew him, he would always be in town, chatting to people and just being a friendly guy
i always remember him being around town, even when i was a kid
not someone i spoke to or was friendly with, but just an everyday presence
really popular chap, never did anyone any harm - was 'goaded to death' a few weeks ago by a gang of roudy youths
r.i.p
 
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