Playing Rapunzel's Street Piano Crawl (London, July 2009)

On Sunday 12 July, Playing Rapunzel embarked on a Street Piano Crawl from West to East London. Below, Marilisa's blog of the day!

We arrived at the Portobello Road piano just before 2:00pm and found a few of our crawl followers there already. The piano was right in the middle of a market, and there was lots of loud music coming from the stalls around.

No one was playing the piano when we arrived, so we got straight to playing. The man at the stall right next to the piano very kindly turned off his music when we started. Not only that, but when the guitar came out, he brought over his amp and offered it to us! Sadly we weren't really expecting access to amps, and I was trying to travel light, so I had no lead with me. Ah well. It's the thought that counts.

More of our group started to appear as we played. This included C, who saw us at a gig in Sussex at some point. He saw the event on our Facebook group and decided to travel all the way up from the coast to come on the piano crawl with us!

In between songs we experimented with the songbook attached to the piano. For some reason "Nellie the Elephant" appeared to be the hit of the day. Ho hum.

Several people stopped by to listen while we played; a lady with a bicycle stood and listened; stall holders came and stood around; shoppers and tourists stopped and took photos. You put a piano in the middle of a very multi-cultural market in one of the busiest cities in the world on a Sunday afternoon. You start playing and singing. And suddenly, all these people stop rushing, and they look at each other, and they smile, and they all become part of one big happy moment. It was our first flavour of that for the day, and it took us by storm.

The piano itself was in fairly good nick; it was under cover and hadn't been rained on, and was in reasonable tune without too many dead keys. It was painted grey and decorated with green and red yarn. We played for half an hour and wandered off to the next piano.

15:15 - 15:45 - Soho Square

Soho Square was full of people when we arrived; the weather was nice and sunny and lots of people were sitting on the grass or on park benches. The piano was at the bottom of the square. Someone was noodling on it when we arrived, and then another guy played for a bit before we took over.

Lots of people stopped to listen to this one. Several families with small children. A girl with cropped blond hair and a massive smile. A drunk guy with no shirt on who blessed us and told us Jesus saves. We did a Greek song, and a guy who was standing next to the piano made a phone call and held out his mobile towards us so the person on the other end could hear. D later said the guy had a Greek-sounding accent. Who knows?

The lady who runs the London Folk meetup group had come along to listen to this one (they came en masse to our last gig) - that was cool. Our noble entourage handed out fliers. Someone was filming and said they'd send us the footage. We sold a CD to a random passerby. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon in the park, and everyone was relaxed and having fun.

This piano was slightly more battered. A few of the keys were dead and the front of the piano had ben taken off. It was still fairly playable, though.

16:15 - 16:45 - Paternoster Square

I didn't even know Paternoster Square existed before today. It's a beautifully restored little square right behind St Paul's Cathedral. It's very pristine and clean, with some cafes with tables outside, and a statue of a shepherd, and a column at the back round which more people were sitting.

We arrived at 4:15pm, and a young man was playing something classical. When he finished we all applauded, and he looked very bashful - he hadn't realised so many people were listening so closely! Another young man took over. And while he was playing, one of the best moments of the day occurred.

A blond young woman in a purple silk paisley frock-coat appeared out of *nowhere*. She moved so swiftly and quietly that I didn't see her coming at all. She dumped her bag by the side of the piano, sat down on the bench by the young guy, and started playing with him in absolutely *perfect* 4-hand harmony. The young guy didn't even flinch; he just kept on playing. We found out after they'd finished that they'd never seen each other in their lives.

The woman, who turned out to be musician Gilly Spencer (who's been very active in organising events at the pianos) then played a piece, and then we took over and sang three songs to an appreciative gathering crowd, including a thoughtful young man who sat near the piano and a couple with a small baby who seemed to be enjoying the music.

We handed the piano back to Gilly, who bills herself as "the original 'you hum it, I'll play it' pianist" and she played a few songs on request. Wow, what an amazingly talented musician. At one point she was asked to play the Lambada, and Mich jumped up and jammed along with her on that. Fun, fun, fun! Just as we were leaving a small girl of about 6 was tagging Gilly and taking her turn on the piano.

The piano, like the rest of the square, was in fine condition - in tune and with all the keys working. Definitely the best piano we encountered on our travels.

17:00 - 17:30 - St Paul's Cathedral

A young man was playing when we arrived, and he lamented the state of the piano. We were able to point him to the Paternoster Square piano round the corner. That was one of the fun aspects of the day: we met several people who had been to several pianos, and we swapped tips and advice about which pianos were in better condition than others.

The garden had a few people sitting around on benches, who became our proto-audience for this piano. They generally seemed to be enjoying it. About a song or so in, a bunch of young teenagers with skateboards arrived - they were maybe 13 or 14 years old. It was so funny; they obviously wanted to stay and listen, but didn't want to lose their kudos with the others by doing something uncool. Solution: they stopped and listened, but mucked about while doing so. So for the next few songs, we played to the accompaniment of kids sliding by on skateboards behind us, and waving their hands in time to the music and generally being kids - but without being loud or disruptive.

Halfway through Captain Jack and the Mermaid, a few more familiar faces appeared. Our friends S, T, A&P had made it! I'd given up hope on them by this point - we were at the penultimate piano and we knew they had clashing plans during our last piano slot. So it was absolutely delightful to see them. We played a song on request from S, and, somewhere around then, the rain caught up with us. We found an impromptu umbrellist in A, who came and stood behind me and covered me, just as I was managing to open my umbrella mid-song - so I held mine over Mich while A held hers over me, much to the amusement of the onlookers.

18:00 - 18.30 - Liverpool Street Station

Our last piano was by far the most battered - unsurprising, given its very central location. The pedal was dead and the piano was a full tone out, so we decided to stick with things where I don't play any instruments except percussion.

A middle-aged man was at the piano when we arrived. This was his 10th piano, and he'd been filming and taking photos at all of them. Right as we started, a very drunk man came and stood directly behind my ear, and proceeded to add harmonies in a completely different key throughout the song. He did stop eventually, and all was good.

This was another good piano for drawing a crowd; people stopped and listened and clapped along in time. A man who said he's in the music business took our card. A girl who stayed for the duration came and asked us where we play normally. We ran out of leaflets and handed out cards. We also ran very much out of voice, and finished on Sholem. We handed back to 10-piano-man (who took our card so he could send us his footage) and he played Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell songs as we said our goodbyes to our faithful entourage. We'd given everyone who'd followed us a pink souvenir flyer, and stamped the pianos they'd been to on them - so the people still with us at that point got their last stamp and headed off.

I don't feel I've covered a tenth of what today was like. I'm off to bed, exhausted, croaky, and very happy. :)

"...joyous interplay and professionalism...excellent vocal blending."
(Richard Wheatley)