I had a query in the comments from Ann who was looking for information about The Happy Wanderers Jazz Band (seen above in a photo taken at the Busker's Concert rehearsal), a bunch of buskers who were very well known round the West End for many years. I never had a lot of contact with them and they didn't mix as far as I knew with the other older buskers round the West End - probably because their pitches were different so they didn't drink on the same manors, as it it were. Did a bit of googling, came across a thread I had commented on with regard to the Road Stars on the Mudcat site and noticed a link to a short film that I hadn't bothered/forgot to check. And it's brilliant, a short documentary about buskers, labelled on the site 'The Happy Wanderers' except it's not. It's Ronnie Ross, Road Stars and solo and his wife Peg, plus one of his sons. Ron is in his tower block flat waxing philosophical and this was a great reminder of what a clever, sharp man he was. The section where he is busking in Leicester Square is superb - accompanied by a very good female accordion player called Mikky, if I remember correctly, who is also playing a bass drum. With the words: 'Happy Wanderers' on it. Was it borrowed from them? Or maybe there were connections I knew nothing about. A great find and thanks to CJB on Mudcat for this...
Movie is here...
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