A strange sight - and sound - has greeted motorists driving past London’s Wandsworth roundabout. Weary commuters may have thought their eyes and ears were deceiving them for there, on a graffiti-covered bridge over the busy junction, a lone bagpiper has played.
Rob Calder, 32, chose the spot to practise for a bagpipe busking tour of America, hoping the heavy traffic would drown out the din of his pipes, which can reach up to an eardrum-shattering 120 decibels.
“I played once in my flat, but it was so loud I thought I had better not do it again,” Mr Calder said. “The roundabout was ideal because it drowns out the noise. What is also good is that people see you and give you a wave, or come up for a talk.”
Mr Calder, from Edinburgh, who has been working in London for the past year, decided to embark on his seven-week charity fundraising coast-to-coast tour of the States after being made redundant. “I didn’t want to look back in two or three years’ time and think it was a missed opportunity,” he said.
First, however, Mr Calder had to brush up his rusty piping skills. He first picked up the instrument at the age of 14 as part of a school band, but he does not practise as much as he would like. “It is difficult,” he said, with a sigh. “They are a bit loud.”
Advertisement
His trip, which began yesterdayin New York and will end in California, will take in Virginia’s colonial heritage, Louisiana’s Cajun country and the desert-covered state of Arizona. He hopes to stay with ex-pats he meets during his trip. So far, he has a bed for the night in New York, and North Carolina, but the remainder are yet to be arranged. “A lot of people are worried for me, but I think I will be all right,” he said. “I am relying on the goodwill of expats, although I am expecting a bit of, ‘you will have had your tea’, from the Edinburgh crowd.”
Although the main object of the tour is to raise funds for Ecas, an Edinburgh-based support group for the disabled, Mr Calder is also keen to promote Scotland. There is, he says, nothing to beat the first glimpse of the Pentland hills during a flight into Edinburgh, and in that spirit has joined the Scottish government’s Homecoming initiative and will be informing anyone who cares to listen about the events in Scotland that they can attend. A link on his website, where he plans to post a daily blog, will directs readers to the national tourism body, VisitScotland. In return, tourism bosses have helped him to secure his visa, and promised to help with accommodation if his own efforts fail.
Follow his blog at www.bagpipebusker.com