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Selected Songs Here

NEW SITE

Hi everyone and thanks for following. From now on I'll be posting everything on my new website at www.benrose.ca so please click the link and I'll take you right there.
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Ben.

Ben Rose at the Olympics

Congratulations to Ben for rockin' the athletes at the Olympic Village at Whistler today. Hopefully some of you out there are Olympians yourselves and were able to catch his set - for those of you un-Olympians who wish you were there, you can always book him to play a party and he'll tell you all about it.

Ben Rose Stuffs Your Stocking

The holidays are almost here, but have no fear - it's not too late to order a copy of The Ben Rose Wedding Band's new CD "Cowtown" and stuff it in a loved one's stocking. Who doesn't love getting stuffed?

CD available at CD Baby, iTunes, or Megatunes in Cowtown for the locals.

Beatroute - November 2009

CITY

Ben Rose

city wants busker to sing swan song

By Hannah Kost

Ben Rose has been performing successfully on Calgary’s streets for seven years. But defying a bylaw implemented in August 2008 that prohibits buskers from using amplification or selling CDs after 6 pm has left him with a ticket and five court summonses.

“What happens on Stephen Avenue is just amazing,” Rose says. “I busked all over Europe and this is way cooler. I can plug in my system and I can sound like a million bucks. I sound better on that street than I do in any bar in this town. And nobody complains about it, but it’s still been shut down.”

Rose initially continued to play despite the tickets; it was the threat of his equipment being confiscated by the city that swayed him to stop. But with restaurateurs paying him to play outside their patios, Rose maintains that his amplified set helps fill the streets, not empty them. “I’ve got a whole bunch of video quotes from people who work on these patios saying, ‘He’s the reason we’re busy at night.’ I built it, and they’re going to take it away from me. The street loses if I don’t get to keep playing, I think,” he states. “And a whole bunch of other people think that.”

The bylaw is puzzlingly applicable only to registered buskers, which further convinces Rose it needs more consideration. “What’s so funny is you could walk down the street where I play, with a ghetto blaster that’s twice as loud as me, and you wouldn’t be breaking any rules,” Rose explains. “Anybody can use an amplifier, there’s no rule against amplifiers. The only person who can’t is me, a busker. Because I signed a busking agreement that says I can’t. They didn’t think it through at all.”

For Rose, being forced to stop performing has raised interesting questions about Calgary’s values. “Nobody has ever complained about me. Thousands of people like it. And yet they’ve shut it down. Why is that? Do they not like art? What’s wrong with our city? That is the basic question.” He pauses. “Do they want us to be a culturally dead zone? No. They’re just incompetent.”

The implications of the bylaw could be severe for culture on the city’s streets; should it remain unaltered, Rose feels it might force artists out Calgary. “The ramifications for me are that I will move. I will leave this city. I think everybody comes here for jobs and money, and that creates a really bad inertia. There is sort of an anti-arts thing,” he says. “But all I know about the street where I play is that I have nothing but support from Calgary. Calgary loves what I do on that street, and Calgary loves the arts and music.”

Wherever he ends up, Rose will continue playing the music that has garnered him success. “I’ve had a few odd jobs, and there are all these other things I could do for a living, but I’m not nearly as good at them as I am at this,” he says. “And I’d rather do the ugly part of this job and at least do what I love.”

Original article

FFWD Article on Ben

City fines defiant downtown busker

Singer ticketed for using amplification, selling CDs at night
Published October 8, 2009 by Jeremy Klaszus in News
Riley Brandt

Ben Rose is allowed to sell his CDs during the day on Stephen Avenue — but not after 6 p.m., when a different set of rules kicks in.

A downtown busker who has been repeatedly warned not to use amplification has been slapped with bylaw tickets for refusing to unplug and for selling his CDs after 6 p.m., when his selling permit becomes invalid — a crackdown that has renewed discussion about busking in the city.

The city revamped rules for buskers in August 2008, lifting restrictions on where buskers could play. At the same time, the city disallowed amplified sound for all buskers. Bylaw officers warned Ben Rose in May that if he kept using two speakers to amp his guitar and voice on Stephen Avenue, he could face a penalty. “He was warned quite a few times,” says Caralyn Macdonald of the Calgary Downtown Association (CDA), the organization that handles busking permits for the city.

Rose kept using his amps, and last month got two tickets for it. He remains unapologetic. “I’m playing patio music,” he says. “It’s very much about mellow and finger-picking. If I don’t have amplification, it doesn’t work. You can’t sing ‘Moon River’ and have someone hear it without a microphone and an amp for your guitar.”

He’s also been ticketed for selling his CDs. Rose has a CDA permit to sell during the daytime on Stephen Avenue Mall (a stretch of Eighth Ave. between First St. S.E. and Third St. S.W.), but once evening hits — the time Rose prefers to play — Stephen Avenue Mall is governed by a different set of rules. “We manage the mall on behalf of the city from 6 a.m. till 6 p.m.,” says Macdonald. “At that point, it just goes back to [being a city] roadway.”

After 6 p.m., Stephen Avenue is governed by the city streets bylaw, which forbids “display[ing] or exhibit[ing] merchandise of any nature for sale.” Rose got two tickets for that, and when he changed his sign to read “suggested donation,” he got two additional tickets under the same bylaw for “request[ing] donations without permission or approval.” Rose says the bylaw officer told him,“If you want to sell CDs, there’s a thing called a record company.”

Brian Dorscht, the city’s arts and culture event co-ordinator, says that while the city is open to suggestions about its busking program, musicians like Rose have to follow the rules. “He has an agreement that says he can sell until 6, and then he’s just gone ahead and gone against what he’s signed,” says Dorscht. “That’s something he needs to adhere to.”

The no-amplification rule, adds Dorscht, is in place so buskers don’t compete with each other with volume and create “invasive” noise. “There are many, many buskers in the world who play acoustically, and they do fine.” Dorscht says the city has only received three complaints from buskers about the no-amplification rule.

Rose plans to fight the tickets in court (he has been fined $100 for one ticket, and has five remaining court summonses). “It seems like if they had their way, downtown would cease to exist at six o’clock,” he says. “I don’t want to paint Calgary as this backward place that persecutes artists, but I’m sorry, that’s what you guys are up to.”

City bylaw chief Bill Bruce won’t discuss specifics of Rose’s situation — “that’s a matter before the courts” — but says his officers hand out tickets for a reason. “Generally that’s why we’re there — somebody’s complained,” says Bruce.

After he got the tickets, Rose moved onto restaurant patios — an arrangement that lets him sell CDs without violating city rules. But Clayton Morgan, owner of The Belvedere, says Rose shouldn’t be restricted to patios. “It adds a lot of spark and life to the street, and for the bylaw officer to come around and throw tickets his way for whatever reason, I think it’s just petty,” says Morgan.

The CDA has given out more than 500 busking permits this year, compared with about 150 last year, when a $50 fee was in place. Macdonald says the no-amplification rule has been getting “mixed reviews” from buskers.

Longtime local busker Daniel Duguay — a.k.a. Dan the One Man Band — says the no-amplification rule makes musicians like him feel unwelcome. “Harley Davidsons are allowed to peruse the neighbourhood any hour that they want, and that’s completely fine, that’s no problem. But a guy standing out there playing his songs and trying to bring a smile to people’s faces — oh no, we’ve got to put something on that.”

The city should be especially welcoming to buskers who sell their music, Duguay says. “If you have a CD, then that is a good indication that you’re half decent. You’re not Johnny three-string guitar playing in front of the liquor store…. It just seems crazy that you would do anything like that to dissuade people from being out there.”

Dorscht says the city will be holding a public forum in November to get buskers’ input on city policies. “We’ll be talking to them about what our process is, what would make this a more busker-friendly city.”

Rose is scheduled to appear in court twice later this month and three times in November.



Comments: 3

waterbaby wrote:
Daniel Duguay hits the nail straight on the head when he observes that Harleys can rip an otherwise civilized land- (or in this case: city-) scape apart with their dreadful and obnoxious sound and fumes but a musician can't contribute to the culture of the community at a scale and volume that offends no-one.

Ben Rose plays and sings beautifully. He harms no one and creates a convivial environment that discourages anti-social behaviour. For that alone, the city of Calgary should be paying HIM. Big bucks! How long do you think the average Calgarian would stand around listening to the average Calgary cop crooning standards? Ben Rose is a municipal treasure. Quit fining the poor guy and start appreciating his gifts.

Jeez-frickin' Louise!

on Oct 8th, 2009 at 8:25pm Report Abuse

appleman wrote:
Calgary should be doing everything it can to make it EASIER for artists to make a living--not HARDER! Not by adding more hoops! If you're good at what you do, and it makes Calgary a nicer place to be in, city hall should be looking at ways to make it as easy as possible!

Way to go Ben!

on Oct 8th, 2009 at 9:27pm Report Abuse

laricasurf wrote:
“If you want to sell CDs, there’s a thing called a record company.” What an ignorant statement.

on Oct 8th, 2009 at 11:34pm Report Abuse

Everybody's Talkin' about Ben Rose

"Everybody's Talkin" from Ben's new CD, Cowtown, is on the playlist at 97.7 fm. Show Calgary you support local music - and Ben Rose - by calling in or emailing your request.