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