Tribute

At a wonderful jam packed service in Leeds Minister we celebrated the life and personality of Jonny Walker. This was my tribute.

Jonny was a man with a mission.

With his Keep Streets Live Campaign he was one the most determined, articulate and effective campaigners for a cause I have ever encountered. I first met him at a meeting of the London Busking Taskforce set up by the London Mayor’s Office to ensure that voluntary solutions to any busking issues were found rather than resorting to heavy handed bureaucracy.

Ironically as we met in City Hall a band of young musicians was being arrested for busking in Leicester Square.

I then hosted another meeting of the group at the House of Lords. Our work resulted in the launch of Busk in London and a new voluntary code of busking conduct across the city.

We were all veterans in one way or another of live music campaigns but Jonny was exceptional. Jonny was a active busker the length and breadth of the country and had experienced for himself the attempts by local authorities to restrict what they saw as a social nuisance but which he and we saw as an attempt to stifle street musicians and freedom of expression.

He had already shown how voluntary agreements on busking could work and had persuaded Liverpool and York councils to adopt a voluntary code of practice.

As a demonstration of his dislike for compulsory restrictions he took Camden Council to court for adopting an onerous busking licensing scheme under the London Local Authorities Act.

What made Jonny so special was his mischievous sense of humour allied to his deep understanding of the legal issues involved.

A great example was when he and fellow buskers launched “The Church of the Holy Kazoo” religious group in Camden because the licensing scheme introduced by the Council didn’t apply to religious groups who wanted to perform. So Jonny and his colleagues created a new religious group to get round the restrictions and illustrate the futility of this new licensing regime.

In the same vein he was a great exponent of using YouTube to embarrass officials over using unjustified powers. Many of us saw his Romford Youtube video and were shocked by how far we had come in limiting freedom of expression in British towns.

He will be mourned in Leeds and Norwich too where he was active. But his influence went much wider . He highlighted busking issues in Newcastle, Bournemouth, Doncaster, Havering, Ha Indy, Canterbury, Swindon, Birmingham, Oxford, Chester Exeter, Gravesham and Bath all the time campaigning against restrictions, some petty, some major, all designed to erode traditional freedoms through instruments such the new Public Space Protection Orders.

At the end of last year we heard that because of the efforts of Jonny and our campaign we have succeeded in changing official guidance to ensure that it is much more difficult to ban busking through these orders.

In their obituaries, so many of our local newspapers saw him as part of their local culture. They claimed him as their own. Every major city and town across the country will miss him. Who will fight the bureaucrats and push back against the gradgrinds now?

Jonny was a bright light, infectiously enthusiastic and extremely likeable. He will be missed by his loyal fans across the country. He will be missed by his fellow campaigners. With an eclectic collection of headgear on head, guitar in hand and maybe with kazoo in mouth, Jonny we will miss you sorely.