Viral – Wayne 52

[For a quick guide go here: Quick guide.]

[There's some back story here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and read more recent Wayne episodes maybe this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

Wayne sat on the balcony strumming his guitar haphazardly. He occasionally hummed something but really couldn’t be bothered. Dave was out working. Cath was off for the weekend. Jezzy was gaming manically with whoever else was up for it.

“Can you play anything by The Beatles?” A voice came up to him. Without pause he realised he could so he did. He played Get Back in a laid back way, but gradually became more caught up in the song. By the end he was on his feet, the balcony for a stage and had attracted a small crowd on the paving area outside, looking up at him.

The crowd were suitably distancing, but hanging out nonetheless, enjoying his vibe. He wasn’t certain they’d clocked who he was but someone down there liked him. A couple were even dancing.

“Come down and play some more,” yelled someone. And others in the crowd agreed.

Over on Instagram a photo, sadly a bit out of focus, but also enhanced with a cascade of animated love hearts, appeared on the account of a crowd member. ‘Just chillin’ it with a guitarist who’s killin’ it,’ read the caption, followed by a shedload of useful hashtags.

The owner of this Instagram account was a fitness fanatic and had built quite a following over a couple of months when they had shown their journey to their current state of extreme fitness. They had links across a national gym chain and soon all those branches were viewing, liking and sharing this idyllic setting and more people were realising that it wasn’t that far away.

Why not? thought Wayne as he went downstairs. Bit of busking in the glow of a young spring evening. He dropped Cath a line for the hell of it. She might like to pop over and chill for a bit too.

Once downstairs a few people recognised him and several lads took a range of selfies with him. When asked he said he was just over visiting a friend, this was a simple enough take to spin so no one would clock where he lived.

Over on Twitter #ManzDownBusking started to warm up.

Grinning from ear to ear he found another cover version to go into. This time it was Here Comes The Sun. another warm hopeful classic.

A few phones were now trained on him. A live video hit FaceBook and another made Instagram. Cath, now walking as fast as she could away from her shared flat, clocked, retweeted and shared as much as she could. The likes were building while at the building itself the crowd was growing and liking everything that happened.

In another part of town, Jezzy, put his helmet on, revved his bike and headed toward Wayne’s place, gunning it down a few side streets. He’d caught Cath’s retweets and dived into the oceanic social media build. He didn’t need to be asked to attend.

Cath arrived and by now had to thread through an impressive but still distancing crowd. She stood to one side and watched the groups of people singalong, sway and generally enjoy the evening. She lifted her phone and recorded it too. Breaking between songs, Wayne advised everyone to stay safe and wears masks if they wanted to. Nice touch, thought Cath. Man of the people. Keep it real.

When Jezzy took his helmet off, Wayne was strumming though a rather cool version of Girl Put Your Records On.

A live TikTok ploughed through the airwaves as Jezzy beat-boxed the intro to Who Am I and The crowd cheered its approval as Wayne turned in a semi-impro version of the song. Updated and upbeat.

The night drew in, the crowd dispersed. Jezzy and Cath headed home and Wayne carried the guitar back upstairs. (To his mate's house.)

He was still flicking through his media channels, answering questions, thanking people for their time and thoughts and more when Dave got home.

“What you been up to?” he asked, cracking open a beer for himself and one for Wayne.

“Not much,” said Wayne. “Played a few songs, watched people, said hi to Jezzy.”

“U-huh,” said Dave, taking a swig.

“You busy?” asked Wayne.

“Non-stop,” said Dave. “Nice to be back, even if it’s not full capacity. You should come over sometime. Drum up some support if you can.”

“Yeah, sure,” said Wayne. “Probably can. You know, you should use social media.”