Brian Lupton busking at Birkenhead’s Pyramid Shopping Centre on Saturday

May 13 2009 Birkenhead News

THE gates to the Pyramids will be ringing with folk and country this Saturday, as Brian Lupton embarks on a charity ‘buskathon’.

The grandfather-of-four has been strumming away on his guitar for decades, and is set to put his expertise to practise at the weekend with four continuous hours of music.

Brian said: “I’ll be 69-years-old next birthday and I’ve been singing for about 40 years so I could probably sing for about two days on my own if I wanted to.”

But Brian is hoping he’ll be joined by other musicians, inspired to jump home from a day shopping and pick up their instruments to join in.

He said: “If anybody is passing or they have a guitar at home I’d definitely encourage them to come along and join in.”

Between 11.30am and 3.30pm on Saturday, Brian will be belting out folk and country classics under the glass structure, near Curry’s, on the way into Birkenhead’s Pyramid Shopping Centre.

All donations will go to charities, Claire House and Christian Aid.

The idea came up as he and friends were discussing how to publicise June’s Folk on the Coast event, and somebody suggested heading out on to the streets to busk, share the music and maybe make a little money for good causes too.

It worked two years ago, so the retired guest house owner decided to give it another go.

He said: “The ambience and feedback from people was brilliant.

“It really added to the atmosphere of Saturday hustle and bustle.”