Have you ever spent hours with an infuriatingly playable tune occupying your skull, with no instrument upon which to sate your desires? Have you wasted hours desperately seeking out anything with playable keys, only to collapse in a defeated heap, eventually crawling to your nearest Pimm’s distributor for liquid solace?
Suffer no more, my musically-minded reader. Help is at hand. The splendid people at Street Piano have distributed 30 of their inspirational instruments around London town for the delectation of inhabitants and visitors alike, as part of the Sing London 2009 festival. Here’s Jools Holland playing one and chatting to the BBC about what a nice idea it is.
To make the hunt a bit easier there’s a map of their locations, but it’s just as good surely to know that they’re around and spottable for a bit of spontaneous playing. They’ll be in town until 13th July, when they’ll be back on their travels, nomadically exploring our most pleasant cities (Bristol will be next to welcome 20 pianos in September).
The public are also encouraged to photograph and decorate the instruments, which are public property of a sort, after all. So if you’re feeling the need, get out there and find some ivories to tinkle.
Words: Helen True
Images: Luke Jerram