Now, of course, the streets are once again awash with troubadours, of varying degrees of talent from the barely discernible to the just about tolerable.

But one gent who seems to be taking it in, at the expense of other more accomplished buskers on Church Street, is a man who, well, certainly looks like he's enjoyed a rock and roll lifestyle in the past, and who plays along to a backing tape of various old sixties numbers.

Change literally pours into his cup, while other players nearby struggle to make anywhere near as much.

Perhaps it's to do with the fact that rather than playing a guitar, he is strumming along on a tennis racquet.

Well, the Liverpool Biennial arts festival is on at the moment, and some wandering around must think the gent is indulging in a spot of performance art as part of the proceedings.

Either way, the sight of a man merrily strumming the mesh of a tennis racquet must be to the chagrin of council neighbourhoods boss Cllr Steve Munby, whose intention to improve the calibre of the city's buskers had to be dropped in the face of the potentially costly process of defending against a High Court challenge.

Cheer up Steve: at least the old boy who jives while singing Eidleweiss outside Topshop on Lord Street seems to have moved on.

MR B knows well that when things into which one puts one's heart and soul do not work out or are met with scorn, inevitably it leaves one deflated and dejected and wondering what the point of it all is.

It would seem such existential wrangling has been keeping Cllr Munby awake at night, for he must really be missing out on his sleep.

This week he beat his own personal best in terms of tardiness in turning up at meetings.

For on Friday morning, the cabinet meeting, beginning 9am, was already 25 minutes in and winding up with any other business by the time he arrived, much to Mayor Anderson's quietly contained frustration - which Mr B suspects was not so well contained in private thereafter.

YOU really have to wonder what's going on with this cabinet. Maybe since Liverpool's had an executive mayor they feel a bit disengaged.

For when Mr B mentioned to one member the news announced during the meeting that veteran heritage campaigner Gabriel Muies was being made a Citizen Of Honour, it seemed the entire discussion of the matter had passed them by!