Busker quits playing in Leeds to 'put safety first'

A singer with more than one million TikTok followers has announced he will no longer busk in Leeds after he was harassed while performing.

Jason Allan is a musician from Shropshire who travels around the UK busking and playing small venues.

A TikTok video he posted showing a confrontation with group of young men reached 17 million views last week.

He said the confrontation was a result of the men repeatedly touching his equipment.

The video shows Mr Allan being approached by four or five men, one of whom slaps him, then he squares up to him in response.

Mr Allan said it was becoming increasingly difficult to busk, with people having less money and not carrying cash.

He said: "I've been doing it for like 20 years. It's got more difficult to be a busker.

"I have found other ways to make an income so that the busking isn't my full-time income."

After the incident Mr Allan made a video saying his last busk in Leeds would be on Thursday, followed by a gig at Belgrave Music Hall on 5 July.

"It was a couple of things that happened in a very short period of time, which just didn't make me feel like the seven-hour round trip was becoming worth it any more for me," he said.

"It's not a decision that I made lightly, but I think sometimes you've just got to put your safety first.

"These kind of things can happen anywhere and everywhere. I wasn't singling Leeds out as the worst place ever, I've had situations in Birmingham, in Liverpool, Glasgow, it's not just Leeds, these things do happen all over the place.

"It was just the perfect storm of a couple of bad things happening and the virality of the video meant the reason I was in Leeds got lost and I wasn't able to focus on the main thing, which was the music."

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