Throwaway talent for singing rubbish

Charlie Cavey and his singing litter bin is a fixture in the English university city of Cambridge and a hit with the tourists.

English music student Charlie Cavey is quite used to people shouting that his music is "rubbish!"

But they say it with broad smiles on their faces, as Cavey, from the university city of Cambridge, plays guitar and sings from the cramped confines of an old-style British litter bin.

With his lanky, 1.77m frame bent nearly double inside the 1.10m bin, just the guitar neck and his left forearm visible, Cavey, 26, mock-croons his way through a 14-song repertoire ranging from Tom Jones to Cat Stevens and Oasis.

Passers-by invariably respond with amusement to the sublimely silly sight and stop for a while. This northern summer, the genial Cavey and his bin were one of Cambridge's most-photographed sights.

"I have never seen anything like it!" exclaims American tourist Emily Pierce, as her 13-month-old son Isoiza does a toddler jiggle to the sounds coming from the bin.

An elderly man wearing a Muslim skullcap stops to tell Cavey he is "brilliant!" before strolling on.

The noisy gaggles of English-language students common to Cambridge in summer are momentarily silenced as they whip out their phones to take pictures.

Life in the bin pays better than bar work, says Cavey, unfolding himself a bit painfully from the 65cm-wide bin after a 20-minute stint. He makes at least $15 in that time - the maximum before pins and needles set in - but only $10 an hour at the local pub.

The act came about after Cavey, a music student at Cambridge's Anglia Polytechnic University, noticed that the bins had doors that swung outwards, allowing just enough space to crouch.

When the local council changed the 230kg bins for lighter, less terrorist-friendly versions, Cavey got his hands on one.

He stores it in an alleyway belonging to a couple of friendly pubs in the heart of tourist territory, and uses a trolley to get it to the footpath.

Initially, Cavey put a hat on top of the bin and harangued people from it.

After learning to play guitar, he extended the act and his singing litter bin has been a Cambridge fixture for the past five summers.