Buskers are given marching orders; COURT: Pair who played just two songs are banned after driving city residents to distraction.

Byline: Mark Cowan

A 'BUSKING duo from hell' who turned Moseley into anything but an oasis with their renditions of just two songs have been turfed out of the area.

Guitar-strumming James Ryan and pal Andrew Stevens, who would bash out tunes on dustbin lids and street furniture with drumsticks, only knew two hits - Wonderwall by Oasis and George Michael's Faith.

But the plug has now been pulled on their impromptu gigs after fed-uresidents, plagued by their late night begging antics, claim it turned Moseley Village into a nightmare of loud noise and fighting.

Now 40-year-old Ryan, from Dollery Drive, Edgbaston, and Stevens, also known as Andrew Cave, aged 39, of no fixed address, have agreed to be banned from entering parts of Moseley and playing musical instruments in public in the area.

The pair were also banned from begging anywhere in England and Wales. They were warned they faced jail if they breached the twoyear anti-social behaviour orders handed down yesterday by Dis-tricJudge Qureshi at Birmingham Magistrates Court.

After the hearing, Ryan said: "The whole thing's about playing a guitar, it's a joke. Most people loved it."

But Coun Ayoub Khan, Cabinet Member for Local Services and Community Safety, said: "I'm pleased that visitors and residents of Moseley will no longer be subject to this duo's anti-social behaviou r."

One resident was forced to call police 60 times after attempts to talk to the pair was met with "abuse and threats".

Matt Williams, aged 43, who has since moved out of the area, said: "I break down every time I hear Wonderwall or the intro to Faith. It was just one after the other, it was awful.

"They would go on until four, five or six in the morning. It was horrendous. It completely affected my life."

A Birmingham City Council spokesman said the pair stood outside various pubs or near cashpoints and taxi ranks in Moseley, singing and begging, often playing from early evening into the early hours.

As well as the excessive noise nuisance, fights would often break out between groups heading home, he added.

CAPTION(S):

Outside court: Andrew Stevens and James Ryan.