This would have been a cool Christmas Eve surprise to stumble upon.
Glen Hansard (Swell Season), Bono, Damien Rice, and Mundy teamed for a busking session on Dublin’s Grafton Street (the same street where Hansard’s character performs in the film Once.) They played for about an hour and raised money for homeless charity Simon Community.
Have you ever seen anyone famous busking? I saw Belle & Sebastian play an impromptu set for fans waiting in line for festival tickets in England, which was pretty cool but not exactly busking on the street or subway…
I didn’t catch it personally, but you can find a clip of Bruce Springsteen singing his song “The River” on the street – he borrowed the guitar from an unknown busker
The clip of Springsteen singing on the street is from Copenhagen in Denmark
I gave money to Tracy Bonham in Boston, before “Mother Mother” made her a star. =)
Based on the last decade of her career, I suspect she’s back out there now!
OK that’s hilarious and probably true!
i saw arcade fire playing in union square at 2am one night way back right after funeral came out. it was pretty amazing.
Well, there’s the infamous case of Joshua Bell busking in the Washington DC Metro. Although that was an experiment run by the Washington Post. Almost no one noticed.
This is unbelievable. Damien Rice is my favorite musician, and I also love Swell Season deeply. Consider me jealous.
I was gonna say the same thing!
You really need to stop this kind s posts! Very annoying!
I like that EW in 48 hours can whine that celebrities are not role models and then hold them out as role models.
Please re-read the blog. They never mention Bono, et al being role models. The author simply states that she would have liked to see Bono & company playing on the streets like that. It’s never mentioned as a noble gesture or anything along those lines.
What a great idea! How much money we could raise if every friggin BIG STAR took to the streets for charity.
Bono is constantly raising money for charity. He is very active in many causes.
What is busking?
Jamming outside, usually in subways, or other public places, for spare change.
well, considering that Bono was basically performing not far outside of his own hotel, that is not too much out of his way, but, it is a nice thing to do, nonetheless.