Okay, it is news of yesteryear by now (quite literally), but still I am positive that it is worth a mention what Dubliners may have witnessed this Christmas Eve if they happened to walk the shopping streets of their city.
U2's Bono turns street musicion for charity on Christmas Eve in Dublin
U2 frontman Bono teamed up with Swell Season’s Glen Hansard to become street musicians and play for charity. Bono and Glen were also joined by highly popular Irish songwriters Damien Rice and Mundy in the fundraising action, that aimed to help Irish charity Simon Community, that supports homeless people in various communities throughout Ireland.
The busking-turned -superstar-jam-session took place on Dublin’s well known Grafton street, that, interestingly, was also a most important location of hit cult movie Once, in which Glen Hansard’s character was a busker playing on the very same spot.
“That was incredible,” Hot Press quoted an astonished onlooker. “I was out innocently doing my shopping when I saw a crowd gathered. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I had a closer look – you might expect to see someone like Mundy doing something like this for charity, but there were three huge stars there, giving it loads. It really added to the Christmas eve atmosphere. The only problem is I had one more present to get but the shop is closed now!”
Although there is no word on how much the bunch of superstar buskers managed to raise for the good cause, but they were reported to play for over an hour. The “show” included U2’s One, Bob Dylan’s Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door and You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, Ben King’s Stand By Me and a version of Mic Christopher’s Heyday, performed by Mic’s best friend, Glen Hansard. Obviously all of these songs were joined by the numerous audience singing along with the artists.
While Bono has been well known for his charity work (well, for other things, too), Glen Hansard is no different. A few days before Christmas, on Dec 21, 2009. Hansard was the special guest for the Dublin Simon Community’s ‘The Longest Night’ fundraising concert. The concert arranged on the longest night of the year (which is the worst night for the homelesses) aimed to raise EUR 100,000 ($144,000) to support homeless Dubliners. On the video above you can see a part of his show given at Dublin’s Button Factory.
The Dublin branch of Simon Community aids some 2,000 homeless people on a daily bases.
