Not just Once - a short story about Glen Hansard

The Irish singer songwriter Glen Hansard is one of Ireland’s finest musicians.  He quit school early and began busking in Dublin, and went on to form his own band The Frames and later The Swell Season. Some may remember him as a guitar player in Alan Parker’s film The Commitments in 1990, but it was not until 2008 that the wider world really discovered him.  Alongside fellow musician Marketa Irglova, he starred in a low budget small film called Once. The film cost about £100K to make and was shot in 3 weeks on two Handicams. A low-key story about a disillusioned failing musician lifted out of depression by a young immigrant Czech girl, the story was infused with Irish music, but was not your typical cineplex affair.  It won an award at Sundance in 2007 and their song Falling Slowly won the Oscar for Best Song. Their speeches on Oscar night were a joy of genuine humility and wonder.  Roll the musician’s story forward a decade as Hansard made some records, fronted his own shows around the world and toured with the great names of rock.  Meanwhile, Once was adapted into a stage musical.  Borne out of a small production Off-Broadway, the play went on to win eleven Tony Award nominations, winning eight, including Best Musical.  I saw the London edition of the show twice at The Pheonix Theatre in 2013.  It was designed to have much of the intimacy of the original film, and you could buy a pint of Guinness at the Bar on stage before the show and during the Interval.  Hansard in recent years played live with Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam, Ed Sheeran and wrote songs for the soundtrack of the film The Hunger Games.  Roll the story forward to late 2020.  Europe is in lockdown. Theatre, music venues, folk clubs, and bars are closed across the world with Ireland’s lockdown particularly tough on the hospitality sector throughout the past twelve months. For a musician who thrives on a visceral sense of performance and audience in close proximity, this must have been a nightmare. What do you do?! Then this little video appears on YouTube.  Hansard singing and playing guitar, watched by a very small audience indeed. I don’t know the back story, but Hansard is in Sicily, busking again like he did in Dublin in 1984.  As he says when a few coins land, Grazie Mille!