Bono is among the big-name musicians paying tribute to Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard.
Hansard, best known for the 2007 movie Once and his work with The Frames and Swell Season, died on Wednesday in a motorcycle crash. He was 56.
Hansard’s fellow Irishman Bono took to his band U2’s Instagram to post a heartfelt tribute, calling Hansard an “angelic presence” and a “voice of the streets.”
Bono further called him “the shining star of the Christmas Eve Busk,” referencing the annual charity concert that they and other Irish performers participated in to raise money for those in need.
“He really was who you thought he was,” the U2 singer wrote. “He could never walk by a person living rough without checking they were OK… and more than that, he worked very hard so that less people had to live on the streets in the first place.
“When the crowds got bigger [at the Christmas Eve Busk] and for safety’s sake, Glen had to agree to move the Busk to a stage kindly provided outside the Gaiety Theatre, he would say, ‘We’ll give it our best but it’s not a busk if we’re not on the street!’ …because that’s who he was — a performer at eye level in any situation. The stage was a separation he wouldn’t recognise.
“Of all the grand and gigantic venues he and the Frames played, you sensed the street was his most favoured place to perform. And street people, his favourite audience.”
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Bono continued: “For me, he will always be everywhere I see a coin spinning into an open guitar case.”
Hansard won the Oscar for Best Original Song for “Falling Slowly” from Once. The stage version later won eight Tonys. He recorded several albums with both The Frames and Swell Season, the latter a duo with his Once co-star, Markéta Irglová.
