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\nEarly Frames<\/p>\n
Back in Dublin’s scuzzy early nineties music scene, nobody was quite sure what to make of Glen Hansard.<\/p>\n
The intense and passionate young fella from Ballymun with the long mane of red hair and the massive voice had first come to attention playing guitarist Outspan Foster in Alan Parker\u2019s glorious adaption of Roddy Doyle\u2019s novel The Commitments, a hilarious tale of the rise and fall of a young Dublin soul band.<\/p>\n
But it turned out this Hansard lad had a band of his own. They were called The Frames, named after the tangle of broken bicycles that could often be seen lying around his mother\u2019s garden as he set about repairing them, and they were terribly unfashionable.<\/p>\n
\nEarly Frames<\/p>\n
At a time when ironic cool had supplanted rock ‘n’ roll passion, The Frames looked and sounded singularly out of step with what was going on around them. As for Glen, well, he was just too arty, too gauche. This windswept bohemian looked like he had just arrived fresh from Dublin\u2019s 1960s folk boom.<\/p>\n
His band played a kind of turbo-charged emo-folk that detractors christened raggle-taggle. Glen sang with a pained solemnity that was singularly at odds with nineties post-modern ennui.<\/p>\n
Cynics sniped that Hansard, a graduate of Dublin’s thriving busking scene, had formed his band off the back of the success of The Commitments but The Frames had been a going concern before Mr Parker came calling. In fact, Glen would later say he regretted taking the role as Outspan because he felt it distracted from his music career.<\/p>\n
However, back then The Frames were just another motley gang of hopefuls in a “city of a thousand rock bands” but nobody reckoned on Glen Hansard\u2019s infectious self-belief and his utter dedication to the restorative and transformative power of music.<\/p>\n
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\nThe Commitments<\/p>\n
Of course, the band went on to become one of the most powerful live acts in the country, releasing six albums of increasing musical sophistication. As for Glen, he kept on keeping on, establishing himself as one of Ireland\u2019s most steadfast and respected singer songwriters.<\/p>\n
As it turned out, nobody could deny his brand of spiritual folk rock – all surging verses and rousing choruses – and his talent for crafting cathartic anthems. The Frames front man, solo artist, occasional actor, and Oscar-winner was a man who lived for the stage and the communal buzz of a live audience. He always wore his heart on his artfully ruffled sleeve.<\/p>\n
The terrible news of Glen’s death at the age of 56 in a motorcycle crash this morning up in the Strawberry Beds above Dublin is a raw and terrible shock. It comes just weeks before he was due to undertake a tour across Ireland, with dates in Sligo, Kilkenny, Galway, Meath, Cork, Belfast, Limerick, and Killarney to support his two recent live albums.<\/p>\n
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Just three weeks ago, he played at the summer season of gigs in Trinity College in Dublin in what is now his very last Irish gig. That recent performance makes his sudden passing all the more tragic. Hansard had one child, four-year-old Christy, with his partner, poet Maire Saaritsa, and the couple had been living in Ireland and Helsinki.<\/p>\n
He was born in Ballymun, Dublin, on 21 April 1970 (as he used to quip with an impish grin, “We used to look down on people who lived in Finglas”).<\/p>\n
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He began performing music at a young age, busking on the streets of Dublin after quitting school at the age of 13. He formed The Frames in 1990. Signed first to Island Records and then Trevor Horn\u2019s ZTT label (once home to Frankie Goes to Hollywood), across albums like Another Love Song, Fitzcarraldo, Dance the Devil, For the Birds, Burn the Maps and The Cost, they became one of Ireland\u2019s most respected acts.<\/p>\n
Listening back now to tracks like Perfect Opening Line, Pavement Song, The Stars Are Underground, and Revelate, which memorably was accompanied by a promo video shot on a CCTV camera, Hansard\u2019s sheer commitment and belief is still palpable, the music is still elemental and moving.<\/p>\n
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However, a decisive international breakthrough eluded the band but they were to have a huge influence on a new generation of Irish acts including Mundy, Paddy Casey, David Kitt, Damien Dempsey, Damien Rice and later, Ed Sheeran and Dermot Kennedy.<\/p>\n
For a while it looked like Glen was to become a member of Ireland\u2019s already well-stocked gallery of beloved but not terribly successful music acts, playing to increasingly selective audiences. But just as some of us always suspected it would, huge success was to arrive for Hansard in 2007 when he collaborated with former Frames member, filmmaker John Carney, and Czech songwriter Mark\u00e9ta Irglov\u00e1 on the film Once.<\/p>\n
A deceptively simple piece, it told the story of a fledgling love affair between a Dublin busker and a Czech musician who form a creative partnership and perform songs together as an act called The Swell Season. The film was a minor classic that really got to the heart and mystery of music-making and gave its leads a new lease of life as performers.<\/p>\n
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\nOscar glory for Hansard and Mark\u00e9ta Irglov\u00e1<\/p>\n
Almost miraculously, the film\u2019s lead song Falling Slowly won Hansard and Irglov\u00e1 an Oscar the following year and Once went on to a Tony Award winning Broadway run and is still performed all over the world today.<\/p>\n
Irglov\u00e1 and Hansard later recorded and toured as The Swell Season and made a behind the scenes film in 2013. There was also a Frames documentary the same year, entitled In The Deep Shade.<\/p>\n
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