London: the sound of the underground

There’s a new search for musicians to entertain passengers on the London Underground.

Transport for London (TFL) manages the Underground. It’s allowed live music there for more than 20 years. The musicians, or ‘buskers’, are the best part of their journey for many passengers.

The buskers are given special licences by TFL. Now, it’s choosing some new talent. Busking project manager Ann Gavaghan explains that they’re not just looking for guitarists.

Ann Gavaghan: "When you say "busker", people tend to think of, you know, a person with an acoustic guitar and as we've seen this morning, we've had a variety of people. We've had somebody with an electronic cello. We've had two people with saxophone, we've had a couple vocalists. So we've just had a mix of instruments. And that's one thing I really love about the scheme.”

Tube passengers aren’t a musician’s typical audience. But buskers like singer songwriter Macy O love playing for the crowd.

Macy O: "I love performing for people, I love showing people my voice and I love just sharing music around. So that is definitely something that I'm very excited about. That's a really, like, exciting aspect of this whole thing for me.”

Around 480 buskers applied for a TFL licence. 280 were chosen for the second round, where they play in front of a panel of judges. These judges are all talented musicians or station employees.

The team’s looking for a wide variety of musicians as well as people with talent. This is one reason why Michael Harvey wants to take part.

Michael Harvey: "Well, I personally think that you know quality is better than quantity. And with London being quite a very, very diverse city, it has a lot to give and offer hence why I think the underground system is trying to get a diversity of different acts and sounds and that's why here I am."

There’s a wide range of buskers on the Underground. The mix includes young students and older people looking for a new career. They’re always happy to play, but throw some money in their hats. This helps to keep music on the Underground! Weniger anzeigen