London: the sound of the underground

The London Underground’s looking for musicians.

Three and a half million people use underground trains every day. Lots of people enjoy music in the stations.

The musicians are ‘buskers’. They play for free. But they need a licence.

People think buskers just play the guitar. But they play many instruments. Ann Gavaghan works for London Underground.

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.”

People don’t listen to buskers for long. But busker Macy O loves singing and sharing music.

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.”

480 musicians wanted a busking licence. 280 got to the second stage auditions. At this stage, they have to play for experts. These are musicians and London Underground workers.

They want to see talent. But they want different kinds of music and people too. Musician Michael Harvey thinks this is important.

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."

Many different people want to busk on the Underground. Some are students. Others want a new start after years of work. When you’re at the station, give them some money. Then, there will always be music on the Underground. Weniger anzeigen