The Courier Mail 4/29/06

Thanks to Cindy:

GUITAR MAN: Russell Crowe performs with his band on the Queen Street Mall stage

Russ the busker - by LUCY CARNE - 29apr06

HE has been a gladiator, a boxer and a maths prodigy, but yesterday Russell Crowe became a shoppers' superstar.

Appearing on the Queen Street Mall stage – a venue usually reserved for Australian Idols and local jazz troupes – the Oscar-winning actor performed six tracks from his new album My Hand My Heart in front of a crowd of adoring fans, stunned tourists and bemused shoppers.

There were no red carpets or paparazzi for the multi-millionaire, just a quick backstage smoke captured by a sea of mobile phones before he ran onstage to join his besuited band The Ordinary Fear of God.

"Okey dokey," he said, launching into his first track, Weight of a Man, dedicated to his wife Danielle Spencer and "any young women hoping one day to be a wife . . . and to any men who may want to be a wife, too."

Dressed in a sharp black pinstripe suit, Crowe charmed the 400 people who gathered to watch him play, including some who had no idea a star was in their midst.

"Oh my God, is that Russell Crowe? I thought it was just some crap Aussie band," British backpacker Lucy Moon, 19, said.

"You don't exactly expect to see the Gladiator in a Brisbane shopping mall.

"I'm going to call my mum. She will not believe me."

Some gave the music a big thumbs-down.

"It totally sucked," Roji Lindsay, 14, of Ashgrove said. "It's too loud and too musical."

But others had journeyed across the world to see Crowe and his band perform.

Washington DC women's rights lobbyist Cathy Gallagher was part of a 30-strong American contingent who travelled to Australia to follow the star's shows.

"I love the music and I love the stories," she said.

"It's a connection with these stories that makes it really special."

Despite seeing Crowe and his band perform "maybe 20 or 30 times" Ms Gallagher had never witnessed them in a shopping street.

"This is somewhat unusual and one of the reasons why I'm here," she said.

This year Crowe has decided to focus on his music and family, doing only one film – Ridley Scott's A Good Year.

It's a decision which has reportedly cost the actor megabucks with BRW magazine estimating his earnings have dropped from $27 million in 2004 to $5 million in 2005.