Lyric fm's Breakfast show presenter - Marty Whelan.

Marty Whelan si an example of a class readio presenter.
Great sense of humor, can actually play music, and doesn't need to be talking constantly unlike a lot of presenters on other stations.

The man learned his art a long time ago and his quality shines through.

Plus when he starts reading the Hugo/Myrtle sketch it puts a smile on my face.

Now that's priceless.

Marty is giving good coverage to Mickey Rooney's death today. He was 93! Hard to believe.

That was nice interview in the last half hour of the Marty Show this morning with a woman gardener. I didn't catch her name (maybe it was Frances) but she leads tours of gardens in Ireland and on the Continent. Be it Wexford gardens (only an hour away as she said) or the gardens of Lake Como with Dermot O'Neill the gardener it's all there to enjoy. She had a compost heap of lovely stories about gardening up in the Botanic Gardens until her knees gave out.

What was lovely lovely touch though was how she asked Mart to play something by Rufus Wainwright whose mother she used to know. She used to work on her own but now she does her tours through the Travel Department. She was saying how their business is making people happy. Making money is way down the list. Which is really nice.

But the really good touch after all the talk about Italian tomatoes, basil, wallflowers and hedges was when she asked for her final Desert Island Gardens Disc and it turned out to be the Flowers Duet from Lákmë by Delibes. Linking again you see. Which was good enough except that the duet was sung by Katherine Jenkins whose a friend of the Show. And using trick recording she was singing the two parts of the duet to herself. It was astonishing.

Before the whole thing as prep Mart played In a Monastery Garden, that used to be the signature tune of a gardening programme on the Beeb years ago.

'Come in Wikileaks, your dinner's poured out'

You need to turn your head around to his humour some mornings. I'm warming to him now. I used to be up early enough to have only 20 minutes overlap, into his feature.

I don't know how anyone can complain at that hour, the rest of the FM band is sterile.

Calina wrote: »

this thread occasionally reads like one giant advertising push for the Travel Department.

+1.

Was going to post exactly this this morning, but you beat me to it!

jmcc wrote: »

So more Ennio Morricone each day then?

No Tesco ads though?

Regards...jmcc

Actually Mart has distanced himself from Tesco and they've been forced to find someone else.

I didn't catch the number but the lady this morning from the Travel Department mentioned a number to call. They have two girls on the phones dedicated to booking the gardens trips.

Mart was mentioning that the Berlin trip is going to squeeze out some great radio when it comes and there are still a few remaining seats left.

If you look on the site you can see that Karen Canning won the Verona prize.
http://www.rte.ie/lyricfm/marty-in-the-morning/

In Berlin there will be opportunities to mingle with Mart and the team, as well as avail of shopping opportunities in Berlin where a branch of Hollinger is opening. And the show is going cross platform for the duration with inputs into national TV from the opera there. The Night of the Valkyries is one of the items to be done.

Getting us into the mood for Verona today was Santa Lucia by Bocelli - or "Just One Cornetto" as Marty calls it.

We had the bit of Hancock's Half Hour. Though not a full half-hour of it.

And Badenerie by Bach for the classical buffs in the audience coming up to the AA.

Yvonne23R wrote: »

Actually Mart has distanced himself from Tesco and they've been forced to find someone else.

So they fired him, then? I guess those voices must have been the last straw.

Mart was mentioning that the Berlin trip is going to squeeze out some great radio when it comes and there are still a few remaining seats left.

As others have noted, there is a blatent promotion of the Travel Department by you and Marty.

And Badenerie by Bach for the classical buffs in the audience coming up to the AA.

Did RTE ever show that Marty Does Verona show? (the one with that composer that you or Marty got confused with Superman (the red cape))?

Regards...jmcc

jmcc wrote: »

Does he actually play an Opera on a daily basis?

Still 8 places left. Hardly sold out but then you have to keep pushing that line.

So with 8 places remaining, there will be four sets of tickets to win?

Interestingly there are other Opera and Music tours but Marty isn't included.

Regards...jmcc

Do you have details of the others? I suppose it's not possible to Mart to get enough sabbattical leave to go on them all.

But yes Mart was giving advice on the show on Tuesday to someone like us who was just feeling his way in the classical stuff. He was asking about how to dip his toe into opera. Mart suggested that you can't go wrong with a bit of Puccini like Tosca or something. This is part of the service of the programme giving up spoonfuls of opera in a smorgasboard of more palatable music. Spoonfeeding the listener. But as Mary Poppins sang - give me a Spoonful of Sugar to help the Medicine go Down.

jmcc wrote: »

Just follow the link you posted. Apparently your beloved Marty is only doing one but there are many more available. Curiously Marty was the only one photographed with a book on the subject on which he is supposed to be an expert. Are we to take that as a sign of insecurity or perhaps someone who is an aficionado trying to enforce the idea of being an expert because he reads a book or two on the subject?

A real listener?

But has he actually played any Puccini on the show? Would he consider replacing the MOTR stuff with Opera?

Regards...jmcc

Actually I can't see any photo of Mart on that site. Can you direct me to it? I imagine Mart would be holding the tome for posing purposes not to read out because he's extremely polished.

I wish I could go to hear his Berlin lecture because he brings a great informality to opera and softens us up for it. He knows Puccini from his earliest days. Most people here really only got to know it at the time of Italia 90, so Mart has been miles ahead of us. And in fact he did play a bit of Puccini on the Show this morning. O soave fanciula, which Marty often says means My suave something or other. But soave is actually a kind of Italian wine. Which Mart knows because he has chatted with Neven about it.

A piece of Puccini is a sweet way to get the day started and he often does. Like the other one O Mia Bambino Caro. Marty said there was a car one called a Fit Bambino and that the song could be about that. :rolleyes: Hayley Westenra has a good cover of that that Marty often has in his briefcase for us of a morning.

jmcc wrote: »

Well you were the one posting the link to the site. Look at the "meet our experts" page.

Opera was very much a popular form of entertainment in its day. It is only with the advent of electronic entertainment that it largely became the preserve of those who could afford the high prices. And they are far removed from the intended audience and for many, they are just songs in a different language and a social occasion to be seen at rather than a pleasure to hear.

Well Marty does look a bit old but we would never have guessed he was that old.

So would Marty care to drop the MOTR stuff in favour of some Opera and some commentary on the pieces that he plays?

Regards...jmcc

Thanks. What an extraordinary photograph! I found that eventually. It's an unexpecetd photograph. I've seen that book around, so I might get my own copy.
http://www.traveldepartment.ie/about-us/meet-our-experts/

Mart has just had an email in to him from a dog. It was written by the dog with his nose. (Or maybe it's a girl dog.) But it was gas. And that was after Harry Secombe who's birthday is today was on singing a song and then in a excerpt from one of the better Goon Shows. Linking again you see.

And someone in Co Kildare has now just one a Marty Moustache.

The whole show is just a smorgasboard of delights. Like a buffet wedding for the ears.

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Newsflash! !!

Just turned over to Lyric and there was music playing! Wonders will never cease!

And in other news, Yvonne, you'll give us all diabetes with your saccharine-sweet posts, go easy please, for all our sakes :eek:

Marty played the Beethoven Chorale Symphony this morning! :cool:

But enough of that!

Not only that but he had in the head of the ESB Feis Ceol thats been running in the RDS with generous support from ESB and the involvement of RTE and the girl who won most of the prizes with her cups. She's getting a chance to conduct our own RTE Concert Orchestra who can play anything from Bach to Bacharach. And Marty gave her some useful hints about TV appearances because there is going to be a major TV documentary on her on RTE on 11 May. Which is the day after Ireland wins the Eurovision Mart said.

Huge interest this morning too in Myrtle & Daphne who were spouting poetry which is a first. :eek:

And finally all I have to say is to be kind to each other here. Marty signed off today with Morecambe & Wise singing Bring Me Sunshine and it really and truly sets the tone for what's going to be a lovely, lovely, sunny, day.

Yvonne23R wrote: »

The whole show is just a smorgasboard of delights. Like a buffet wedding for the ears.

No, it's not. He's sounding more and more like a TB victim on speed with a lisp.

It's car-crash radio. RTE need to make a decision whether Lyric is BBC Radio 2 or BBC Radio 3. Right now, it's neither and they're haemorrhaging market-share.