Lyric fm's Breakfast show presenter - Marty Whelan.

Yvonne23R · 25-07-2013 11:52pm

shoegirl wrote: »

You're clearly not au fait with typical operatic performance prices. Royal opera house, where Renee will say farewell to London in Rosenkavalier in 2014 is typically 10-200 uk pounds a seat (25 if you want to actually see anything), the Met ranges from 20 bucks to around 440 dollars (again 100 dollars if you want to see a face rather than top of a wig). The NCH prices are a snip compared to gala pricing on bigger stages. It's rare to see more than 100 euro on a Ticket price there.

I am a poor person who has to work for her living. I'm not like the snobs here who are always giving out about Marty Whelan when they have their big Volvo 4 by 4s to be dropping their children off to school with their Handel CDs blaring out trying to show off that they're better than the rest of us. So I can't afford those prices or to go to the Met or to London. But I can go the the Concerthall in Dublin when the ticket prices are reasonable and Renee was too dear. But we got tickets for Ennio and we wil like this and millions of people all over Ireland will like it and enjoy it.

AND I think Marty does a great job giving us music that people can listen to an enjoy and he makes lots of people very happy listening to his jokes and all his banter with the AA people. And he gives us pieces of the heavy classical with the more enjoyable music and some of it is good. He knows what he's doing becuase he is a radio expert. Signs on that his big slagger here had to admit that his number of listeners has gone up by a huge figure.

Almaviva · 26-07-2013 12:15am

Yvonne23R wrote: »

I am a poor person who has to work for her living. I'm not like the snobs here who are always giving out about Marty Whelan when they have their big Volvo 4 by 4s to be dropping their children off to school with their Handel CDs blaring out trying to show off that they're better than the rest of us. So I can't afford those prices or to go to the Met or to London. But I can go the the Concerthall in Dublin when the ticket prices are reasonable and Renee was too dear. But we got tickets for Ennio and we wil like this and millions of people all over Ireland will like it and enjoy it.

AND I think Marty does a great job giving us music that people can listen to an enjoy and he makes lots of people very happy listening to his jokes and all his banter with the AA people. And he gives us pieces of the heavy classical with the more enjoyable music and some of it is good. He knows what he's doing becuase he is a radio expert. Signs on that his big slagger here had to admit that his number of listeners has gone up by a huge figure.

Is tired and emotional the term ?

jmcc · 26-07-2013 12:21am

Yvonne23R wrote: »

I am a poor person who has to work for her living.

And nobody else has to work? You make yourself sound like Miriam O'Callaghan or Marian Finnucane.

I'm not like the snobs here who are always giving out about Marty Whelan when they have their big Volvo 4 by 4s to be dropping their children off to school with their Handel CDs blaring out trying to show off that they're better than the rest of us.

Those are Marty's listeners you are talking about. As I pointed out earlier, there are two types of people when it comes to Classical - those who listen to it because they like it and those who listen to it because they think it is the done thing.

AND I think Marty does a great job giving us music that people can listen to an enjoy and he makes lots of people very happy listening to his jokes and all his banter with the AA people.

He is a talk radio DJ who is completely out of place on what was a Classical station. He attracts the kind of listeners who may have become bored with Tubridy.

And he gives us pieces of the heavy classical with the more enjoyable music and some of it is good.

It is funny that you try to categorise all Classical music as "heavy classical". Marty is just trying to impose a low-brow mix on what was formerly a high-brow station. He really should be on RTE1 or 2FM where that kind of mix works. However he was axed from 2FM because he lost so many listeners (if I remember correctly). He was probably a bit too young for RTE1 so the RTE management dumped in LyricFM.

He knows what he's doing becuase he is a radio expert.

Evidently the management are not so expert given the massive losses.

Signs on that his big slagger here had to admit that his number of listeners has gone up by a huge figure.

What were the numbers? How many new listeners did he acquire?

Regards...jmcc

Onthe3rdDay · 26-07-2013 2:26am

Those figures from Lyric are terrible and to be fair the only person that seems to gain anything at all is Marty, but he’s also the main problem. I know several people that now listen to CD’s in the car in the mornings or listen to BBC Radio 4 or 5 if they’ve good enough reception.

These people are generally tired of Irish radio and our general complaints. Lyric was an Oasis of calm. It’s how it was marketed once upon a time. Listenership was small but growing gently.

Then someone decided that Marty needed the work. This isn’t Marty’s fault. I used to enjoy him when he worked on Breakfast for Century. However, he’s not suited to this station format.

It’s one of the very few stations in the Western World that gains listeners after the Breakfast Show ends, that should tell you something.

Unfortunately It’s possible that the rest of the day’s schedule will be filled up with Marty like chatter. After all Marty works in the Morning doesn’t he???

One more reason to head off Island.

Yvonne23R · 26-07-2013 7:33pm

I don't know if you heard the Marty Whelan show this morning but he got a call from a lady in the NCT in Ballymun. She said she had served him yesterday and that he was a really lovely man. He said he didn't recognise her without her overalls!

But seriously the real point was that Mart was getting the car NCTed and that means he has some kind of a banger and doesn't have the kind of big On Road vehicles that the snobs are driving here. That shows that he is a modest man who has much to be modest about - as Sir Thomas Beecham the conductor said about one of his friends.

pconn062 · 26-07-2013 9:49pm

Yvonne23R wrote: »

I don't know if you heard the Marty Whelan show this morning but he got a call from a lady in the NCT in Ballymun. She said she had served him yesterday and that he was a really lovely man. He said he didn't recognise her without her overalls! But seriously the real point was that Mart was getting the car NCTed and that means he has some kind of a banger and doesn't have the kind of big On Road vehicles that the snobs are driving here. That shows that he is a modest man who has much to be modest about - as Sir Thomas Beecham the conductor said about one of his friends.

2/10, pretty poor effort, must try harder.

Yvonne23R · 26-07-2013 9:55pm

Pardon?

Almaviva · 26-07-2013 10:03pm

Yvonne23R wrote: »

Pardon?

He means that even by the standards of this thread, that is a pretty weak effort at pro-Mart trolling, I think.

Aidric · 26-07-2013 10:05pm

Yvonne23R wrote: »

as Sir Thomas Beecham the conductor said about one of his friends.

Franz Liszt once said:

Real men are sadly lacking in this world, for when they are put to the test they prove worthless.

Would 'Mart' be a real man, Yvonne, if you know what I mean?

Harry Angstrom · 26-07-2013 10:10pm

Yvonne23R wrote: »

I am a poor person who has to work for her living. I'm not like the snobs here who are always giving out about Marty Whelan when they have their big Volvo 4 by 4s to be dropping their children off to school with their Handel CDs blaring out trying to show off that they're better than the rest of us. So I can't afford those prices or to go to the Met or to London. But I can go the the Concerthall in Dublin when the ticket prices are reasonable and Renee was too dear. But we got tickets for Ennio and we wil like this and millions of people all over Ireland will like it and enjoy it.

I have to say, in all my life I've never come across somebody dropping their kids off to school with Zadok The Priest blaring out of their car stereo. Nicki Minaj - yes; George Frederic Handel - no.

Yvonne23R · 27-07-2013 12:48am

OK. People are having fun here and some of them have to be students with time to kill, They seem to hold it against us slightly older people that we have a programme on their station that everyone can enjoy. I'm with the thousands who have come to Lyric since Marty took over. He is the silver lining in our cloud. I don't really care what the rest say and I agree with everyone who praises Mart because what he is doing is much harder than it looks which is making people happy with the best of music from all time in the charts. Anyway whats a few complainers here against the thousands who are listening???

Ennio this weekend!!! :eek:

Yvonne23R · 27-07-2013 12:49am

And I didn't mean that particular piece by Handel either or really Handel in particular. I meant any of the night time classical music that some people want to be forced down us during the morning.

jmcc · 27-07-2013 6:44am

Yvonne23R wrote: »

OK. People are having fun here and some of them have to be students with time to kill,

So first it was the rich pensioners and now it is the students?

They seem to hold it against us slightly older people that we have a programme on their station that everyone can enjoy.

Well the management of LyricFM seem intent on turning LyricFM into some kind of Frankenstinan monster hybrid from the remains of RTE1 and 2FM.

I'm with the thousands who have come to Lyric since Marty took over.

It may be that the figures for his show only increased by approximately 2000 listeners since 2012. Just out of interest, did you listen to Tubridy prior to following Marty to LyricFM?

He is the silver lining in our cloud.

So we are looking at a Classical drought situation then?

I don't really care what the rest say and I agree with everyone who praises Mart because what he is doing is much harder than it looks which is making people happy with the best of music from all time in the charts.

All time in the charts? You do realise that the "charts" are a recent creation? I think that Marty should have his own programme on RTE1 or 2FM where he belongs.

Anyway whats a few complainers here against the thousands who are listening???

There is a core demographic that LyricFM cannot afford to lose. It is evident that the managment of LyricFM is losing that demographic.

Enjoy your Morricone concert.

Regards...jmcc

hawley · 27-07-2013 2:16pm

europa11 wrote: »

:pac: ^^^^

Would have thought Marty would have applied some Glow-tan or one of those Agent Orange effects so beloved of the more (ahem!) discerning young wans of Ireland before posing for that pic.

Photoshop lessons on fake tans might come in handy if he ever decides to move on from faking it as a Classical Music presenter.

Must say Renee looks well for all that

Was listening yesterday morning. After playing "Caruso" sung by Pavarotti, Marty gushed "Oh, the wonderful Lucio Dalla". Dalla composed the piece but by looking at his career, he would not be known of outside Italy. Marty's orgasmic cries about him would have you believe that Dalla is considered one of the greats of classical music. This kind of drivel may have a place at the Eurovision or afternoon tv but not on Lyric.

Sandwlch · 27-07-2013 2:54pm

Lucio Dalla is not classical at all, but a pillar of the last 50 years of 'la canzone italiana's popular cantautore style....not an area Marty Whelan is likely to have strayed into too often. When you are always faking it, you are likely to be found out now and again ...

Yvonne23R · 27-07-2013 5:58pm

hawley wrote: »

Was listening yesterday morning. After playing "Caruso" sung by Pavarotti, Marty gushed "Oh, the wonderful Lucio Dalla". Dalla composed the piece but by looking at his career, he would not be known of outside Italy. Marty's orgasmic cries about him would have you believe that Dalla is considered one of the greats of classical music. This kind of drivel may have a place at the Eurovision or afternoon tv but not on Lyric.

Bit personal, bit much, Hawley!

And what is wrong with afternoon TV. When I have the time I find I learn a lot from it. Even Neven Maguire shows up well on afternoon TV.

Yvonne23R · 27-07-2013 6:09pm

Sandwlch wrote: »

Lucio Dalla is not classical at all, but a pillar of the last 50 years of 'la canzone italiana's popular cantautore style....not an area Marty Whelan is likely to have strayed into too often. When you are always faking it, you are likely to be found out now and again ...

How is he found out? I looked this ting up in Google and it is what everyone likes. It's where The Godfather, Nino Rota, Ludovico Einaudi, Ennio Morricone, Juan Diego Florrez, Lucia Popp, Volare, Joseph Calleja, and then Luciano moved into to show that it was real music. If Luciano Pavarotti was behind it - take it from me it was the real thing! They sing these in Verona around the time of the opera and Italy has much more real opera lovers than snobs here who go to Wexford and the Met - among taxi drivers and normal people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantautore#Cantautori.2C_the_Italian_tradition

This article shows that other favourites like Charles Trénet, James Taylor, Randy Newman, Dusty Springfiels and more are all part of this crossover field. Signs on they're the most popular with the listeners not Bartok's impossible to listen to opera - at least at 8 o'clock in the morning.

Some music is for the night - like the heavy classical, and some is for the morning like the light classical and the crossover.

And now I'm heading in to Kilmainham and it's looking damp.

jmcc · 27-07-2013 9:37pm

Yvonne23R wrote: »

How is he found out?

It does look like he was spoofing.

If Luciano Pavarotti was behind it - take it from me it was the real thing!

There's that Marty-like assumption that if a famous singer known specifically for Opera sings it, then it must be Classical.

Some music is for the night - like the heavy classical, and some is for the morning like the light classical and the crossover.

It is quite obvious at this stage that Marty really isn't suited to Classical because his main field of expertise seems to be "Pop" music of the last fifty years or so. The introduction of "classics" as opposed to "Classical" seems to be a dumbing down of LyricFM. Perhaps the management of LyricFM in their finite wisdom has decided to repurpose LyricFM as a "classics" station and the Marty and the rest are the imposition of the Chatterati on previously sophisticated station where, formerly, the music used to speak for itself.

Regards...jmcc

Harry Angstrom · 27-07-2013 11:20pm

Looking at "Mart's" playlist, it could easily be confused for a Ronan Collins playlist on Radio One weekdays but without the showband element, although given time, I'm sure we'll hear Gina, Dale Haze and The Champions being played on Marty In The Morning before the year is out

hawley · 27-07-2013 11:26pm

RTE continues it commitment to the light classical with Katherine Jenkins, the Welsh Linnet on channel one now. They had a piece on the Morricone on the early news bulletin, surprised Marty didn't get his spoke in. Can't remember RTE ever showing an opera or a full symphony on television.

Yvonne23R · 28-07-2013 1:16pm

hawley wrote: »

RTE continues it commitment to the light classical with Katherine Jenkins, the Welsh Linnet on channel one now. They had a piece on the Morricone on the early news bulletin, surprised Marty didn't get his spoke in. Can't remember RTE ever showing an opera or a full symphony on television.

I didn't know that but I wouldn't have been able to enjoy her after Ennio. I wish they had let us know. Maybe I can catch it on the iPlayer. Katherine Jenkins is something unusual that comes along only once in a generation. I think the last one was Cecilia Bartoli.

The performance was amazing. A bit chilly towards the end but we were blessed with the weather. No interval and all the hits. And the screens made all the difference. It was like being in Italy with him. We had our macs with us but I wish I had the gumshion to bring a second cardigan. It was like being in The Mission not at it when that tune came up on Gabriel's oboe. You should have heard the cheering. Mart was right too that it would be such a good night with refreshments on sale there. We didn't seem him himself - that's Marty now not Ennio who was everywhere. He gave us about an hour and a half without any sos beag. He is a great man for the music but as he said to Mart once it's th music that keeps him young. And Mart is that way himself too. He just lives for the music. Maybe he is going tonight??

Almaviva · 28-07-2013 2:10pm

Yvonne23R wrote: »

Katherine Jenkins is something unusual that comes along only once in a generation. I think the last one was Cecilia Bartoli.

WTF ???
Trolling again, or do you really not have a clue what you are talking about ?

Almaviva · 28-07-2013 2:11pm

Yvonne23R wrote: »

We had our macs with us but I wish I had the gumshion to bring a second cardigan.

Thats good to know I think.

jmcc · 28-07-2013 2:19pm

Yvonne23R wrote: »

No interval and all the hits.

Well now you know how people who like Classical music feel about Marty - he is just the interval that stymies the enjoyment of good music.

Regards...jmcc

Yvonne23R · 29-07-2013 8:40pm

Well, you all missed an excellent Show this morning if you didn't have it on. Mart was doing a post mortem of the Ennio concerts in the Royal Hospital and everything was coming up rosy. The listeners were on with their experiences and I agree with them all. It seems the interview fell through in the end because Ennio doesn't speak Engliah and Mart hasn't much Italian. Can't
be helped but maybe next time.

He was also welcoming new listeners. It seems Hawley was right in what he told us and Marty had thousands of people tuning in who weren't tuning in before. He was saying how he has to explain the special features of the programme for the new listeners so they don't feel lost.

And we had a fair sprinkle of Ennio over the whole show which really made the magic from the weekend live on a bit more.

And it was announced that it's next week Mart and the programme are going with the listeners to Verona for a week or ten days.

Yvonne23R · 29-07-2013 8:41pm

And Venice. Verona and then Venice where they will have Vivaldi laid on.

Almaviva · 29-07-2013 9:46pm

Which is nice.

Almaviva · 29-07-2013 9:47pm

Ennio has been to Venice I'm sure. And loves Vivaldi as well I think.

Almaviva · 29-07-2013 9:49pm

Yvonne23R wrote: »

It seems the interview fell through in the end because Ennio doesn't speak Engliah and Mart hasn't much Italian. Can't
be helped but maybe next time.

I think Ennio will learn English before his next visit so that he can chat to Marty. He probably listens to the show on the web when at home in Italy, even if he cant understand it fully. (I'd say he struggles to follow Hugo !).

Almaviva · 29-07-2013 9:50pm

Has Marty any more spots for people to join him on the trip ? I hope so. Northern Italy will be hot this time of year though. Bring your sun screen.

Lyric fm's Breakfast show presenter - Marty Whelan.

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