Lorcan Murray grew up in Limerick city. In 1988, he joined RTÉ 2FM. In 1999, he was part of the RTÉ Lyric FM launch team in his native city, working as a lunchtime host on the radio station.
He has built up one of Ireland’s most extensive private record collections, including autographed memorabilia and at one stage about 40,000 vinyl records. He presents Classic Drive weekdays on RTÉ Lyric FM. See: www.rte.ie.
As a teenager, I loved Gilbert O’Sullivan. My brother ended up as a concert promoter. He brought Gilbert O’Sullivan to Limerick to the Savoy Theatre. I loved his quirky lyrics, and his melodies. He sang in flats rather than in major at times. He’s had such great songs – Nothing Rhymed; Clair; Matrimony. Imagine – Alone Again (Naturally) was the second biggest selling single in the United States in 1972.
When I was about 15, one of the first acts my brother brought to Limerick was Thin Lizzy. They played in St John’s Pavilion. I’d never been so excited, but then my mother wouldn’t let me go, after my brother had me out on the streets of Limerick selling tickets for the gig on a little tray. He brought them back to Drumkeen Ballroom in Limerick in 1980. There were about 3,500 at it. I went to that gig. I got to meet Phillo and chat to him. It was their last Irish tour. Phillo right up front was so energetic, so powerful, an amazing front man, and the twin guitars, the songs – they were great.
The best gigs from my youth were Horslips playing in Limerick’s Savoy with a local band, Reform, in support. Horslips had the stage dark. Johnny Fean would come out. They’d put the lights on him, and when he did that riff for Dearg Doom, the place went mental. When they played concert venues, people would jump up on the seats, or they’d be in the aisles dancing, going mad. Trouble (With a Capital ‘T’), with Jim Lockheart playing the pipes, was amazing. The girls loved Charles O’Connor, the band’s sex symbol. He used to wear a hairy-chest T-shirt.
In college, I was a “humper” for my brothers’ gigs in Limerick. For U2’s first tour with Out of Control, he had them in the Crescent Theatre in Limerick. It was about 1979. It was their first paying gig in Limerick – after the famous Stella Ballroom competition they won in Limerick. About 90 people turned up and they all ended up on stage with Bono playing air guitars. They were new to me. It was a great night.
I love the lads in Birmingham, Peaky Blinders. I could hum the theme tune for it no bother. The acting is fantastic. It takes you right back to that eerie time in England. You really feel like you were there – the intensity of it. It’s grim and brutal at times. Some of the scenes would make the hair stand up on the back of your head. It’s very good.
I’ve really enjoyed Yellowstone. It’s like Dallas without the oil. Kevin Costner is a super actor. There are two prequels to it – they decided to go back in time. One is set in 1883, one in 1923. I’ve watched them all. One is better than the other. They’re superb.
I love Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin’s work with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. He was a champion of bringing traditional music into the classical vein. An amazing man, with his mind, and with the drive he had – he founded, of course, the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at University of Limerick. He was a wonderful composer; people were drawn to his sound.
To this day, I’d list as one of my favourite pieces of music a Planxty piece called Timedance they did for the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest. Bill Whelan and Dónal Lunny composed it specifically for the interval act. I bought two copies of the 12-inch. I play it on Lyric FM from time to time.
I love Bill Whelan’s concertos, Linen and Lace. They’re superb. Bill can infuse classical symphonic works with traditional Irish music. Hence why someone like, say, Zoë Conway can play Inishlacken with a concert orchestra. I enjoy all of Bill Whelan’s works. He’s under scored. He’s such a talented man.
I love Peggy’s Dream by Martin Hayes & The Common Ground Ensemble. There’s a lot of nostalgia around Peggy’s Dream with the dedication of the album [to his mother and his friend and music partner Dennis Cahill]. The line-up of musicians on it is extraordinary. They’re amazing musicians.
I love Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Different variations of it come out from time to time. The pianist Glenn Gould has done an interpretation of it. The most recent, and one of my favourites, is by an Icelandic pianist, Víkingur Ólafsson. His Goldberg Variations are fantastic.
Growing up, we had a piano in the house. We all played. My mother had seven kids, my granny and two dogs in the house. You always knew when she needed to take time out because you’d hear Beethoven’s Für Elise. It was like a jingle in my head for years. When I hear that now it brings me straight back to my mom. John O’Conor, who I’ve had perform Beethoven’s piano concertos live in the studio, has a lovely version of the Für Elise.
I like the 1916 documentaries RTÉ have done, particularly since the centenary, because my grandfather was very involved in 1916. He was an assistant engineer in the GPO at the time. He worked undercover, in intelligence. He donned the uniform. He was an officer back in 1916. He took the flag off the English Custom House. When Francis Sheehy-Skeffington was murdered, later, he gave the brick that held the bullet encasing in it from the firing squad that killed him, to his widow, Hanna. There are pictures of him with Dev on the back of a motorbike.
Joe Duffy told some great stories in his book Children of the Rising: The Untold Story of the Young Lives Lost During Easter 1916. He did a lot of research, and he gave a different perspective on the Rising. He had an interesting take on it, examining kids who were neglected on the streets of Dublin.
I’m a big fan of Ken Follett’s fiction. His research is very good. He’s a bit of espionage, intelligence and crime fiction in his books. I love his book Night Over Water, which is about the flying boat between America and London, which had to stop in Foynes in Limerick. Hence the Foynes Museum. All the big, wealthy American celebrities used to stop at Foynes to get out and get a bit of fresh air, and that, having flown across the Atlantic. He’s great stories about it in the book. It gives a great insight into the journey they would have undertaken and into Foynes.
