MARTIN TOAL, the popular and much acclaimed English tenor, is possibly Fabio Capello’s secret weapon - because when he sings ‘God Save The Queen’ before an England game, they win without conceding.
Martin is coming to Galway to give a concert in St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church on Sunday November 8 at 8pm as part of the Spirit Of Voice festival. He will also give a vocal technique workshop in Áras Na nGael, Dominick Street, that same day at 2pm.
On the night Martin will perform songs from his new album Cockles, Mussels, and Arias as well as from his debut album Aria Celtica.
“I will sing a mix of operatic and Irish songs like ‘Granada’, ‘Nessun Dorma’, ‘The Wild Rover’, and ‘Carrickfergus’, a beautiful, beautiful song,” Martin tells me during our Monday morning interview. “People will know all the songs. What I am trying to do with my music is to show the power of these beautiful Irish songs to a classical audience and of the operatic songs to a folk audience.”
Manchester Irish
Martin was born in Manchester into a family with strong Irish roots and he can certainly appreciate the sentiments of his fellow Mancunian Morrissey, when the latter sings ‘Irish Blood, English Heart’.
“My dad’s mother and father are Irish,” says Martin. “Like many Irish people in the 1930s they came to England and met over here. Granddad was from Armagh and Granny was from Ballyhaunis in Mayo. My dad has 100 per cent Irish blood in his veins even though he was born in Manchester.
“There has always been an Irish influence in our household and I would have grown up hearing a lot of Irish songs. Manchester has a very strong Irish community. Three years ago I sang at the Manchester Irish Festival at the Manchester Town Hall and this year I opened the festival. Ireland has a very strong place in my heart. It’s genetic.”
The Toal family enjoyed music and sing-songs at parties and family gatherings and one of these family sing-songs provided the spur that would convince Martin to train as a tenor.
“My mum’s dad had a great voice and I sang a bit in the school choir but that was it,” says Martin. “For me it all started with the Three Tenors concert in 1990 just before the World Cup. I was watching Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, and Luciano Pavarotti and thought it was fantastic, then at another of those parties I stood up and sang ‘Nessun Dorma’ and someone said ‘You should get that voice heard’.”
Martin could have little idea that singing and football would become inextricably linked in his life. In 1991 he was teaching in the boys’ Catholic grammar school in south Manchester, but decided to follow the advice he received at the party.
Between 1991 and 2004, he trained part-time with mezzo soprano Jane Irwin and then with Wagnerian tenor and former head of opera studies at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music, Jeffrey Lawton.
By 2002 Martin was head of modern languages at the grammar school and was singing part time. He was enjoying some success having sung at some sporting and corporate events and performing the lead roles in Bizet’s Carmen, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and Puccini’s Tosca.
However the crossroads in his career came in 2004 when he was asked to sing the anthems at the England v Turkey international. His performance was so well received that afterwards his father took him aside and said: “Look Martin, you’re a singer now, not a teacher.”
“That convinced me,” says Martin. “It was time to pack in teaching and give 100 per cent to the singing.”
Manchester United
Since then Martin has regularly sung ‘God Save The Queen’ at English football and Rugby internationals in Old Trafford; Elland Road, Leeds; the KC stadium in Hull (with Lesley Garrett ), the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff; the JJB stadium; and at Wembley. For Martin though, his most memorable experience of singing that anthem took place in Ireland.
“To have sung it at Wembley before the England v Israel game in front of 90,000 people was wonderful but my favourite memory was singing it at Windsor Park in Belfast when England played Northern Ireland,” he says. “What was interesting about that game was that only one anthem had to be sung as both use ‘God Save The Queen’. To hear 70,000 people all singing at once, with no rival supporters booing or making noise was fantastic. I will always remember that.”
Over the last five years Martin has proven to be a valuable asset to the England football team and has become popularly known as ‘England’s Winning Tenor’.
“What happened is that I have sung the national anthem, three times at Old Trafford, in Sunderland’s Stadium Of Light, and at Wembley against Israel, and each time England has won and not conceded,” he said. “I did ask, at a special dinner the FA held for Fabio Capello, that if England qualified for the World Cup, not to forget to take me along. I’m still waiting for that call!
“My dream would be to sing at a major event like the World Cup final, either the English or Irish anthem. It would be wonderful. On November 14, just a week after I play Galway I will be singing at Twickenham for the England v Argentina rugby game. I’ll be singing the Argentinean anthem so I’m learning that at the moment. It will be wonderful to sing at Twickenham. I hope England don’t lose. I might get the blame and have to leave the country!”
Given his Manchester birth and the fact that he has performed at Old Trafford, Martin is not surprisingly a keen follower of Manchester United.
“We are a very strong Manchester United family,” he declares and he can count Denis Irwin (the former Irish international and mamber of the Man U treble winning side in 1999 ) as a friend. However Martin has also rubbed shoulders with Man U manager Sir Alex Ferguson and once performed for him at the annual Irish Abroad event in Manchester.
“That was November 2005 and it was the night George Best died,” recalls Martin. “I sang ‘Time To Say Goodbye’ and Alex Ferguson said he was extremely impressed with that. My son, who is 16, plays football for Altringham which is managed by Sir Alex’s son Jason. I’m there watching my son play football and the great man himself is watching right beside you.”
The red half of Manchester has had plenty to cheer about under Ferguson but does Martin think the Abu Dhabi United Group’s investment in bitter rivals Man City could start to see them taking over from United in the coming years?
“United have to be very careful and keep watch over their shoulder,” he says. “City aren’t just planning to get into the top four, they also want to be the biggest team in Manchester. I hope it doesn’t happen but I have great respect for Mark Hughes who is a Man United legend. It will be very interesting, it will be watch this space, but they have to do it on the pitch and that is where United keep on top.”
Tickets for the St Nicholas’ concert are €13/10 from Zhivago and Charlie Byrnes. Cockles, Mussels, and Arias will be available at the concert before being released on November 9 and available through www.martintoal.com and HMV. For more information see www.spiritofvoice.com and for the workshop contact Julie on
087 - 9955535.
