DEREK WARFIELD & The Young Wolfe Tones will be celebrating 10 years On the One Road this year with gigs in Britain. In London they’ll be appearing at the top Irish bar and music venue The Claddagh Ring this coming Saturday, August 23.
In 1963 Brian and Derek Warfield and a pal Noel Nagle started playing round the fleadhs of Ireland, purely for fun. However they had a strong sense of their country's history, and as looked like they might play a few gigs together, for a few months anyway, and because of their great sense of Ireland, they called themselves the Wolfe Tones, after the great Irish leader.
By this time they had met their fourth member, Tommy Byrne at a fleadh in Elphin, Co. Roscommon.
Their repertoire was what one might call ‘uncompromising’: Wrap the Green Flag Round me Boys, Come Out Ye Black and Tans, the Lonely Banna Strand; gigs began to pour in.
This as the 1960s, and the ballad boom was taking off. But unlike may other bands who were content to steer clear of ‘controversial’ material (ie rebel songs) the Wolfe Tones dived straight in. “No other Irish folk group, before or since, has told the story of Ireland so completely and unapologetically,” Derek says.
Within a few short years the band were playing in some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including in 1976, their first Carnegie Hall concert. The Wolfe Tones, which had only come together to play a few gigs, were now into their second decade and on their way to becoming one of the great folk bands.
In 2001 the band split, the reasons for which can probably be filed under the heading “Musical differences” and Derek went on to carve out an enormously successful solo career.
In 2005 Derek put together a band containing some of the finest musicians and singers in Irish music – The Young Wolfe Tones. Further successes followed.
Derek cites 2016 as a pinnacle of the Young Wolfe Tones career: “We were chosen to perform on the 24th April at the 1916 centenary commemorations at the General Post Office in O’Connell Street Dublin at 12noon.
“This was the exact same time the Irish proclamation was read by Pádraig Pearse one hundred years ago to the minute.
“Of all the honours bestowed on the Wolfe Tones old and young this privilege was the most significant. It was an honour to perform the music and songs of remembrance and the patriotic ballads that were sung by the volunteers inside the building during the struggle for our freedom, and we performed them with the same passion and emotion.
“The Foggy Dew, Wrap the Green Flag Round me The Soldiers Song were some of the choruses that rang out along the main thoroughfare to the 30,000 people assembled.”
After spending nearly 40 years as founder, leader and front man of the legendary Wolfe Tones, Derek Warfield is revered as a singer, songwriter, historian and entertainer in all parts of the world where Irish roots have been put down.
The Wolfe Tones enjoyed phenomenal success with 13 best-selling albums, 3 number one hits, many television appearances and shows in esteemed venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall and The Royal Albert Hall in London.
Derek has been proudly presented with the keys to San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles for his contributions to Irish Song & Music over the years and was honoured as Dublin Gael of The Year 2013 by the New York Dublin Society.
Derek Warfield & The Young Wolfe Tones
Saturday, August 23
The Claddagh Ring
10 Church Road
London NW4 4EA
See More: The Claddagh Ring, The Young Wolfe Tones
