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Artist
The Wolfe Tones
12+ albums
irishfolkcelticIrish Folkpolitical
about
The Wolfe Tones is an Irish rebel music band that incorporates elements of Irish traditional music. Formed in 1963, their most recognizable line-up that lasted for nearly 37 years until January 2001 was brothers Brian Warfield and Derek Warfield, and Noel Nagle, and Tommy Byrne. The band take its name from the Irish rebel and patriot Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of the leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, with the double entendre of a wolf tone – a spurious sound that can affect instruments of the violin family. It was in 1963 that three neighbouring children from a quiet working-class Dublin suburb, Inchicore, brothers Brian and Derek and a pal Noel Nagle started playing round the fleadhs of Ireland more for fun than anything else. They used to get together at weekends playing Fleadh cheoils or music festivals, mainly as a pastime. Thoughts of fame and riches were a world away. Brian and Noel had taken tin whistle lessons at the Pipers Club in Thomas Street in Dublin, while Derek took up the mandolin for no better reason than his father played it. During the summer of 1963 the four of them had hitch-hiked across Ireland, from Dublin to Kerry, for a weekend at a Fleadh Ceoil, an annual gathering of traditional Irish musicians where there's lashings of drink and non-stop music. The lads were really there for the beer although they did play and sing, but only for their own amusement. Brian Warfield recalls what happened next: "I remember arriving in Killarney fairly late at
