Bnan Warfield has been playing music since he was 12 years old
It scars old. He plays Banjo. Guitar and Harp
with the Tones.
He is the song writer of the group and has contributed most of
the original material and hits over
the years. He and
Noel Nagle
gave the name Wolfe Tones to the group in a pub in London and
they have held unto it since then- The group has heroine
a household name in Ireland. They are together for over 38 years and there is
only one Wolftones
Brian was horn in Holies Si Maternity Hospital Dublin on the 2nd
April 1947 the second of four children, all
boys.
We lived firstly in a one roomed flat at No I south Circular and
we moved to a new house in Bluebell when I was
seven.
I attended St Kevins Junior School and then The Oblaic School Inchore from there to St.James's Christian Brothers.
I studied to be a radio officer at St. Kevins with the wish to go see the world
Both my parents were musical, my father
was an excelent musician and played piano and mandolin, my mother amused herself
in the afternoons playing her favorite
tunes, both of them
loved playing music and singing.
I can never remember a time without music or song in the
Dublin of the 1950's, there was no television just the
wireless
The variety of musical knowledge we got from those
programmes from classical to light opera from Hollywood
to
the Irish song and dance
My early influences in music were the ordinery people
and my family and the songs I heard on radio.
My favourite
song was The Black Hills Of Dakota
and my favorite singer was Doris Day, my best loved Irish
singer at the time was
Brendan O'Dowda, I loved the
Ceili music dance and song so I went to lear the
tin whistle with Paddy Ban O'Brien in
Church St.Dublin.
I enjoyed this experence very much. Noel Nagle and
Finbar Furey were in the class. Noel lived just around
the
corner and a friend of Noel's sister, Tony Butler
intriduced us to the Fleadh Ceoil's, We went to one
in Miltown Malbay
Co Clare soon after and had a fantastic
time. The music song and dance and the craic. We were
hooked and after that
Irish music and song and story became
our passion.
Noel and I immigrated to England in 1963 and played
the folk clubs, mainly around London and Essex.
We stayed
there almost a year and returned to
Ireland in '64 and played the Irish clubs around Dublin.
We did some radio and
television work and were slowly
getting recognised. We were signed to Fontana Records
which was a major record
lable in the 60's.
We met
Tommy Byrne at a Fleady in Elphin Roscommon in
a bar called McDermotts and he joined us in October of 1964.
It's a long story after
that and there's not enough
space to tell it here. I was married to Ruth who
I met in London in '64, she was from Drumcondra
Dublin.
I have 4 children, Siobhan, Ciaran, Laragh and Ruairi
and live in Co. Wicklow.
Brian has written over two hundred songs and at lease
half have been recorded by The Wolfe Tones, he composed
music for R.T.E. radio production of Shakespares
As You Like It, composed a suite of music called Exoudus
remembering
the Irish Holocaust, The Great Famine
He has written songs about every aspect of Irish life
and documented the story
of major happenings and events
that occured in Ireland during our lifetime. He has
written numerous hit songs including
three Number ones
and the hope is he will continue to wreite as long as he can
There is much to tell and Irelands story
is continuously
changing. His passion is music and the mission is
to tell the story of Ireland.
