Thrifty Malone to play UK Folk Festival

By Claire Spencer

Thrifty Malone are a well-known local band on the Rock, with their unique take of traditional Irish music with a certain rocky edge to it.

The band have honed their craft working hard over a period of many years of playing bars in Gibraltar, most famously at The Lord Nelson, or over the border in La Linea as well as on the Costa del Sol.

During this time, they’ve built up quite a reputation with their ever-increasing portfolio of original material.

One of their more popular recent songs, Rocket Ship, has had airplay on the legendary Radio Caroline, which now has a licence to broadcast without the fear of boarding parties.

They’ve also worked alongside some well-respected figures in the music industry like John Otway, Steve Harley, The Lighthouse Family and Finbar Furey.

All this hard work gigging and producing new material is now paying real dividends for the band as they have now been selected to play the prestigious UK Folk Festival at The Winter Gardens in Blackpool in January.

They’ll be in good company, rubbing shoulders with Folk legend Richard Thompson, as well as The Tom Robinson Band, Kiki Dee and Eddi Reader of Fairground Attraction fame.

Here, they’ll be able to showcase their newest material with a 45-minute set which will feature original songs, including gig regulars such as Fiddler’s Elbow and Rocket Ship, alongside a number of new songs including as All Those Summers Ago and Back In Killarney.

The band is comprised of Alan Jenkins on lead guitar, Martin Winterstein-Smith on drums and vocals, Rob Fitzpatrick plays the mandolin and vocals, and their bass player is Trevor Emmett, who originally hailed from South London before adopting Gibraltar as his home.

Rob Fitzpatrick said that the band are really excited about playing the festival, and added that he was grateful to the organisers of the event, Solid Entertainments, for selecting them to perform at the festival.

He went on to say that the band had been working hard in rehearsals to get just the right sound from a final playlist of eight original songs, all of which are written and arranged by the band.

It gets even better as the lads will have the honour, not only of representing Gibraltar at the event, but also of being the first band to kick off the weekend, where they will be appearing on the Introducing stage at 3.45 pm on Friday, January 12.

The festival runs from Friday January 12 to Sunday January 14, 2024 and will feature over 30 acts.