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Patrik Fitzgerald
last updated 2026-09-11 11:26
Patrik Fitzgerald
Plays on LTZ: (historical total not available beyond this vault's episode folders)
Tracks played
Punch — played 2026-03-12
Research
Patrik Fitzgerald — Punch
Played: 2026-03-12 (TikTok)
Originally written in 1980, shortly after Margaret Thatcher's election as Prime Minister, first released on Gifts and Telegrams in 1982 on Red Flame Records. Fitzgerald is widely credited as an originator of folk punk — an acoustic singer-songwriter from East London, son of working-class Irish immigrant parents, who performed solo among the early punk scene and supported The Jam on their national tour. Cited as a key influence on Billy Bragg. A new 2021 home recording appears on a split 7-inch with Motorpsycho featuring Jello Biafra on Alternative Tentacles / Crispin Glover Records.
TikTok angle: Godfather of acoustic punk almost nobody has heard of; wrote 'Punch' in 1980, the week Margaret Thatcher won the election — hidden-gem obscurity angle, sounds like it was written last week.
Patrik Fitzgerald
Origin: Stratford, East London, England · born 19 March 1956 · solo artist, active (intermittently, with a late-1980s hiatus)
Members: Solo artist
Genre: Folk punk, punk rock (an originator of the folk-punk style, dubbed "the new Bob Dylan" early on)
Discography:
Grubby Stories (1979) — Polydor
Gifts and Telegrams (1982) — Red Flame — includes "Punch"
Drifting Towards Violence (1984) — Himalaya
Tunisian Twist (1986) — Red Flame
Floating Population (2006)
Facts:
Debut EP Safety Pin Stuck in My Heart (1977) remains his best-known work; began as a busker before signing to Small Wonder, then Polydor in 1979
Son of working-class Irish immigrant parents; supported The Jam on a national UK tour and is cited as a key influence on Billy Bragg; a documentary on his life, All the Years of Trying, premiered at Raindance in 2009