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Tom Leahy (pictured) is the vocalist/guitarist in Tralee band, Enemy Armada who are currently working on a new album. Here are the songs that soundtracked his life…
A Day In The Life – The Beatles
Being the youngest of five siblings in my house – the others being two brothers and two sisters – I was exposed to a vast amount of music. Some of it great, some of it…ahem…not so great. I could name and shame but I’ll save them the embarrassment.
Thanks to my brother Colin I got to hear some truly classic albums at a very early age, but this track was the first to make the hair stand on the back of my neck.
It completely blew my mind and The Beatles addiction began. An addiction I never ever plan on giving up. I also had the opportunity to see Paul McCartney perform this live in the RDS a few years back with Mr. Dennis Boyle. To see teenagers and people in their 70’s sing along together, word for word was an experience I’ll never forget.
Sadly, I don’t think we’ll ever see an artist that can bridge that generation gap within the music industry again.
John, I’m Only Dancing – David Bowie
The year was 2004 and I had my ticket for Oxegen. David Bowie was headlining and it was the only reason I was making the journey up. After several days of taunting and slagging my older brother about getting to see the legend that is David Bowie in the flesh, performing all the hits, including ‘Dancing in the Street’, my brother had the last laugh.
He got to deliver the news that Bowie had cancelled. I, for one, was not laughing. The teenage strop would’ve been something very similar to a scene from Harry Enfield’s ‘Kevin & Perry’ sketch. There are many sides to Bowie, as we all know, so picking one track was a tough one. This is a track I never get sick of and probably from my favourite stage of his career.
Hopefully I’ll get to see him do this live some day. Oh and Bowie if your reading this, you still owe me a gig and the Rose of Tralee is coming up soooo…
Driving South – The Stone Roses
Yes I know, something off ‘The Second Coming’ album. How could I do such a thing? But I actually love that album from start to finish. When I started secondary school I really got into the Stone Roses and they provided the perfect soundtrack to the summer after first year.
They also provided the reason for me sporting a very uncool “mop-top” and an assortment of equally uncool fashion choices. I had to come to terms with the fact that I wasn’t living in Manchester and it wasn’t 1989…it was Tralee and it was 2001. I started to really get into playing guitar around the same time and I thought John Squire was an absolute class act in his style and ability.
When you combine that ability with Ian Brown’s attitude it’s absolute magic. John Squire’s guitar does all the screaming while Ian Brown calmly tells you how it is. It was a dream come true to finally see them perform live in the Phoenix Park in 2012.
MGMT – Electric Feel
This track always puts me in a good mood. It’s one of those tracks that makes you want to hear the rest of the album and I went off and bought it just because of it. It was another one of those summer soundtrack albums that I couldn’t get enough of.
The album still gets a spin every once and a while and still sounds great to me. It always brings back memories of the good old days of packing the car full of the essentials, a tent, your mates and plenty of beer and back to the Maharees for a weekend of craic agus ceol.
Kasabian – Club Foot
I remember when I heard this for the first time. It was about 3am after a night out with the lads. I threw on the TV and flicked through the music channels and came across this gem. I remember being starved of decent bands at the time and was mad to hear something new and when I heard this I remember thinking “it’s about time”.
Ever since the first album they just keep getting stronger and stronger. I’m going to see them for the fourth time in December and I absolutely cannot wait. Not many modern bands can hit you as hard as they do at a show and it’s money well spent.
The usual Tralee crew of us meet up and head off on our pilgrimage to wherever they may be. Oasis called it quits and these lads stepped up and filled the void with ease.
