Unless you live under a rock, you might have heard that Armagh won the All-Ireland football final last month.
In a wait that extended 22 years, Armagh fans have been savouring the moment with celebrations extending for several weeks.
Local band ‘Plenty in the Tank’ with their song ‘G stands for Geezer’ has become the theme tune for Armagh’s long-awaited win, hitting number 20 in the official Irish Singles Chart during the week August 9-15.
Paul Loughran, one of the trio that makes up Plenty in the Tank talks about the inspiration behind the now famous song, life in the band and the band’s origins.
Plenty in the Tank consists of three band members, Paul Loughran, Peter O’Hanlon and Glenn Close who were Southern Regional College music students in 2016.
Paul and Peter completed the Level 3 Music Performance and Production course while Glenn undertook the Higher National Diploma in Music.
On the College, Paul credits music lecturers Paddy Craig and Matt Duke “with [providing] everything I needed to know about the music industry and professionalism in the industry”.
Paul drew inspiration for the song from being at a traditional music festival just hours before settling down to compose the song. With lots of up-beat tempos in his head, Paul made the song in a single day.
Paul Loughran
“I had a lot of fairly up-tempo music in my head whenever I got back [from the Willy Clancy Music Festival]. I sat down and wanted to make something with a good beat behind it and it just sort of happened. The rest of the band came into my room asking ‘what are you doing,’ I just said to trust me and it kind of went from there.”
The single is available on Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer, Tidal, Pandora, Boomplay and iTunes.
Paul and the band didn’t realise the song had charted until Paul’s dad sent him a WhatsApp video of the RTE presenter announcing it.
The band are currently planning on touring Student Unions this September performing at Freshers Weeks.
Speaking on the single’s success Paul says: “It’s absolutely insane, the last time I checked it has 8 million views on TikTok and half a million Spotify streams and obviously it was in the Top 20 in the Official Irish Charts and Top Ten in the iTune charts in Ireland.”
Plenty in the Tank started out as three lads playing in the Hatfield every Wednesday.
Originally the band started out as Paul and Glenn, before Peter was pulled in to help with performances.
Paul says: “It started out it was myself, and Glenn O’Hanlon, the drummer and we adopted Peter Close along the way. It just kind of went from there. It was honestly completely by accident. After the pandemic when live music started to boom again, I was getting more gigs and so I asked to come and help me do a few and then Peter. It never internally meant to turn out this way, but it stemmed from me needing some help and soon that turned into a band.”
As the band’s popularity grew, they started getting more gigs, playing at weddings until they became booked out full-time for performances.
Paul takes control of the band’s day-to-day duties, sorting out admin tasks, dealing with venues and bookings, which is obviously quite busy at the minute.
Peter keeps Paul on his toes being a sounding board and reference point while Glenn, as Paul jokingly puts it, turns up when the work is done.
Glenn holds down a job as a Music Technician at a Grammar School, so is more laid back when it comes to day-to-day band admin tasks.
Key advice Paul has for aspiring musicians includes: “Being selective with who you work with, making sure you are surrounded by the right people and having a good group of friends. Focus on educating yourself more on the industry and obviously the lecturers at SRC have helped us massively with that.”
Paul retains fond memories of the College saying: “Attending SRC was a great time in my life, we came in and played music every day. What more do you want from going to College than doing what you love every day. The people are amazing and I learnt a lot. I will personally never forget to bring a jack cable ever again and I’m sure our drummer Glenn will never forget to bring his drum key ever again. I had an amazing time, and I was with a great bunch of lads.”
While this accidental band has enjoyed immense success recently, their talent is undeniable.
Currently the band are taking things as they come, with hopefully many more singles and albums to follow.
To follow in the footsteps of Plenty in the Tank, check out available music courses online at SRC’s website www.src.ac.uk.
