User:Anthony Noonan

Anthony Noonan
Anthony Noonan (born June 22, 1979) is a musician based in West Cork, Ireland.

Anthony started his musical career at the age of thirteen playing drums in a local music bar known as Shanleys. Here Anthony learned his skill and played alongside various musicians such as the legendary Noel Redding from The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Eric Bell of Thin Lizzy, Bill Shanley of The Mary Black Band to name but a few.

After a seven year residency, Anthony attended the 'Music, Management and Sound Engineering' course at Colaiste Stiofan Naofa in Cork City and following college he moved to Limerick to join local act, Catcher & The Rye. Anthony spent two years in Limerick gaining more live and studio experience. After coming close to success, Anthony returned to West Cork in late 2002 for a musical change.

Following his return to home, Anthony began writing songs and within six months had written and recorded his debut album. 'Faster' was independantly released in Ireland in June 2003 and saw Anthony playing solo shows under the pseudonym Anto'. Anthony used the apostrophe in his stage name tp differenciate between other artists that may have been using the same or similar name.

In the summer of 2003 Anto' toured Ireland extensively and performed his own acoustic set at the return of the Lisdoonvarna festival in Dublin's RDS. Anthony also played drums for Cork band 'Fred' at 'Witness' music festival. Anthony toured Ireland into 2004 and 2005 keeping the name in the public awareness. Anthony also extended his goals as he toured in America in 2006.

2006 also saw Anthony working with producer Niall 'Herbie' Macken to record his second album. As Anthony had played all the instruments for both albums, there needed to be a band in place to truthfully represent the sound and atmosphere created in both.

Anthony enlisted the skills of Liam Ahern, John Fitzgerald and Laurie Hedger to re-create the sounds of the cd. Anthony decided to leave the singer-songwriter pseudonym behind and renamed the band Armoured Bear.