Mama's Boys
| Mama's Boys | |
|---|---|
| Origin | County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland |
| Genres |
Traditional Irish music (early) Hard rock/heavy metal (later) |
| Years active | 1978–1993 |
| Labels | Jive |
| Associated acts | White Lion, MD.45, Megadeth, Alice Cooper, Lita Ford, Y&T, Ministry, F5, Indian, Celtus, The Sweet |
| Website | Pat McManus' Homepage |
| Past members | Pat McManus John McManus Tommy McManus Rick Chase Keith Murrell Mike Wilson Alan Williams Jimmy DeGrasso |
Mama's Boys were a 1980s hard rock/heavy metal group from County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland featuring the three McManus brothers Pat, a.k.a. "The Professor", (guitar and occasionally fiddle), John (bass and vocals), Tommy (drums). Later in their career they became a four-piece adding Rick Chase on vocals in 1985 who was later replaced by Keith Murrell in 1987 due to Rick's ill-health. Keith was later replaced with Mike Wilson in 1989.
The McManus brothers, who grew up on a farm near the village of Derrylin, Co. Fermanagh, started off their musical career as award winning traditional Irish musicians, but were inspired by the Irish celtic rock band, Horslips, as well as younger brother Tommy’s passion for the drums to form a rock band. In the late 70s the brothers had become big fans of Horslips and attended their gigs at every possible opportunity. They eventually got to know and became friends with the band members. It was around that time that they started their own band which was originally called Pulse before they changed it to Mama’s Boys. Barry Devlin of Horslips heard about their band and went to see them rehearse at their home. He was suitably impressed and offered them a support slot for Horslips’ 1979 tour.
Although their heroes Horslips mixed traditional music with hard rock and the McManus brothers were top notch traditional musicians, Mama's Boys didn't really go for the Celtic fusion sound, apart from the occasional fiddle solo by Pat, but went for a harder edged more heavy metal sound.
By 1980 Mama’s Boys had a bootleg circulating and were touring extensively in Ireland. In 1981 they were invited to support Hawkwind on their UK tour. They recorded and self-financed their first album, a raw blast of rock power entitled Plug It In in 1982 and achieved a hit single in Ireland with the most pop-oriented song on the album, "Needle in the Groove".
The second album Turn It Up was released in 1983. The same year they toured with Thin Lizzy on that band’s farewell tour, played at the Reading Rock Festival and signed a worldwide record deal with Jive Records. The first album released on Jive was a self-titled compilation of Plug It In and Turn It Up with a few new songs added. One of the new songs, a cover of Slade's "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" was released as a single and reached number 54 in the American charts. The video for the song got a lot of airplay on MTV and helped the band to become known in the US which they toured in 1984. On Tuesday 24 January 1984 Mama's Boys played at The Odeon, Birmingham, UK when they were the warm up band to the German heavy metal/rock band Scorpions. They were booed and beer canned off the stage. Coincidentally, the American heavy metal band Quiet Riot also released their cover version of the song at the same time as Mama's Boys, but Quiet Riot's version gained more airplay.
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