Mama's Boys

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 Keith Murrell on vocals in 1987 and replacing him with Mike Wilson in 1989. By 1980 Mama's Boys had a bootleg circulating and were touring extensively in Ireland. They recorded and self-financed their first album, a raw blast of rock power entitled ?Plug It In' in 1982.

By 1980 Mama's Boys had a bootleg circulating and were touring extensively in Ireland. They recorded and self-financed their first album, a raw blast of rock power entitled ?Plug It In' in 1982. They had a hit single in Ireland with the most pop-oriented song 'Needle In The Groove'.

The second album ?Turn It Up' was released in 1983. They 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. Coincidentily, 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.

1985 saw the release of ?Power And Passion'.

In 1987 vocalist Keith Murrell was brought in after John started having trouble with his vocal chords and they recorded the album ?Growing Up The Hard Way?.

In 1989 with a new vocalist, Mike Wilson, and under new management they moved their base to the UK. The live album ?Live Tonite' was released in 1991.

They released the album ?Relativity' in 1992. While on tour in Italy in 1993, Tommy became ill and the tour had to be canceled. The following year Tommy underwent a bone marrow transplant but tragically he did not survive. Mama's Boys did not continue after this. On the first anniversary of Tommy's death John composed a traditional lament on the low whistle for his brother and this led to himself and Pat revisiting their traditional Irish music roots and forming a celtic/new age group called Celtus.

In 2003, Pat McManus joined Irish rock band 'Indian' and is currently enjoying continued success with them.

Pat also has his own band called Pat McManus and Hi-Voltage with Paul McCann on bass and Sean O'Reilly on drums. They have just released a new cd called "In My Own Time."

John McManus is currently playing with Eddie Clarke in the re-united Fastway.