March 10, 2025 • 20 mins
In this interview i dug up one of my old interviews I did with the guitar player of 80s rock band Mommas Boys. his name is Pat Mcmanus. In this interview I talk to him about some of the hits he has made with the band and his new solo album. This is a short version of the interview. if you want to here the longer version you can go on my Youtibe channel Rockin With Seebass and it will be right there.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up everybody. This is Sea Bass from Rocking with
Sea Bass, and today I'm going to play an old
interview of mine I did in the past. In this interview,
I talked to the guitar player from the band Mama's Boys.
His name is Pat McManus, a great guitar player, probably
one of the most underrated guitar players I have ever heard.
I'm in this interview he talks about some of the
(00:23):
songs he's wrote with the band and some of the
bands he's actually opened for at that time, like Twisted's
sister Rat and even Deep Purple. This is a short
version of this interview. If you want to listen to
the full thing, you can go on my YouTube channel
Rocking with Sea Bass and it will say the Pat
McManus interview. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy. And here
(00:43):
is Pat McManus. Hello, This is Pat McManus. Yes, indeed,
how are you good, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm pretty well and you pretty good.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
So what have you been doing lately?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, actually been doing a few gigs here in Ireland.
Know the things of sort of been allowed to open
up duties of pandemics, so it's it's we're starting to
get back on on on on track a little bit here,
you know. So it's been a severe lockdown, but we're
managing to get through it.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Okay, Yeah, it's getting there.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It's a bit of normality said, you know, it's it's
been it's been a crazy time to be honest with you.
You know. So it's been difficult for a lot of musicians,
but we're trying to get through it as best we can.
You know, when it's just nice. We've done a few
shows and it's just so nice to get back out
there and play in front of people again and you know,
put a smile back on the theaters.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
As well, you know. Right, it's interesting, you know, I
mean a lot of you know bands out there. You know,
they're doing you know, virtual tours and some of them
free gigs.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
What gigs have you.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Guys played to do?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Some live streams and all when when during when when
when the verity of the lockdown, Kevin, we weren't allowed
to do anything here, and so that that kept us going,
and it also you know, it kept the fans who
really really glad to see me doing something, you know,
and I said, it meant enough a lot of them,
you know, mentally and everything else, just you know, to
(02:08):
play to them and pay a few songs to them,
so that from that point of view, it was great,
you know.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
And yeah, actually, and I think you're an amazing guitar player.
And you know, there was one thing I had a
question about you actually opened for you know, then Lizzie
and Deep Purple and all those guys. What what went
through your mind when you guys did that?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, yeah, it was quite strange really because we you
know where we're from, Sebastian, where we're from a real
rural party in Northern Ireland. We're northwest, We're about seventy
miles from Belfast and about one hundred miles from Dublin,
so we're right out in the countryside. So there wasn't
a whole a whole pile of guys around, you know,
that you could share ideas with or form a band with.
(02:50):
So I decided in my wisdom to form my own
band with my own brothers. So I sort of gets
delegated out the instruments to my to my younger links
and we formed a little three piece band and it
was from there that we actually we were big fans
of an Irish band you're probably not aware of them, Horseships,
(03:11):
and they kind of integrated Irish folk music with rock music.
They were one of the very first bands to ever
do that. Wow. Nowadays you have you know, the drop
Kick Morpheets and you know Dog and Molly and all
those type of bands. But the Horsesteps were were sort
of more of a progressive rock band in the seventies
and they kind of used fused Irish music with rock music.
(03:35):
And it was because of that that I actually got
into rock and roll in the first place, because I
kind of understood what they were doing. You know, if
I'd seen led Zeppelin at the beginning, I would have said, no, no, no,
that's not for me. But you know, it was it
was a gentle learning curve and once we discovered them,
we started to discover bands like Zeppelin, Deep Purple and
(03:55):
so what happened was they invited us out on a
on a when they found we played, because we were
huge fans of this pan and we used to turn
up every night that whatever they were playing locally and
we'd always go and see them. So we became quite
friendly and it was it was made a note to
them then that we actually played some music. So the
bass player in the Banbury Devlin, who was the best
(04:18):
player in Horses and one of the main songwriters, he said, well,
why don't you guys, you know, come and support us,
and we did and he was blown away by it.
You guys can really play that, you know. So it
was kind of like that and out of that we
met our management, who was the tour manager for them.
He said, I would like to manage you guys. I mean,
we didn't really know anything about any of that kind
(04:41):
of thing at all, you know, the business end of it,
so we just went along with it, and before we
knew it then we were gigging in Ireland quite regularly,
I mean probably four or five nights a week and
we're starting to build up a fan base. And it
was during a matchmaking Don't Laugh, a matchmaking festival down
in County Claire, Away down the west of Ireland, so
(05:03):
we actually met Philip Lennard from Finn Lizzy and Philip
was friendly with our manager and he said he's the
guy's on stage playing and Joe's and Joe, our manager
at the time, said well that's a little band I
have and he says they're damn good, would they like
to do the Sowell Finnzy Tour And that's how it
(05:23):
really mushroomed. It all developed from that from there, you know,
and Philip was kind of instrumental in getting the band
across to the mainland UK for the tour and we
started to make a name for ourselves and a presto
off we went.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
You know, that's very impressive, especially especially when I found
out that you guys actually made two albums without being signed,
which I find very impressive.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
That we actually did that ourselves, because, as I explained
to you, it's because we were giggee in Ireland. We
were making not a great deal of money, but every
every penny, every dollar should I say that we're a
pound that we made, we saved up and we instead
of making a demo, which was what most fans were
(06:14):
doing at that stage, and send it into the radio
stations and hoping that people, you know, the DJs might
play it and might give them a break, you know,
we actually went in and recorded our very first album
in a day, let me tell you, And I mean
it was naive and it was it was it was.
It was very raw, but it was the beginning and
because it appeared in vinyl form. It's a radio station
(06:38):
throughout Ireland. We're going the hell of these guys that
instead of our record as you know, So it was
really down just you know, ourself financed album that we
did ourselves. And you know that was unheard of in
those days to do something like that. Most fans would
always look for us, you know, for to go to
a major record label and try and get some sort
of DAEs. But because we were touring Ireland, we were
fit to save up not a great money, but enough
(07:00):
to get it into the studio for a day, and
because we were used to being out on the road,
we just went in and laid the whole thing down
the day, you know, and it kind of took off
from there then.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I mean, not many bands can really pull that off,
especially from this time, I would say, but you know,
I always respect that you guys were able to do that.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, I mean, you know, it was difficult because you know,
there we were bashing about in the wilds of Ireland,
you know, and you wouldn't get any A and R
men to want to come to Ireland, you know, particularly
northern Ireland. Where where from? Because that was right in
the midst of the troubles in Northern Ireland as well,
so they said no, no, no, no, no, we're not going there,
you know. So it really was quite a courageous thing
(07:45):
for us to do, and but it opened many many
doors and allowed us to get over to the UK
then to actually play for the people there, and in
fact we are the only signed, unsigned band ever to
play what was called then the Reading Festival. It's kind
of called the Download Festival now it's still it still
(08:05):
works today a big time. But we were the only
unsigned act ever to play there, you know, and that
we did that all on our own, so it was
quite an achievement to actually be fit to play there.
We played in front of forty thousand people that day.
I think Black Sabbath were headline, and who else was
on the pill at the Anvil, you know Anvil, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(08:29):
they were on the bill and steveu ay Vaughan was
on the bill, So it was it was quite an
achievement to get that. And it was from there actually
that we had Deafen Records in America were very interested
in the band, and another company in England called Drive Records,
which was affiliated with mud Lang who went on to
(08:52):
fame and fortune with jeth Leppard and Foreigner and bands
like that. There. So they actually signed the band the
end from that festival, you know. So it was it
was quite an adventure up to that point. You know,
we kind of done it all ourselves up to that that,
which was very very rare in those days. I mean
exceptionally here, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Oh yeah, and now to kind of go a little
forward here. You know, I was watching a few of
your guys's music videos from the Man Mama's Boys one
of my favorite videos, and I'm just so curious because
you know, Quiet Riot did a cover of it, Mama
We're all Crazy now video?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, can you.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Can you tell me a little bit more about that?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And I think they're really upset. But you know something,
we had no idea they were doing it.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Oh you didn't.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
No, we didn't know. I mean, you're talking about lads
in the back end of Ireland here. You know, we
had the clue who's going on on America. You know,
it's not like you had you know, YouTube or yeah,
your phones or you you were aware you didn't have
the Internet. It was nothing, so we hadn't really truly.
We hadn't a notion that they were doing the song.
In fact, we were quite upset when we found out
that they were. Just but there you go. That's how
(10:09):
it went. Yes, it was. It was quite a cool
It was purely, purely a coincidence. I mean quite if
it were a fantastic bands, you know, absolutely fantastic band,
and you know it was it was. It was one
of those things. It was just a pure coincidence. You know,
they were probably going, here's these three he was the
three suckers from Ireland coming to play, you know, playing
(10:30):
our song that we were going to do. But genuinely
we didn't know that they were going to do it,
you know, or we would have we would we wouldn't
have done it, you know. But it was because of
Mamma's boys and Mamma were all great, you know. We
thought it'd be quite a good uh single to do
as a band, you know, so it was just purely coincidence.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Well, I still don't really like that video. I mean,
especially when the old lady of cons out, you know,
saying what are you guys doing? He's like, oh, mommy
passing from all my friends.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
I was just laughing well that's that's like how it was.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
I believe that.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah, No, it was a great it was a fun
time for the band, you know, and it's something I'm
very proud of and actually very proud of that video,
you know. It was it turned out really well. It
was kind of like it wasn't one of your sort
of Hollywood sort of fancy movie videos. This was sort
of very very ordinary, I thought, you know, and it
(11:30):
was it was quite what would you say, low fi
as opposed to high five.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yet, I mean I say, man, only the eighties, only the.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Eighties, Yeah, it could only happen in the eighties, so something.
It was quite a good time for music. There was
lots of great bands. And because of that videos about that,
we got to tour with Rats in America from Jovie. Yeah, yeah,
we toured. We toured quite extensively with Map bon Jovi,
Twisted Sister Hyan t Rush. We did a few shows
(12:03):
with Rush. So, I mean, because of that video, we
actually did quite a bit in America, you know, and
the album had charted there and everything else. But unfortunately,
at the same time as that was all happening, my
brother had been my younger brother who was the drummer
in the band. He had been looked what should I say,
(12:26):
He was diagnosed with leukemia when he was seven years old,
you know. So it was unfortunately the American roller coaster
ride that we were having came to an end because
of his illness, you know, and we had to go
back home again and get him better, you know, And
we succeeded on quite a few occasions occasions of getting
(12:49):
him into remission. But eventually, at the age of twenty seven,
he passed away due to the lukemi, you know. So
it was a bitter end, a bitter taste than on
my towards the end of that. But while it lasted,
it was fantastic, you know. But we had some great
memories in America, some fabulous times there. I just absolutely
(13:10):
loved it, you know, because we get a lot of BATA,
we get a lot of American programs over here, so
it was like, Wow, I'm really in America seeing this
for myself and tasting it for myself. It was it was,
it was It was really aspiring, to be quite honest
with you know. So it was a wonderful experience and
something that I will cherish forever in my heart. Was
(13:32):
that was the tours that we did with those bands.
I mean it was fat we knew the guys and
Motley Crue and you know, it was it was quite
a roller coaster ride.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
And yeah, and I I really respect you guys a lot,
and especially I really love your brother's drumming. Actually, I
think he's an amazing drummer. And I actually discovered from
a story that he actually auditioned for Ozzy Osbourne and
got the gig but rejected.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
He really did your homework, Yeah he did, and he
got it as well, but he didn't want to. He
told me. Actually we were in recording our second album
for Jive Records, which was arristed in America, and he
said to me, we were laying down the track and
he said, do you mind if I go down there's
(14:21):
an addition because he was friendly with Randy Castello, who
was the drummer at the time with Ozzie, and he
was leaving and he said to Tommy, why didn't you
go down? And Tommy says, I'm not really interested in
doing it because I'm with my brothers here, and he said,
but I want to go down there to sort of
measure to see if I would be if I would
past the grid, you know, and he did, and then
(14:43):
he turned around and told the band, sorry, guys, but
I won't be doing you know, because when he came
down to see if I was good enough, that's all,
you know. So it's quite a funny story, really well.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Apparently Jakie Lee said he listens to you guys all
the time.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
That's right, I think Jake said. At the time, you know,
he was we were the perfect garage band. We were
a real garage band, which looking back now, I suppose
we were, you know, I mean, we weren't, to be
honest with you, we weren't too cleared in on everything
that was happening in rock and roll. We just did
our own, our own little thing, our own way, and
(15:21):
that and that was it's the past, and you know
that that that we were. We were still actually we
were still learning, very very much so about all the bands,
because as I said, we came to it quite late,
you know, and so we weren't aware of of all
the great bands that had been beforehand, leg Zeppelin and
stuff like that. They had all disappeared, they were all gone,
and you know, it was it was quite a learning
(15:43):
because the new age of we're the only band in
in in Northern Ireland. It was actually signed with the
new wave of British heavy metal, which was Saxon, Iron Maiden,
et cetera, et cetera. You know, So so we were
we were the only ones in Northern Ireland that actually
got signed. So we were quite we were quite fortunate
(16:05):
in that way that that actually happened to us. But
you know, it was a big learning core for use,
let's put it that way.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
And you guys learned really well. In fact, there's one
song that really stood out to me. I actually listened
to it several times on the way in my car.
Well it's called a rescue me. Oh yeah, tell me
more about that song. It is a great guitar song.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Well the guitar is great, to be honest with you.
That that song I had i'd just written. I just
read a book about a hostage, an Irish hostage that
was held in bar Root in the in the in
the in the eighties. He was in captivity there and
I just read the book. He had been finally released
(16:49):
along with the man called Terry Waits, an English guy
and he was a school teacher and he had been
out in the Middle East teaching kids and he was
kidnapped and he was kept for many many years in
a in a blindfold, So that song is actually about him.
In the name of the guy is Brian Cleanan, and
if you look up the book, it's quite an interesting read,
(17:13):
you know. So I'd read the book and then I
had the idea for the song and we developed the
song and it became Restiny. So that's a little bit
of the history behind that song.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
And another hit song on you guys played us quite
a bit of Needle in the Groove.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, yeah, well that was that. That that was our
first that was six weeks number one here in Ireland.
So we were very fortunate that, you know, it became
so popular here. In fact, I still paid in my
set today. I wouldn't be allowed to lead the stage
without playing it, you know, in the UK and in Ireland,
you know. So it was quite a quite a firm
(17:51):
fervor at the time and it had been very very
successful over over here, you know, so we it was
one that that was the song that really had the
whole ball in motion really for us, you know, as
regards our career. If it hadn't been for that song.
I don't think maybe things would have panned out the
way they did, but it was. So it's something that's
(18:12):
very dear to my heart, you know, that song, because
it was it was the riff in itself. You know,
people always say, well, it's instantly memorable, you know. So
from that point of view, I was chucked, you know.
And it was a song that that I wrote in
fifteen minutes, you know. It just happened that way. How
it came about was we'd been preparing to go into
the studio to record and we got the engineer couldn't
(18:36):
make it. It was engineering the album. Because of snow,
it blocked the whole road, so he didn't make it in.
But as we were setting up on knowing that unknowingly,
not knowing that the engineer wasn't coming in, I was
messing around with the riff and our manager came in
and said, what's that you're playing there? And I said, oh, no,
I'm just warming up. But he said I really like that.
(18:56):
He says, you bet the next time we're back in
the studio, you better have that to develop that into
a song. And as I said, okay, sir, whatever you say,
I'll do it. So as we were driving home to
our parents' house, I wrote the song in my head
if you can understand that logic. Mentally, I mapped it
out in my head how it was going to go,
(19:16):
and me and my brothers went out to our little
practice shed which we had, and we knocked it out
in fifteen minutes and that became the biggest success we
had as apparent of Thomas Boys in Ireland in particular.
So that's a little bit of the history of that song.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
That was Pat McMahon as the guitar player of Mama's Boys.
Great guy, amazing musician. I love his music and I
love the album that he released a while back. It's
called Full Service Resume. I bought it right when I
was doing this interview. I bought it on Amazon Prime.
A lot of good songs on there. It's very bluesy.
(19:53):
Definitely worth checking out. If you want to check out
the full interview, go on my YouTube channel Rocking with
Sea Bass click and pack McManus interview. He goes into
way more detail about the band and his history and
also his family and how music oriented they were. Again,
just an amazing guy. Definitely worth checking out the band
(20:16):
because the band is very underrated and definitely deserves more
recognition than what they got anyway, this is Sea Bass
from Rocking with Sea Bass. Thank you for listening, and
take care and keep on rocking.
What's up everybody. This is Sea Bass from Rocking with
Sea Bass, and today I'm going to play an old
interview of mine I did in the past. In this interview,
I talked to the guitar player from the band Mama's Boys.
His name is Pat McManus, a great guitar player, probably
one of the most underrated guitar players I have ever heard.
I'm in this interview he talks about some of the
(00:23):
songs he's wrote with the band and some of the
bands he's actually opened for at that time, like Twisted's
sister Rat and even Deep Purple. This is a short
version of this interview. If you want to listen to
the full thing, you can go on my YouTube channel
Rocking with Sea Bass and it will say the Pat
McManus interview. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy. And here
(00:43):
is Pat McManus. Hello, This is Pat McManus. Yes, indeed,
how are you good, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm pretty well and you pretty good.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
So what have you been doing lately?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, actually been doing a few gigs here in Ireland.
Know the things of sort of been allowed to open
up duties of pandemics, so it's it's we're starting to
get back on on on on track a little bit here,
you know. So it's been a severe lockdown, but we're
managing to get through it.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Okay, Yeah, it's getting there.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It's a bit of normality said, you know, it's it's
been it's been a crazy time to be honest with you.
You know. So it's been difficult for a lot of musicians,
but we're trying to get through it as best we can.
You know, when it's just nice. We've done a few
shows and it's just so nice to get back out
there and play in front of people again and you know,
put a smile back on the theaters.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
As well, you know. Right, it's interesting, you know, I
mean a lot of you know bands out there. You know,
they're doing you know, virtual tours and some of them
free gigs.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
What gigs have you.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Guys played to do?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Some live streams and all when when during when when
when the verity of the lockdown, Kevin, we weren't allowed
to do anything here, and so that that kept us going,
and it also you know, it kept the fans who
really really glad to see me doing something, you know,
and I said, it meant enough a lot of them,
you know, mentally and everything else, just you know, to
(02:08):
play to them and pay a few songs to them,
so that from that point of view, it was great,
you know.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
And yeah, actually, and I think you're an amazing guitar player.
And you know, there was one thing I had a
question about you actually opened for you know, then Lizzie
and Deep Purple and all those guys. What what went
through your mind when you guys did that?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, yeah, it was quite strange really because we you
know where we're from, Sebastian, where we're from a real
rural party in Northern Ireland. We're northwest, We're about seventy
miles from Belfast and about one hundred miles from Dublin,
so we're right out in the countryside. So there wasn't
a whole a whole pile of guys around, you know,
that you could share ideas with or form a band with.
(02:50):
So I decided in my wisdom to form my own
band with my own brothers. So I sort of gets
delegated out the instruments to my to my younger links
and we formed a little three piece band and it
was from there that we actually we were big fans
of an Irish band you're probably not aware of them, Horseships,
(03:11):
and they kind of integrated Irish folk music with rock music.
They were one of the very first bands to ever
do that. Wow. Nowadays you have you know, the drop
Kick Morpheets and you know Dog and Molly and all
those type of bands. But the Horsesteps were were sort
of more of a progressive rock band in the seventies
and they kind of used fused Irish music with rock music.
(03:35):
And it was because of that that I actually got
into rock and roll in the first place, because I
kind of understood what they were doing. You know, if
I'd seen led Zeppelin at the beginning, I would have said, no, no, no,
that's not for me. But you know, it was it
was a gentle learning curve and once we discovered them,
we started to discover bands like Zeppelin, Deep Purple and
(03:55):
so what happened was they invited us out on a
on a when they found we played, because we were
huge fans of this pan and we used to turn
up every night that whatever they were playing locally and
we'd always go and see them. So we became quite
friendly and it was it was made a note to
them then that we actually played some music. So the
bass player in the Banbury Devlin, who was the best
(04:18):
player in Horses and one of the main songwriters, he said, well,
why don't you guys, you know, come and support us,
and we did and he was blown away by it.
You guys can really play that, you know. So it
was kind of like that and out of that we
met our management, who was the tour manager for them.
He said, I would like to manage you guys. I mean,
we didn't really know anything about any of that kind
(04:41):
of thing at all, you know, the business end of it,
so we just went along with it, and before we
knew it then we were gigging in Ireland quite regularly,
I mean probably four or five nights a week and
we're starting to build up a fan base. And it
was during a matchmaking Don't Laugh, a matchmaking festival down
in County Claire, Away down the west of Ireland, so
(05:03):
we actually met Philip Lennard from Finn Lizzy and Philip
was friendly with our manager and he said he's the
guy's on stage playing and Joe's and Joe, our manager
at the time, said well that's a little band I
have and he says they're damn good, would they like
to do the Sowell Finnzy Tour And that's how it
(05:23):
really mushroomed. It all developed from that from there, you know,
and Philip was kind of instrumental in getting the band
across to the mainland UK for the tour and we
started to make a name for ourselves and a presto
off we went.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
You know, that's very impressive, especially especially when I found
out that you guys actually made two albums without being signed,
which I find very impressive.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
That we actually did that ourselves, because, as I explained
to you, it's because we were giggee in Ireland. We
were making not a great deal of money, but every
every penny, every dollar should I say that we're a
pound that we made, we saved up and we instead
of making a demo, which was what most fans were
(06:14):
doing at that stage, and send it into the radio
stations and hoping that people, you know, the DJs might
play it and might give them a break, you know,
we actually went in and recorded our very first album
in a day, let me tell you, And I mean
it was naive and it was it was it was.
It was very raw, but it was the beginning and
because it appeared in vinyl form. It's a radio station
(06:38):
throughout Ireland. We're going the hell of these guys that
instead of our record as you know, So it was
really down just you know, ourself financed album that we
did ourselves. And you know that was unheard of in
those days to do something like that. Most fans would
always look for us, you know, for to go to
a major record label and try and get some sort
of DAEs. But because we were touring Ireland, we were
fit to save up not a great money, but enough
(07:00):
to get it into the studio for a day, and
because we were used to being out on the road,
we just went in and laid the whole thing down
the day, you know, and it kind of took off
from there then.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I mean, not many bands can really pull that off,
especially from this time, I would say, but you know,
I always respect that you guys were able to do that.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, I mean, you know, it was difficult because you know,
there we were bashing about in the wilds of Ireland,
you know, and you wouldn't get any A and R
men to want to come to Ireland, you know, particularly
northern Ireland. Where where from? Because that was right in
the midst of the troubles in Northern Ireland as well,
so they said no, no, no, no, no, we're not going there,
you know. So it really was quite a courageous thing
(07:45):
for us to do, and but it opened many many
doors and allowed us to get over to the UK
then to actually play for the people there, and in
fact we are the only signed, unsigned band ever to
play what was called then the Reading Festival. It's kind
of called the Download Festival now it's still it still
(08:05):
works today a big time. But we were the only
unsigned act ever to play there, you know, and that
we did that all on our own, so it was
quite an achievement to actually be fit to play there.
We played in front of forty thousand people that day.
I think Black Sabbath were headline, and who else was
on the pill at the Anvil, you know Anvil, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(08:29):
they were on the bill and steveu ay Vaughan was
on the bill, So it was it was quite an
achievement to get that. And it was from there actually
that we had Deafen Records in America were very interested
in the band, and another company in England called Drive Records,
which was affiliated with mud Lang who went on to
(08:52):
fame and fortune with jeth Leppard and Foreigner and bands
like that. There. So they actually signed the band the
end from that festival, you know. So it was it
was quite an adventure up to that point. You know,
we kind of done it all ourselves up to that that,
which was very very rare in those days. I mean
exceptionally here, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Oh yeah, and now to kind of go a little
forward here. You know, I was watching a few of
your guys's music videos from the Man Mama's Boys one
of my favorite videos, and I'm just so curious because
you know, Quiet Riot did a cover of it, Mama
We're all Crazy now video?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, can you.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Can you tell me a little bit more about that?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And I think they're really upset. But you know something,
we had no idea they were doing it.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Oh you didn't.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
No, we didn't know. I mean, you're talking about lads
in the back end of Ireland here. You know, we
had the clue who's going on on America. You know,
it's not like you had you know, YouTube or yeah,
your phones or you you were aware you didn't have
the Internet. It was nothing, so we hadn't really truly.
We hadn't a notion that they were doing the song.
In fact, we were quite upset when we found out
that they were. Just but there you go. That's how
(10:09):
it went. Yes, it was. It was quite a cool
It was purely, purely a coincidence. I mean quite if
it were a fantastic bands, you know, absolutely fantastic band,
and you know it was it was. It was one
of those things. It was just a pure coincidence. You know,
they were probably going, here's these three he was the
three suckers from Ireland coming to play, you know, playing
(10:30):
our song that we were going to do. But genuinely
we didn't know that they were going to do it,
you know, or we would have we would we wouldn't
have done it, you know. But it was because of
Mamma's boys and Mamma were all great, you know. We
thought it'd be quite a good uh single to do
as a band, you know, so it was just purely coincidence.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Well, I still don't really like that video. I mean,
especially when the old lady of cons out, you know,
saying what are you guys doing? He's like, oh, mommy
passing from all my friends.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
I was just laughing well that's that's like how it was.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
I believe that.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah, No, it was a great it was a fun
time for the band, you know, and it's something I'm
very proud of and actually very proud of that video,
you know. It was it turned out really well. It
was kind of like it wasn't one of your sort
of Hollywood sort of fancy movie videos. This was sort
of very very ordinary, I thought, you know, and it
(11:30):
was it was quite what would you say, low fi
as opposed to high five.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yet, I mean I say, man, only the eighties, only the.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Eighties, Yeah, it could only happen in the eighties, so something.
It was quite a good time for music. There was
lots of great bands. And because of that videos about that,
we got to tour with Rats in America from Jovie. Yeah, yeah,
we toured. We toured quite extensively with Map bon Jovi,
Twisted Sister Hyan t Rush. We did a few shows
(12:03):
with Rush. So, I mean, because of that video, we
actually did quite a bit in America, you know, and
the album had charted there and everything else. But unfortunately,
at the same time as that was all happening, my
brother had been my younger brother who was the drummer
in the band. He had been looked what should I say,
(12:26):
He was diagnosed with leukemia when he was seven years old,
you know. So it was unfortunately the American roller coaster
ride that we were having came to an end because
of his illness, you know, and we had to go
back home again and get him better, you know, And
we succeeded on quite a few occasions occasions of getting
(12:49):
him into remission. But eventually, at the age of twenty seven,
he passed away due to the lukemi, you know. So
it was a bitter end, a bitter taste than on
my towards the end of that. But while it lasted,
it was fantastic, you know. But we had some great
memories in America, some fabulous times there. I just absolutely
(13:10):
loved it, you know, because we get a lot of BATA,
we get a lot of American programs over here, so
it was like, Wow, I'm really in America seeing this
for myself and tasting it for myself. It was it was,
it was It was really aspiring, to be quite honest
with you know. So it was a wonderful experience and
something that I will cherish forever in my heart. Was
(13:32):
that was the tours that we did with those bands.
I mean it was fat we knew the guys and
Motley Crue and you know, it was it was quite
a roller coaster ride.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
And yeah, and I I really respect you guys a lot,
and especially I really love your brother's drumming. Actually, I
think he's an amazing drummer. And I actually discovered from
a story that he actually auditioned for Ozzy Osbourne and
got the gig but rejected.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
He really did your homework, Yeah he did, and he
got it as well, but he didn't want to. He
told me. Actually we were in recording our second album
for Jive Records, which was arristed in America, and he
said to me, we were laying down the track and
he said, do you mind if I go down there's
(14:21):
an addition because he was friendly with Randy Castello, who
was the drummer at the time with Ozzie, and he
was leaving and he said to Tommy, why didn't you
go down? And Tommy says, I'm not really interested in
doing it because I'm with my brothers here, and he said,
but I want to go down there to sort of
measure to see if I would be if I would
past the grid, you know, and he did, and then
(14:43):
he turned around and told the band, sorry, guys, but
I won't be doing you know, because when he came
down to see if I was good enough, that's all,
you know. So it's quite a funny story, really well.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Apparently Jakie Lee said he listens to you guys all
the time.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
That's right, I think Jake said. At the time, you know,
he was we were the perfect garage band. We were
a real garage band, which looking back now, I suppose
we were, you know, I mean, we weren't, to be
honest with you, we weren't too cleared in on everything
that was happening in rock and roll. We just did
our own, our own little thing, our own way, and
(15:21):
that and that was it's the past, and you know
that that that we were. We were still actually we
were still learning, very very much so about all the bands,
because as I said, we came to it quite late,
you know, and so we weren't aware of of all
the great bands that had been beforehand, leg Zeppelin and
stuff like that. They had all disappeared, they were all gone,
and you know, it was it was quite a learning
(15:43):
because the new age of we're the only band in
in in Northern Ireland. It was actually signed with the
new wave of British heavy metal, which was Saxon, Iron Maiden,
et cetera, et cetera. You know, So so we were
we were the only ones in Northern Ireland that actually
got signed. So we were quite we were quite fortunate
(16:05):
in that way that that actually happened to us. But
you know, it was a big learning core for use,
let's put it that way.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
And you guys learned really well. In fact, there's one
song that really stood out to me. I actually listened
to it several times on the way in my car.
Well it's called a rescue me. Oh yeah, tell me
more about that song. It is a great guitar song.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Well the guitar is great, to be honest with you.
That that song I had i'd just written. I just
read a book about a hostage, an Irish hostage that
was held in bar Root in the in the in
the in the eighties. He was in captivity there and
I just read the book. He had been finally released
(16:49):
along with the man called Terry Waits, an English guy
and he was a school teacher and he had been
out in the Middle East teaching kids and he was
kidnapped and he was kept for many many years in
a in a blindfold, So that song is actually about him.
In the name of the guy is Brian Cleanan, and
if you look up the book, it's quite an interesting read,
(17:13):
you know. So I'd read the book and then I
had the idea for the song and we developed the
song and it became Restiny. So that's a little bit
of the history behind that song.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
And another hit song on you guys played us quite
a bit of Needle in the Groove.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, yeah, well that was that. That that was our
first that was six weeks number one here in Ireland.
So we were very fortunate that, you know, it became
so popular here. In fact, I still paid in my
set today. I wouldn't be allowed to lead the stage
without playing it, you know, in the UK and in Ireland,
you know. So it was quite a quite a firm
(17:51):
fervor at the time and it had been very very
successful over over here, you know, so we it was
one that that was the song that really had the
whole ball in motion really for us, you know, as
regards our career. If it hadn't been for that song.
I don't think maybe things would have panned out the
way they did, but it was. So it's something that's
(18:12):
very dear to my heart, you know, that song, because
it was it was the riff in itself. You know,
people always say, well, it's instantly memorable, you know. So
from that point of view, I was chucked, you know.
And it was a song that that I wrote in
fifteen minutes, you know. It just happened that way. How
it came about was we'd been preparing to go into
the studio to record and we got the engineer couldn't
(18:36):
make it. It was engineering the album. Because of snow,
it blocked the whole road, so he didn't make it in.
But as we were setting up on knowing that unknowingly,
not knowing that the engineer wasn't coming in, I was
messing around with the riff and our manager came in
and said, what's that you're playing there? And I said, oh, no,
I'm just warming up. But he said I really like that.
(18:56):
He says, you bet the next time we're back in
the studio, you better have that to develop that into
a song. And as I said, okay, sir, whatever you say,
I'll do it. So as we were driving home to
our parents' house, I wrote the song in my head
if you can understand that logic. Mentally, I mapped it
out in my head how it was going to go,
(19:16):
and me and my brothers went out to our little
practice shed which we had, and we knocked it out
in fifteen minutes and that became the biggest success we
had as apparent of Thomas Boys in Ireland in particular.
So that's a little bit of the history of that song.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
That was Pat McMahon as the guitar player of Mama's Boys.
Great guy, amazing musician. I love his music and I
love the album that he released a while back. It's
called Full Service Resume. I bought it right when I
was doing this interview. I bought it on Amazon Prime.
A lot of good songs on there. It's very bluesy.
(19:53):
Definitely worth checking out. If you want to check out
the full interview, go on my YouTube channel Rocking with
Sea Bass click and pack McManus interview. He goes into
way more detail about the band and his history and
also his family and how music oriented they were. Again,
just an amazing guy. Definitely worth checking out the band
(20:16):
because the band is very underrated and definitely deserves more
recognition than what they got anyway, this is Sea Bass
from Rocking with Sea Bass. Thank you for listening, and
take care and keep on rocking.
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