Time to sample one more great band from Ireland before Christmas descends upon us. Tragically in a way, some of the very best bands from here never made it, or else did but only for a short time, blazing like comets before fizzling out like dying sparklers. What is that they say? The brightest light burns the shortest? Certainly true in the case of many an Irish band. I'm sure it's not a phenomenon confined to the Emerald Isle, either, it just seems there was so much talent here that could have been shared with the world, that it's a pity that really only a handful of Irish acts ever truly made it. I mean, ask anyone outside Ireland (or, sometimes, in Ireland) to name off five top Irish bands and you know who will come up usually (no, Westlife do
not count, madam!)
But there have been some great bands who should have done so much better. I've already featured Something Happens! And In Tua Nua, and hopefully soon when I get my USB turntable from Santy I'll be introducing you to the mighty Stars of Heaven, but today I want to let you in on what is probably now one of Ireland's best-kept secrets. Though they were popular and indeed successful in their short day, they've faded away now sadly into the mists of musical history.
Plug it in --- Mama's Boys --- 1982 (Pussy)
The perfect idea of an Irish band, Mama's Boys featured three brothers, Pat, Tommy and John McManus, who began their music career playing Irish traditional music in Co. Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. Heavily influenced by Horslips, they changed their focus to rock and were in fact then discovered by Barry Devlin of Horslips, who offered them a support slot, and they never looked back after that. Well, for a while.
Their first album, “Plug it in”, self-published and financed as it was, has a hard, rough edge that you just can't manufacture or fake. Opener “In the heat of the night” is a straight-ahead rocker, John McManus' Northern accent coming across quite strongly so that you're in no doubt this is an Irish band you're listening to. Guitars from brother Pat are sharp and powerful, and other brother Tommy bashes the skins with a precision surprising in one so young. “Burnin' up” is another rocker, faster this time with a good hint of Lizzy in the guitars but also a smattering of Ritchie Blackmore when he was in Deep Purple, with a really riproaring solo from Pat, and one hell of a powerpunch ending.
It's the next one though that did it for them. The boogie-styled “Needle in the groove” was their first (and only) hit single, at least on this side of the water. With John's vocals sung through a voice box it gives the song a kind of older feel, almost vintage rock, though there's nothing old about the guitar work, and again you're reminded of early Thin Lizzy.
A short album, “Plug it in” only has the eight tracks, but most of them are pretty top-notch. “Reach for the top” is a fast, pounding rocker with the usual sentiments you expect from a band just starting out, but it's infectious in its enthusiasm and wide-eyed wonder. The fresh-faced naivete of the guys is reflected in the lyric
”It's a long way/ And you don't know if it's gonna pay/ But we'll never stop!” Words sung by many a rock band indeed. There's a definite likeable honesty about the guys though. Self-releasing your first album is quite a step, and throwing down a marker as to your intentions, that you're not just going to play the club circuit for years in the hope some label will sign you. I guess you would have to say that Mama's Boys' motto might have been “Make it happen”. And they did.
The production on the album is, understandably, raw and quite low quality, but even this just adds to the sense of genuinity of the band: this is
real rock and roll, unfettered and as it should be. The powerful slow ballad “Belfast City blues” is a sincere nod to their hometown and their simple beginnings, and reflects the thoughts and aspirations of three guys living through what we colloquially called “The Troubles”, over thirty years of sectarian violence, death and fighting before Northern Ireland was finally at peace. Beautiful, plaintive solo from Pat underscores the hurt of living through those times, and I can only imagine what it was like, as we here in the south watched the daily news reports and became inured and numb to the horror taking place only a few hundred miles away from our comfortable armchairs, over the border and a galaxy away.
When John sings
”I'm giving up/ There's no future here for me/ Why can't I stay/ In the town that I love?” you really feel a lump in your throat, and there's nothing senstationalist or bandwagon-jumping about such lyrics. U2 may have written “Sunday bloody Sunday”, but they're from Dublin, like me. These guys lived with the pain and the anguish on their doorsteps, every day a fight to survive, every morning the fear of reading a friend had died or been arrested. Thankfully that has largely been put to rest now, but I feel for anyone who had to grow up in those troubled times in Belfast, or any of the Six Counties.
It's the standout track without any doubt, and fittingly, “Belfast City blues” is also the longest on the album, clocking in at just under six minutes, ending with an impassioned fadeout guitar solo from Pat.
“Straight forward” then, is a more upbeat, hopeful song, as the title suggests, with some great rockin' guitar from Pat and John at his raunchiest and defiant. “Getting out” is another song that underlines the desire to leave the Troubles and Northern Ireland behind them --- and who could blame them? --- and head for the bright lights, fame and a better future. It's a real stride rocker in the best tradition of Rory Gallagher or Gary Moore --- in fact, in places on this song John does a passable impression of the late ex-Thin Lizzy man --- while Pat does both the sadly-missed guitar heroes proud, although at the time they were recording this both men were still alive and gigging.
The album closes on “Runaway dreams”, possibly quite appropriately, given that this was the first album from a trio of young Irishmen ready and willing to give it their all and make it big. There certainly was no faulting their workrate, supporting bands like Hawkwind and Lizzy, and of course Horslips, and releasing five albums over a ten-year period, not counting a live one in 1991. Starting with a really evocative guitar solo, the closer turns into another striding, strutting rocker with a strong blues element, with some excellent fiddle from Pat at the end, recalling their traditional Irish roots. It's a powerful finale to an album that sort of passed by on the edges of the NWOBHM, and should have been a lot bigger.
Tragedy however dogged the boys, and Tommy, who had suffered from leukemia as a child, eventually succumbed to the disease in 1994, which was of course a hammerblow to the remaining brothers, who broke up the band and formed a new one. Nowadays they play in separate bands, but for a while there the world was on the cusp of being at their feet. But sometimes it just isn't meant to be, and sadly Mama's Boys, though they will always have a place in the heart of all Irish rockers, are generally largely unknown beyond these shores.
TRACKLISTING
1. In the heat of the night
2. Burnin' up
3. Needle in the groove
4. Reach for the top
5. Belfast City blues
6. Straight foward
7. Getting out
8. Runaway dreams