Pat, John and Tommy McManus grew up on the family farm near Enniskillen, in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Their parents Valerie and John have a history steeped in music. John McManus senior a fiddle, sax and guitar player and Valerie as a singer, are both respected to this day. They passed their talents on to their three boys and three girls. The family played Irish traditional music and toured all across Ireland.
     Pat was drawn to the fiddle and guitar. He made his first TV appearance at seven years old and would go on to become All-Ireland Champion fiddle player by the time he was fourteen.
     John took to the whistle, bodhran (Irish drum) and uilleann pipes. At the age of eight he made his TV debut with Matt Molloy of the Chieftains. Between the ages of seven and twelve he acheived successive victories at the All-Ulster Championships for his tin whistle playing.
     Tommy's talent for beating out drum rhythms on the kitchen stools were recognized and at ten years old he received his first proper drum kit for Christmas. He had been diagnosed with leukemia the year before but had made a full recovery.
     In 1978 the boys became huge fans of the Celtic rock group the Horslips. They soon formed their own band and dubbed it Pulse. Pat would play guitar, John bass and vocals and Tommy on drums. The boys followed Horslips around attending nearly every show possible and became good friends with the band. Horslips bass player Barry Devlin went to see the boys rehearse and was so impressed he immediatley offered the support slot on their 1979 tour. This was a dream come true for the boys and the beginning of their own rock n' roll careers.
     Tony Prince, a DJ at Radio Luxembourg, suggested the name Mama's Boys because of the groups youth, Tommy was only 13 at the time. What started out as a joke stuck and the Mama's Boys moniker became official.
  Mama's Boys gigged extensively around Ireland, and recorded their first (self funded) album 'Official Bootleg' in 1890 in only four hours. The were offered the support slot for Hawkwind 1981 UK tour and this helped create a fan base outside of Ireland.
     The bands second self financed album 'Plug It In' was in 1982 and took only a week to finish. This led to the opening slot for Wishbone Ash in the UK and headlining dates in Switzerland. The single "Needle In The Groove" gave the boys radio airplay and became the bands first hit in Ireland.
    With the release of 1983's 'Turn It Up' record the boys popularity was growing fast. Their big break was when Phil Lynott asked them to open for Thin Lizzy's farewell tour of Ireland, UK and Scandinavia. They then got a spot at the Reading Festival where they were seen by Jive Records, who soon signed the band to a worldwide record deal.
    Their first release on Jive Records would be the 1984 'Mama's Boys' record.  The self-titled effort was a mixture of older reworked songs from their last two records and a few new songs which included covers of Slade's "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" and Sham 69's "If The Kids Are United." Jive licensed the album through Arista Records for release in the U.S. and Canada.
     The band started touring to promote the record by suporting the Scorpions in France and the UK. Mama's Boys then released a single and video for "Mama Weer All Crazee Now." The video got into heavy rotation on MTV in the U.S. and the single was getting steady airplay on American radio. Soon the band found themselves on their first trip to the States opening for Ratt and then Rush as well as some headlining dates in Canada.
     The band then went back into the studio in 1985 and came out with 'Power & Passion.' First the band did a tour of Ireland and then went back to the U.S. to again open for Ratt and fellow openers Bon Jovi. During the tour they flew over to England and opened for Deep Purple at the Knebworth Festival and then straight back to the States. From there they went to Japan to play shows with Sting and Foreigner and then back to Ireland for a week off.
     Tommy had been feeling very tired and unwell and it was discovered that he had had a relapse to leukemia. The band had to do there tour of Europe with replacement drummer Jimmy DeGrasso (who later joined Y&T). Pat and John were in constant contact with Tommy, who convinced his brothers he was well enough to finish the last leg of the tour in Ireland. Tommy had yet another relapse and the last few shows were cancelled.
  It was two years before the band released 1987's 'Growing Up The Hard Way.' Jive Records thought the band needed a new vocalist to put the band over the top so ex-Airrace singer Keith Murrel was brought in. The bands loyal fan base didn't embrace the new line-up and the album failed to sell. Jive records then decided not to renew the bands contract even though they had been the ones that messed with success.
  1989 brought new management and the band moved to the UK. Vocalist Mike Wilson joined the band giving them a harder edged sound. Dates in Ireland and Europe would see the bands fan base returning. In 1991 a live album titled 'Live Tonite' was released on CTM Records and the band did over 100 shows touring Europe.
    The new studio album 'Relativity' was released in 1992 on CTM. Unfortunatley this record was to be the bands last as Tommy fell ill while the band was touring Italy in 1993. After extensive treatment, doctors felt a bone marrow transplant was the only option. It was almost a year before a match was found and the transplant went ahead. Sadly, Tommy did not survive and passed away at the age of twenty-eight in London England November of 1994.
Tommy McManus
    The death of Tommy left Pat and John crushed and devastated. They could no longer see themselves playing music without their brother. On the first anniversary of Tommy's death John picked up a low whistle and composed the instrumental track "Brothers Lament" in memory of Tommy. He played it to Pat, who loved it, and they started to play some Traditional Irish music. Ideas started to formulate for songs and soon the band decided to play some shows, and Celtus was born. They signed a record deal with Sony Records and have released four studio releases as well as a live record.
    In 2000 Connoisseur Records released an eighteen track collection of songs from the Mama's Boys Jive Records releases simply titled 'The Collection.'
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