Iconic group reunites for Tuam’s Sugar Beat

It’s been over two and a half decades since they stepped on stage together, so anticipation will be high for the return of Too Much For The Whiteman when they play the first day at this year’s Sugar Beat Festival in Tuam.

The event, which returns after a successful debut last year, takes place in Tuam Stadium on Saturday and Sunday, August 22 and 23.

The impressive line-up includes Hometown, Ryan Sheridan, the sublime My Fellow Sponges and The Stunning.

For Too Much For The Whiteman, the concert will have an added poignancy following the recent passing of Dermot Holian.

“It was a sad day,” says lead-singer Mouse Mc Hugh.

“A couple of the boys were away [for the funeral] and they couldn’t get over for it. Der was the bass player after Stewy, Michael Stewart.”

Affectionately known in Tuam as The Whitemen, the band had their origins in the 1980s, when a young band from Shamtown left Ireland.

“We went over to England with All Cats Are Grey,” Mouse recalls.

“Myself, Cueser [Kevin McHugh], Turps [John Burke] and Alan Flynn. We were living in high-rise flats in South West London, there was a Rasta next door booming out reggae night and day. They’d all be playing records and other guys would be toasting over it. So I started toasting with them and it was great fun.”

The Cats were fired up by this new sound. “Everyone eventually wandered back from London and we started jamming,” Mouse says.

“There was a musical on in the Presentation convent and they were looking for a backing band. The Whitemen more or less started out of that!”

From the moment they arrived, Too Much For The Whiteman had a major influence locally. Noelie McDonnell, a musician who would go on to record three solo albums and be part of the acclaimed folk trio The Whileaways was a young fan.

“We used to jam in our grandfather’s house on the Weir Road, and Noelie used to sit outside on the wall and listen,” Mouse says.

“He said to me once ‘I heard you boys in there and all I wanted to do was get a guitar’.”

Further up the N17, Mouse and the band were making a noise in Galway city.

“We used to play in The Stroll Inn in Salthill every Sunday afternoon,” Mouse says.

“Great craic! There was nothing like us, no bands doing anything like that in town at all – reggae influence. We were doing a few of our own, a couple of covers.”

The band went on to record in Landsdowne Studios in Dublin, and penned a real classic in Put Your Mind at Ease. Derek Cronin eventually replaced Dermot on bass.

In 1988, Too Much For The Whiteman were handed a big break when they were given a slot at Radio 2’s Beat On The Street shows.

“We got on the bill for that, and Leo Moran from The Saw Doctors was with us then,” Mouse says.

“The Waterboys were playing and they were short a guitar player so Leo did it and I came up and did some backing vocals.

“We got national publicity because of that. We were on the front of The Irish Times. Too Much for the Whiteman – I think everyone was intrigued by the name.”

Indeed. It’s a moniker that must come with a story. “It actually comes from a Spanish saying that John Brogan (a member of the original line-up) brought back from there,” Mouse says.

“When the sun gets too much, when it all gets hot and heavy. And it t had a double edge.

“I have a great friend, a black guy who lives in London,” Mouse adds.

“And he used to be going ‘oh whities, oh whities’ and I said ‘Simian, will you stop going on about the whities!’

And he said ‘Why Martin?’ – he wouldn’t call me Mouse because a mouse is a nasty thing in Trinidad. I said to him ‘I’m white’. And he says ‘Martin, you’re not white, you’re Irish!’”

For more about Too Much For The Whiteman see this week’s Tribune