Entertainment
Tuam’s reggae heroes set to reunite for Sugar Beat
Back in the late 1980s Galway’s fledgling rock band the Stunning were the opening act to Tuam’s first and only reggae band, a band who actually received national airplay for their biggest hit.
In the meantime the roles have changed somewhat but it will be something of a reunion when the two groups join forces for the two-day Sugar Beat Festival in Tuam next August.
There is great excitement with the news that Too Much For The Whiteman are reforming for the occasion, and those who grew up around Tuam in the ‘80s will be scrambling for tickets to see them one more time.
It was an era in Tuam when Blaze X had come and gone, and the Saw Doctors were trying to find their feet, while All Cats Are Grey had emerged on the scene and were making something of an impact.
Lead singer Mouse McHugh explained that members of the band went to London to “try and make a fortune” and ended up living in an area which was mainly occupied by Jamaican emigrants.
“We were bombarded by reggae music almost round the clock and we began to enjoy it. For some reason they took a shine to us and we played music with them.
“That is where the reggae influence came from. We returned home to Tuam and decided to reform as a reggae band”, Mouse explained.
It was he who penned their biggest hit Put Your Mind at Ease, which received considerable airplay nationally.
One of the early band members at the time, John Brogan who was on drums, arrived home from the Canaries with a Spanish saying that translated that everything was too much for the white man, which was a reference to the heat there.
That was where the name Too Much For The Whiteman came from and they became something of a cult group around Tuam initially. Their appeal then spread across the country following the release of this single.
This was mainly due to the fact that Larry Gogan played the single solidly for 10 weeks in a row on Radio 2 at the time. Larry was so taken by the song that he got other DJs to play it as well. It became an A-list single to be played on radio.
As a result of that, Too Much For The Whiteman received bookings in Dublin, Belfast and Cork among other smaller venues. “They really took to us in the North”, Mouse recalls.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.