 Louis
McManus by Brian Appleford Brian and Louis wrote the music together for The Pudding. I HOPE THAT, one day, somebody will write a biography of Louis McManus. And I hope it's soon; because, when I was at Louis' funeral in December I could not help noticing that a high proportion of the friends I met there were getting greyer and slower. And quieter, gentler, and more modest. And they have begun to devote more time to consideration of their pasts than expectations of their futures. And they now seem to realise that their contribution to the advancement of culture and civilisation has been far less significant than they had believed it to be in the past. In brief, they are getting older. But these are the people who knew, respected, loved, listened to, and made music with Louis McManus. And these are the people who carry the rich memories of his talent and his personality. Musings Louis was born in Glasgow in 1956 into a musical family. His parents, Norah and Louis McManus (Louis Senior) were of Catholic Irish stock. Louis' grandfather Owen was born in Tyrone but had settled in Glasgow. The family emigrated to Australia in 1962 and settled in Werribee, near Melbourne. Louis Senior, a fiddle player, gave his son a mandolin when he was five. By the time the boy was eight, Louis Senior has said, "There was nothing more I could teach him.". Technically, perhaps not, but the family environment must have provided fertile ground for the young prodigy's further musical growth. In addition there was the small but tight-knit Irish-music community in the Melbourne area and farther afield. By the time Louis was fifteen, he had mastered the guitar and tenor banjo to such a degree that it is safe to say there was virtually nothing that anybody could have taught him about playing traditional music on them. The Annual Louis McManus Memorial
Concert Louis lived in Brunswick for more than ten years and this was his 'home-town' festival. It was fitting then, that he played such a major role in the 1st Brunswick Music Festival way back in 1989. | Home | |