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Gerard Thomas McMahon, also known as Gerard McMann and G Tom Mac, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer who specialises in creating music for films and TV. His gothic rock anthem "Cry Little Sister" was recorded in 1987 for the soundtrack album of the cult horror film The Lost Boys.

Early years

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Gerard McMahon emigrated with his family from England to America when he was eleven. Initially moving to New York City, the McMahons moved again a few years later, eventually settling in Wichita, Kansas. When McMahon, who lists amongst his musical influences Liam Mullen, John Lennon, Stevie Wonder and Stravinsky, was sixteen, he and his band, The Strangers, recorded a single ("Don't Ever Leave Me") before disbanding.

After The Strangers disbanded, McMahon moved to Boulder, Colorado and sat in on music classes at the university. In 1971 he moved to New York City to pursue a performing career. His first gigs were playing bass and guitar in R&B bands in Harlem. Being a versatile multi-instrumentalist, McMahon was soon receiving additional offers of work as a session musician. It was in this capacity that he provided backing vocals at Electric Lady Studios in New York, on the last Zephyr album to feature Tommy Bolin, Going Back to Colorado.

In addition to gigging and studio session work, McMahon also became involved around this time in creating music for TV commercials. He also created a number of scores for Public Broadcasting Service projects.

McMahon spent 1972 living in Los Angeles, gaining further experience in studio and production work. Soon he was to be found playing bass with Jackson Browne's touring band. It wasn't too long, however, before McMahon concluded that it would be more rewarding to promote his own solo career, and he went back to Colorado.

After returning to Boulder, McMahon got together with a group of ten studio musicians and fronted an act called Gerard.

"After attending a concert one evening that showcased Tommy Bolin, Chicago producer Jim Guercio walked out mesmerized by Gerard's opening set."

— G.Brown, author, Colorado Rocks!: A Half-Century of Music in Colorado

Guercio offered the band a deal to record an album at his newly built Caribou Ranch. The resultant album, produced by Guercio himself, was Gerard. It was released in 1976 on Guercio's Caribou Records label. There did, however, seem to be one downside to this union, seemingly echoed in McMahon's frustration with the music press at that time, in so far as every review of Gerard's album, an album for which he had written twelve original songs, compared his music to that of Chicago's. Although the album did well, it never broke nationally. The lead-off single, "Hello Operator" (b/w "Who's Your Daddy-O?"), failed to hit Billboard's Hot 100 chart, getting as high as No. 109 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. The second single, "Good Yankee Boy," was released as a promo-only single, and garnered only moderate radio airplay in 1976. A second Gerard album, Row, was to follow before the group disbanded, after which McMahon decided to return to Los Angeles.

The next three years saw McMahon again partaking in a number of different musical projects and continuing to lend his services as a session musician. One of the projects he undertook at that time was to play keyboards on ex-Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Jimmy Ibbotson's 1977 Nitty Gritty Ibbotson album. He is also listed amongst the credits for Max Gronenthal's 1979 album Whistling in the Dark.

1980 – 1989

McMahon's 1979 song "Is That You?" was the first track on Kiss' Unmasked (1980) and was also released as a single and played live by Kiss in 1980. Producer Vini Poncia heard the demo, with Gary Mallaber on drums and Kenny Lee Lewis on bass, and presented it to Kiss, who loved the song. In 1988, McMahon and Paul Stanley met and wrote 3-4 songs intended for Robert Plant, with whom McMahon worked at the time.

Encouraged by Billy Joel's former manager Irwin Mazur, in 1980 McMahon decided to promote his own recording career. He assembled a group called Kid Lightning – Gary Mallaber, John Massaro, Kenny Lewis and two of the musicians he had engaged for Gerard, guitarist Steve Sykes and keyboard player Al Campbell – and recorded the album Blue Rue. After the album was completed, McMahon's band was dropped from Columbia Records.

Already experienced in major TV commercials, McMahon began film work. He wrote and recorded seven songs for producer Jerry Bruckheimer's film Defiance.

"Gerard's a triple threat, he's a writer, he's a producer and he's a performer...it's very difficult to find someone to deliver all that"

— Nigel Sinclair, Producer – Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

During the '80s, McMahon wrote songs for films such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Spring Break, All the Right Moves, The Lonely Guy, Grandview, U.S.A. and Hardbodies.

McMahon's next album, No Looking Back, was released by Warner Bros. in 1983, after which McMahon signed with the Atlantic Records label and in 1986 released Foreign Papers.

McMahon scored a hit in 1986 with "Cry Little Sister."

G TOM MAC

McMahon recorded another album in 2000 for Edge Artists. To record and promote the album, McMahon formed a new band, G TOM MAC, with bassist, songwriter and co-producer Anthony Silver. McMahon and Silver added Rodney "Cortada" Alejandro on keyboards, drummer Rob Ladd (from the band The Pressure Boys), Willy Aron (lead guitar) and Brie Darling (from the band Boxing Gandhis) on backing vocals and percussion for live performances.

In 2004 McMahon wrote the music and Eddie Kislinger wrote the lyrics for "Wicked Town," "Drop Dead Pretty," and "Was It Magic" for Witchblade The Music, an Edge Artists soundtrack of songs from or inspired by the Witchblade TV series. McMahon and Kislinger are credited as Executive Producers. In 2012 The CW used "Wicked Town" in its trailer promoting the Arrow TV series.

Discography

Song list (film and television)

All the following songs are written and performed by Gerard McMahon unless otherwise stated:

Further works

McMahon has also contributed to all the following films and TV shows:

• Rude Awakening (1989) (Music Arranger)
• "Greatest Days on Earth" Party of Five – song
• "Quiver of 19" Felicity – song
• "Happy Time" Jack & Jill – song
• Charmed
• Dawson's Creek
• Ed
• Baywatch
• Crossing Jordan
• My So-Called Life
• Providence
• Passions
• The $treet
• Countdown
• Buffy The Vampire Slayer
• The Immortal
• Pig Killer

References

1. ^ Brown, G., Colorado Rocks!: A Half-Century of Music in Colorado. Pruett Publishing, 2004. 2004. ISBN 9780871089304. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
2. Going Back to Colorado album credits. www.allmusic.com. Retrieved on 25 March 2008
3. "Going Back to Colorado album review". www.musicstack.com. Retrieved 25 March 2008.
4. ^ Brown, G., Colorado Rocks!: A Half-Century of Music in Colorado. Pruett Publishing, 2004. 2004. ISBN 9780871089304. Retrieved 25 March 2008.
5. Gerard album. www.allmusic.com. Retrieved on 25 March 2008
6. "Discos Zeppelin Detalle de producto". Archived from the original on 30 January 2014. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
7. "Gerard - Good Yankee Boy [Stereo]". 45cat.com. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
8. Gerard McMahon credits. www.allmusic.com. Retrieved on 29 March 2008
9. Row album credits. www.artistdirect.com. Retrieved on 29 March 2008
10. Nitty Gritty Ibbotson album credits. www.allmusic.com. Retrieved on 25 March 2008
11. Whistling in the Dark album credits. AllMusic. Retrieved on 25 March 2008
12. Bergdahl, Linnaeus, Alex, Carl (2022). Den Sista Dynastin. Gain.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
13. Gerard album credits. www.allmusic.com. Retrieved on 25 March 2008
14. "G Tom Mac credits". www.gerardmcmann.com. Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2008.
15. Defiance production credits. www.allmovie.com. Retrieved on 27 March 2008
16. "Documentary film about McMahon, directed by Evan Bergman". www.edgeartists.com. Archived from the original on 2 March 2008. Retrieved 27 March 2008.
17. EdgeSongs, Song Catalog Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. wizardofdigi.com. Retrieved on 29 March 2008
18. "Whatever happened to….Gerard McMahon?". www.melodic.net. Retrieved 26 March 2008.
19. "Defiance (1980) Full credits". www.tcm.com. Retrieved 31 March 2008.
20. "Fast Times at Ridgemont High – Music from the Motion Picture". www.discogs.com. 26 October 1982. Retrieved 31 March 2008.
21. "Spring Break (1983) Full credits". www.tcm.com. Retrieved 31 March 2008.
22. "All The Right Moves (1983) Cast and credits". movies.yahoo.com. Retrieved 31 March 2008.
23. "The Player's Club (1998) cast and credits". movies.yahoo.com. Retrieved 31 March 2008.
24. "Witchblade, Episode 2 Conundrum". www.bladetv.com. Archived from the original on 15 March 2008. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
25. ^ "Witchblade, Episode 11 Transcendence". www.bladetv.com. Archived from the original on 15 March 2008. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
26. ^ "Witchblade, Season 2 music". www.bladetv.com. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
27. "The Shield music from Pay in Pain". heardontv.com. Retrieved 31 March 2008.
28. "My Guardian Angel ~ A Prose Tribute". Angelfire. Archived from the original on 8 January 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
29. "The Oakdale Oracle – As The World Turns Scoops, News and More!". Archived from the original on 23 April 2008. Retrieved 9 April 2008.
30. ^ "G Tom Mac, Editorial Reviews". Amazon. Retrieved 27 March 2008.

External links

• G TOM MAC official site

• Living people
• English people of Irish descent
• English multi-instrumentalists
• English male singer-songwriters
• English singer-songwriters
• Musicians from Birmingham, West Midlands