Billy Mahonie is a rock band and not an Irish folk singer. Formed in London in the autumn of 1997 they play instrumental rock music. Although lumped in with the numerous jazz beard wearing post rock bands of the late 90’s, Billy Mahonie did much more than gaze at their collective navels and noodle around some horridly lame progressive jazz riff for a half hour. Mahonie’s music is indeed infused with elements of heavy rock, hardcore punk, jazz and folk but the emphasis is defiantly squared on ROCK and cathartic emotive and super energetic guitar music.

The original line-up consisted of Gavin Baker (guitar), Howard Monk (drums), Hywell Dinsdale (bass and guitar) and Kevin Penney (bass). Their first release was on the Fierce Panda record label, a split-single with Rothko, followed by a release on the Fierce Panda offshoot Livid Meercat. By 1999 they had signed with Too Pure, who released their debut album 'The Big Dig'.

Despite good reviews for The Big Dig, they were dropped by Too Pure, only for Southern Records to pick them up, and release the album 'What Becomes Before' in 2001. In 2003, a third album 'Dust' was released on Tritone Records, with a new line-up of Gavin, Howard, Duncan Brown (bass) and Tony Barrett (guitar).