McManners writes contemporary rock and folk songs and is currently working with producer Jez Coad on an album to be released in 2021.
[2] McManners was bass guitarist in the Leicester heavy rock band Medusa, before serving eighteen years in the British Army.
During the Falklands War in 1982 he fought with his five-man naval gunfire forward observation team, with the Special Boat Service[citation needed] and worked with the SAS, Throughout the war, McManners team was formally assigned to the SBS, and he was awarded a Mention in Despatches.
He has served at Fort Ord California with the US Army's 2nd Infantry Division (Light), on counter terrorist duties in Armagh, Northern Ireland, and with the United Nations in Cyprus during the Turkish invasion of 1974.
McManners' research into the psychological effects of military combat on participants, joined forces with Kringelbach's neuroimaging studies into how the brain functions.
This led to a five-year project to compare the brains of combat veterans of similar experiences with and without combat-related PTSD (post traumatic press disorder).