[5] He began singing at the age of nine as a chorister at St Thomas' Roman Catholic Church.
[7] He wrote and sang "Patsy Girl", a 1964 single credited to Ross McManus and the Joe Loss Blue Beats.
[8] In 1970, he recorded a version of The Beatles' song "The Long and Winding Road" under the pseudonym of Day Costello,[9] which spent 17 weeks in the Australian chart, peaking at number 16.
[11] He also wrote and sang a number of songs for British 1970's sex comedies including the Alan Street trilogy (1974), Secrets of a Superstud (1976) and Can I Come Too?
[12] He played the trumpet on two of Elvis Costello's albums: Out Of Our Idiot (1987) on the song, "A Town Called Big Nothing", credited to the MacManus Gang and originally recorded for the film Straight To Hell, and Mighty Like A Rose (1991) on the song, "Invasion Hit Parade".