Tony McPhee’s Terraplane late 70s
After the Groundhogs disbanded in 1976 Tony McPhee formed a new band called Terraplane, featuring Alan Fish on bass, and Wilgar Campbell (ex Rory Gallagher) on drums. This band gigged quite a bit, but didn’t release any new material. Two tracks (Down in the Bottom and Shake for Me) were taped as demos in 1977; and are the only recordings of Terraplane apart from some backing tracks for Billy Boy Arnold on an album called Checkin` It Out. Down in the Bottom is an old Howlin’ Wolf song which often features as the encore in the current Groundhogs set. I saw Terraplane twice, once at Sunderland Locarno, and again at an open air concert in Gypsie’s Green Stadium South Shields.
The thing I remember most about the South Shields gig was not the music. I’d just bought a really cool pair of black Denson Chelsea boots. These were old stock winklepickers from the 60s, which you could pick up cheap in shoe sales in the late 70s (which I’d bought them all up 🙂 ). This would place the gig around 1977 or 1978, I would think. I went along to the gig with a couple of mates, and we decided to take a short cut into the stadium over the back fence. The points of my winklepickers got stuck between the bars of the fence as I climbed over, and I fell forward to the great joy of my mates. My boots remained stuck in the fence, and I landed on the ground in front. The boots were badly scraped and all but ruined 😦 , and I felt rather stupid for the rest of the day. My memory tells me that the set was all new songs, and although I enjoyed seeing Tony and he played guitar as well as ever, the material was unfamiliar and I missed the old Groundhogs favourites. I seem to remember that Cherry Red featured as an encore.
By the early 80s Tony was fronting a band called simply the Tony McPhee band, who I never saw, although one of my mates did go to see them at Middlesbrough Rock Garden and came back with good reports of the gig. Tony’s autograph above was obtained at a later 80s gig, but I’ve included it here as I didn’t have any Terraplane material. The Tony McPhee band released one single: Time of Action, which was a limited edition pressing of 1,000, and is available from the Grondhogs official website. I’ll move onto the next chapter in my Groundhogs history tomorrow.
28 Dec
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Posted by Rob on December 28, 2012 at 1:38 pm
I was thinking of the gig at Gypsys green as I attended this with a couple of school mates., but couldn’t find a date for it or any of the other bands who played. I do have a memory of a singer or member of a band climbing up the stage cover which if I remember was made of covered scaffolding. Anyway thanks for the blog it brings back loads of memories of gigs attended in the late 70 s onwards .
Posted by Paul on July 25, 2023 at 12:20 pm
I was at the Middlesbrough Rock Garden gig. I recall counting the audience, which numbered seventeen (including me). Despite this Tony played his heart out and was truly amazing. I was too young to see the Groundhogs in their early 70s heyday but I’m very pleased to have been at this gig. I do regret not having gone to see the original line up when they reformed about 20 years ago. They played what turned out to be the final gig in Nottingham, where I now live. It was on a “school night ” as I recall and we had little children at the time. I was just too tired to go. What a shame. So the Middlesbrough gig will remain the only time I saw one of my rock heroes play.
Posted by vintagerock on July 25, 2023 at 12:53 pm
Hi Paul
As you might have gathered Tony McPhee was one of my all-time heroes and the Groundhogs one of my all-time favourite bands. Great that you got to see the man himself in the wonderful rock garden which was one of my favourite venues. Happy days Peter