The Groundhogs Newcastle City Hall 1973 and other gigs in 1974
The Groundhogs called at Newcastle City Hall twice in 1974. The first of these two gigs featured Ellis (with Steve Ellis) and Spyda as support acts. For the second gig, the support was a band called Jonesy. Ellis featured Zoot Money, ex-Peter Bardens guitarist Andy Gee; ex-Fat Mattress bassist Jimmy Leverton (later replaced by Nick South); and drummer Dave Lutton. Jonesy featured Alan Bown on horns. The Groundhogs were at the peak of their success at this time, selling concert halls out up and down the country. They had just released the album Hogwash (1972), which was followed by Solid in 1974, and the set at the time featured the classics (Split I and II, Cherry Red, Garden, Mistreated, Groundhogs Blues, Eccentric Man) and sometimes tracks like Strange Town, Soldier and Ship on the Oceon, along with newer songs such as I Love You Miss Ogyny, 3744 James Road, and Light My Light. 
Free from all Alarm, and Sins of the Father were also sometimes featured in the set. The Groundhogs released two singles around this time: Sad Go Round and Plea Sing Plea Song. Tony was particularly busy during this period of his career, and took the time to record a solo lp, the Two Sides of Tong (TS) McPhee. He did a short tour in September 1973 to support the album, but didn’t play in the North East, so sadly I missed it. 
These gigs were the last time the Groundhogs were to play large concert hall tours, although they continued to gig constantly until the band split in 1974. The line up throughout this period was Tony, Pete Cruikshank and Clive Brooks. I saw them a few other times: twice at the Mayfair (once in 1973 and again in 1974; I recall the band Back Door being the support act on one of these occasions), once at Sunderland Locarno, and once at Spennymoor Top Hat Club. There may have been other gigs that I attended, the band certainly toured a lot at this time. Tony decided to split the band during 1974, but they were to reappear in a different form in the following year. I’ll blog on that line-up tomorrow. Many thanks to John for the scan of the great poster.
I found a setlist which is listed as being from a gig at Glasgow Greens Playhouse (later to become the Apollo) during the November 1973 tour: Ship on the Ocean; Light My Light; I Love You Misogyny; Earth Shanty; Sad Go Round; Dog Me bitch; Split 1; Joker’s Grave; Train Train; Lawdie Miss Clawdie; Soldier; Split 4; Split 2; Sad Go Round. I can’t ever remember the Groundhogs playing old tunes like Lawdie Miss Clawdie, but then my memory is not so good these days…….
Archive for the ‘Tony McPhee’ Category
26 Dec
The Groundhogs 1973 and 1974
25 Dec
The Groundhogs, Stray & Gentle Giant Newcastle City Hall 1972
The Groundhogs Stray & Gentle Giant Newcastle City Hall 1972
A group of us went to this gig, and we had seats right down the front. The line-up was very strong, with support from the amazing Stray and prog-rock heroes Gentle Giant. Gentle Giant were first up. This group grew out of Simon Dupree and the Big Sound, and are now looked upon as a legendary band. At the time, however, it all seemed just a little too weird for our simple rock tastes. Stray were favourites of mine at the time and were just great, with Del wearing his mirror suit, lots of strobe lights during All In Your Mind, and the exploding dustbins to close the show. My favourite Stray song at the time was Jericho, from the Suicide album. 
This was the Groundhogs first tour with new drummer Clive Brooks, and took place between the release of Who Will Save The World and the Hogwash albums. The set would have consisted of classics from Thank Christ For the Bomb, Split, and Mistreated from Blues Obituary. I suspetc that they may also have played some songs from Hogwash. I Love Miss Ogyny and 3744 James Road were to become great live favourites of the next couple of years. The programme tells me: “The playing of the Groundhogs as a group, and of Tony McPhee as a soloist goes from strength to strength. On Who Will Save The World Mac adds mellotron and harmonium to his electrifying guitar, and because of what seems to be essentially a guitarist’s approach to these instruments he adds a new dimension to their usage. The Mighty Groundhogs, now with super-Mac on sythesiser and mellotron as well as his whining, wheeling guitar are very heavy, very heavy indeed”.
24 Dec
The Groundhogs early 70s gigs: the classic line-up
The Groundhogs early 70s gigs: the classic line-up 
This is going to be a bit of a marathon, so please indulge me on this. If there is one band that I have followed consistently over the past 40+ years, it is The Groundhogs. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen them, and hope that collecting my memories in the form of posts on my blog, will help me recall some of the great times I have had at Groundhogs gigs. I intend to blog about this great band over the Christmas period, and its going to take me quite a few days (perhaps a couple of weeks!) to cover all the different line-ups of the band that I have seen, since I first caught them in concert in the early 70s. I’ll also cover the legend that is Tony McPhee as a solo artist during my bloggings.
The first time I saw The Groundhogs was at Newcastle City Hall in February 1971, when they were support act for The Rolling Stones. I’ve blogged separately on this gig from a Stones perspective, but I need to concentrate on my memories of Tony and the guys here. This was, of course, the classic power trio line-up of McPhee on guitar, Pete Cruikshank on bass, and Ken Pustelnik on drums. I didn’t know who was supporting the Stones until I got into the hall, and they introduced them as they came on stage. So it was a nice surprise to find out I was about to witness my first Groundhogs gig. 
This was just around the time that they released Split, and their (very short) set comprised a few songs from that and Thank Christ for the Bomb. The Groundhogs set was particularly short that night, as there were two performances of the Rolling Stones show, the first being from 6.30 to 8.30pm, which didn’t allow the support act to play for much more than half an hour. The Leeds University gig of the tour was recorded and released as the Live At Leeds EP, which shows the set as being: Cherry Red; Garden; Split Part One; Groundhogs Blues; and Eccentric Man. That night I became a lifelong Groundhogs fan. Their music was a unique mix of blues and rock, and they were truly at the height of their powers at the time. I saw this original classic line-up four more times over the next year or so; at Newcastle City Hall, Sunderland Bay Hotel, Newcastle Mayfair, and Sunderland Top Rank.
The City Hall gig was during 1971 and was a co-headlining show with Chicken Shack. Things didn’t go entirely to plan and for some reason The Groundhogs weren’t able to appear that night, so Chicken Shack headlined the gig, and very good they were too. The gig was promoted by local guy Geoff Docherty, who came on stage to apologise and tell us The Groundhogs would play a couple of weeks later. This was one of those gigs where you handed your tickets in at the door, so they gave them back to us as we left, so that we could use them at the rescheduled gig. One of my mates was quite enterprising and kept going in and out of the hall, and thus managed to collect a few extra tickets, which he sold on to people at school. So a couple of weeks later we returned to the City Hall, and as promised The Groundhogs did indeed play for us. I also remember that Bridget St John was support at one of those two gigs; I think it was the first night when Chicken Shack played. I remember someone threw a can, just missing her, and Geoff Docherty came on to the stage to tell the crowd to calm down. At the time The Groundhogs would start with Mistreated (from Blues Obituary), and then play a selection of tracks from their first few albums including Eccentric Man, Still a Fool (from the first album, Scratching the Surface), Split I, Garden, and Groundhog Blues. They would finish with Split II with a marathon solo by Tony and lots of use of the whammy bar, and return for an encore of Cherry Red. Tony was quite rightly rated as one of the best guitarists in the country at the time, and his guitar playing was stunning and a joy to experience.
A group of us went to see The Groundhogs play at Sunderland Bay Hotel sometime late in 1971. I decided to go at the last minute, missing a gig by Rory Gallagher at the City Hall so that I could see the Hogs with my mates. The place was packed and Tony was on top form; I remember this as one of the best times I ever saw the band.
In early 1972, I was at Newcastle Mayfair to see The Groundhogs and Chicken Shack share a bill again, at a dance for Ashington College students. Both bands did play this time, alongside a couple of other bands, as I recall. Chicken Shack were on top form with Stan walking around the dance floor playing his guitar, using an extra long lead. The Groundhogs had just released the Who Will Save the World? The Mighty Groundhogs album, and played a couple of tracks from the new lp: Earth is not Room Enough, and Music is the Food of Thought. I think this is the only time I’ve ever seen them play those tracks. Tony was also getting into some serious soloing at this point, playing a very Hendrix-ish version of Amazing Grace.
Around the same time, in early 1972, a group of us saw The Groundhogs at Sunderland Top Rank. We’d been to see Slade (who were excellent) at Sunderland Locarno earlier that night, and came into the Rink (as it was known) just as The Groundhogs took to the stage, having missed the support act Ashton, Gardner and Dyke. I managed to make my way right to the front, and stood right in front of Tony as he soloed on Amazing Grace and Split II. We also got back stage that night and chatted to Tony and Pete.
Its amazing how many times The Groundhogs played in the north east within the space of a year. In fact there were more gigs then these, including a concert at the City Hall where they were supported by Egg and Quicksand (see flyer), which I missed (and I still regret it!). Ken Pustelnik was soon to leave the band, to be replaced by Clive Brooks, and that version of the band toured extensively over the next couple of years, calling at the City Hall a few times. I’ll blog on those gigs in the coming days.
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