Fact #183528
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Short story:
British r'n'b band The Groundhogs do their first live session for BBC radio, for the Rhythm'N'Blues show on the World Service, in the Maida Vale studios, London, England, UK, Europe.Full article:
During the first two years of the 70s, the Groundhogs almost took up residence in the corridors of the BBC.
“I remember being surprised when we first recorded at the Beeb,” says Groundhogs’ founder, Tony McPhee, “that the sessions were all done on two-track machines. Even our first album, in 1968, had been recorded on four-track equipment, so this all seemed very primitive. If you wanted to overdub, you had to bounce the tracks across to another machine which made life difficult. So, as much as possible, we avoided overdubs and went for a real live recording.”
McPhee had been turned on to rock’n’roll by his sister’s collection Elvis and Chuck Berry 78s but the crucial moment in his musical development came in a record store when he dithered between albums by Bob Dylan and Robert Johnson. “Johnson was black,” remembers McPhee, “so I bought his, and that was it.”
In 1963, he named his first band after John Lee Hooker’s Groundhog Blues, and they soon gained a reputation as the ideal unit to back visiting American blues stars - Jimmy Reed, Little Walter, Eddie Boyd and, inevitably, John Lee Hooker. “We met Hooker at the Twisted Wheel in Manchester, and I thought he looked really mean. He just turned up and plugged into an AC30 without a soundcheck or rehearsals.”
In July 1966, when Clapton left The Bluesbreakers, John Mayall offered McPhee the job but he turned it down. While less proficient r’n’b bands achieved greater success, McPhee’s purism proved to be The Groundhogs’ downfall. “We looked out really obscure blues musicians, like Henry Townshend, and some whose names I can’t even remember. We copied the old masters note for note and, on a good week, we might make eight pounds.”
Disbanding this first incarnation of The Groundhogs, McPhee dabbled with psychedelia as Herbal Mixture, then did a stint with the John Dummer Blues Band before reforming The Groundhogs in 1968 to record their debut album, Scratching The Surface.
By the time of the controversial Thank Christ For The Bomb in 1970, when The Groundhogs turned in a superb set at the legendary Isle Of Wight Festival, McPhee was acknowledged as the UK’s leading bottleneck guitarist.
Their fourth album, Split, in 1971, came closest to capturing the raw energy and intensity of their live gigs but, good as the albums were, McPhee himself is the first to admit that “We were really doing the business live in those days.”
And that live sound is exactly what was captured on their CD of long-lost BBC sessions, issued in 1998. “I was delighted to hear those tapes again after so long,” says McPhee, adding that, “One of the biggest decisions for that album was which version of Split to use. We recorded it so often at the BBC that the producer, Malcolm Brown, used to ask if we actually wanted to play it, or if he should just use one of the many previous tapes.”
The Groundhogs were effectively wiped out by the arrival of Glam Rock, but McPhee continued recording into the 21st century, as well as performing, both as a solo act and in various Groundhogs re-incarnations.
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“I remember being surprised when we first recorded at the Beeb,” says Groundhogs’ founder, Tony McPhee, “that the sessions were all done on two-track machines. Even our first album, in 1968, had been recorded on four-track equipment, so this all seemed very primitive. If you wanted to overdub, you had to bounce the tracks across to another machine which made life difficult. So, as much as possible, we avoided overdubs and went for a real live recording.”
McPhee had been turned on to rock’n’roll by his sister’s collection Elvis and Chuck Berry 78s but the crucial moment in his musical development came in a record store when he dithered between albums by Bob Dylan and Robert Johnson. “Johnson was black,” remembers McPhee, “so I bought his, and that was it.”
In 1963, he named his first band after John Lee Hooker’s Groundhog Blues, and they soon gained a reputation as the ideal unit to back visiting American blues stars - Jimmy Reed, Little Walter, Eddie Boyd and, inevitably, John Lee Hooker. “We met Hooker at the Twisted Wheel in Manchester, and I thought he looked really mean. He just turned up and plugged into an AC30 without a soundcheck or rehearsals.”
In July 1966, when Clapton left The Bluesbreakers, John Mayall offered McPhee the job but he turned it down. While less proficient r’n’b bands achieved greater success, McPhee’s purism proved to be The Groundhogs’ downfall. “We looked out really obscure blues musicians, like Henry Townshend, and some whose names I can’t even remember. We copied the old masters note for note and, on a good week, we might make eight pounds.”
Disbanding this first incarnation of The Groundhogs, McPhee dabbled with psychedelia as Herbal Mixture, then did a stint with the John Dummer Blues Band before reforming The Groundhogs in 1968 to record their debut album, Scratching The Surface.
By the time of the controversial Thank Christ For The Bomb in 1970, when The Groundhogs turned in a superb set at the legendary Isle Of Wight Festival, McPhee was acknowledged as the UK’s leading bottleneck guitarist.
Their fourth album, Split, in 1971, came closest to capturing the raw energy and intensity of their live gigs but, good as the albums were, McPhee himself is the first to admit that “We were really doing the business live in those days.”
And that live sound is exactly what was captured on their CD of long-lost BBC sessions, issued in 1998. “I was delighted to hear those tapes again after so long,” says McPhee, adding that, “One of the biggest decisions for that album was which version of Split to use. We recorded it so often at the BBC that the producer, Malcolm Brown, used to ask if we actually wanted to play it, or if he should just use one of the many previous tapes.”
The Groundhogs were effectively wiped out by the arrival of Glam Rock, but McPhee continued recording into the 21st century, as well as performing, both as a solo act and in various Groundhogs re-incarnations.