Hoggin' the Page - Martyn Hanson

The story of the Groundhogs spans the most exciting years British rock will ever enjoy. Springing from the same early roots as the Animals, Pretty Things and Rolling Stones, they soon garnered a reputation as a blues band backing the likes of John Lee Hooker and many other giants of the genre. From this solid base, they graduated to writing some of the most challenging progressive rock music of the 1960s and 1970s, yet the next generation of musicians like Captain Sensible and others were fans. Led by visionary guitarist, singer and songwriter Tony McPhee (who sadly passed away in 2023, age 79), abetted by the powerhouse rhythm section of Ken Pustelnik and Pete Cruickshank. DJ John Peel was a big fan and helped to send their Split album into the top five. Other albums such as Thank Christ For The Bomb, Who Will Save The World, Hogwash and Solid cemented their reputation and their thirteen studio albums span four decades. Tony's adventures as a pioneer of the synthesizer, taking it on the road on a solo tour and building one of the first home studios to record with it, shows another side to the complex McPhee that is far less widely known, understood and, let alone, appreciated. This is the story of those classic years.