Groundhogs
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Other music related lounges
Forum Name: Proto-Prog and Prog-Related Lounge
Forum Description: Discuss bands and albums classified as Proto-Prog and Prog-Related
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=55425
Printed Date: April 26 2024 at 11:29
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Groundhogs
Posted By: Hawkwise
Subject: Groundhogs
Date Posted: February 08 2009 at 18:04
 Good to see the Groundhogs on the front PageIf you have never heard this wonderful Band then i suggest it's time you Did. ------------- 
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Replies:
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: February 08 2009 at 18:20
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very much so... a great addition. I got into them through Raff.... thanks to Steve for the addition.. and Raff for helping them get approved and added.
------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: Raff
Date Posted: February 08 2009 at 18:25
 They had been actually suggested for addition to the Heavy Prog team, but we thought that they didn't fit our sub 100%. However, we also thought they would be an excellent addition to the Prog-Related category, and we are very happy the Admin Team gave their approval immediately. |
Posted By: el dingo
Date Posted: February 09 2009 at 02:15
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I was a bit of a Hogs fanboy back in the Seventies and still have everything up to Hogwash.
They were brilliant live, too.
Dunno exactly who makes these decisions, but
 to whoever.Nice to see Thank Christ For The Bomb on And Now What Are You Listening To today. Think I'll play 1969-72 Best Of on the way to town today. ------------- It's not that I can't find worth in anything, it's just that I can't find worth in enough. |
Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: February 09 2009 at 06:58
| Split is a great album, I used to have "Thanks Christ" as well, I must dig out a copy. I once stayed with a friend in Wales a few years back and we wandered down to his local working mens club to see the band that was on and it turned out to be Groundhogs. |
Posted By: el dingo
Date Posted: February 10 2009 at 02:25
Seeing your location, you might remember Dagenham Roundhouse where I first heard the Hogs?
Split is excellent and Cherry Red was a kick-ass encore - amps up to 11, etc. ------------- It's not that I can't find worth in anything, it's just that I can't find worth in enough. |
chopper wrote:Posted By: jammun
Date Posted: February 10 2009 at 18:30
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Whoa! It is those Groundhogs ya'll are talking about. Very nice, unexpected addition. |
Posted By: Nightfly
Date Posted: February 11 2009 at 12:46
Great to see The Groundhogs here  ....I'll do some reviewing of their albums very soon.
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Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: February 11 2009 at 13:07
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Excellent addition!
------------- Just a fanboy passin' through. |
Posted By: Raff
Date Posted: February 11 2009 at 13:43
I am so very happy to see the positive reactions to this addition. You see, I have to take some credit for moving things along... Last summer the band was suggested for addition in the Collab zone, and it was to be evaluated by the Heavy Prog team. Unfortunately, more or less at the same time I had to take a break from the site, and the matter was forgotten - until we brought it up again a few weeks ago, and this time with full success !
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Posted By: Alberto Muņoz
Date Posted: February 11 2009 at 19:31
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Excellent addition very good underrated band. -------------  |
Posted By: mystic fred
Date Posted: February 12 2009 at 06:14
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I was very pleased to be given the job of adding The Groundhogs to PA, and i hope the reasons for their inclusion are clear.
I have been a fan of the band since they released "Split" back in 1971 and seen Tony McPhee's Groundhogs live on a number of occasions, and at one gig i even had the opportunity to buy Tony a pint and have a chat, and a very approachable, down to earth and easy going fellow he is too .
I have contacted band members Tony McPhee, Ken Pustelnik and Pete Cruikshank and wait to receive their comments on the addition though initially they seemed happy , the author of the Groundhogs biography "Hoggin' the Page" Martyn Hanson was complimentary and was very impressed with our website.
 changed my avatar to promote the new listing
 -------------  Prog Archives Tour Van 
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Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: February 12 2009 at 10:02
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That's great news. Nice one Steve.
I'm a little surprised (but ultimately not disappointed
 ) to see McPhee's magnificently prog solo album, The Two Sides Of T.S. McPhee, included - hopefully no one will feel the desire to add any of his (Blues) solo albums (such as Me And The Devil or Foolish Pride). ------------- What? |
Posted By: mystic fred
Date Posted: February 12 2009 at 12:00
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^ there were practical reasons for including the "Two Sides" album within the Groundhogs listing, Dean, one was that "The Groundhogs and Tony Macphee" wouldn't link up with the Ebay and Amazon online album listings within the page, and would make it difficult for the search facility (just the key search word "Groundhogs" works great), also as only one of Tony's solo albums could be described as Prog (related) it would not make sense to have "Tony (TS) McPhee" as a seperate solo listing, which would therefore include all his blues albums.. .. hope that makes sense!
------------- Prog Archives Tour Van
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Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: February 12 2009 at 12:08
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^ not complaining Steve - if we couldn't have squeezed it in I'd have been quite upset - 'The Hunt' is worthy of inclusion in its own right - I wish he'd done more like that.
------------- What? |
Posted By: AlanD
Date Posted: February 13 2009 at 06:33
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Saw the 'Hogs many times in the seventies including a BBC 'In Concert' gig at the Paris Theatre, Regent Street during the energy shortage era of 1972 - a power cut right in the middle of Eccentric Man - cue a Pustlenik drum solo!
Split will forever be one of my all-time fave albums. ------------- AlanD |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: February 13 2009 at 07:21
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Only ever seen the guys once so far & that was back in about 1986/1987 at a pub in Finsbury Park, London; forget the name of it but it was opposite The Rainbow & the barman looked like he was part-orc. Great gig though -------------  Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: February 13 2009 at 07:25
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I saw them a couple of times in the 70s, the last being at Aylesbury Civic Centre during the Crosscut Saw tour ------------- What? |
Posted By: el dingo
Date Posted: February 13 2009 at 14:55
Glad someone else remembers the Rainbow - don't believe the Hogs played there tho
I know the pub you mean but can't think of the name either. IMO barman was probably full-orc. I think his name badge said " Grishnak" or something like that. ------------- It's not that I can't find worth in anything, it's just that I can't find worth in enough. |
Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: February 13 2009 at 15:08
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I saw them headlining the Friday night session over at Whitchurch Festival (Hants, UK) back in about 2000... thoroughly enjoyable gig...
and incidentally, may I just say how nice is it to see a thread where everyone has been so constructive and positive about the addition of a potentially controvertial band to Prog Related?
you all deserve some clappies... ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: Syzygy
Date Posted: February 13 2009 at 16:53
I don't think there's anything too controversial about Thank Christ..., Mighty 'hogs and Split going into prog related - some of McPhee's more straight ahead blues albums would be pushing it, but on those albums from 1970-75 they even used mellotron from time to time.
A fine addition and Steve - nice avatar! ------------- 'Like so many of you I've got my doubts about how much to contribute to the already rich among us...' Robert Wyatt, Gloria Gloom |
Posted By: Hawkwise
Date Posted: February 13 2009 at 22:41
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Yeah good to see so many good responses . I Have been Groundhogs fan since 1975, i was around my friends house and his older Brother was Blaring out Cheery Red, ihave seen the band Many Many times since 1975 and have met and talked to Tony a good few Times, And Yep Great to see Two Sides of in the Archives to. i Would review all the Groundhog albums on here but i am not to good at the Whole Review Thing. and Split and Hogwash would both be 5 star albums essential to any prog collection. -------------
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Posted By: John McIntyre
Date Posted: February 27 2009 at 16:44
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First heard The Groundhogs in late 1970 - to my ears, they were a revelation. I bought "Thank Christ..." ("Garden" is STLL superb) and "Split" ('nuff said) quickly. I got "Who will save.." (not quite so good) and "Hogwash" later. After hearing "Earth Shanty" on "Hogwash", I thought that McPhee actually got better the further he went from his blues roots. I saw them live in Birmingham in '73, but they did too much old non-Groundhogs stuff (e.g. an couple of old Elvis Presley numbers). I saw him again in Workington in 1989, but it was a "look how good I am" sort of gig, with little old stuff. he looked tired and haggard, almost with an "I wish I was somewhere else" kind of attitude. A sad decline. ------------- I am one of only about 1,800 people in the world with an original M400 Mellotron! |
Posted By: Dick Heath
Date Posted: February 27 2009 at 17:41
Why are we pissing about? I'm all for a blues rock section we have virtually everything else on board. To repeat, we early progressive music fan had blues bands (e.g.Canned Heat, John Mayall) in the genre long before Krimson turned up. I can't wait to add Groundhogs with John Lee Hooker. I trust Syz , you're musing there? I happened to deliberately played Stray with heavy Mellotron on Thursday's night show, definitely heavy rock not prog (i.e. the first track on Suicide) ------------- The best eclectic music on the Web,8-11pm BST/GMT THURS. CLICK ON: http://www.lborosu.org.uk/media/lcr/live.php - http://www.lborosu.org.uk/media/lcr/live.php Host by PA's Dick Heath. |
Posted By: Certif1ed
Date Posted: March 07 2009 at 17:14
And don't forget that Graham Bond's Organisation was using trons back in 1965 (or was it 1966).
The Hogs are a progressive Blues band in the same way that the Bluesbreakers, Cream and the Yardbirds were - there's nothing intrinsically different in the music.
Not Prog - but who cares anymore?  ------------- The important thing is not to stop questioning. |
Posted By: el dingo
Date Posted: March 10 2009 at 04:15
I saw Stray a couple of times in the 1970s around the time Saturday Morning Pictures was released.
Happy to confirm that live they were purely heavy/hard rock. And bloody good too IMO, esp. Del Bromham. ------------- It's not that I can't find worth in anything, it's just that I can't find worth in enough. |