Thursday, November 04, 2010

The Groundhogs

The Groundhogs were one of the top London bands in the 1960s British Blues boom, moving on to a more experimental direction that has earned the appreciation of the krautrock/psychedelia archdruid himself among many others. According to Wikipedia and other sources, the band started out in New Cross.

The early origins of the band are described at The Groundhogs Archive: 'In the early 1960s Tony McPhee was working for Post Office Telephones and joined his work mate John Cruickshank's band, which was then called 'The Dollarbills'. Neither liking the name or the 'pop' music they played, he persuaded them to start playing Blues and R&B after he had seen Cyril Davies and the All-Stars playing at the Marquee club and suggested 'Groundhogs' as a name for the band, after a track on John Lee Hooker's album 'House of the Blues''.

Would like to know more about their New Cross years, like where did they live, were they part of any local music scenes etc. ?

Here's their Daze of the Week from the 1969 album Blues Obituary:



Thanks to Richard S. for spotting this New Cross connection

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