Category: The Groundhogs

Of the many albums to play in requiem for (T.S.) McPhee, fearless leader of the mighty Groundhogs, there are none quite like Live at Leeds. It’s one of those right place/right time performances, recorded in 1971 while the band was opening for the Stones with a set comprised entirely of songs from Thank Christ for the Bomb and Spilt.

Built on stones laid down by John Lee Hooker, Tony “T.S.” McPhee’s The Groundhogs were labeled “post-blues” by the rock & roll press of the late ’60s and ’70s. The band was farther out than Cream, and they tapped into an end-of-flower-power darkness like a less disdainful The Doors, and shared the medieval attitude of Ladbroke Grove bands like Deviants, Pink Fairies, or Hawkwind. but their journey to Inner Space reflects entirely unique concerns.