Tony McPhee RIP

Anyone remember The Groundhogs - their lead guitarist Tony McPhee died yesterday aged 79 .
I remember seeing them as the support band at a Stones concert - they were deafening is about all I can remember - I think he retired from playing in 2015 due to ill health - RIP.

 

I saw them too, an acquired taste I never acquired.
I had a friend who worshipped them though so who knows?

 

Think I saw him once. His party piece to get a bit of sustain was to unstrap his Strat and bash the body on the stage. I'm surprised the neck didn't drop off.

 

There were a lot of bands back then with record deals who couldn't write a good song between them, touring endlessly/desperately and never really getting anywhere. Bands just for the sake of it. How about Uriah Heep? What were they supposed to be? lol

Edit: forgot about this one, Tony's "hit". I quite like this but it's not exactly ground breaking.

 

Is that a song about lower tax diesel?

 

I think it's about annealing copper exhaust gaskets but I've never listened past the words of the title.

 

I was going there next , it was that or a blacksmith working metal!

 

Yeah - it's OK as an album track - but it's not that memorable - just run of the mill thrash guitars - missing a bit of magic vocal or guitar riff.

 

He was from Lincolnshire up near the Humber estuary, IME they're a funny bunch up there with a strong tendency to tread a path and not have any interest in what anyone else thinks. Friendly but insular.

 

Don't think I'll be dashing out to buy that...

 

Likewise, apparently they sold millions of records in the 60's though. I hadn't realised they'd been at it that long.
Bands are strange. There's Trevor Bolder playing on all the earlier Bowie albums then moving on to... Uriah Heep after Bowie dumped them all.

 

I think there's an "arc" of fame for bands: they achieve their peak of fame for a few years, then it all tails off, especially if what they're playing goes out of fashion. But most can't stop, prob because they can't really do anything else. The sensible ones just stop, or go into production, or something else. Folk like Bowie are the exception: they're talented/skilled/intelligent enough to constantly reinvent themselves. Not many of them, tho'