Tony McPhee and the Groundhogs - Live at the Anti WAA Festival (1989) - Hard Psychedelic Blues Rock

FULL CONCERT: Recorded on July 16th, 1989, in Burglengenfeld, Germany.

Set list (all songs by Tony 'TS' McPhee unless otherwise noted):
1) Eccentric Man
2) Split, Part 1: 3:52
3) 3744 James Road: 9:20
4) I Want You To Love Me (Muddy Waters): 15:45
5) Groundhog Blues (John Lee Hooker): 20:00
6) Light My Light/Split, Part 2: 25:15
7) Split, Part 4: 37:30
8) Cherry Red: 42:35

The Groundhogs were (*):
- Tony 'TS' McPhee: Vocals & Guitar
- Dave Anderson (ex-Hawkwind, Amon Duul II): Bass
- Mick(y) Jones: Drums
(*) - This line-up was active, approx., between 1986 and 1993.

Formed in 1963, as a power trio, consisting of Tony 'T.S.' McPhee (b. 23 March 1944), bassist Peter Cruickshank (b. 2 July 1945), and drummer Ken Pustelnik (b. 13 March 1946), the Groundhogs reached their commercial/productive stride during the late 1960s/early 1970s. The group's albums "Thank Christ for the Bomb" (1970); "Split" (1971); and "Who Will Save the World? The Mighty Groundhogs!" (1972), all reached the Top 10 in the UK Albums Chart, with "Split" reaching #5, spending 27 weeks in the UK Albums Chart and achieving gold record status. They performed at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, sharing the bill with Jimi Hendrix, among many others, and supported the Rolling Stones on their 1971 British tour at Mick Jagger's request, while in 1972, Tony was also voted amongst the "Top Ten Guitarists" via Melody Maker, among the likes of Rory Gallagher (whom he personally knew), Eric Clapton (whom he had shared a recording studio with), Jimmy Page, Pete Townsend, Ritchie Blackmore, and Jerry Garcia. Despite several more studio albums; "Hogwash" (1972), "Solid" (1974), plus "Crosscut Saw" & "Black Diamond" (both 1976), only "Solid" charted.

The mid-1980s saw the band release two highly underappreciated (even in their own discography) studio efforts; 1985's "Razor's Edge", and 1987's "Back Against the Wall", plus the live albums "Hogs On the Road" and "Extremely Live" (both 1988).

The Anti-WAA(hnsinns) Festivals were political rock concerts which took place in Germany in the 1980s. The festival peaked in 1986 with an estimated 100,000 people attending.

The 1989 line-up, attended by upwards of 30,000, included, in addition to the Groundhogs, Robert Cray, the recently reformed Ten Years After, featuring Alvin Lee (tried to find and failed), plus Blue Cheer (their performance briefly available on CD/DVD), who themselves were in a revival period of sorts, having then recently released a live album, and were to go on to release studio works in the coming years, one of which included contributions from Groundhog, Tony McPhee, with whom they were on friendly terms. Tony would also join Blue Cheer during their set, adding guitar to "Hoochie Coochie Man".)

For years, this represented the sole filmed example of the Groundhogs, though it went unreleased for 25 years. "Live at the Astoria" in 1998, was the first commercially released viewing experience, with "60/40 Split" (2003) in 2008 being a later example. For further listening, I'd recommend "Groundhogs: Night Live", from 1993. It features (of course) Tony, with still-present Mick(y) Jones on drums, but with Alan Fish returning to replace Dave Anderson on bass. It's style is very much similar to this (albeit heavier) but goes on for 140 minutes! With album deep cuts, plus additional blues covers.

This concert is taken from the very limited edition DVD of the same name, released in 2014, a copy of which, I only just recently acquired, second-hand (It is very rare). Unfortunately, the disk itself wasn't entirely sturdy, and after only a couple of watches, the disk's fragile nature resulted in dramatic slow-downs in frame rates in places. So, in response, I downloaded a screen cap, through which I recorded two examples of the DVD. The first was largely unsuccessful, as two major slow down occurred. So, I tried again. And got all the way until "Cherry Red" (right near the end!), when, during the guitar solo, the frame rate tanked, before largely recovering (save for a couple minor instances, which I convinced myself I could live with). Not confident I could succeed in such a clean run the third time, I instead went about the task of editing the faulty "Cherry" solo out of the second example, and replacing it with the flawless example from first. It took hours (I am an inexperienced editor), but I am confident the result is as good as I can get it - so it is as less intrusive to the song's flow as possible.

Tony McPhee's Groundhogs would remain active well into the 21st century, only ceasing in 2014, after a series of health setbacks, the least of which, a 2009 stroke, befell the frontman. His definitive biography was published in 2012. He died on June 6th, 2023, at the age of 79, at home in England.

#bluesrock, #hardrock, #psychedelicrock, #powertrio, #britishblues