The Groundhogs

It's hard to imagine from the point of view of an adult just exactly what is going on in the mind of a teenage boy listening to heavy music. I realised this the other day sitting with my son in front of the TV while some noise-thing took off with alarming velocity on Kerrang TV or somesuch. It was the thrill of heavy music gone bad and that swirl of male emotion, tension, frustration that whips into tight rhythmic repetition, dark slabs of guitar noise and unrelenting vocals.

It quite took me back to teenage years in the Manchester Hardrock, with the freaks dancing to Deep Purple and Black Sabbath while we pseudo-intellectual "heads" hung back waiting for Jefferson Airplane, Steely Dan or J Tull.

But it also reminded me of my own darksecret teen obsessions, The Groundhogs. And like so many boy obsessions it wasn't really mine to start with.

It was my friend 'Whitey', and even he had inherited The 'Hogs off his older and all-too-adult brother. Well, all my schoolfriends inherited bands, that's how I got to hear Soft Machine, Egg, Amon Duul and a dozen other things I came to adore. But not off Whitey's brother. His taste was altogether more industrial.

But with the Groundhogs I had a headstart as my sister had a copy of "Split" and it was the famous (and rather unpleasant, in retrospect) "Split Part 2" that first took our hearts, wah-wah pedal and all. Of course, I was able to feign previous knowledge and thus build on my mythic status by referring to the copy of Split that sat at home.

But Split was decidedly not their finest moment and although Whitey and I revered it for months, it was the previous album "Thank Christ for The Bomb" that Whitey's older brother brought into our lives that really hit a spot forever. I guess the reason was to do with Tony "T.S." McPhee, glorious blues maestro on guitar and his own mental state.

You see, Tony started with a fairly drab British blues album "Scratching the surface" and followed up with an altogether smarter and more wonderful John Lee Hooker tribute in "Blues Obituary". This second album was a real moment for white blues and, for anyone keen on such things, still a recommended item.

The third album, however, "Thank Christ" had the lot. A three piece guitar blues band playing heavy rock with great technique, great tunes and fine blues singing. Plus they were still a band who did not yet revere their own technique. This was the point in time when the McPhee wanted to bare his soul and really communicate, and make some great songs along the way. Some wonderful moments too, especially the beautiful "Garden" and the powerful "Eccentric Man" which still touches, to this day.

Altogether a marvellous record, Thank Christ was a tough act to follow and in retrospect I now realise Split did not live up to the challenge. Sure, McPhee wrote it while undergoing the breakdown that followed his heightened emotional state from the time of "Thank Chriust" and Cherry Red was a storming rock song, but in truth the 'Hogs would never be quite as great again. Despite some lovely moments on "Who will save the world" the rest of their career was a gradual decline.

A bit like my friendship with WHitey actually. At 16 we were joined at the hip, playing table football together, discovering alcohol, watching Man U, we had a great time and Steve was a great pal.

But, like the Hogs, we drifted apart and although I still look back on the whole era with fondness, when I play Split today, I am forced to conclude that when you are 16 and listening to Heavy Rock, you do so with psychological and biological needs you will, hopefully, never have again.

Steve, if you're out there... play Garden one more time?