Here's the scoop...
It takes them from blues revivalists to head-friendly prog icons and power rock innovators; bridging the gap between their first two bluesy albums and the nirvana and nadir of the band’s most lauded line up of Tony McPhee (guitar and vocals), Pete Cruikshank (bass) and Ken Pustelnik (drums) at their final show on that big American tour that broke up the original trio.
Along the way they were heralded by Mick Jagger and Robert Plant, became embroiled in student riots in Germany and were acclaimed in the weeklies as the hardest working band around, while guitarist Tony McPhee guffawed at comparisons to Hendrix, Clapton and Peter Green.
Sitting in the Warner Brothers’ vault for 50 years, four reels of tape lay wedged between the masters of the groundbreaking albums ‘Thank Christ For The Bomb’, ‘Split’ and ‘Who Will Save The World… The Mighty Groundhogs’.
The first two boxes had a handwritten scrawl acclaiming them as ‘Groundhogs live at Richmond Athletic Ground, November 7, 1969’. Originally it had been thought that they were recorded at the Ninth National Jazz And Blues Festival – a nomadic event that had previously rocked up in Richmond.
In fact, they turned out to be a one-off support slot to Free, a break from their Marquee residency; the mood is intimate, jokey between-song banter punctuates a monumental set that debuts an un-named “new song” which came to be known as their classic "Cherry Red."
The second two boxes – marked 'Pocono’ were recorded at what would turn out to be the final show for this seminal line up when their truncated hurricane-threatened US tour ended abruptly when Tony broke his arm in a freak horse riding accident.
Over 976 days and with 250-plus live shows under their belt, The Groundhogs had sealed their legendary status.
You can pre-order the limited triple vinyl edition of Road Hogs: Live From Richmond to Pocono (out November 5th via Fire Records) which includes Includes liner notes with rare photos from The Groundhogs archive, bumper sticker and poster right here.
The Groundhogs – Road Hogs: Live From Richmond to Pocono
A1. Cherry Red (Richmond Athletic Ground, London - 1969)
A2. Mistreated (Richmond Athletic Ground, London - 1969)
A3. Natchez Burning (Richmond Athletic Ground, London - 1969)
B1. B.D.D. (Richmond Athletic Ground, London - 1969)
B2. Times (Richmond Athletic Ground, London - 1969)
C1. Still a Fool (Richmond Athletic Ground, London - 1969)
D1. Group Intro (Richmond Athletic Ground, London - 1969)
D2. No More Doggin' (Richmond Athletic Ground, London - 1969)
E1. Eccentric Man (Pocono Raceway, Pennsylvania - 1972)
E2. Music is the Food of Thought (Pocono Raceway, Pennsylvania - 1972)
E3. Cherry Red, Split Part 2 (Pocono Raceway, Pennsylvania - 1972)
F1. Still a Fool, Amazing Grace (Pocono Raceway, Pennsylvania - 1972)
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