{"id":6116,"date":"2023-06-26T10:24:28","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T09:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/?p=6116"},"modified":"2023-06-26T10:24:28","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T09:24:28","slug":"tony-mcphee-1944-2023-an-appreciation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=6116","title":{"rendered":"Tony McPhee (1944-2023) an appreciation."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>PAUL FREEMAN, the author of <em>Eccentric Man: A Biography &amp; Discography of Tony (TS) McPhee<\/em>, remembers this behemoth&#8217;s contributions to shaping future musical movements<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"John Lee Hooker &amp; The Groundhogs - I&#039;m Leaving (The Beat Room, Oct 05, 1964)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/d9guuKUvumU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first time I saw Tony McPhee was in 1970 on BBC2\u2019s late night music show <em>Disco2,<\/em> and it was a life changing moment. McPhee\u2019s band The Groundhogs were playing \u2018Eccentric Man\u2019 from their new groundbreaking album <em>Thank Christ For The Bomb<\/em>, and I was transfixed by the amazing sound and the spellbinding wizardry of the band\u2019s guitarist. The period \u201970-72 marks his greatest commercial success with three chart albums including<em> Split<\/em> (\u201971) which sold over 100,000 copies. McPhee was firmly grounded in the blues, and backing numerous Americans on their British tours in the \u201960s was a critical influence. The Groundhogs were John Lee Hooker\u2019s favourite backing band, and fortunately Hooker &amp; the Hogs on BBC2\u2019s <em>The Beat Room<\/em> (5th October \u201964) is the only edition of this series that wasn\u2019t wiped. <em>The Beat Room <\/em>was the first of the BBC2 music series that continues to this day with<em> Later<\/em>. After the first tour with Hooker, McPhee adopted his finger playing style and the unusual habit of only having the guitar strap over one shoulder. Also, the band recorded an album with Hooker in \u201965 and this has been issued with various titles including <em>John Lee Hooker<\/em> (\u201971) on the XTRA label. Other later versions include <em>Hooker &amp; The Hogs<\/em> (\u201996) on Indigo.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Junkman - Groundhogs\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ISXzu96FF4Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although primarily known as a guitarist, singer and a songwriter McPhee was an innovative and highly experimental musician. His training as a GPO engineer, and a keen interest in electronics was fundamental to his individual approach. Every guitar, amp or effects unit was dismantled and customised. In an interview with the <em>NME<\/em> in \u201972 he stated: \u201cAll musicians ought to have at least a simple understanding of electronics. Even if it\u2019s as basic as knowing, with your guitar or amp, only why it\u2019s doing what it\u2019s doing.\u201d He used the recording studio to produce weird noises, and the track \u2018Junkman\u2019 on <em>Split<\/em> concludes with an extraordinary sonic freak out. In \u201973 he undertook a solo tour which included a synthesiser suite titled <em>The Hunt.<\/em> This was described in his <em>Guardian<\/em> obituary: \u201cHe recited an anti-foxhunting narrative against a patchwork of experimental synthesiser sounds.\u201d His politics were distinctly left wing, and he loathed blood sports and the aristocracy. He became a vegetarian aged 16 and remained committed to animal rights throughout his life.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tony McPhee (Groundhogs),  Old Grey Whistle Test TV prog, solo acoustic - 1973\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3lWAA3MiF6c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Apart from an outstanding body of work (albums and live recordings) his legacy is assured via the extensive list of disparate musicians that have credited him as a major influence. These include Captain Sensible of The Damned, Julian Cope, Mark E Smith of The Fall, Karl Hyde of Underworld and The Arctic Monkeys. The Fall recorded bizarre interpretations of two of his songs, and Queens Of The Stone Age included a knockout version of \u2018Eccentric Man\u2019 on <em>The Desert Sessions Vol 3\/4<\/em> (1998). The major Hollywood movie <em>Logan Lucky<\/em> (2017) included sections of two songs on the soundtrack. Coincidentally, on the day he died episode two of the BBC TV drama <em>The Gallows Pole<\/em> featured \u2018Cherry Rd\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Queens of The Stone Age  Eccentric Man\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/T4NJ5VnDAVM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although his career trajectory was somewhat erratic, in 2005 he stated: \u201cThe highs definitely outweighed the lows, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d And the highs are numerous: touring in the \u201960s with all those blues legends, performing \u2018Cherry Red\u2019 on <em>Top Of The Pops<\/em> (April \u201971) with the first metal fronted Zemaitis, supporting The Rolling Stones of their &#8220;farewell tour&#8221; in \u201971, and setting up one of the first home studios. <em>Thank Christ (\u2019<\/em>70) and <em>Split<\/em> (\u201971) are widely acknowledged as milestones in the history of rock. The comic book album cover for<em> Who Will The Save The World? The Mighty Groundhogs!<\/em> is a classic.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Old Grey Whistle Test TV prog, Groundhogs, 1976\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/00HhslgDUNE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tony McPhee is a unique figure in the history of British music, and he fully deserves the accolade of \u201cgreat\u201d that was used repeatedly in all his obituaries. I\u2019m fortunate to have known him, and enjoyed so many of his live performances. It didn\u2019t matter to him if the gig was at The Royal Festival Hall or playing solo to a handful of people in the back room of a pub. 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McPhee\u2019s band The Groundhogs were playing \u2018Eccentric [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,7],"tags":[1116,1115],"class_list":["post-6116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-music-videos","tag-the-groundhogs","tag-tony-mcphee","post_format-post-format-video"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6116"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}