The Groundhogs – Solid

McPhee used an M400 from Who Will Save the World? The Mighty Groundhogs up to Solid as a means of progressing the sound of The Groundhogs and his own sound, as reported in the following sources:

Sounds, March 18, 1972, "The Groundhogs: Tony McPhee At The Talk-In" by Jerry Gilbert

Do you think this could be the start of a new phase for the band?

Well I can't really envisage it. I'm going to get a mellotron for the States which will involve some pretty clever juggling between guitar and mellotron, but it'll be nice to have it because when you play guitar and play a lot of improvised stuff you do get the feeling that if you could just break it up a little bit... with Split we found that more than half the album we could easily do on stage but with this one it's going to be very difficult because the basic three piece sound is all the same really and it's getting a bit of a problem figuring out which way we are going to go. But I really think that if you listened to that album without knowing us, I'm pretty sure that if you saw us live we wouldn't be the same band at all.

I don't mind this because I think albums are different things anyway – I don't think it's necessary to see a band doing its album on stage.

Since Thank Christ For The Bomb you've started to get into sounds and effects which you can obtain by using the studios and also by modifying your guitar and amplification.

Yeah definitely. Studios are weird things, you know you can get a sound on stage which suits you but you can't get it in a studio so you have to muck about with it quite a bit and in doing so you get a different sound. I use a wah-wah pedal which I'm using less of now – it got a bit tiresome after a while – then there's a new thing called an octave splitter and that just sort of gives you a rough octave above and below.

You can get sounds like a bass and sustained sounds with a weird quality and in effect it's like an electrical Rory Gallagher – you know this ability he's got of striking harmonics, well in actual fact that's what it does, so you can cheat quite well on those things. Also playing two notes at once it gives you the same effect as a ring modulator which is very trendy these days... notes which are the subtraction and addition of the two frequencies and this sort of thing which gives you a bubbly sort of sound. That's all I get along with really but I do feel now that I want more – not simply from gadgets because I don't use these as gadgets, I use them as separate instruments really.

The whole point is I knew I could imitate things like strings on the new album but I wanted the actual strings sound for some reason otherwise it makes it another freaky album which I didn't want to do. When the mellotron comes on stage we are going to have to re-think quite drastically – not that we do much thinking; we'll probably just slide along like we always do.

Hogwash liner notes (listed under McPhee's profile and pictured in Pete Cruickshank's profile)

Mellotron M400

Sounds, May 5, 1973, "Mac’s Home Cooking: The Groundhogs" by Jerry Gilbert

"So I think it’s time to pull a few strokes and they can take it or leave it. The synthesiser and mellotron, no matter what else they did, at least provided a break."

Roots

The real testing time comes in September when Mac goes solo. He plans to do a series of solo concerts featuring a set of pure, unadulterated blues, going right back to his early roots. Then he’ll reappear with his thinking cap on and present a one man electronics show.

He’s also cutting an album called The Two Faces Of Tony McPhee, and on stage he plans to surround himself with three Moogs, two mellotrons, Hammond organ, electric and acoustic piano as well as a wide range of acoustics and electric guitars.

Photos from the 1973 Kendal Pop Festival (August 26, 1973): Derek Copeland, John Dennis (#1, #2)

New Musical Express, October 27, 1973, "Tony McPhee: Who Will Save McPhee" by Tony Stewart

"I just had the feeling that I wanted to do something different. But the audiences just wouldn't let us get away from Split, and it showed itself. It got so we were stuck in the quagmire of Split.

"I realised what was happening and I tried to break out of it with The Mighty Groundhogs by making it more melodic and bringing in the mellotron. I don't know whether I should have done that.

"With Hogwash we went back to the initial formula of being heavy. But now there are criticisms levelled at us of being too much like a jet plane and I do want to get away from that. I want to get more dynamics into the thing, And more arrangements just to break up the guitar monopoly.

"So that's why I used synthesiser on my solo album – for a complete change. That's the only way to do it really – by saying, 'forget what I've done in the past, this is something completely different'. There's no guitar at all on the second side, and the first side is acoustic, which I don't play on stage anyway."

Solid liner notes

SINS OF THE FATHER [...] Vocals, Guitar & Mellotron ; T.S.

[...]

SNOW STORM [...] Vocals, Guitars, Bass & Mellotron ; T.S.

Solid back cover

Instruments used :

Gibson S.G, Fender Stratocaster, Yamaha Acoustic, Zemaitis Bass, Ludwig Drums, ARP 2600 Synthesizer, Mellotron

Beat Instrumental, November 1974, "Home Studios: Tony McPhee" by Del Robinson, pg. 28-29 (pictured)

Tony's also very interested in electronic music: 'I want to build an electronic music studio', and he enthusiastically demonstrated some gear in his present set-up. It includes a couple of ARP2600 synthesisers, a rhythm sequencer ('I found this unit invaluable'), and frequency shifter, a Compact piano and a Mellotron.

'I'm a guitarist, not a keyboards player,' commented Tony modestly. 'Though I find I'm really beginning to get into synthesisers now. They're very creative instruments and it's very much up to the individual musician what he gets out of them. I prefer the ARPs - not everyone can get along with EMS units. I know people have criticised the ARP because you have to patch across it, but I don't find this a problem.'

Tony's also got a Mellotron (although he doesn't use it much now - 'It takes too long to tune up on stage and we don't like to lose any impact at the start of a performance.'), and a Compact piano.

Beat Instrumental, March 1976, "Tony McPhee: The Hogs Return" by Chris Simmons, pg. 25

Like Tony, Dave is a capable musician on other instruments besides guitar - electric violin and mandolin, and these will be gradually integrated into the act when the time is right. The combination of these and McPhee's mellotron and ARP synthesizer will certainly give an added dimension to the band's music.

Visible in this photo of McPhee. It is listed among his equipment in the liner notes of Hogwash, the back cover of Solid, the press kit for Solid, and on the back cover of Back Against the Wall, besides also appearing with McPhee on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973.

Hogwash liner notes

Yamaha Acoustic

Solid back cover

Instruments used :

Gibson S.G, Fender Stratocaster, Yamaha Acoustic, Zemaitis Bass, Ludwig Drums, ARP 2600 Synthesizer, Mellotron

WWA press kit for Solid (1974), profile for McPhee

INSTRUMENTS: Gibson SG, Fender Stratocaster, Zemaitis, Yamaha, Harmony Acoustics, H/H Amplification, ARP 2600 synthesizer and EMS Sequencer

Back Against the Wall back cover

Yamaha Acoustic FG180

Used live, on Solid and on Crosscut Saw. By June 1978, it was being used to boost his Guild amp.

Ca. 1973 photo of McPhee on stage (pictured), via Easy on the Eye, "Tony McPhee & The Groundhogs" (April 2013)

https://easyontheeye2.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/tony-ts-mcphee.jpg

Tony TS McPhee with The Groundhogs, photographed on stage at the Sheffield City Hall.

Solid back cover

Effects using:

A Synthi Hi-Fli, Audio Design Phaser, Vari-Pitch Revox

1974 footage of The Groundhogs performing "Light My Light" at The Marquee (visible; prominent at 2:46)

Beat, March 1976, "Tony McPhee: The Hogs Return" by Chris Simmons, pg. 25

Amps

In the amplification department, Tony is still undecided as to what he will use for the gigs. "I used to have a big Laney cabinet, and I'll probably end up using that. I have been in the studio with a Davoli amp (with a 15" speaker) which is great for straight things, but as soon as I put my Hi-Fli through it it just breaks up. Perhaps I'll end up driving the Davoli through the Laney cab, but I'll have to experiment more fully first. Actually, the real problem is not amplifying the guitar but my synthesizer.

Distort

"You need a system that won't distort the sound and still has enough poke behind it to carry. On certain gigs you will find that the set-up you have is perfect and on others you will hate it. Then, another problem is that I need a whole lot of top as I use my fingers instead of a pick. Recording is obviously a different bag; I use a pick in the studio to pick out definite notes clearly. It doesn't matter on stage but when you use your fingers some notes are a little down on others. Anyway, if one note's a bummer so what? The main thing is feel."

One might guess that with his penchant for sound experimentation, Tony supplements his guitar with various effect units, but surprisingly he sticks to his Hi-Fli and Echoplex only. He explained his feelings. "The Hi-Fli is a pretty underrated instrument — I've seen a lot for sale secondhand which means that people buy them and then get rid of them. The Echoplex I find very versatile, and that's what appeals to me particularly. What I really want is an amp to handle all the different sounds properly. Earlier on I was trying out a system using either an HH or JBL 2x15 cabinet, with Gauss speakers, and little Eagle tweeters for top. The amp was 100 watt HH. This was ideal for some things but once again it was quite difficult to get a straight sustain."

Beat Instrumental, June 1978, "Don't Mention the Gr**ndh*gs! says Tony 'T.S.' McPhee. Peter Douglas apologises" by Peter Douglas, pg. 18

In line with this begin-all-over-again approach Tony has ditched a lot of the equipment he accumulated with the old band through some remains. "I'm still using the EMS Hi-Fi, mainly because I use it as a power supply. Let me explain: when this band got together, I thought right — I still had the Laney cabinets and all that sort of stuff I used to use — you can't walk into a pub with that stuff. So I thought I'd look around for some smaller gear. I'd got a fifty watt Marshall, but I found that was too loud — I couldn't get it to scream without It deafening everybody. Anyway, I was round at a friend's house and he brought out this amplifier — it was an old Guild, circa 1960 I should think. He said it didn't seem to work, and I didn't have any tools with me at the time, so I couldn't look inside it.

He told me he'd had a bit of an accident with it — he'd plugged it in and smoke had poured out of the back. Apparently there was a fuse missing and they'd forgotten it was a 110 volt amplifier. It had never been changed from the American voltage. So I walked off with it, bought myself another transformer and a few resistors, stuck 'em all in, and it worked fine. It's the sort of amp where the inputs are marked 'organ' or 'accordian'!

"I took the speaker out, 'cause I blew it. Anyway, it was obviously quite low sensitivity, so I knew I'd have to have to put something in front of it to wind it up. Now for some time I'd been using a transmitter/receiver, and that boosts the signal up a bit, but with the receiver it was always awkward to know exactly where to stick it. So I stuck the receiver on the pole of the Hi-Fli and plugged it into the Hi-Fli using the power supply. And the Hi-Fli boosted the signal up a bit more so I can get a raw sound at quite a low volume. I just plug it in, turn it right up, and away it goes."

Paul Freestone, January 25, 2014 comment on Easy on the Eye, "Tony McPhee & The Groundhogs"

I think this was taken on 30th Nov 1973, during the band’s ‘Soldier’ tour. The effects unit behind TS is the EMS Hi-Fli, which he was using for the first time at these gigs. All details of line-ups, equipment, gigs, etc, are included in my book about Tony McPhee – ‘Eccentric Man: A Biography & Discography of Tony (TS) McPhee’.

Part of McPhee’s home studio “T.S. Studios”, as specified on page 29 of the November 1974 issue of Beat Instrumental. It is also listed on the back cover of Solid.

Solid back cover

Effects using:

A Synthi Hi-Fli, Audio Design Phaser, Vari-Pitch Revox

Beat Instrumental, November 1974, "Home Studios: Tony McPhee" by Del Robinson, pg. 29

[...] an Audio Design F400RS phasing unit and F700RS compressors from the same source; […]

The first Cadac console ever made, which was designed for Morgan Studios before heading to Majestic Studios, was purchased by McPhee in 1973 after the recording of Hogwash. It was used for Solid, Crosscut Saw and Black Diamond.

Solid back cover

Recorded on 3M 8 track with Cadac desk and Ampex stereo machine.

Beat Instrumental, November 1974, "Home Studios: Tony McPhee" by Del Robinson, pgs. 28-29 (pictured)

Tony certainly has plenty of opportunity to develop his engineering now. For a start, the centrepiece of the crowded control room is the Cadac 8-track desk, which he bought second-hand from Majestic Studios in Clapham. 'It can be converted very easily to 16.' This is the second desk Tony's installed in his home studio. 'I did a deal with De Lane Lea, before they became Kingsway Recorders, and bought about £5,500 worth of gear, which was the basis of a complete studio.

'I used the original desk to do my solo album, but it didn't have the advantage of pan pots, so when this one came up I decided to take it. I've ordered an Ampex 16-track recording machine which I should be getting very soon.'

Beat, March 1976, "Tony McPhee: The Hogs Return" by Chris Simmons, pg. 24 (pictured)

Rock's Backpages audio, "AUDIO: The Groundhogs' Tony McPhee (1997)" by John Tobler (@ 53:38)

Tony "T.S." McPhee: So, by that time, I'd got equipment, 'cause my idea was it's cheaper to buy the equipment. Then you can, from that point, you can have as many albums as you'd like. Yeah.

John Tobler: Yeah. You mean recording it?

McPhee: Recording from it, yeah.

Tobler: Okay.

McPhee: So I actually bought out De Lane Lea... a eight-track,

Tobler: Yeah.

McPhee: which is what we did Thank Christ and Split on.

Tobler: Oh.

McPhee: And other assorted bits and pieces. And so, from that point on, I did my own albums. We did— I did Solid out there. [...] and built out to a sixteen-track. So, Solid was eight-track and then, uh... yeah, Crosscut Saw and Black Diamond were both on sixteen.

www.philsbook.com, "Majestic Recording Studios"

[https://static.wixstatic.com/media/41e8ac_bc71b010caef475ba413acd7bb9c1831~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_626,h_445,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/74-cadac-col_edited.jpg]

There were some differences of opinion about Newells acoustic design and choice of equipment so engineer David Hadfield from Maximum Sound studios was brought in as a consultant. He convinced Collier to abandon Philip Newell's ides and that he should basically start again with the studio. Eddie Veale was commissioned to sort out the acoustics; Hadfield contacted Clive Green who had just set up the Cadac company about the possibility of supplying a console. Clive Green was about to deliver a new console to Morgan Studios to replace their original Cadac, one of the very first desks built by Clive Green.

So when the studio finally opened commercially it was equipped with the Cadac 16:8 (with 3 built in Pye compressors) and an 8-track Ampex tape machine.

[...]

[https://static.wixstatic.com/media/41e8ac_a72ec147abcb434ea1b697f65be2e921~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_928,h_440,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/73-may-majestic.png]

Trident B

In April 1973 Majestic went 16 track installing a Trident B desk.

"Majestic studios in Clapham had a Trident B Range desk. It was one of the earliest B Ranges ( John Kongos had the first one in his studio in Mortlake, Saturn Sound in Worthing had the second one ( clad in blue formica..) My friend Dougal and I wired the console frame (for Majestic). When I went down there to do some sort of mod shortly after it was installed, the engineer was Roger Wilkinson - and he played me the 2-track of Jimmy Helms "I'm Gonna Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse" which had recently been recorded there, so that would make it 1973". Gwyn Mathias.

The Morgan Cadac desk was put up for sale and bought by Tony McPhee of The Groundhogs for his home studio.

In the November 1974 issue of Beat Instrumental, a Sequencer 256 is pictured among the gear in Tony McPhee's home studio on page 28; it is discussed briefly on page 29. An "EMS Sequencer" had been listed a few months prior in McPhee's profile for the WWA press kit for Solid. It also appears on page 24 of the March 1976 issue of Beast Instrumental.

WWA press kit for Solid (1974), profile for McPhee

INSTRUMENTS: Gibson SG, Fender Stratocaster, Zemaitis, Yamaha, Harmony Acoustics, H/H Amplification, ARP 2600 synthesizer and EMS Sequencer

Beat Instrumental, November 1974, "Home Studios: Tony McPhee" by Del Robinson, pg. 28-29 (pictured)

Tony's also very interested in electronic music: 'I want to build an electronic music studio', and he enthusiastically demonstrated some gear in his present set-up. It includes a couple of ARP2600 synthesisers, a rhythm sequencer ('I found this unit invaluable'), and frequency shifter, a Compact piano and a Mellotron.

'I'm a guitarist, not a keyboards player,' commented Tony modestly. 'Though I find I'm really beginning to get into synthesisers now. They're very creative instruments and it's very much up to the individual musician what he gets out of them. I prefer the ARPs - not everyone can get along with EMS units. I know people have criticised the ARP because you have to patch across it, but I don't find this a problem.'

Beat Instrumental, March 1976, "Tony McPhee: The Hogs Return" by Chris Simmons, pg. 24 (pictured)

An EB-3 is listed among Cruickshank's equipment in the liner notes of Hogwash and in Cruickshank's profile for the WWA press kit for Solid. It is visible in a 1969 photograph posted to Facebook by The Groundhogs on January 12, 2010, a photograph of The Groundhogs posted by Basket Case on November 20, 2013, photos of Cruickshank from from The Groundhog's August 27, 1970 performance at 1970 Isle of Wight festival (Chris Weston, Charles Everest, Claudio Hosquet's footage (here and here)) and this October 3, 2023 Facebook post by Basket Case bandmate Stephen Underwood.

Hogwash liner notes

Gibson E.B.3.

WWA press kit for Solid (1974), profile for Cruickshank

INSTRUMENTS: Zemaitis Bass Guitar, Gbison [sic] EB3 guitar, 4 H/H 2 x 15 cabinets, 2 Amps, H/H 100 watt

Listed among Cruickshank's equipment in the liner notes of Hogwash (where it is also pictured) and Solid. It can be seen on the EMI cover of Live at Leeds '71 and is also attested by the following:

• Top of the Pops, April 22, 1971 (dated according to Martin Charles Strong's The Great Rock Discography) (three extant stills: one by Chris Walter dated November 30, 1971, another posted to The Groundhogs' official Facebook page on October 20, 2014, and another posted by McPhee to Facebook on March 16, 2016)

• July 8, 1972 photos from Carl Dunn of The Groundhogs performing at Concert 10, posted to Facebook by McPhee on September 12, 2011 (Photo 1, Photo 2) (visible)

• Hogwash liner notes

Zemaitis Bass Guitar

• Sounds, May 5, 1973, "Mac’s Home Cooking: The Groundhogs" by Jerry Gilbert

Cruikshank was plonking away on his Zemaitis bass and Brooks disappeared behind the partition to his drum kit. Mac picked up his Telecaster and the action begun.

• Solid back cover

Instruments used :

Gibson S.G, Fender Stratocaster, Yamaha Acoustic, Zemaitis Bass, Ludwig Drums, ARP 2600 Synthesizer, Mellotron

• WWA press kit for Solid (1974), profile for Cruickshank

INSTRUMENTS: Zemaitis Bass Guitar, Gbison [sic] EB3 guitar, 4 H/H 2 x 15 cabinets, 2 Amps, H/H 100 watt

• TalkBass, September 2, 2009 reply by PJSShearer

  The first Rock Gig I ever went to - The Groundhogs @ Guildford Civic Hall in 1974 - the Bass Player had a Zemaitis, I believe Greg Lake played one with ELP but I've never seen one since.

• Facebook, Tony McPhee, September 12, 2011

Pooconos festival looking towards stage, Me playing my grey 1963 Strat( later stolen in Wales, bugger it!) Ken on his Kit (stolen in London) & Pete on his fabulous Zemaitis, which he later gave to his son.

• Basschat, June 15, 2020 reply by Raymondo

On 13/06/2020 at 07:34, Bill Wy,Aye,Man said:

I wouldnt mind the bass that Tony Zemaitis made for Ronnie Lane, it's the only one and Ronnie was an actual musician

Actually he made a bass for Pete Cruickshank that looks very similar(or at least he owned one , gave it to his son for doing well in exams a few years ago apparently ...Ken Pustlenik told me that when I mentioned that I had always lusted after Mr Cruickshank's bass).

Four are listed among Cruickshank's equipment in the liner notes of Hogwash. They were sold soon after, as testified by their absence from Cruickshank's profile for the WWA press kit for Solid and in several forum posts by the third owner of one, simoncroft of the Fender Stratocaster Guitar Forum.

Hogwash liner notes

4 J.B.L. 2 x 15 Cabinets

strat-talk.com (Fender Stratocaster Guitar Forum), simoncroft:

• May 15, 2014 ("HH was sold out for months, so I 'settled' for a Hiwatt 100 all valve head. Then a friend sold me an empty JBL 2 x 15 that used to belong to a band called The Groundhogs. The volume level out of this rig was Earth shattering! Seriously, if you've never heard a Hiwatt 100 on full, you have no idea how loud a 100W amp could be.")
• October 13, 2015 ("John D'Angelico New Yorker fitted with DiMarzio X2N high-gain humbuckers into an Acoustic 260 head and a JBL 2x15 loaded with a couple of Gauss speakers, miked with an SM57 and an AKG D12... but I could be wrong.")
• June 30, 2016 ("Back in the day, I had Hiwatt 100 head, a 1 x 18 Summit reflex cab (copy of the Acoustic, basically), plus a JBL 2 x 15 that I was all proud of because it used to belong to the Groundhogs and still had their logo sprayed on it. That was for bass. When I played guitar, I 'only' used the head and the JBL. By the time you got to the 'sweet spot' on that amp, you could knock birds out of the sky, it was so loud.")
• July 8, 2017 ("I first became aware of this in the early 1970s, when I was lucky enough to have a Fender Jazz Bass, a HiWatt 100 head and a JBL 2x15.")
• February 9, 2019 ("I had one of those JBL cabs 35 years ago and the front grille could be pulled off quite easily.")
• January 10, 2020 ("I used to play club, art school and uni gigs using a HiWatt 100 head with a JBL 2x15 cab, and sound engineers would sometimes ask me to turn down.")
• February 9, 2023 ("For years, I used an ex-Groundhogs JBL 2x15 for guitar and bass.")

Known from the following sources:

Hogwash liner notes

George Hayman Kit

Comprising

24" bass drum

16" Tom Tom

13" tom-tom

14" snares (2)

Colour silver

2 Paiste cymbals

Hayman 'C' drumsticks

Beat Instrumental, March 1973, "Player of the Month: Clive Brooks", pg. 74

At present Brooks is using a Hayman drum kit with a Ludwig snare. It consists of 22 in. bass drum, 13 in. by 9 in. and 16 in. by 16 in. tom-toms and a 5½ in. by 14 in. snare. The cymbals are by Paiste and are composed of an 18 in., a 16 in. and a 20 in. ride cymbal. Thirteen inch hi -hats complete the kit. He's had the set-up for two years now and is pleased with its performance.

WWA press kit for Solid (1974), profile for Brooks

INSTRUMENTS: 1 Ludwig Snare Drum, Custom Hayman Kit consisting of: 24" Bass Drum, 2 13 x 9 Tom Toms, 1 16 x 16 Tom Tom, Paiste Cymbals, 1 20" 602, 1 18" 602, 1 pair 14" Hi Hats 602, 1 Avdis [sic] 16" Cymbal

Listed among Brooks' equipment in the profile included with the WWA press kit for Solid (1974).

INSTRUMENTS: 1 Ludwig Snare Drum, Custom Hayman Kit consisting of: 24" Bass Drum, 2 13 x 9 Tom Toms, 1 16 x 16 Tom Tom, Paiste Cymbals, 1 20" 602, 1 18" 602, 1 pair 14" Hi Hats 602, 1 Avdis [sic] 16" Cymbal