The Groundhogs – Who Will Save the World? The Mighty Groundhogs (50th Anniversary Edition)

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.