The Groundhogs

The Groundhogs
McPhee with The Groundhogs, London, September 1991
Background information
Origin	England
Genres	Blues rock,British blues,acid rock,progressive rock
Years active	1963–present
Members	Tony McPhee Dave Anderson Joanna Deacon Carl Stokes
Past members	Former members

The Groundhogs are a British rock band founded in late 1963, that toured extensively in the 1960s, achieved prominence in the early 1970s and continued sporadically into the 21st century.

The band was originally formed as The Dollar Bills in New Cross, London in 1962 by brothers Pete and John Cruickshank (born in 1943 and 1945 respectively in Calcutta, West Bengal, India). Tony McPhee (born 1944), the lead guitarist in an instrumental group called the Shcenuals, joined the group later that same year. McPhee steered them towards the blues and renamed them after a John Lee Hooker song, "Groundhog's Blues".

John Cruickshank suggested they became John Lee's Groundhogs when they backed John Lee Hooker on his 1964 UK tour: they later supplemented Little Walter, Jimmy Reed and Champion Jack Dupree when they toured the UK. McPhee featured on Dupree's From New Orleans to Chicago (1966) alongside Eric Clapton. The Groundhogs issued "Shake It" b/w "Rock Me" on the Interphon record label in January 1965.

Their line-up on their first album, Scratchin' the Surface, released in November 1968, consisted of McPhee as singer and guitarist; bassist Peter Cruickshank (born 2 July 1945, in Calcutta), Ken Pustelnik on drums (born 13 March 1946 on a farm near Blairgowrie, Angus, Scotland) and Steve Rye on harmonica (born 8 March 1946 in London – died 19 July 1992, in London). In 1969, the single "B.D.D." (Blind Deaf Dumb) flopped in the UK but hit number one in Lebanon.