25 May : Thank Christ For the Bomb

I used to have a lot of Groundhogs albums, all original, but they were sold twenty years ago, largely because I didn’t play them. I recall I quite liked Hogwash, but I needed the money so… I still have (on cd) some of Tony (TS) McPhee’s solo work and the early stuff he did with Jo-Anne Kelly.

Thank Christ For the Bomb was the Groundhog’s third album and was a stylistic shift away from their blues roots towards heavier territory with meaningful lyrics. Listening to it again now after at least twenty years I understand both why young me bought it and also why I stopped listening to it.

It is certainly better than a lot, if not most, of Brit stuff of the era in the same vein, and McPhee (playing a Gibson SG I think) is a fine and flexible guitar player. However I think it also shows up the limitations of a heavy trio dominated by the guitarist. I’m not in a hurry to get a fresh copy: I’m not ill-disposed towards it, but I got bored half way through the second side. My only regret about selling it is that my copy was an original on Liberty Records and I could have made a tidy sum had I waited and sold it now.

I listened on Spotify, and it’s all on YouTube.