THE Galaxy Club’s second event took place at Basingstoke Town Hall on June 13, 1964. John Lee Ground Hogs were supported by the Blues Messengers.

The Groundhogs (as they later became) were fronted by Lincolnshire-born guitarist Tony McPhee who had fallen under the spell of Delta bluesman John Lee Hooker.

Later that year, Hooker was touring the UK with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers as his backing group but a scheduling anomaly left him without them for the last gigs of his tour.

The Ground Hogs, having established themselves through constant gigging, were proposed as an obvious replacement. McPhee got to play with his hero and they established a friendship; later recording an album together.

John Lee and the Groundhogs played again at the Town Hall on January 20, 1965. Hooker had left the UK and was to return some months later but the band (McPhee and co-founders, brothers Pete and John Cruickshank) had by then proved themselves worthy of their mentor’s name.

They went on to produce some memorable albums in the seventies. Tony McPhee kept the Groundhogs going for more than four decades. He suffered a stroke in 2009.

The Blues Messengers were fronted by a UK soul and blues singer called Hamilton King. Although his group featured some very distinguished names during its brief time (Ray Davies, Peter Bardens, Mick Fleetwood and Lol Coxhill) his style was becoming slightly unfashionable and his more-ambitious musicians had moved on.

However, it is likely that the drummer for the Blues Messengers that night was Joseph Baldi who shares his name with a notorious serial killer but nevertheless joined Van Morrison and co. in ‘Them’ who came to the Haymarket in 1965.

Information about the Galaxy Club and Basingstoke’s music scene over five decades can be found at razrazzle.wordpress.com.