A re-union of the early 1970s trio in 2003 ended McPhee's run, with Cruickshank and Pustelnik continuing as The Groundhogs Rhythm Section.

The band were originally formed as the Dollar Bills in New Cross, London, in 1962 by brothers John and Peter Cruickshank (born in 1943 and 2 July 1945 respectively[1] in Calcutta, West Bengal, India).

[2] The line-up on their first album, Scratchin' the Surface, produced by the 19-year-old head of A&R for Liberty Records, Mike Batt, and released in November 1968,[1] consisted of McPhee as singer and guitarist, bassist Peter Cruickshank, Ken Pustelnik (born 13 March 1946 on a farm near Blairgowrie, Angus, Scotland) on drums and Steve Rye (born 8 March 1946 in London – died 19 July 1992, in London) on harmonica.

The single "Cherry Red" released from the album was featured on BBC Television's Top of the Pops programme on 15 April,[1] and the group performed studio sessions for BBC Radio 1's Mike Raven's R&B show on 17 February, John Peel programme on 29 April, [9] and Mike Harding show on 29 March and 26 July.

The group made their first tour of North America, but a horse riding accident suffered by McPhee ended their visit early.

[13][12][10] The group broke up later in 1974, although the trio of McPhee, Cruickshank and Pustelnick recorded one final session for BBC Radio 1's John Peel show on 6 March 1975 at Maida Vale studios.

[14] McPhee resurrected the name in 1975 with a new line-up of Martin Kent and Mick Cook on bass and drums respectively, and a second guitarist of either Dave Wellbelove or Rick Adams.

was recorded with Pete Chymon (bass) and Dale Iviss (drums) at a "secret location" in 1996, and two studio albums with Eric Chipulina and Pete Correa, Hogs in Wolf's Clothing (1998) in tribute of Howlin' Wolf and The Muddy Waters Song Book (1999) in tribute of Muddy Waters were released, being the last studio recordings issued as The Groundhogs.

After McPhee's dparture from the 2003 re-union, Cruickshank and Pustelnik continued forming The Groundhogs Rhythm Section with invited frontmen, latterly with Eddie Martin.

As of 2011, the new Groundhogs' line-up consisted of McPhee, Anderson, Joanna Deacon (vocals), and Carl Stokes (drums) from the death rock band Cancer.

and Hogwash – saw the band become increasingly ambitious, both compositionally and conceptually, with the deployment of Mellotron and synth helping to create an exciting progressive/blues rock hybrid".