The Groundhogs were a British blues band founded in late 1963, which toured extensively in the 1960s and continued in existence sporadically to the present day. The band's blues credentials were recognised when they backed John Lee Hooker and Champion Jack Dupree on their 1960s tours of Britain. The line-up for their first album, Scratchin' the Surface, released in 1968, consisted of Tony McPhee as singer and guitarist, bassist Peter Cruickshank (born 2 July 1945, Calcutta, West Bengal, India), Ken Pustelnik on drums (born 13 March 1946, on a farm near Blairgowry, Angus, Scotland) and Steve Rye on harmonica.