The Clique (band)

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The Clique are a late 1960s U.S. sunshine pop band from Austin, Texas. The group centered around producer and songwriter Gary Zekley and often employed session musicians. Their only album, The Clique (1969), released by White Whale Records, featured the singles "I'll Hold Out My Hand" and "Sugar on Sunday" which reached #45 and #22 on the U.S. singles chart, respectively. "Sugar on Sunday" was a cover of a Tommy James song and its B-Side, "Superman", was covered by R.E.M. on their album Lifes Rich Pageant. The Clique reached #177 on the U.S. album chart. A 1970 single, "Sparkle and Shine", reached #100; this song is included, along with six other added songs, on the 1998 re-release of The Clique put out by Varese Sarabande.

Note that there have been at least three other bands named The Clique, whose the most known are The Clique (UK, a 60's mod band) and The Clique (also from UK, but a 90's band) and The Clique from Kansas City which has been performing continually since the 1980's through to today. (The KC band was a staple of the 1980s Kansas City and midwestern university scene and received notice for their songs and videos such as "Practical Girl" and "Monkey with a Pistol". Today they are primarily a cover band and rarely play there quite good original material.)

The 60's one was formed in October 1964 by Adrian Stambach (quitting the Cravattes a band featuring Jesse Hector) John Kitch and three other friends names Peter, John and Trevor. Their discography is made of one extended play and one single. The rest of their recordings were not issued until the band was rediscovered in the eighties. Dig the fuzz Records, an independent and very specialized UK label edited an lp with their complete discography (10 tracks) in 1995. The style can be attributed to other beat bands like the The Birds (of famed Ron Wood), the Poets, The Game...etc.

The 90's Clique was formed by Paul Newman, Jon-Paul Harper, Phillip Otto and Gilles B. Mery in 1988. They were part of a kind of sixties revival at that time, and even if their first recording "Worming" took place in a "Totally Wired" compilation on the Acid Jazz label in 1989, their raw mod style was better showed on the ep Detour Records edited in 1993. ("Early Days" , featuring James Taylor on Hammond).

The band continued to play and to record with different lines up through the nineties, associating Trevor French, Chris Jordan, Alex Petty, Bruce Brand (from thee Headcoats), Dom Strickland and break in 1998 with a last ep named "Hello sunshine".

Their discography is made of at least 6 singles/eps, and two lps.