The Clique (1990s UK band)
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- For other bands of that name, see The Clique (band)
The Clique was formed in the late 1980s by Paul Newman, Jon-Paul Harper, Phillip Otto and Gilles B. Mery in 1988. This line-up played many high profile gigs centred around the revived UK Mod scene. After sporadic experiments with keyboard players, including James Taylor (see below) Dom Strickland became full-time hammond player in late 1992, and also, incidentally, the main songwriter. Up Until that point the Clique had been a (albeit superlative) covers band, making up for their lack of original material by covering only the very rarest and most obscure freakbeat Europe had to offer, Shortly thereafter, in an unrelated move, Gilles finally departed to his native France. he was replaced by Matthew Braim, who played his first gig April 1993. This particular line-up is now generally regarded as the Clique at the height of their powers. (see Quant, The Surrounds, Lucifer Star Machine, The Gift Whores) . 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.
