{"id":6416,"date":"2024-04-25T16:39:35","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T15:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/?p=6416"},"modified":"2024-04-25T16:57:13","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T15:57:13","slug":"memories-of-the-clique-andy-lewis-ian-osullivan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=6416","title":{"rendered":"Memories Of The Clique \u2013 Andy Lewis &#038; Ian O&#8217;Sullivan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>On the back of the <i>Preservation Society <\/i>box on Detour and Andy Lewis&#8217; extensive band history in issue #151, we remember THE CLIQUE<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"THE CLIQUE   BOX SET IS HERE 2\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ATInsWqH0XU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The room is packed with people dressed in an array of peacock finery. Razor sharp bespoke suits rub shoulders with colourful custom-made shirts and chic, expensive-looking knitwear. Polished shoes avoid stepping on suede Chelsea boots as they shuffle to the beat which is as exclusive and exotic as the clothing on display. The Meddy Evils, Jonston McPhilbry, The Hipster Image, Duffy Power, The Quik, Mr Dynamite, Sons Of Fred, Tony Jackson, The Eyes\u2026 At the far end there\u2019s a stage on which is stacked a teetering pile of musical equipment. Scuffed and battered Marshall and Vox loudspeakers, perched on top of each other. A set of drums that looks like it\u2019s been on active service in some sun-beaten corner of the shrinking British empire. It all looks top-heavy and precarious, like a badly loaded boat. There\u2019s a flurry of activity as some people step out of the audience and clamber aboard. Two of them pick up guitars, one gets behind the drums. A fourth, with hair as immaculately-coiffed as Small Face Steve Marriott, steps up to the mic in the middle of the stage. The crowd stills in anticipation as the DJ fades out \u2018All Good Things\u2019 by The Richard Kent Style. There\u2019s a brief squeal of electrical noise as the guitarist turns up the volume on his Rickenbacker. A voice over the PA system announces \u201cNow it\u2019s time for a bit of live music. Will you please give it up for\u2026 THE CLIQUE!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From the opening power chords of their first number, it\u2019s clear The Clique know not only their way round their instruments but also the route to their audience\u2019s hearts- and feet. Their sound and style match the mood set by the DJ as the crowd continue to nod and move along to the music which is like The Who or The Yardbirds or any of the desperately rare fuzzy 45s that will become known in years to come as British Freakbeat- only miles better because it\u2019s HERE. It\u2019s NOW! It\u2019s totally live and happening in front of my eyes. An exhilarating blast through of Eddie Holland\u2019s early Motown track \u201cLeavin\u2019 Here\u201d, with a blizzard\u00a0of feedback where a guitar solo should be, is followed by a version of \u201cYoung Man Blues\u201d that starts to get so heavy it is in danger of bending light around it. The guitar player obviously takes a cue from Jimi Hendrix as he plays his instrument behind his head, smashes it into his mic stand in search of the perfect resonating frequency to set his strings ringing, and even gnashes at it with his teeth. The bass player\u2019s fingers fly around his upside-down Epiphone Rivoli. There\u2019s more than a touch of Yardbird Paul Samwell-Smith about him, anchoring the root-note groove but soaring towards the twelfth fret and beyond to rev up the rave ups. The drummer is managing to combine the cool of Charlie Watts with the chaos of Keith Moon. The tension he is generating by being both on the beat and round the bend is incredible. And just when I think the singer, looking somehow even better now there are a few beads of sweat on his brow and his hair is starting to look a bit shaken and stirred, has run out of things to bring to the party, he produces a harmonica from his jacket pocket and blows some of the sweetest blues harp this side of Cyril Davies at his best.<\/p>\n<p>It was all going on in the Spanish Hall of the Blackpool Winter Gardens in November 1988.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6418 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Andy-Lewis-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Andy-Lewis-3.jpg 400w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Andy-Lewis-3-300x188.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i>Andy Lewis<\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-6420\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/407742804_1972784059771977_7548688702629757527_n-717x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"914\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/407742804_1972784059771977_7548688702629757527_n-717x1024.jpg 717w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/407742804_1972784059771977_7548688702629757527_n-210x300.jpg 210w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/407742804_1972784059771977_7548688702629757527_n-768x1097.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/407742804_1972784059771977_7548688702629757527_n-1076x1536.jpg 1076w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/407742804_1972784059771977_7548688702629757527_n.jpg 1434w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I first saw The Clique at a club in London back in 1987. Gary Pietronave, The Aardvarks&#8217; singer, had got to know singer Paul Newman through trips to various clubs and gigs but for me it was the first time seeing the band in action. At the time I wasn\u2019t totally sold on their brand of Brit-Blues and R&amp;B as such, being more of freakbeat and garage person myself. However, I remember being really impressed with their drummer Gilles and especially his beautiful blue pearl Ludwig kit (which I briefly owned later on). I didn\u2019t realise that night just how entwined The Clique and The Aardvarks would become. I lost count of the amount of gigs we did together throughout their various line-up changes. One of my fondest memories was when we played with The Clique at a weekender in Blackpool\u2019s sumptuous Winter Gardens in 1989. After their performance, Chris Jordan and Gary Aardvark had taken to walking around with flowers painted on their faces which didn\u2019t go down well with some of the more hardline attendees! It was always a lot of fun playing with The Clique (and later with Knave too). Jon-Paul Harper and Mark Pietronave from The Aardvarks were probably the best guitarists on the scene at the time and had a mutual respect for each other\u2019s talents. I think one of the last times we played together was in Barcelona in 1995 but more memorable for me event-wise was when we both played at the first Modstock weekender in Saarbrucken in Germany in 1994. Thankfully Jon-Paul recorded all the bands on the bill over the weekend which later surfaced as a compilation on the \u2018Modstock Saarbr\u00fccken &#8217;94\u2019 LP released by Detour Records. Fun times!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-6419 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/1064792_637053086323850_1698958101_o-216x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"216\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/1064792_637053086323850_1698958101_o-216x300.jpg 216w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/1064792_637053086323850_1698958101_o-738x1024.jpg 738w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/1064792_637053086323850_1698958101_o-768x1066.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/1064792_637053086323850_1698958101_o-1106x1536.jpg 1106w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/1064792_637053086323850_1698958101_o.jpg 1475w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 216px) 100vw, 216px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>Ian O&#8217;Sullivan<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Order issue #151 with The Clique article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverbackpublishing.rocks\/product\/shindig-151\/\">here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Order The Cliquee box set <a href=\"https:\/\/detourrecords.co.uk\/CLIQUE-THE-Preservation-Society-BOX-SET-NEW\">here<\/a><\/p>\n<span class=\"synved-social-container synved-social-container-share\"><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F6416&amp;t=Memories%20Of%20The%20Clique%20%E2%80%93%20Andy%20Lewis%20%26%20Ian%20O%E2%80%99Sullivan&amp;s=100&amp;p[url]=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F6416&amp;p[images][0]=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F04%2FScreenshot-2024-04-25-at-16.33.11.png&amp;p[title]=Memories%20Of%20The%20Clique%20%E2%80%93%20Andy%20Lewis%20%26%20Ian%20O%E2%80%99Sullivan\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Facebook\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/facebook.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-twitter nolightbox\" data-provider=\"twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F6416&amp;text=New%20post%20on%20our%20site\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"twitter\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/twitter.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-mail nolightbox\" data-provider=\"mail\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share by email\" href=\"mailto:?subject=Memories%20Of%20The%20Clique%20%E2%80%93%20Andy%20Lewis%20%26%20Ian%20O%E2%80%99Sullivan&amp;body=New%20post%20on%20our%20site:%20https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F6416\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"mail\" title=\"Share by email\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/mail.png\" \/><\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the back of the Preservation Society box on Detour and Andy Lewis&#8217; extensive band history in issue #151, we remember THE CLIQUE &nbsp; The room is packed with people dressed in an array of peacock finery. Razor sharp bespoke suits rub shoulders with colourful custom-made shirts and chic, expensive-looking knitwear. Polished shoes avoid stepping [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1139],"class_list":["post-6416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-the-clique"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6427,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6416\/revisions\/6427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}