THE INTERNATIONAL CLIQUE
Written by
Neil Seidel
An Alka Seltzer TV commercial in 1964- spawned a light rock tune that caught the
public’s interest, dubbed “
“No Matter What Shape Your Stomach is” TV spot
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6PuGcB0lO4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP1dYj2hGss T-Bones recording
The record business, ever ready to capitalize on a novelty trend, organized a rock band
which the named “ The T- Bones” after the tune went to #3 on the charts
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The original T-Bones personnel
Judd Hamilton - guitar
Danny Hamilton - guitar
Joe Frank Carollo - bass
Tommy Reynolds - keyboards / vibes / percussion
Gene Pello – drums
As was common in those days, The hit record was recorded by studio musicians and
subsequently regular working musicians were recruited to beat the road portraying
themselves as the original creators of the music.
As various members grew tired of the boredom and /or rigors of the road, new recruits
replaced the burn outs and continue to portray the illusion of a hit band for the public.
On such a tour my Jazz mentor and old friend
Richard Torres (Sax/ Organ) met
Arnold Rosenthal aka George Dee (bass-vocals) as part of the T-Bone enterprise.
During the long cross country tour , the idea of inviting some of talented musicians they
encountered to move California in order to form a Blues/ Rock band was germinated.
I was asked to be the lead guitarist for the clique and found the band cooked from the
moment we first formed.
Neil Seidel www.IndependentCreativeSources,com
Most of lived in North Hollywood’s Oakwood apartment complex and basically it was a
24-7 party house.
Perhaps if we had been more serious about what we were doing the band would have
been a huge success commercially.
Rusty Day (drums-vocals) was a well known Detroit musician (Detroit Wheels-Amboy
Dukes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusty_Day who moved out to LA to join the Clique.
Jimmy “Junior Markam” knew Arnold and joined the band (harmonica –vocals)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0P9yPKzJMo
http://members.cox.net/j.markham/about.htm bio.
Jimmy’s Tulsa roots brought the band in contact with the legendary
Leon Russell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Russell
who at the time was riding high with Shindig the first Rock ‘n Roll TV show
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shindig
as musical director of Shindig, Leon also had his famous Skyhill Studios in North
Hollywood where the Clique had an opportunity to record some tracks.
Leon was fond of loading a bunch of the Tulsa musician friends and honky- tonk women
in his vintage Cadillac Limo and coming down to our gig at “Carol’s Cottontail”
The music was traditional blues and the emerging rock-blues style of the era similar to
The Paul Butterfield Band http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Butterfield
and Eric Clapton www.ericclapton.com/eric-clapton-biography
We also did original music written by Arnold, Rusty and others.
“Carol’s Cottontail” was a topless bar with a clientele of mostly truckers who didn’t
seem in the least bit interested in our music and in fact rarely turned around on their bar
stools to see what it was that we were doing. It was a that time that I experimented with a
comedy routine known as, “ Its Mole Time” Rusty day named me “ The Mole” because I
had eyeglass made from welders goggles with giant rose tinted lenses. Rusty’s Mole
moniker stuck and became a regular part of our performance.
Inspired by the truckers oblivion to our music, I took to reading portions of Zen poetry
and other abstract ideas and humorous patter to see how far I could push the envelope.
Finding a boutique in Hollywood named Allan Edwards, I purchased the most outrageous
costumed clothing that the Psychedelic 60’s had to offer. Giant hound’s tooth suits with
epilates, Cranberry Sgt. Pepper exaggerated bellbottoms and a purple velour outfit with a
huge peaked purple sombrero which earned me a second moniker as “The Grape”
After a Zen koan or a mock deep thought, I ceremonially rang a gong for effect. Of
course the effect was that no one in the audience paid any attention, except the band,
which was hilarious to us at the time.
On the weekends, lots of hippies and funky folk came down to actually dig the band.
Leon would often sit in on the Hammond B-3 organ and various other, soon to be famous
musicians visiting LA or on tour would sit in.
Levon Helms, later of The Band http://theband.hiof.no/band_members/levon.html sat in
on many occasions and was part of the band after Rusty left.
Bobby Keyes later of the Rolling Stones, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Keys took
Richard Torres’ place and became a regular member of the band. Bobby introduced me to
a lot of classic Blues recordings such as Elmo James.
Various guest artists joined briefly or sat in on occasion. Among them:
Bruce Chanel (Hey Baby) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4w1Mp6Mce4
Roger Tillotson
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Roger+Tillotson
JJ Cale
http://www.jjcale.com/
Jesse Ed Davis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Ed_Davis
Carl Radle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Radle
Jimmy Karstein
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Jimmy+Karstein
Chuck Blackwell
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Chuck+Blackwell
Bill Boatman
http://www.lyrics007.com/Cale%20Jj%20Lyrics/Let's%20Go%20To%20Tahiti%20(Bill
%20Boatman%20And%20Roger%20Tilliso%20Lyrics.html
Jesse Ed Davis took my place on lead guitar after I left to go on the road with “Ruben
Rodriquez and the Guadalahara Kings. It was a six week engagement at the Carib Hilton
in Puerto Rico and I guess it was time to get into some serious sombrero.
“The International Clique” or “ Clique” was great music and great fun.
Richard Torres went on to being a long time member of Stan Kenton’s historic Jazz
ensemble,
.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Kenton
Bobby Keyes recorded with and joined many of the “Rolling Stones” tours.
Jimmy “Junior” Markham has recently been inducted in the-Blues-Hall Of Fame
Arnold Rosenthal became a teacher and received several honors and moved to Costa
Rica.
Neil Seidel –Performed with “Gary Lewis and the Playboys” and later with “ Shanti”
World Music group on Atlantic Records . Later with his wife started Seidel Event
Productions www.SeidelEventProductions.com
Jesse Ed Davis and Rusty Day were legendary musicians and were victims of the Rock
‘N Roll life. Their lives ended tragically too soon.
The International Clique was certainly a clearing house for some of the generation’s most
legendary musicians. I am glad I had a chance to revisit the memories of this great band.
Let me know if you have anything to add to this.
Best regards,
Neil Seidel