The Clue of Midland, Texas cut one of the classic garage numbers “Bad Times”, featuring swinging drumming, screams and a sputtering lead vocal, pumping organ and a good guitar break. Despite the single’s fame in recent years, I found very little info about the Clue until Steve Thomas commented below. Members were:
Steve Thomas – lead singer and bass
Larry Grubb – vocals and lead guitar
John Kasson – keyboards
Billy Morris – drums
Steve Thomas wrote “Bad Times”, and Steve Thomas and Larry Grubb wrote the flip side, “She’s the Reason”, an eerie ballad that borrows some of the melody from the Beatles “I’ll Be Back”. Recorded and released circa 1967 on Byron BR 101. I can’t think of any other releases on the Byron label.
Byron Barber (“Bo”) was drummer for the Sensations who cut “Sweet Little Rock and Roller” / “Big Boss Man” in 1965 as the Sensations Sound on Kingco Records. In 1966 Barber produced the Clue 45 for his own Byron label, engineered by Ken Hall.
The Sensations members included Bill Thomas on bass and Dennis Grubb on guitar and vocals. According to Steve Thomas, Bill Thomas was not related, but Larry Grubb was the younger brother of Dennis Grubb of the Sensations.
Anyone have a photo of the band?
Info on the Sensations and Bo Barber from LoneStarStomp.
I can’t think of anyone who might have photos of the group, and that’s a shame. It’s also a shame , if Byron never put out any more records. Great looking label !
The Clue were Steve Thomas, lead singer and bass, Larry Grubb, vocals and lead guitar, John Kasson, keyboards, and Billy Morris, drums. We were a short lived band playing gigs in west Texas in 1967, and we were the house band at the Pussy Cat a Go Go Club in Midland in the summer of 1967. I was never happy with the record because it was our first time in a recording studio and we had a limited budget, so we rushed everything. I thought the production was weak. I am not Bill’s little brother, but Larry was Dennis Grubb’s little brother. I do have pictures of the band (somewhere).
I found an old “The Sensations Sound” drum head in a pile of drum heads at a garage sale a few years back. It has the name “bo” on it also. Finally a few years later decided to see what I could find out about it. I was blown away when I did. Will definitely be keeping it. Prominently displayed on my music room wall.