NEW CLUE release Blast From the Past & Mystic Winds EP
Up and down and back around… Sure, we all have our bumps in life, but New Clue has been through the trenches. As formed in the very late 80’s, (and after about 6 years) all disbursed and went their separate ways. Neil (the vocalist) almost died, when he slammed his motorcycle into a telephone pole back in 2000. With Traumatic Brain Injury, he had to learn to walk and talk (as well as sing) all over again. With the reformation of yesteryear’s "No Clue", the band rejoined into today’s "New Clue" in 2014. The guys came back, full circle. Neil's heartwarming story, and his willingness to never give up on a dream, fueled the fire and sparked the embers for pure passion and the love for music. In 1988, I Neil Whittington, was singing in a band that was getting HUGE in Hollywood, “Messiah”. We were headlining all the major venues; Troubadour, Gazzari's, Whiskey-a-Go-Go, Faces, all the Rock Clubs on the Sunset Strip! Then on my way to a Friday night headline performance at The Whiskey-a-Go-Go, with record companies having accepted invitation to see our live performance, I got pulled over for speeding on the way to the most important gig of my lifetime. I had traffic tickets that I hadn't paid in the past, so I got thrown in jail. Needless to say, upon my release, the band fired Neil! The Sweetheart that I was with at the time had gone to New England to live with her Father, so I packed up my car and came to RI. Being a musician, I immediately looked for a new band to sing for and found “No Clue”. About 6 months later, that girl decided to go back to California. I of course, had a job now and was singing in “No Clue”, so I stayed. At that time, “No Clue” was an all original band. With the Keyboardist, Tom Sederback writing a lot of the musical riffs and some lyrics to a few songs. Me writing lyrics to some of the musical arrangements that they had and/or placing their lyrics in my own way, to their compositions. Then together with input from the rest of the guys, we wrote some pretty good songs, even if I do say so myself! We pretty much started out getting gigs to open-up shows for the Hottest Cover Bands throughout the southern New England area. Then as we began to get well-known too, we ventured off into doing cover songs too and quickly needed opening acts for our shows. We were doing tunes from bands like Iron Maiden, Queens Ryche, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and more of the Hard Rock/Heavy Metal genre. Our sets were mixed with their songs and ours. As time went by, we had some member changes here and there too. First, we had a BIG gig all set up with a large crowd expectation and the original drummer Paul Brunelle, just quit a week or two before the show. We were able to find Joe Cetrone. What a blessing in disguise! Shortly thereafter, his brother Tim Brunelle, the rhythm guitarist also quit, without replacement. Then the other brother Bassist, Roland Brunelle quit too. We replaced him with the current Bassist, Brian Dickinson. I guess the Brunelle brothers didn’t like doing cover music! So, it was left with Neil, Joe, Brian along with Mike Costa, the original lead guitarist, for quite some time! Then Mike quit and we replaced him with Paul Kiger. He stuck around for a while and was replaced with Will Gould Jr. Another blessing in disguise! This wasn’t the complete line-up of “No Clue” at the end of that round in 1995, but I feel that it was the best! “Blast from the Past” is a compilation of our recordings of songs written and recorded in various studios and live performances in that time, when we had – No Clue! With “Vampire Blood” and “Mercy Falls” written and recorded during our reformation. Then in 2014, Will was still hanging out with Brian sometimes. They lived in the same township. Will, Joe and I found each other on Facebook. Then we got physical! I mean that we started getting together to rekindle our friendships and started rocking out again. We still have it! We gel so well! So, in the Summer of 2015, we went to TRIAD Recording Studios to record our EP – “Mystic Winds”. TRIAD Recording is considered by many to be the best recording studios in RI, and one of the best recording environments in New England. Then we contracted with Unable Records in NJ and they released or EP – “Mystic Winds”. This year we submitted “Blast from the Past” and they released it 5/5/2020.
CD Track Listing Blast From the Past: 1. Rippoff 2. Vampire Blood 3. Mercy Falls 4. Shark Infested Waters 5. I Won't Be the Fool 6. Rags to Riches 7. Spiders 8. Beauty from Within 9. Deadly Play (Live) 10. Spit It Out (Live) 11. Give Me Money (Live) Band Line-Up: Neil Whittington – Vocals Will Gould Jr. – Guitar and Synthesizer – Recording and Production Brian Dickinson – Bass Guitar – Background Vocals Joe Cetrone – Drums Album Title Two: Mystic Winds Release Date: 03/16/2016 EP Tack Listing Mystic Winds: 1. Mystic Winds 2. Hail to the King (Henry VIII) 3. Homeless 4. Illustrious Youth http://www.newclue.band/
