After what must be one of the longest ‘lives’ of any band, the Searchers are finally packing it in after 55 years (at least). I suspect many of you won’t care very much, but for me they are a very special group as they were one of the first loves of mine after The Beatles grabbed my attention in 1963. I never really took to Gerry and The Pacemakers, The Swinging Blue Jeans, Billy J. Kramer et al – not enough to invest in their records anyway – but this lot were different.
Their early records smacked of energy and urgency – Sweets For My Sweet, Sugar & Spice, Needles and Pins, Don’t Throw Your Love Away were the first four singles and they were number 1,2,1,1 respectively. Astonishingly, in a year spanning mid 1963 to mid 1964 they released those 4 singles plus 3 hit LPs – they were second only to the Beatles at this point.
Unfortunately for them, in retrospect it is easy to see that the reasons that this couldn’t last – most significantly, they didn’t have strong songwriters and relied largely on Chris Curtis to identify material. They did have a decent producer in Tony Hatch, but it doesn’t feel as though he brought much to the party (other than the song Sugar And Spice, his authorship of which he hid from the group), and the record label (Pye) gave them little studio time, some awful album artwork, and a ridiculous release schedule. However, all of the 5 Pye albums have aged pretty well – Sweets For My Sweet (a quick cash in after the single success) and Sugar And Spice (er…an even quicker cash in after the single success) are sheer Merseybeat energy – listen to most other groups of the time and their albums are frankly poor (despite George Martin producing) – and It’s The Searchers was a huge leap into new territory in early 1964. Shortly after this album, original lead singer Tony Jackson left to be replaced by Frank Allen, and we got the magnificent ‘When You Walk In The Room’.
Barely two years later and the writing was on the wall despite some big single success in 1965. Pye lost interest (they had the Kinks by this time) and things had moved on – you had to write your own material, and their image didn’t fit any more. The only real comparison would be the Hollies, who did manage to move with the times and emerge as decent writers, but they also had EMI behind them.
Most groups would have folded – Chris Curtis left, but the Searchers soldiered on in cabaret and the odd college date. Some records for Liberty and RCA did nothing. However, they did burnish a growing live reputation, and used to include Neil Young’s ‘Southern Man’ and the like amongst the hits. This led to a deal with Sire records and they made two albums at the end of the 70s which included some of their best efforts but, again, their label let them down with poor distribution and a confusing, botched, repackaging of the first release.
Another event could have scuppered them – despite doing well for gigs in the 80s, Mike Pender left acrimoniously in 1985 and there were protracted legal battles over the name. Again though, they came up trumps with Spencer James as a replacement.
Drummers have come and gone, but the frontline of John McNally (who started all this in the late 50s with Mike Pender), Frank and Spencer still perform several dates a week across the country to packed houses.
I have always contended that they are were one of the most influential groups of the 60s, with folk rock in 1963 and 12 string jangle in 1964 both over a year ahead of the Byrds. (Hillman has admitted their influence. If you want to compare ‘Needles and Pins’ with ‘Feel A Whole Lot Better’, you will get my drift).
I will be catching one of their last solo shows (they are working until 31st March 2019) and I highly recommend them for a great night out. I will shed a little tear…
An…er… an afterword… you may not believe this, but as I was writing I had an email offering me an interview with Frank Allen! Icing…cake…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gAqSnAM_gA
deramdaze says
About 35 years ago the two biggest genres in Record Collector were Rock ‘n’ Roll and Merseybeat. Psychedelia, Freakbeat etc. barely got a look in.
It’s strange that now, despite the biggest act of all by a considerable margin emanating from Liverpool, Merseybeat is barely mentioned anywhere but, as a consequence, there is still gold/reasonably priced items in them thar hills.
retropath2 says
I loved that Sire resurgence and had hoped for more from it.
Electric 12 string : Searchers down, Wilson/Bennett/Poole rising, so that’s evens in my book.
Baron Harkonnen says
WBP the Searchers of the 21st century. It`s a bloody good album Retro that has me starry eyed and laughing.
Baron Harkonnen says
I feckin` love that `Jingle -Jangle` Rickenbacker sound. The Searchers were one of the greats in the `60`s but should have dropped the suits in `65, then we have another great pop/rock what if?
`Tis a pity about Sire because those tracks they recorded at that time were exceptional but it`s all down to the suits IMHO.
NigelT says
You are right, and by the time they did drop the suits it was too late. It’s interesting – I always feel in the minority when I do see them because I get the definite feeling that most ‘old’ fans love the smart, polite, showbizzy 60’s (lots of them love Cliff, for instance) and feel the Searchers belong firmly in that 1963/1964 period and that rock all went a bit screwy after that.
Jorrox says
I saw the Sire line-up live just before Pender left. They were playing a cabaret dive but they put on a great show.
Colin H says
I went to university with a chap called Clinton J. Pender – always thought that would be a fantastic name for a character in an old-school derring-do novel, or a 50s radio drama.
Blue Boy says
Lovely post. My first boss worked in the concert business and had seen and worked with them all. The one time I saw him genuinely starstuck was when he found himself standing next to John McNally at the bar. I saw them in the early 80s and assumed they’d just be another hasbeen 60s band. Not so; they were fantastic. I’ve posted When You Walk In the Room on this site before – one of the all time great singles.
Colin H says
Sometimes the funny thing about has-beens is that they appear as talking heads in documentaries about more famous people in their line, and you think (well, I do), ‘When exactly was that person actually famous?’ Joe Pasquale is a classic example. He always appears in doccos about deceased Light Entertainment people but I am utterly unaware of him bar his appearances in these programmes. At some, I assume, he ‘was’ someone.
The Good Doctor says
Pasquale is an old school, end of the pier comic but doesn’t do blue – he came up on that Royal Variety, ITV Saturday light entertainment route – is he a has-been? Seems to be a pretty regular TV & Showbiz fixture as far as I can tell.
Black Celebration says
“Squeaky” Pasquale is a weird one – he is an ever-present on the pantomime circuit and is very much in the variety hall tradition of comedy. As and when the old school entertainers pop off and he is asked for this thoughts – I do expect that he probably worked with them while performing on a wet Wednesday evening at a Cleethorpes working men’s club back in the old days.
And yet (I’ve just checked this) he’s “only” in his mid-50s. I thought he was a contemporary of someone like Russ Abbott, who is 70 (I checked that too).
I bet he is a reliable performer in the pantomimes and a safe pair of hands to book for a show or a corporate do. He seems to be big mates with TV’s Bradley Walsh who often engineers situations where he can perform with Joe. As Bradley Walsh seems to be universally loved and his star is rising ever-higher, I think we’re going to hear a lot more of Der Squeakmeister, as absolutely no one calls him.
Colin H says
Bradley Walsh – how on earth did he become ‘universally loved’? He always strikes me as a dodgy backstreet character from ‘The Sweeney’. You could just imagine in an episode in the mid 70s couldn’t you? Selling smuggled cigarettes in an alley behind a pub…
mikethep says
I’ve always got him confused with SYF hitmaker Joe Dolce. Not that it matters, unless one of them turns up as the tiebreaker in a pub quiz.
Sniffity says
He’s the Gambo of Light Entertainment?
Baron Harkonnen says
…and I`ve said it on this site before `When You Walk In The Room` by The Searchers is one of my favourite songs ever. That Jackie De Shannon original is pretty tasty also.
fentonsteve says
Speaking on behalf of the Afterword Youth, at only 48, I used to think they were end-of-the-pier has-beens.
I then bought The Searchers: The Collection (Audio Fidelity SACD), via a couple of Jackie DeShannon albums. It is flippin’ ace, as are those by J.DeS (as nobody calls her).
SteveT says
About 15 years ago my Canadian business agent came over for a trip and was in Birmingham over a weekend. We looked for some suitable entertainment as he was a music fan and the only act that was on in Birmingham that weekend was the Searchers at Ronnie Scotts.
Despite not being my Tasse De The we got tickets and have to say it was a fabulous night out.
Baron Harkonnen says
“Tasse De The”, been for elocution lessons have we, in French?
bobness says
As a fentonsteve-esque 49 (well, for 7 weeks anyway) I too assumed the Searchers were a bit of a going through the motions troupe.
My former work colleague, 55 going on 75 and a massive fan (a member of the SAS (Searchers’ Appreciation Society of course)), persuaded me to go and see them at Retford about 10 years ago, and my abiding memory is that it’s the only gig I’ve ever been to that has had a Rotary Club raffle drawn between the 2 sets…
The band were, though, it has to be said, very very good indeed.
SteveT says
They also did a fab version of Four strong winds which is one of my favourite songs