Looking for the Searchers is easy with 200 gigs in a year (From Echo)

Looking for the Searchers is easy with 200 gigs in a year

9:00pm Wednesday 1st July 2009 in

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IF you’re wanting to see the Searchers, you won’t have to look far. They are possibly the hardest working musicians on the circuit. In Essex alone in the next few months they will be playing the Civic Theatre in Chelmsford, the Towngate in Basildon and the Princes Theatre in Clacton.

And that’s just three dates on a tour which runs right across the country from Wales to Scotland and the West Country to the Isle of Wight.

They’re so busy I find myself speaking to them just before they set off on a tour of Canada. The first question has to be, why still do it?

“For the past 45 years that’s been our schedule,” Frank replied.

“Last year we did 200 shows, but it’s always been like that for us and that’s because we like working.

“We like being on stage and performing those songs. We could retire, of course we could, but that’s just our work ethic.”

With classic hits such as Sweets For My Sweet, Needles and Pins, and When You Walk In The Room, the Searchers made a massive contribution to the British music industry.

The jangling 12-string guitar and rich harmonies helped sell more than 40 million albums worldwide and it was this distinctive sound which so influenced US country rockers the Byrds, as well as Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen who have acknowledged their debt to the Brit four-piece.

They started in the late 1950s as a skiffle group originally formed by John McNally along with Chris Curtis, Mike Pender and Tony Jackson, but it was in their heyday of the 1960s which saw them score a string of smash hits.

Frank joined the band when Tony Jackson left in 1964, but he first met them two years earlier when he was playing with Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers.

He said: “We used to play the same bills and so when Tony left, and they asked me to join, I naturally agreed. It’s probably the best decision I ever made.”

• The Searchers are playing at the Towngate Theatre, St Martin’s Square, Basildon, on September 9.

Tickets: £16. To book, call 01268 465465.