The Searchers say farewell after 56 fantastic years
After a non-stop professional touring career lasting a mind-boggling 56 years, the searching is nearly over.
The Searchers are on the road for a farewell tour, which will wrap up more than half a century of history.
Along the way, they will play Horsham’s Capitol this Saturday, (March 16.)
Frank Allen admits it’s time, even if band founder John McNally isn’t quite so sure. Frank is looking forward to a rest: “I am a great age! I am well past retirement age. John would carry on if he could, but I just no longer love the driving and the hanging around, the six hours or whatever to get somewhere and then all the waiting around. I still love being on stage, but it is the rest of it really.
“I have been thinking of this for a few years. I was thinking I just don’t want one of us to collapse on stage and me to have to pick up all the pieces, all the bank accounts and the solicitors and all that. I just want to go on stage and get applauded every three minutes! I decided I wanted to finish on my own terms.”
But there’s no doubt he will miss it, particularly the tours of Australia, a country he loves playing and touring in: “It is such a great country and the people are fantastic. You travel from one state to another and you see bits of Australia that the Australians don’t usually see. I love being there.”
Retirement certainly won’t mean an end to travel abroad. Far from it. It will just be a different kind of travel, says Frank who is looking forward to catching up with more shows on Broadway: “It will just be by the seat of my pants. Most of my social life is the theatre and dinner with friends. There will be a lot more of it.
“I supposed that this was always going to happen one day. The two newer members of the band were a bit scared at first, and John would want to carry on. He would like to think of a way of doing it. He is a workaholic, but I can’t carry on working so that he can.”
Frank is looking forward to looking back on it all: “We were part of the most important part of British pop history, and that was all down to The Beatles. When they opened the doors, everyone else followed. Before that, British music was considered second class. You couldn’t even have got arrested in America, but suddenly Britain conquered the world. If you were part of all that, then you had the opportunity for a long career. We had our three years in the sun with lots of hits and then we trod water on the cabaret circuit where we learnt our craft, how to put together a show for an adult audience rather than lots of screaming teenagers. We dug our heels in, and then if you are doing something long enough, it turns full circle and you become popular again.”
As for the longevity, Frank puts it down to his being a little inhibited and insular in the early days. In fact, he wishes perhaps he had drunk just a little more, just in moderation, just as he does now, rather than being absolutely teetotal as he was in The Searchers’ heyday.
“I think I would have enjoyed it more, but I certainly don’t mean getting paralytic or getting into the drug scene. I have never smoked a joint in my life, which is a terrible thing to say in rock ’n’ roll, but I think all the clues were out there as to what might happen!”