Founded in 1957 by John
McNally (guitar/vocals), the Searchers were originally one of
thousands of skiffle groups formed in the wake of Lonnie
Donegan's success with "Rock Island Line." The Searchers'
immediate competitors included bands such as the
Wreckers and the
Confederates, both led by Michael
Pender (guitar, vocals), and the Martinis,
led by Tony
Jackson (guitar/vocals). By 1959, McNally
and Pender
were working together as a duet; later in the year, Jackson
joined as the lead vocalist. After drummer Norman
McGarry left the Searchers he was replaced by Chris
Crummy, who quickly renamed himself Chris
Curtis. Other changes were in the works as Jackson
built and learned to play a customized bass guitar. Learning his new job
on the four-stringed instrument proved too difficult to permit him to
continue singing lead, and McNally
and Pender
brought in a fifth member, Johnny
Sandon (born Billy
Beck). Johnny
Sandon & the Searchers lasted from 1960 through February of
1962, and were extremely popular on the dance hall and club circuit in
Liverpool. Sandon
cut out for a career on his own, with another band called the
Remo Four in early 1962.



Meanwhile, the Searchers, now a quartet with Jackson
once again lead singer, became one of the top acts on the Liverpool band
scene, playing textured renditions of American R&B, rock & roll,
country, soul, and rockabilly. The group was signed to Pye Records in
mid-1963 and their first single, a cover of the
Drifters' "Sweets for My Sweet," was released in August of
1963, hitting number one on the British charts. While the
Beatles quickly outdistanced all comers, the Searchers did, indeed,
go to the top of the charts with two of their next three singles,
"Needles and Pins" and "Don't Throw Your Love Away."
Another record, "Sugar and Spice," written by their producer Tony
Hatch under the pseudonym Fred
Nightingale, stalled at the number two spot. Over the next nine
months, the band staked out a sound that was one of the most distinctive
in a rock scene crawling with hundreds of bands. Their music was built
around the sound of a crisply played 12-string guitar, coupled with
strong lead vocals and carefully, sometimes exquisitely arranged
harmonies, so that they could credibly cover American R&B standards
like "Love Potion No. 9" or Phil
Spector-based girl group pop like "Be My Baby." Their 1964
singles included a venture into folk-rock before the genre had been
"invented" in the press, in the form of a cover of Malvina
Reynolds' "What Have They Done To the Rain."
Interestingly, their 12-string guitar sound would become a key
ingredient in the success of the
Byrds, who even took the riff from "Needles And Pins" and
transformed it into the main riff of "Feel A Whole Lot
Better."



In July of 1964, with the group riding the upper reaches of the British
charts, and with their third album in nine months in release, it was
announced that Tony
Jackson was leaving the Searchers to form his own band, and would be
replaced by Frank
Allen, who had been playing bass with Cliff
Bennett & the Rebel Rousers. The turning point for the band came
in 1965, as the British and international fascination with the Liverpool
sound faded away. The Searchers began casting their net wider for
material to cover, in addition to coming up with one original hit, the Curtis/Pender-authored
"He's Got No Love." By the beginning of 1966, the group's
string of chart hits seemed to have run out, and Chris
Curtis exited in early 1966, claiming to have become exhausted from
the group's constant touring. The Searchers, with Johnny
Blunt on drums, continued working and had their last hit, "Have
You Ever Loved Somebody," which barely cracked the Top 50 in
October of 1966. The group continued working, however, playing clubs and
cabarets in England and Europe. Blunt
exited at the end of the 1960s, but was replaced by Billy
Adamson, and this line-up of the Searchers continued intact until
the mid-1980s, working for 35 weeks a year throughout Europe with an
occasional U.S. visit. Although they played as part of Richard
Nader's "Rock 'n Roll Revival" shows, they never became an
"oldies" act, always adding new material, including originals
and covers of work by songwriters such as Neil
Young to their sets, and in 1972, the band cut an album for British
RCA.



At the end of the 1970s, their recording fortunes were revived once
again as Seymour
Stein, the head of Sire Records, signed the Searchers for two
albums. Those records, The
Searchers and Love's
Melodies, were the best work the group ever did, highlighted by
achingly beautiful yet vibrant and forceful playing and singing, and an
unerring array of memorable hooks and melodies. Those two albums were
followed by a series of tracks recorded for their original label, Pye
Records, in the early 1980s. The group held their audience well into the
1980s, playing before crowds of as large as 15,000 along one U.S. tour.
In 1985, after playing together for 26 years, Pender
and McNally
split up, with McNally
continuing to lead the Searchers (with Adamson
and Allen,
with Spencer
James added on second guitar and vocals), while Pender
formed Mike
Pender's Searchers, consisting of Chris
Black (guitar, vocals), Barry
Cowell (bass, vocals), and Steve
Carlyle (drums, vocals). Both groups have toured extensively and the
Searchers under McNally
have recorded on occasion.