The Searchers

King’s Hall, Ilkley

Every Saturday morning at 8am I am transported back to my childhood when the dulcet tones of Brian Matthew say, “Good Morning, avids” and then proceeds to play songs from the 1960s in his programme, Sounds Of The Sixties.

Because I was too young at the time to see most of these bands live I had to make do with listening to their records and albums. However, in recent years I have at last managed to see a number of them who are still in existence, and on Friday took another trip down memory lane when I went along to see The Searchers at the Kings Hall in Ilkley.

Original guitarist John McNally is still in the line-up, along with long-time member Frank Allen on bass guitar, despite both of them being in their early 70s. The remainder of the current line-up comprises Scott Ottoway on drums and Spencer Jones on rhythm guitar and lead vocals.

Sweets For My Sweet, their first of three number ones in the UK, opened the show, and after this the hits came thick and fast. A montage of All My Sorrows and Where Have All The Flowers Gone? was followed by Don’t Throw Your Love Away, their second number one hit. The remainder of the first half were mainly hits by other artists or groups from the 1960s and 1970s, many of whom were their friends or who they had toured with – Del Shannon’s Runaway, Roy Orbison’s Running Scared and Buddy Holly’s Peggy Sue, to name just a few. To conclude the first half we had the vibrant Seven Nights Of Rock.

There was plenty of audience participation and some great ad-libs and banter with the audience from Frank Allen, who acts as the main spokesman for the group during the performance.

The second half opened with Sugar And Spice, their second hit, which reached number two in the charts, and which always reminds me of that fabulous film starring Robin Williams, Good Morning Vietnam, as this is the song that is blasting out as the US Marine gunboat travels up the Mekong River.

Again throughout the second half of the show there were a number of both the Searchers’ own songs and cover versions of other artists. They performed Take Me For What I’m Worth, one of their top 20 hits from 1965, followed by Love Potion Number Nine, a number three hit for them in the States in 1964. The second half concluded with the Gary Puckett song, Young Girl, from 1968, plus Needles And Pins, their other number one from 1964, and then When You Walk In The Room, their number three hit from the same year, and finally Twist And Shout which the Beatles used to close their shows.

The well-deserved applause from the near-capacity audience ensured that they returned for an encore of You’ll Never Walk Alone, and a final medley of Sweets For My Sweet/Don’t Throw Your Love Away/When You Walk In The Room/Love Potion Number Nine/Sugar And Spice and Needles And Pins.

The audience left the theatre after a fabulous two hours of entertainment by this group who are as popular as ever. They are great to see live and I am glad I was able to experience this. Long may they continue entertaining audiences like they did in Ilkley on Friday night.

John Burland