The Searchers coming back for a concert

After a 38-year absence, the Searchers of Liverpool return to perform here on May 28 and 29 in a concert tour that’s expected to bring out the Baby Boomers, rock ’n roll revivalists, Merseybeat fans and music lovers in droves.

In 1966, the Searchers took Manila by storm and played to packed crowds at the Araneta Coliseum in a week-long concert tour. The passage of time has hardly mattered to the Searchers as the band continues to perform in gigs all over the world.

The Searchers were never far behind the Beatles when the so-called Mersey sound transformed the sleepy port city of Liverpool into England’s music capital in the early 1960s. Today, they’ve stamped their class as probably the most durable of the Merseyside hitmakers. The Beatles no longer perform but the Searchers are still playing that jingle-jangle 12-string Rickenbacker to blend with their vocal harmonies.

DJ Steve O’Neal, Uniprom and Solar Entertainment are tying up to bring back the Searchers. The group performs in a dance party concert at the Big Dome on May 28 and at the Hard Rock Café in Glorietta, Makati, on May 29.

Rhythm guitarist and founder John McNally leads the group with bass guitarist Frank Allen. They were both here in 1966. The other Searchers are lead guitarist and vocalist Spencer James and drummer Eddie Rothe. The line-up has stayed intact since Rothe joined in 1998.

McNally and Allen form the backbone of the group whose sound has remained the same through the years. The Searchers sing their three English No. 1 hits, Sweets For My Sweet, Don’t Throw Your Love Away and Needles and Pins today like they did 40 years ago. Their stage repertoire also includes such popular smashers as US No. 3 Love Potion No. 9, Sugar and Spice, Da Doo Ron Ron, What Have They Done to the Rain, Someday We’re Gonna Love Again, Goodbye My Love, Til I Met You, Saturday Night Out, Four Strong Winds, and When You Walk in the Room.

Tour organizers tapped veteran show producer Bobby Grimalt as consultant. Grimalt, then working for Cavalcade Promotions, was the coordinator for the Searchers tour here in 1966 and is prominently mentioned in a chapter on the Manila visit in Allen’s book Travelling Man—On the Road with the Searchers.

It took several months of negotiations before O’Neal locked up the Searchers for the Manila gigs. The band is booked all year round but squeezed in Manila before agreeing to a US tour in July.

"I remember Manila well," said McNally in a recent interview. "The Aranetas treated us great. Filipino hospitality was excellent. I spent a lot of my spare time playing slot cars on miniature tracks." The group was billeted at the Araneta compound in 1966.

Allen said, "We’d love to go back and perform." Once asked how long the Searchers will continue playing, Allen replied, "We’ll keep on singing till we drop—we’re good for another 10 to 15 years."

The Searchers, who got their name from the 1956 John Wayne movie, are music legends. They’ve influenced the folk-rock style of the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Eagles and Tom Petty. The band has recorded at least 10 studio albums and its music is immortalized in over 50 CDs.

Solar Entertainment president William Tieng said he’s been a Searchers fan for years and recalls watching their concert here in 1966.

In 1997, I took a two-hour train ride from London to Chesham, a small English town with a population of 20,000, to watch the Searchers perform at Elgiva Theater. The two-hour show was a sellout. The Searchers sang 28 songs, including ditties like You’ll Never Walk Alone, Young Girl (Get Out of my Mind), Ain’t Gonna Kiss Ya and Take Me For What I’m Worth. That was when I realized the Searchers were just as swinging and entertaining today as they were yesterday. Amazingly, they sound as good if not better than before.

O’Neal said the band’s return is guaranteed to spark a serious rock ’n roll revival here.