Monocled Alchemist

“Don’t Throw Your Love Away” / “I Pretend I’m With You” (Pye 7N.15630) April 1964

The Searchers | Don’t Throw Your Love Away | (Pye) 1964 | IN their hunt for new material the Searchers could scarcely have found a number more suited to their style than “Don’t Throw Your Love Away,” a song recorded some months ago by the Orions, but which might have been tailor-made for the Liverpool lads.

Slightly less forceful than “Needles And Pins,” it has an absolutely captivating melody with an intriguing tang of nostalgia. Altogether a perfect vehicle for the boys’ fascinating harmonies—and dancers will love the irresistible beat, too.

Whether or not it reaches No. 1 depends largely on the length of the Beatles’ residency in top spot. Otherwise, there’s not much to stop it!

Largely solo voice on the medium twister “I Pretend I’m With You,” with the other boys joining in on the title phrase. Another good track. It’s on Pye. (NME, 03/04/64)

The Searchers are after the top spot with the next one

WHILE most people are more or less fatalistically accepting without comment a long stay at the top of the charts for the Beatles, the Searchers have high hopes of their next release shifting their fellow Liverpudlians from the coveted No. 1 slot.

The Searchers were in Aberdeen when I telephoned Chris Curtis. I asked him about “Don’t Throw Your Love Away,” which the NME exclusively forecast as the group’s next single four weeks ago, and he sounded very pleased.

“I like it as much as ‘Needles And Pins,’” he told me. ” We listen to loads of new discs as they come out and we heard one by the Tokens. It wasn’t much good, so we turned it over and heard ‘Don’t Throw Your Love Away.’ That was it, we all liked it so we nicked it from them.”

Having heard the record myself, I was able to agree with Chris that it was very good and certainly ranked among their best recordings. But I expressed the opinion that it might have quite a job getting to No. I in view of “Can’t Buy Me Love.”

I soon found out that the Searchers are not thinking that way at all. On the contrary, they are full of high hopes. “If it gets away strongly at the beginning, I think we’ll make it,” Chris said. “We’ve got good advance orders and there’s a plug for it in ‘They’ve Sold A Million’ just before the release date.

Grow

“It’s a grow on you’ record and people may have to hear it a few times before they make their minds up about it. But it isn’t coming out yet and I think by the time it’s released, people will buy it more than the Beatles’ one.”

It was good to hear someone so confident about their record and I am sure the Searchers’ attitude will help a lot.

I asked Chris about “They’ve Sold A Million,” as I had heard that the show was telerecorded on ice.

“You’re not kidding,” he laughed. “We did it on the ice at Wembley Pool in the freezing cold! They put us on a rostrum with skaters all around us. It was perishing. We didn’t skate because the boys aren’t energetic enough, but there were some fair girls about.”

The Searchers all hope, though, that they will find things a bit warmer in America where they arrived on Wednesday. They flew over to do two Ed Sullivan shows and some more appearances in public.

Raves

“We’re really getting excited about going to America,” Chris admitted. Everyone raves about it and we want to see lots of things for ourselves.”

One person we’re looking forward to meeting is Ed Sullivan. We’ve heard so much about him from others that he must be quite a man. We’ll do one show live for him and tape another.”

Chris revealed that the Searchers were thinking of working out a comedy sketch for one of their shows in addition to their normal straight singing and playing roles.

“Now that ‘Needles And Pins’ has got into their charts, it’ll be easier for us because people will know who we are,” he went on. “Six of their Top Twenty are British and that’s great. It used to be all American records here, now we’ve turned the tables.”

Travel

The Searchers are fast becoming one of our most-travelled groups. Recently, they have been to France and Germany as well as taking part in a long British tour. Now they are thousands of miles away in America.

Their French trip was a real flying visit in the true sense of the word. Chris told me about their time across the Channel.

“We arrived at 10 in the morning, did a TV show and left by 10 that same night,” he began. “We had to be in and out of the country quickly because of a strike there.

“The day after we left, all the gas and electricity was off and there were no buses, trains or anything, I sent a card to Mum and she’s didn’t get it until six days after we got back to England. One man told us later that if we had stopped another day, we might not have got back for ages because of the strike. I wonder if we did anything to cause It?”

Shortly after the Searchers return from America, John is going into hospital for an operation. Chris explained: “He’s had sinus trouble for years, so they’re going to do something about it. He’ll only be in about six days and he’ll have it done when we’ve got some time off, so it won’t interfere with our schedule. He’s going to have his Mersey Sound removed!” (NME, 03/04/64)

SEARCHERS GAVE A GOOD IMPRESSION

THE SEARCHERS seemed to be the most professional British rock group to have appeared in America despite being introduced by Ed Sullivan as “another group of Liverpoplians” when they made their debut on his TV show on Sunday.

Screams from teenagers in the studio audience greeted Searchers who opened with “Needles And Pins.” To this viewer, the initial impression was more favourable musically than had been the case with the Beatles or the Dave Clark Five.

While they interpreted the tune with melodic flow and a reasonably good harmonic blend, their sense of rhythm is stiff but no stiffer than the other British groups. Having gained confidence, the Searchers were even more effective in their final tune “Ain’t That Just Like Me.”

They sustained an exuberant mood, punctuated by several unison jumps in the air. Even in this characteristic rock and roll number they showed a more subtle command of dynamics than the two groups that preceded them. (NME, 10/04/64)

Americans ask Searchers back

THE SEARCHERS, who returned from America on Monday following their highly successful appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show are expected to go back for a tour of U.S. colleges and some city dates either at the end of May or in September, cables Nat Hentoff.

The group has received an open offer from Sullivan to appear on his show again whenever they go back. Searchers’ agent, Tito Burns, is negotiating their tour. Depending on which period is chosen, Dusty Springfield—who is also his artist—may be on the same package.

The Searchers did not telerecord a second Sullivan Show appearance on Sunday as planned. In a call to the NME from New York on Tuesday, Burns said that the American Federation of Musicians had brought about the cancellation because no exchange group had been arranged. But the AFM has denied that it was involved.

Advance orders for the new Searchers’ single, “Don’t Throw Your Love Away,” had reached almost a quarter-million by the release date on Tuesday. It is the biggest advance order we can remember since Lonnie Donegan’s “My Old Man’s A Dustman,” Pye managing director Louis Benjamin told the NME.

The Searchers headline Sunday’s bill at Leeds Odeon which also includes Susan Maughan, the Vernons Girls and Norman Vaughan. (NME, 10/04/64)

As ‘Don’t Throw Your Love Away’ hits 9 . . . Searcher Tony admits; I Am Wrong

The Searchers’ new single, which chalked up a quarter million in advance orders has already crashed into our Top Thirty at 9, has made the boys cock-a-hoop, especially Tony Jackson, for Tony admitted to me last week that he was really worried about the disc and didn’t think it was right for the follow-up to “Needles And Pins.”

I was talking to the boys a couple of hours before last Friday’s “Ready Steady Go” in their dressing room at A-R’s Wembley studios.

“Were you all certain that ‘Don’t Throw Your Love Away’ would be as big a smash as ‘Needles And Pins‘?” I asked.

“Well,” said Tony, “to tell the truth, we were a bit divided. Mike, John and Chris all thought it was strong enough to be as successful as ‘Needles’ but I had my doubts.

“I thought we should be better of doing another up-tempo number to contrast with ‘Needles.’ However, the way things are going it looks as if I was wrong, and am I glad!”

But The Searchers WERE all agreed that they were almost certain to do a fast number for their next single, although no titles have yet been fixed. One thing the Searchers did reveal to me was that at present they were hard at work on a new LP – one which would show their versatility.

“We’ve already spent a couple of days in the studios,” said John, “and I think our fans will be surprised at the results.”

And I can reveal, two of the numbers are country and western songs and a third is a ballad – Shirley Bassey‘s “I (Who Have Nothing).” The boys spent the early part of this week in the studios completing the LP, an album that is sure to show the many sides of the fabulous Searchers. (Disc, 18/04/64)

Searchers set to earn $500,000 from America!

The Searchers will be an estimated half a million dollars richer by the middle of June! The money is their earnings in America both in record royalties and for fees for a 15-day tour they will be doing at the end of May.

The boys leave for the States on May 29 – their second visit but the first time they have taken on a tour of this kind. They will play 14 cities and include two Ed Sullivan Shows and a Dick Bondi TV show.

The money splits into two – 250,000 dollars in record royalties for their successful singles and 250,000 for the tour, which starts with an appearance at the famous World’s Fair. (Disc, 25/04/64)

The Fifth Searcher! DISC’s Alan Walsh goes to a Pye LP Session and joins the boys – but for one number only!

IAM now officially a Pye recording artist! And what’s more I made my recording debut in the company of one of Britain’s top groups—those fabulous Searchers! It all started normally enough. Last Saturday morning I went along to Pye’s recording studios at Marble Arch to watch The Searchers cutting tracks for their new LP and report on the general progress of the album.

But I finished up joining The Searchers on one track of the LP —“Glad All Over,” not the Dave Clark version but a number which The Searchers have been featuring on stage for a number of years. I sat in the control room white A and R man Tony Hatch—the man behind all The Searchers’ hits—and Chris Curtis, who takes the solo on “Glad All Over,” worked to perfect the first track over which he would double-track.

Jokes

In between jokes and general clowning by all four Searchers—with Chris and Mike as prime culprits—Chris cut the first track. It was after the playback in the control room that the “fifth Searcher”—me–came into being.

“Come on,” they urged, “Why don’t you join us on the second track. It’ll be a giggle.” So I was dragged, half-protesting down the stairs into the studio and took up my position behind the mike along with John, Mike and Tony.

Simple

My recording debut, if not spectacular (Frank Ifield needn’t worry about competition), was certainly not uneventful. I had to sing along with the three other Searchers the fill-in “Glad All Over.” A simple task, you may think, but not so easy when you’re choking back the laughter at the antics of Mike.

However, after a couple of run-throughs, Tony Hatch flipped a switch, the red light was on and this was a “take.” Off went the number with Chris belting out the words. Tony cued me in for our bit and before I knew it I was singing with The Searchers.

We ran through the first take, but balance was wrong. So back came the butterflies as we prepared for take two—which Mike helped along by plonking a paper bag over Chris’s head half-way through the number. The take ended in chaos, with four Searchers plus one collapsing with laughter and Tony Hatch grinning wryly in the control box.

Perfect

A few deep breaths (to control the giggles) later and we were into take three—this time perfect.

My verdict: recording’s fun especially with The Searchers—and I’m looking forward to signing my first contract. After all, every great artist starts from small beginnings and three words on wax are better than none!

This LP—the group’s third—contains a mixture which shows off the versatility of The Searchers. As well as beat numbers and medium rockers like “Glad All Over,” they’ve recorded ballads (“I (Who Have Nothing)” is one) and country western songs (like Don Gibson’s “Sea Of Heartbreaks”).

Hits

Altogether the LP will have 14 tracks – 12 newly recorded numbers and the group’s last two hits “Needles And Pins “ and “Don’t Throw Your Love Away.”

After the recording session ended, The Searchers cut messages for disc jockeys all over America—in typical high-humoured fashion—and for a radio station in Hong Kong.

“It’s all go,” said Mike, as we left the studios on our way to a cup of coffee and a hamburger in the Edgware Road. “We’re travelling to Colchester for the Adam Faith package show this afternoon. It’s certainly a hectic life, but we’d never give it up.”

Well, at least they know where to come if they ever need a replacement. I’m seriously considering putting the first instalment down on an electric guitar. Top Twenty here I come! (Disc, 25/04/64)

WHAT does a top beat group feel like doing when their current record reaches No. 1? Trips abroad, long holidays, or what? As far as The Searchers are concerned, parties seem to be the immediate answer.

“D’you know, we’ve been in this flat In London for nearly six months now, and we haven’t had a real big party yet,” said Tony Jackson after he’d recovered from my great news that “Don’t Throw Your Love Away” had hit Number 1. “The record’s success will give us a marvellous excuse.”

“Actually, the rest of the boys aren’t mad about parties. That is to say, they’re not mad about the trouble of inviting people and organising the do. They don’t mind enjoying themselves when the party’s under way, though!”

Refreshment

Tony reckons their flat can hold about 30 guests comfortably, but apart from the invitations and making sure there was plenty of refreshment and comfortable seating available, he doesn’t believe in too much organising.

“If you plan these things too carefully I don’t think they swing. It’s much better to let the guests mix and mingle as they please. You must have a record player, too, of course. Actual records are no problem because collecting discs is Chris’s hobby, and he’s got about 2,000 of every type there is, just about. So we won’t go short of music, no matter how long the party lasts!”

Tony would like to invite as many stars as possible to the shindig and some fans, too. “It would be nice to get Roy Orbison and his wife Claudette along,” he remarked. “And Cliff Richard, too. Cliff was a sort of idol to me about three years ago, and I’ve always admired him and his work.

“I only met him for the first time by accident a few days ago in a Chinese Restaurant in London and I found him to be as friendly and likeable as I’d imagined. When I discovered he was a fan of ours as well, that was it!”

As well as the party idea, Tony would like the chance for a longish holiday to celebrate the hit. “As you know, we’re off to America again soon. We’re all looking forward to the trip a lot, but it won’t exactly be a holiday. What I’d like to do is spend a nice long, lazy time in the sun with sand to lie on and sea to bathe in when the sand got too hot.

“I don’t mind where specially, as long as there’s plenty of sun. I rather fancy the Caribbean for a start!” (Disc, 02/05/64)