12:12pm Friday 22nd January 2010
By James Williams
Even nostalgia is getting on a bit these days. As The Solid Silver 60s Show sets off on its own 25th anniversary tour, which includes three dates in the region, Mike Pender, frontman with The Searchers, talked to the Wiltshire Times about music, memories and the old days at The Cavern Club with The Beatles.
Pender, 67, will be joined by The Troggs, best known for their hit Wild Thing, the Swinging Blue Jeans, of Hippy hippy shake fame, and Dave Berry, whose biggest hit was The Crying Game.
The Searchers’ classic hits Sweets for My Sweet, Needles and Pins and When You Walk In The Room can all be heard on the tour.
Pender said: “There are so many people from the 60s who want to go back to those times.
“It was their courting days or the decade they got married, so it holds a lot of memories for them and they want to hear the music from that time.
“People from that era are now grandparents and they bring their grandchildren to the shows to show them the performers they had posters of.”
The founder member of the group also gave the band its name. “I got the idea when I went to see the John Wayne film The Searchers in 1957,” he said.
“We used to practice in Chris Curtis’s house because he had the drum kit. The noise must have been horrendous for his mum and dad.”
The guitarist and singer was part of the Liverpool Merseybeat music explosion which included Gerry and the Pacemakers and of course, The Beatles.
“The 60s goes away now and again but there’s always something that brings it back, like the new film about John Lennon, Nowhere Boy,” Pender said. “I can still remember before any of us bands made the big time being in that sweaty dressing room in The Cavern.
“I tell you what, if you wanted to lose weight that was the place to be.
“I remember George, John, Paul and Pete Best, who was the drummer then, and they called themselves the Silver Beatles and I thought ‘I’ve never heard of them’, but when they got on stage they sounded fantastic.”
The Solid Silver 60s Show will visit Salisbury on March 19, Weston super Mare on April 24 and the Colston Hall in Bristol on April 25.
Each year since it was created the tour has included a different line-up. Also on the bill this time are Peter Starstedt, with his classic Where do you go to my lovely and harmony group Vanity Fare, which still features original members Eddie Wheeler, Mark Ellen and Bernie Hagley.
For details and ticket details see www.flyingmusic.com or call 020 7221 7799.
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