AFTER a non stop professional touring career of a mind boggling 56 years you might wonder how and why The Searchers have never slowed down or stopped.

Wonder no more, because at last the boys have decided to end their back breaking touring schedule and enjoy a well deserved rest.

Back in the mid 1960s when the incredible beat boom created by The Beatles saw so many bands riding on the crest of a seemingly unstoppable wave of success eventually subsided many simply disbanded and got on with their lives as best they could. Not The Searchers. They stayed firmly in place, a constant unit riding out the bad times putting the twilight years of the cabaret clubs to good use as they diligently honed their stage craft and upgraded the quality of their shows to please the more mature audience who had replaced the screaming teenage girls that had mobbed them in those years of chart topping glory. Such dogged determination was to stand them in good stead for the momentous nostalgia revival which was to lift them once again to national and international prominence.

The Searchers seemed to be both unstoppable and indestructible. They were arguably the hardest working band in showbusiness and their impressive run of hits in those glory years from 1964 to 1966 was worldwide enabling them to travel the globe constantly. Tunes such as Sweets For My Sweet, Sugar and Spice, Needles and Pins, Don`t Throw Your Love Away, Someday We`re Gonna Love Again, When You Walk On The Room, Love Potion Number Nine, Goodbye My Love, Have You Ever Loved Somebody and more.

They have performed for both The Queen and Princess Margaret, headlined over such Motown luminaries as Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Martha and The Vandellas and The Temptations, entertained British troops in The Falklands, Bosnia and Belfast, toured Australia and New Zealand with The Rolling Stones and strutted their stuff in front of 80,000 people at Wembley Stadium as special guests of Cliff Richard.

But before they call it a day, The Searchers stage a farewell series of solo shows around the UK from January culminating on March 31, and as part of the dates the band will perform at Barrow's The Forum on February 2.

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