The Searchers Official Website

Thank you to all of you who attended dates running up to the big one, and I know there were a number of you who managed to get to more than one, or even two or more. We appreciate it and thank you. I can`t recall a bad one, just ones that maybe had more mistakes than other but those are the fun things that make us human and are an amusing danger of genuinely live music.

I doubt if any of our regulars manged to be there at Glasto. In fact it probably wouldn`t have been your kind of thing anyway. We are now all of an age when camping out in a field listening to some very loud and occasionally off-the-wall sounds is not very enticing. But I wish you had the chance to experience our minor spot in the proceedings because it went way beyond anything we were expecting.

First of all the organisation of the event is very impressive indeed. Security is oh so tight. Even we as artistes had to go through checks every few hundred yards with our tickets being closely inspected at every point and the passengers carefully counted. Even the minivans with the equipment and ourselves had to be cheked internally to make sure there were no ticketless persons attempting to sneak their way in.

Once in the backstage area of the acoustic stage, which in fact is a genuine circus big top, we could relax and enjoy the experience. We had to go through further checks in order to receive our accreditation and lanyard with laminates. The weather was nice so we sat in the open air and there was a food tent and a bar to make us comfortable and feel at home.

John and I were required for a couple of BBC TV interviews which ate into our relaxation time as the move from the acoustic area to the BBC set up near the Pyramid Stage involved a twenty five minute car ride. That should give you a little idea of just how big this event is.

Sadly the interviews were the only exposure the BBC was giving us as we discovered there was no filming of acts in the Acoustic Stage. Don`t ask me why. It is bizarre, particularly when the atmosphere there during our set for the most part outshone most of the stuff from the main stages.

I won’t criticise any of the other acts. Im simply not qualified to judge the merits if music I don`t understand and to be truthful with the interviews and other diversions there was little chance to check out other performances. I met a couple of members of Skerryvore, Scottish guys who deal in what you could call Celtic rock, involving bagpipes and percussive instruments along with hard rocking bass and guitar.s When John and I departed for the BBC interview camp it was quite apparent that the audience like Skerryvore very much and I would liked to have heard more.

I also checked out a bit of ex-Stranglers Hugh Cornwell and he too was delivering something that the crowd appreciated very much.

Just before were about to get suited for our show (the only suited band around of course) we ran into Sir Paul McCartney who was there along with daughter Stella. There wasn`t much time for more than a quick chat and a selfie with Macca but it was a nice treat to be in the company of such rock royalty, brief though it may have been. Paul has always been such a naturally nice person and so easy to talk to. I wonder if he heard our Buddy Holly jam? He owns the publishing rights to all Holly`s music.

And so – to our performance. We kept the music moving and the chat to a minimum. Time was tight and we were warned in the severest terms not to exceed our alloted one hour set. From the very opening bars it was plain that we had the audience in our hands. They had been very much deprived of music they could remember and sing their hearts out too and from our first notes they never stopped singing till the very end. If you check out Youtube you will eventually find clips filmed by audience members which clearly demonstrate how much our apperance was being enjoyed. In a phone-video clip that our Sound man Jimi Howell made from the desk it captures the moment pefectly and you can see that even the Glasto sound techs were applauding. High praise indeed.

I think it was a nice touch to repeat the guest appearance of John McNally Jr for his rendition of Love Potion Number 9 which we included at the Philharmonic in Liverpool a couple of years back. It`s just like looking at his dad as he used to be. And as his ‘uncle Frank’ I was very proud of him

Coming offstage we humbly accepted the congratulations of the staff, the local crew and even the organisers who had never expected the kind of reactionfrom the crowd. I think that they began to realise the mistake in thinking that performers on the Acoustic Stage were not worthy of television time. I do believe there had been a substantialn number of complaints to the BBC about the omission.

When we eventually set off for home, stopping off first at the apartment of my old boss Cliff Bennett where he had kindly arranged spaces for our cars, we were still on a high and to be honest that has still not left me two days later. As well as the high from our success there is also the low withdrawal symptoms when you realise that it`s all over.

I`m sure we all felt the same including our wonderful crew of Jimi Howell (sound), Graham Clow and Matt Hayes (backline techs) who did a sterling job. As the days went on I kept in touch by texts with Rob Hawkins who was very much a part of the last two Thank You tours. Despite the fact that he had spent almost the entire year playing the biggest festivals in the world out there in the U.S.A with some very heavy bands he was still close to crying at what he was missing out with The Searchers. We missed Robbie of course but that does not detract from the excellent job from Graham and Matt. Both incredibly nice guys. And we thank them for it.

And so our long long career ends. But I have to tell you that if someone said would you do Glastonbury again if it was offered and if you were to be televised I would be the first to say YES!!!!. There is no festival next year and by the 2027 I would be 84 and John would be 86. Would we even be fit enough to take it on? I have no idea, but I`d love to try.

And that`s it folks. Just one more thank you to everyone whon has supported us throughout the years. We could not have done it without you.

Fond wishes on behalf of myself, John McNally, Spencer James and Richie Burns.

Addendum 12 July 2025

There have been a few emails to Alan Field and stuff in the papers commenting on the ‘no filming’ of the band at Glastonbury and I have to say it is so complimentary that people are so upset and concerned on our behalf that they are going to so much trouble to possibly rectify things to some extent.

I’m not at all sure how far anyone will get but thank you all for trying. Glastonbury was a triumph for us with a huge crows and a reception that couldn’t have been better. In reply to an email from Peter Arrowsmith (via Alan Field) there are clips of pretty much all of our show filmed on a hand held phone by someone called silly paul and despite the basic equipment at least you get a good idea of the atmosphere and the sound is not too bad. He has posted these clips of songs separately on Youtube and a search is fairly simple to do. Thank you Peter. They are really worth checking out, in particular the mega hits medley at the end. It is no doubt so much appreciated by so many folllowers.

There have also been many letters condemming the BBC for what they consider to be a disgraceful oversight by the lack of filmed coverage. The BBC’s response has been a standard explanation that there has always been a no filming policy with regard to the Acoustic Stage but they fail to say who’s policy (the BBC or the Festival organisers) and indeed why such a policy exists. It`s a bit of a mystery. At least the pre-tour tv publicity (brilliantly devised by Pete Flatt) was extensive and during the festival the interviews on BBC and iPlayer were transmitted and indeed repeated.

All in all we are astonished and quite humbled at the attention we have been getting. As far as any more touring goes (and certainly the demand seems to be there no matter how many times we say goodbye) it might come across as cynical if we took on more future concerts plus the constant reminders that we are getting older and not at all sure if we will be in a fit state to complete a run of dates even if we wanted to. I am fast heading up to 82 and John will very soon be 84. Admittedly John really comes alive on stage and to a great extent it does him the world of good in my opinion. Any future dates (nothing is under consideration right now) would always depend on how fit John feels and how much he wants, or not, to work again. What John wants I will always be happy with. And of course there is the availability of Spencer and Richie who have their own schedule to cope with. And we mustn`t forget Jimi and Graham with Robbie and Matt also in the mix.

I guess we just have to watch this space. I intend to enjoy the free time of retirement. I’m very good at lazing about. But for me any future work would have to end once more with a Glastonbury type bang. We don’t want to just peter out having enjoyed such an amazing experience this late in our career. And there are few opportunities that I can think of at the present time. Glasto’s next event won`t be until 2027 so what state would we be in even if they asked us for a return (hopefully a filmed return)? I must say that it was such a high this time round that I would be very tempted to say YES!

Thank you all again for your continuing support.

Management: Alan Field
020 8441 1137 – 07836 555300
alan@alanfield.com