Searchers To End Final Tour With Glastonbury Concert
Latest News From Frank Allen April 2025,
Hi there everybody,
I hope you are all well and in good spirits particularly because the nicer weather seems to be approaching although it can still get a bit chilly, rainy and windy. But hey, we live in Britain so it`s what we expect.
The good news on our side of the fence is that all preparations for the very short tour ending on what we hope will be a high note at Glastonbury appears to be doing brilliantly. After ‘retiring’ in 2019 and now about to undertake our fourth ‘final’ tour it was reasonable to assume that attendances might be a bit lower with a lot of you saying “we don`t believe it, they said that last time”. No such thing. In fact when I checked with our agent Alan Field the other day I was informed that both Bury St Edmunds and Lichfield had to all intents and purposes sold out already. An all the other shows are looking very healthy indeed.
That first attempt was truly meant to be our swansong. I certainly had not envisaged going out on the road again. The fun had sadly gone out of it and we all needed a break badly. Final tour number two in 2023 just happened to be one of the most joyous tours we have ever done, something that had been missing when we decided to give it a rest in 2019. The last night was that epic show at Liverpool`s Philharmonic Hall which at that time seemed like the place to finish once and for all. How could anything beat that?
But as you know now that spurred on the somewhat shorter run in ’24. Not as high profile as the previous year but we were still having such a good time and we were easily talked into it. By that time we had adopted the phrase ‘never say never’ just in case we were tempted again. We had announced that it would have to be something big, something we could not possibly refuse, and you really can`t get anything bigger than Glastonbury. The answer was a very definite YES!!!!
The proviso now is that we do not envisage any more touring but that if we were offered maybe another Royal Variety Performance (we did one way back in 1981) then the answer once more would be in the affirmative. The prestige around such an event is very seductive indeed and with the requirements being probably no more than one song or maybe a medley of our hits there would be no need to set up a tour which at our advancing ages would probably not be wise. At this point I can`t think of anything else so huge that we would be inclined to consider it. Anyway, those are the excuses folks and we`re sticking to them.
For the June dates the stage management and sound will be under the control once more of Jimi Howell who made the whole thing so effortless over the last two Thank You tours. What a great guy and what a skilful man at his job. We were so lucky to get him.
Alas the other half of the Dynamic Duo Rob Hawkins can`t be there keeping things under control stageside as he has become a bit of a ‘must have’ technician on the ‘big boys circuit’ and has spent most of the first part of the year in America with bands like Holding Absence and a solo artiste called Artemas. You may not have heard of them (I certainly hadn`t) but believe me these people are big on the festival stages. As I write Rob is living the life Riley would love to have playing the Coachella Festival in California not to mention other iconic places like Las Vegas, Phoenix, Denver and…..! I could go on. And he`s back out again in the States from June onwards with Artemas once again and then a Nashville based outfit called Our Last Night. So it`s a case of sorry lads but no can do. The big time beckons. And who can blame him?
John McNally will miss him I`m sure as will we all. Every night he had John in stitches just before going on stage which was a huge boost to the atmosphere. And each night he would warn John not to trip over the cables when walking on. So if John trips up and kills or injures himself on this tour it`s your fault Robbie.
But performing Rob`s tasks this time round is a muso chum of Richie`s, Graham Clow who helped out on the first two dates last time when Mr Hawkins couldn`t be there. Graham certainly knows his stuff so we are in safe hands. And just to be extra safe and efficient at Glastonbury we are also being assisted by Matt Smith who is, like Graham, one of Richie`s fellow musicians.
I don`t know if we will be seen on national television from Glasto. I think they film most of the stages and then decide afterwards who is worth giving an airing to. Of course it`s the Pyramid Stage and The Other Stage which gets the bulk of the attention but it would be nice if we had some footage out there for something that we will remember for the rest of our days.
I`m going to leave it there with the advice that if you didn`t mange to get Glastonbury tickets, which sold out in a couple of hours, then do get along to one of the eleven run -up dates starting June 14th. The list is on this site. Because it may just be your last chance to say goodbye (he said cautiously).
Thanks for everything.
Frank Allen.
Management: Alan Field
020 8441 1137 – 07836 555300
alan@alanfield.com