IT’S hard to believe but The Searchers, one of the most successful groups in the Swinging Sixties, are still swinging and singing and local fans will be able to get a glimpse shortly of the band which belted out such hits as Needles and Pins and Sweets For My Sweet.

In a professional career that so far has spanned 52 years they have performed for both the Queen and Princess Margaret, headlined over such Motown luminaries as Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Martha & 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, and now they are coming back to the county soon.

With a regular touring schedule of 200-plus shows a year and a career that has now exceeded five decades The Searchers seem to be both unstoppable and indestructible and they are arguably the hardest working band in show-business with an amazing date-sheet that is legendary in the music industry.

The impressive run of hits in their glory years from 1964 to 1966 was worldwide enabling them to travel the globe constantly and what a hit-list it is – as well as the two mentioned there was Sugar & Spice, Don`t Throw Your Love Away, Someday We`re Gonna Love Again, When You Walk In The Room, Love Potion Number Nine, Goodbye My Love, He`s Got No Love, Take Me For What I`m Worth, Take It Or Leave It, Bumble Bee, Sweet Nothing, Have You Ever Loved Somebody, When I Get Home and What Have They Done To The Rain.

Yesterday (Sat) they were at Kidderminster’s Town Hall, and they will be back in the county on Saturday, June 13 at Bromsgrove’s Artrix, followed by a visit just over the border the next day to the Roses Theatre, Tewkesbury. They will also be at Ludlow’s Assembly Hall on Saturday, July 18.

Naturally there have been some personnel changes over the years but two of the founding group remain – Frank Allen and John McNally, while in the vocal department things have been relatively more constant with Spencer James, who took over from Mike Pender in 1986, still behind the microphone.