No need to search for '60s sound
IF 1960s sounds still get you shakin' all over, then rock up to Swansea's Grand Theatre on Tuesday for one of their seat-filling Solid Silver Sixties Shows.
Some of the great guitar effects and vocal sounds that give '60s music its hallmarks will be re-spun by Dave Berry, The Merseybeats, New Amen Corner, Wayne Fontana and Mike Pender, from The Searchers.
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Mike says he is looking forward to revisiting those days.
"I love doing these shows. It is great that the audiences want to hear those songs and that we had enough hits so I can travel all over the world and perform.
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"And the songs still mean something to the audiences," he said.
"Though I spent a lot of years on the road and I like to be able to take more time with my family now too — particularly my young grandson."
The Searchers' key sound was that stacked-up harmony, backed by John McNally's rhythm work and Mike's unmistakable Rickenbacker 12-string.
And that jangly lead guitar has, via George Harrison and Roger McGuinn too, become so synonymous with the decade that, like Mick Green, it might be that Pender daren't defect to another model, lest the purists turn on him.
He says the sound has stood him in good stead, though he does pull out another guitar when he feels the need.
"It isn't as difficult for me to change things around because The Searchers were known as much for their harmonies as for the guitar sound," he said.
"I bought my first one because I saw George Harrison play one. The same year, George was presented with one from the Rickenbacker company — but I had to pay for mine!
"£300 in the 1960s was a lot of money."
But there have been peaks to make up for the momentary troughs too, he laughs.
After sharpening their skills in the all-day-and-night sessions in Hamburg in the '60s, the band had their chance to be part of the British Invasion.
"Impresario Tito Burns, who discovered Dusty Springfield and who managed Cliff Richard, was looking around for new artists and he decided to manage us.
"We went out to the US in 1964 and it was an incredible time for us."
"Being involved with Tito meant we got to perform on those American package shows, six times a day with Dusty, who I loved so much, and with Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Martha and The Vandellas and Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. Just great times."
Expect a packed jukebox of hits on Tuesday, including Don't Throw Your Love Away, Needles and Pins, Pamela and Gin House.
The show gets rolling from 7.30pm.
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