The Searchers’ Mike Pender coming to the Churchill Theatre for The 60s Experience
If you have a taste for 1960s pop music then a visit to Bromley is a must.
That’s because The Sensational 60s Experience is coming to the Churchill Theatre on October 12 at 7.30 pm.
The Searchers’ Mike Pender tops the bill which will also include Herman’s Hermits and Chris Farlowe who scored a number one with Out Of Time in 1966.
Mike said: “I call this theatre the Winston Theatre, after you know who, I suppose I do that with most of the other theatres.
It becomes a habit when driving between gigs. The Churchill was very well attended when we did it last year so I’m hoping for another great night.
“We kept our music simple but made it distinctive.
A lot of our songs are about falling in or out of love. “People could associate with the words in our songs.
Many people can find comfort in the lyrics of a song, just as many can find sorrow but to a lot of people it will bring back happy memories of days gone by and that’s why shows like The Sensational 60s can still fill theatres today.”
Mike’s superb vocals and guitar playing helped make The Searchers (pictured above) one of the biggest bands in the world in the 1960s.
He and John McNally co-founded the group in Liverpool in the 1950s with the band’s name coming from classic western film The Searchers.
The group achieved three UK chart toppers including their debut single Sweets For My Sweet which John Lennon called the best song to come out of Liverpool and Needles and Pins.
Mike said: “After a couple of takes I actually sung pins uh. I said to (songwriter) Tony Hatch ‘I’ve gone over the top a little bit. That’s the feeling I got when I sung the song.’
“He said ‘I’m gonna play it back’. He played it back and he said ‘I like it. I think we should leave it in’.
Even when we go to America today, people say ‘Hey Mike, I like the ‘pins uh’. It sounds good man’.”
In the 1980s Mike left The Searchers.
He will be backed by New Amen Corner in The Sensational 60s Experience tour. Tickets are £32.
Go to https://churchilltheatre.co.uk/Online/tickets-sensational-60s-bromley-2018 for full details.