Hello everyone,

My newsletter is coming this time from sunny Australia, where we've just arrived after a week in New Zealand, and it`s another glorious day in paradise. The sun is shining and we have already relaxed perfectly into the laid back attitude of the Aussies.

But before I bring you up to date on the tour I want to say a little about the sad passing of one of the truly great talents of our era. I am talking about Rod Allen of the Fortunes, not only a real gentleman but also the possessor of the kind of voice that very few artistes from now or then could claim to match. It was not for nothing that a magazine voted him the best voice in a sixties band and you would not find me arguing against that.

A fellow bass player like myself and with the same surname (both adopted by the way - his birth name was Bainbridge while mine was McNeice) he was a founder member of the Fortunes who enjoyed a string of unforgettable hits such as You`ve Got Your Troubles, Here It Comes Again, Freedom Come Freedom Go and, Storm In A Teacup. Thank goodness we will still have those wonderful recordings to remind us of a dear friend who will be very much missed. The remaining band members, I am happy to say, will continue to preserve and protect the name and make sure that the Fortunes continue to be a force on the sixties circuit.

I was disappointed to find that there was so little coverage of Rod`s death in the national press. When Tony Jackson, the original Searchers bassist and my predecessor, died there were acres of column inches to remind us all of his contribution to the Searchers and to pop music in general. I was asked to provide his obituary for the Daily Express and did so willingly. Tony was a fascinating character who led a wild existence during his lifetime and this was reflected in the words I wrote. I told of his drinking, his fights, and his arrest and incarceration for a weapons offence. And I also praised him for his indisputable talents. The title of the piece, which was provided by the paper and not myself by the way, was The Searcher Who Craved a Rock And Roll Lifestyle.

There was much disapproval from his friends who felt that any negative points should have been glossed over. Indeed Mike Pender who rose to give a eulogy at Tony`s funeral and knowing I was in the congregation pointedly told people not to take any notice of things written about him in the press. Wrongly or rightly I certainly felt his words were directed at me.

I explained in a letter to Larry Williams, Tony`s close friend who organised the funeral, that there was a significant and important difference between an obituary and a eulogy. The latter concentrates on only the positive aspects of a person`s existence and avoids all controversy while the former is an honest summing up of his or her life, warts and all. To omit the unique, if often wild and erratic, side of Tony`s personality would be to do him a disservice and to dilute his character to that of a wishy-washy one-dimensional person, which he most certainly was not.

You would not expect a legend like the magnificently hedonistic and flamboyant film star of the fifties Errol Flynn to be sanitised in print as simply a very popular actor. He would have been mortified to have left such a pathetic impression on the world. I described Tony Jackson in truthful terms which showed him to be an idol, although ultimately a fallen one perhaps, of colour and controversy, sometimes mad, sometimes bad but never ever dull.

And because he was the person he was, his passing was documented to an extent which in reality none of us could have expected. Rod Allen`s passing was understated, and too understated for my liking. People should have been much more aware of what he gave us and what we had lost.

Now where was I? There can surely be no better way to spend the cold months of a British winter than in the warm and welcoming lands on the other side of the world. As soon as we touched down at Wellington Airport in New Zealand after a day and a half of travel it was as if a weight had been lifted from our shoulders, despite the fact that they managed to lose two of our bags along the way. No surprise there. It happened last time too. They always turn up eventually and gone are the days when we started panicking. Had it been an instrument however our concern might have been greater. You can go on stage in jeans and a tee shirt but to present an act you really do need guitars. And on this occasion the bags took nearly two days to get to us. Luckily we had the first two days free of concerts so it was not much of a problem.

Even the incredibly long flight doesn't bother us. When I mention a thirty-hour plane journey to my pals at home they cannot contemplate such an undertaking but we Searchers have never had any problems at all. We get off at the other end happy and refreshed and raring to go. The plane was packed this time and so there was no chance of an upgrade but John McNally and I had emergency exit seats with plenty of legroom in front of us. It couldn`t have been more perfect. When space is available my chums at British Airways can usually swing something but alas not on this occasion. Our flight back home from Perth at the beginning of March is on a Qantas operated flight and I have no influence with them, so it looks like it will be 'chicken and geese' all the way. Any fans out there high up in the Qantas echelons to help? Probably not. Oh well, it was worth a try!

The outdoor concert in Harcourt Park at Upper Hutt (pictured left) near Wellington is getting to be a bit of a tradition. This is the third consecutive year we`ve performed there and the crowd gets bigger each time. There must have been well over 6,000 this year. And the day was perfect. What a way to start the tour.

From there we flew up to Auckland for the remaining four shows in New Zealand. The Stampede Bar in Papakura was a bar we played in last year. Lovely owners and a terrific audience. A few less in attendance this year because it was a long holiday weekend when most people head out of town, but a great night nonetheless.

The next evening we were about fifteen minutes further on at a place called Pukekohe and the Cosmopolitan Club there was sold out. Despite the hired-in sound system not being up to scratch it was a rip-roaring evening and will surely be on the agenda again. Boosting the numbers were a contingent from the Billy Fury Fan Club led (or rather ordered there!) by a lady called Moya, who must be the Liverpool idol`s greatest fan ever. Obsession takes on a whole new meaning where Moya is concerned.

The Harbour Festival was on in Auckland Harbour on the Monday afternoon (pictured right) and we closed an open-air waterfront concert in which we were preceded by two orchestras. The setting (the stage was against a backdrop of luxury boats one of which belonged to Microsoft multi-billionaire Bill Gates who was in town buying property I understand) the sound system and the weather could not have been more perfect and the reception we received was nothing less than ecstatic.

Still on a high we were then whisked away to a barbecue at the home of the promoter. The hospitality of people here is second to none. In Upper Hutt there had been a reception for us the day before the concert and just prior to the show at the Stampede bar we were taken to a magnificently opulent house for a splendid outdoor feast of oysters, New Zealand lamb and pavlova, amongst other delicious things.

On occasion we could actually do with a little less hospitality in fact. Everyone wants to arrange something for us and most of the time we simply want to chill out on our own, relax and switch off from everything for a while - something we never get the chance to do at home. But I don`t want to sound ungracious because everyone is so nice and so concerned that we are looked after. Wonderful people. But if anyone decides they want to lay something on for us please don`t be too offended when we decline.

Our final show in New Zealand was at the Sky City Theatre, where we last appeared in 2001, although we did do several shows in the smaller casino lounge there two years ago. The first half was taken up by the Drifters, although with the many mutations of this great name being presented around the globe I have no idea what the connections, tenuous or otherwise, of this set (led by a Billy Washington) are. There were three of them as opposed to the more normal four and Billy Washington is not a name that figures in my definitive book on the group by Bill Millar and which lists all the official line-ups right into the mid seventies. But of course they knew and sang the songs well and received a good reception. Alas Clyde McPhatter, Bill Pinkney, Bill Fredericks, Johnny Moore and Rudy Lewis are now dead and the great Ben E King seems to have disappeared from the scene. The coin has naturally been devalued somewhat. We have worked with American Drifters, Scottish Drifters, Drifters from London and Drifters from Barbados and I swear that at some time in the future the Drifters will be six white girls from Belfast!

To say the night was a success for us would be an understatement. Both the powers that be at Pacific Entertainments, who brought us there, and at the Sky City Theatre who engaged us for the night, were ecstatic and there seems to be little doubt that a return is on the cards for 2009.

And so, one more free evening and then our Australian concerts begin. South Sydney Juniors, Rooty Hill, Canterbury and Hurlstone RSL, Twin Towns. All the old ones and some new venues such as Dee Why RSL, St Johns Park Bowling Club and the Vikings Club, Erindale added. I`ll be letting you know how things went as we go along but I think you`ll get a better and a less biased idea from the feedback that will naturally flow in to Wendy Burton from those who managed to catch a show, snippets of which she'll be putting on her Latest News page.

Meanwhile I`m going to avoid the naughty bits of Kings Cross, find myself some fresh fruit juice and salad and enjoy the Australian sun.

Frank Allen

If you would like to ask Frank a question, which will be answered by e-mail, and might even appear at the end of a future issue of this newsletter, please e-mail it to: wendy.burton@the-searchers.co.uk

Question 1: What made you interested in playing bass?  Why not guitar?
  Answer: I started playing bass out of necessity. I was originally the rhythm guitarist with Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers. When the bass player left and the one we tried to recruit did not want to join it was easier and more cost effective for me to switch onto bass. It was a big band and therefore didn`t really need a rhythm player. It also made me more secure as bass players were necessary.

Question 2: Are you partial to classical music and if so any favourite piece or composer?  
Answer:  Not in a serious way but if I listen it would be something like the Chopin nocturne in E flat.

Question 3: From where do you get the Cuban heeled boots that you wear on stage?  I must have some!
Answer: Two places. Mine, which are plain on the top and slightly narrower were from a shop in Gibraltar (called, I believe, Miro) and were around £50. It`s in the main street there, on the right as you walk away from the harbour. It`s the only place I`ve found where they are more or less like the old Anello and Davide genuine boots from the sixties. Anello and Davide (theatrical shoemakers who created the original Beatle boots), are still in existence in London and probably do still have the original designs but I don`t know how much they would cost now.

The shoes that John wears these days are from Dolcis and have diagonal seams across the top. They are also a bit wider and a bit rounder in the toe. I'm not so fond of them as they don`t resemble the old ones closely. but each to his own. John was the person who found the shop in Gibraltar and still has his old pairs but I think they may be past their best, hence the Dolcis ones.