The iconic Liverpool venue that The Searchers called home: “We played so often there”
When you think of Liverpool in the 1960s, only one band comes to mind: The Beatles. Fair enough, the Beatles were responsible for creating some excellent music during this period and changing the way that British bands marketed themselves in a bid to make it in the States. However, they weren’t an anomaly; there were plenty of bands making excellent music in Liverpool at this time.
We say Merseybeat because it was a style of music that specifically developed around Liverpool. There were a number of great bands out there making music, and that’s who The Beatles were playing with at the time. Each band acted as inspiration for one another as this creative hub expanded and eventually took over the world.
While many bands were making music at the time, only one is still active. The Searchers have been making waves in the music scene since the ‘60s and only recently announced that they will finally call curtains on their fantastic career in 2025 as they look set to make their Glastonbury debut.
One of their first hits came in 1963 when the band covered The Drifters’ ‘Sweet For My Sweet’. The song was originally written by Mort Shuman, who enjoyed the band’s rendition (despite them getting the words wrong). While The Drifters are one of the more well-known names from that period, he admired The Searchers’ individuality as performers.
“Well, they got the words wrong,” he said, “It’s ‘Your tasty kiss’, not ‘Your fair sweet kiss’ – but I thought it was fine. They had a different sound to the Drifters but it wasn’t necessarily inferior. It was so infectious and that is all you wanted from those singles.”
They have been making and performing music for 68 years now, which makes them one of the longest-running pop bands in the history of pop music. While there will be a number of different contributing factors that have helped them in their pursuit of success, one of the earliest influences was Liverpool’s thriving music scene. Not only were there a lot of places available for people to make music, but there were plenty of venues for people to play as well.
One of the most notable is The Cavern Club. This is where The Beatles played some of their early gigs in the city, and it is commonly referred to as one of the central hubs of creativity throughout the city. That being said, in the same way that there were more bands than The Beatles, there were more venues than the Cavern Club. One of the spaces that nurtured the talent of a number of bands and that The Searchers found a particularly special place was The Iron Door.
“The Iron Door was our home for a long time,” admitted Mike Pender from the band, “Les Ackerly, the manager we had for a short time before we went to London, run The Iron Door. He ended up calling it ‘The Iron Door the Home of The Searchers’ because we played so often there. We recorded one of those acetates, like a demo record, there.”
