Jubille

[royclough]

Here's an interesting one for those who may have read Frank Allen's book The Searchers And Me, in it he relates the tale about this TV appearance which was on a TV show to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977.

He relates how initially the producer of the show, stated the day before that the interviewer would speak to John McNally but Mike Pender insisted, according to FA, that both the originals should be interviewed, which of course upset FA as technically he wasn't an original, he replaced Tony Jackson.

From Frank Allen's book The Searchers And Me.
"When it came time for the broadcast proper we reassembled on the platform, hardly able to disguise the chilly atmosphere that engulfed us. Bob Wellings moved into position and announced that things had apparently changed. He would now be interviewing Mike instead of John. If our previous reaction had been surprise and anger it now hovered somewhere between abject disbelief and barely containable fury.

In reply to Wellings` question as to why he thought Liverpool was the place it took off, Mike`s reply was that he really couldn`t answer that. Priceless. An answer worth fighting for indeed. When prompted by Bob that maybe Liverpool was full of talented people Mike agreed that perhaps Liverpool people had a certain amount of musical ability. He also added that he thought that the Beatles might have had something to do with it. A shrewd observation. This was not cutting edge repartee by any means".

The cracks were surely beginning to show.

[sowhat]

To me, the whole thing looked as if Mike Pender was framed. Or sort of. I mean, it looks as if he was, say, more than surprised about the fact that he had to answer the question. Or simply confused. Doubt it was his fault or he should be the one to blame. Sorry, mister Allen.
Nice sound though.