Chris Curtis

einar · Post by **einar** » Tue Aug 21, 2001 8:57 pm

Roy & all,
My surname may look a bit (ein bisschen) German. But I'm Norwegian! Although we have had our ups and downs through the years, I hold no grudge against Germans or Germany at all, so no apologies needed!
"Footage" may be poorly chosen. What I referred to, was part of a BBC produced program, focusing on Merseybeat. As Searchers representatives, Tony Jackson and Mike Pender (!) were interviewed. Tony wearing a cap, Mike wearing his age remarkably well!

Einar

royclough · Post by **royclough** » Thu Aug 23, 2001 8:27 am

Thanks Einar

You have ow refreshed my memory, the BBC show you refer to was called Rock Family Trees and focused in this episode at least, onas you correctly point out Merseybeat, must check out again.

admin · Post by **admin** » Fri Aug 31, 2001 9:24 am

I am hoping that Chris Curtis will respond to a number of the questions posed on this Searchers' Forum. Perhaps after his 60th birthday he may reflect more on the Searchers' days and add a few comments. I find it so amazing that he has such popularity after all these years. Clearly a testament to his skills and popularity as a musician.

einar · Post by **einar** » Sat Sep 01, 2001 1:30 am

I visited Liverpool during Chris' 60th birthday on Sunday 26th. I tried to look in Newspapers in case of any personalia, but couldn't find any.
I found out that the Old Roan Inn, the pub where Chris is reported visiting and sometimes entertain in, is situated in Bootle, Liverpool North, from where the Searchers originated. This probably mean that Chris stays with his roots! I did not visit the Old Roan, as the chance of finding Chris there (close to his birthday) were relatively small, I presumed. (Like if Ringo was on the seat next to you on the bus?!).But the pub's address is Copy or Cory Lane, Liverpool 30, and their telephone is (0151)526 8422. If there's investigators reading this!
Coming up: Knocking on Iron Door!?

Einar

mdenger · Post by **mdenger** » Sun Sep 02, 2001 9:17 pm

Right in the beginning of the the Searchers (without Sandon) Chris was the main singer. The demos they made features him, Tony only sings Sweets... The Starclub recordings show that leadvocals were mainly by Chris or Tony, Mike don't sing that much and John even less. But they had to play about 8 hours a night, so it would be easier not sing all the time. I believe that the song Sweets... was responsible for Tony becoming the "leadsinger". Their producer liked it most, so Tony sang most of the songs on their first two lps - his voice was the way to success - after Sweets.... had been a hit. But it was Chris again who changed it all. As he didn't like Tony he kicked out of the group and used Mike Pender as the mani singler - at least on singles. On the lps he still contributed songs as lead singer.

admin · Post by **admin** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 11:12 pm

Michael: I am wondering what it was about Chris Curtis that had him becoming the "leader" of The Searchers. He was not a founding member but seems to have had the greatest influence over the music and perhaps who would go and would stay in the group. This impression may be entirely wrong, but when the topics of musical production, personnel changes or chosing singles to record comes up, Chris Curtis seemed to be consistently in the limelight. Am I reading too much into this?

jjr · Post by **jjr** » Wed Sep 05, 2001 5:44 pm

I, for one, don't think so. If there's a common thread throughout Searchers history, it's that John and Mike seemed not to assert themselves, and were content to let others get out front and do a lot of the grunt work. So you have Chris, the last guy of the original 4 in, pushing Tony, one of the first three out.

As I recall, Chris did a lot of record shopping back when. So, de facto, he made most of the song selections, at least as far as what the band would choose from. He composed earlier than the others. Like Mike Nesmith, he seems to have been a little sharper business-wise, because he had his songs put on the singles as "B" sides- more cash. Ditto as album cuts. He had a pretty wicked sense of humor, and was pretty good with one liners (ala Lennon) from a few TV shows I saw over here. He had a dominant personality, in what, after Tony was canned, was(here) a fairly faceless, colorless, band. In sum he stepped up to the plate because he was inclined to, the other guys let him, and he was better at it.

mdenger · Post by **mdenger** » Wed Sep 05, 2001 9:25 pm

There's nothing I can add to John's answer. I see it the same way.

royclough · Post by **royclough** » Thu Sep 06, 2001 8:57 am

Not in total agreement about Curtis being sharper than the others on songwriting, facts are he contributed three "B" sides which were credited to him alone and he had three songs on the Sounds Like album, without wanting to give statistics Mcnally and Pender contributed more songs through out the Pye Career.

Of course unless some of us have insider knowledge we all are conjecturing to some degree on why Jackson left etc, but I stick to a point I made in a recent article, I believe the third single was destined to be Saturday Night Out, the fact that they had secured a part in a film of the same name would support that view, Sweets and Sugar, plus the first two albums had been very successful with TJ taking lead vocal's.
I reckon Tony Hatch was the one who went for Needles and because of the terrific success, Curtis who I totally agree, was a more dominat personality than John or Mike,probably thought he should be lead vocal with MP and did have a influence on Tony Jackson leaving, but I reckon TJ was happy to leave at the time and probably felt the timing was right, just after Someday etc which had failed to make a impact.