Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

A new page has been added: The single Western Union.

Just point your browser at:

http://home.rhein-zeitung.de/~mdenger/

Would be nice to hear from you.

Michael

Thanks for this revisitation of Western Union Michael. This would be a very good question for John McNally. Why did the Searchers choose Western Union when it was recorded by the Five Americans and the Monkees shortly before their recording. I also wonder why this recording was not a hit in the UK while it was in Sweden and Holland.

Answer to that one Peter is really that Radio stations in England hardly played it, TV appearances had dried up to some degree and the cleancut look and sound of The Searchers was out.

Didn't realise The Monkees had done a version though

Roy: You didn't realize it because the Monkees never did a recorded version of Western Union as far as I can tell from my search just moments ago. You know what they say, "if you can remember the 1960s you weren't there." My mistake, sorry to mislead. Funny how I remember all these great events that never happened ....

I am reminded that The Searchers were able to advertise "Western Union" during their visit to Sweden with Johnny Blunt on drums. Perhaps this brief tour sparked the interest of avids in Sweden better than the record companies of the day were able to muster.

I saw the Searchers in 1969 while they were with Liberty. But they didn`t seem to have any interest in promoting their recent singles as they di`dn`t play any of the songs.
Michael

I think the only one they actually had any faith in was the first, Umberella Man. They performed this number on German TV on the Beat Club, a popular German TV show along the style of Britain's Ready Stady Go to some degree. They also promoted the song on a rare "Live" Radio spot in 69.

I never saw them do the number though, but strangely in 69 Frank Allen introduced the Bread song "Don't Shut Me Out" as "our new single". This track was never released but did surface on the RCA compilation released about two years ago.

Frank put the original acetate of this song up for auction at the first ever Searchers convention, I didn't succeed in my bid so I cannot say with certainty if it was a Liberty or RCA version.

My memories of Western Union:
As an enthousiastic Searchers promoter, I was quite happy with their recent single, and not at least with the "b" I'll cry tomorrow, which I thought had a taste of Hendrix in the guitar breaks. I was eager to play the new record for my classmates and friends, but can't say it scored overwhelmingly. But one thing sticks to mind: We used to listen to records on a small, portable player. And the sound from Western Union (from the bass and/or the (bass) drum) was so powerful and vibratious (does this word excist?!), the needle couldn't stay in the reels! This only happened with Western Union, and not with any of the other records at the time. This did have some impact, I remember. Even the more hard-core elements im my surroundings were impressed by this!

Einar

I saw them miming to Umbrella Man as well- back then and recently when a lot of Beat Club Shows were repeated.

I have an acetate of "Don't Shut Me Out" which has a yellow IBC label on it. It may be that The Searchers recorded it privately in between Liberty and RCA. It sounds remarkably like the RCA version though.

Peter, I think you were thinking "Monkees" because one of the British reviews of the single referred to its Monkees-like guitars.

db

Thanks David. I'll take that explanation. It beats pleading confused!