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The Searchers drummer Curtis dies

"Chris Curtis (far left) was part of the original Searchers line-up Chris Curtis, original drummer of 1960s pop group The Searchers, has died at the age of 63 after a long illness. Named after the 1956 John Ford western, the Liverpool-based beat combo were formed in 1960 and sold millions of records in their heyday.

Their hits included Needles and Pins, Sugar and Spice and their cover of The Drifters' Sweets For My Sweet.

Curtis - real name Christopher Crummey - stayed with the group until 1966 when he was replaced by John Blunt.

Curtis, from Oldham in Lancashire, was part of the original line-up, which also included Mike Pender, Tony Jackson and John McNally.

The group were signed to Pye Records in 1963 and had their first number one the same year.

Decline in fortunes

The band was rocked in 1964 when Jackson quit the band, to be replaced by Frank Allen, a close friend of Curtis.

But while they had further hits with Love Potion Number 9 and He's Got No Love, the band's fortunes declined after Curtis' departure.

In 1967, Curtis reached number four in the UK with Let's Go To San Francisco, recorded under the alias of The Flowerpot Men.

He then formed Roundabout - the band that went on to become Deep Purple - with his brother Dave, though both dropped out long before the group hit the big time.

Curtis produced records for other performers, notably Paul and Barry Ryan, but his music career faltered and he eventually took a job in the civil service.

All change

After ill-health forced him to retire, he made a belated return to performing and recently sang with charity group The Merseycats.

The Searchers continue to perform on the cabaret circuit, though the line-up has changed over the years.

Pender left the group in 1985 and set up an alternative Searchers, prompting his former bandmates to take legal action over the name.

Tony Jackson died penniless in Nottingham in August 2003 at the age of 63"

Chris Curtis
(Filed: 02/03/2005)

Chris Curtis, who has died aged 63, was the drummer, vocalist and
charismatic frontman of the Searchers, one of the best known bands
to emerge from Liverpool at the same time as the Beatles in the
early 1960s; with harmonious pop hits such as Sweets for My Sweet,
Sugar and Spice and Needles and Pins, the Searchers achieved
international success and the band was established as one of the
closest rivals to to Brian Epstein's "Fab Four".

During their heyday, Curtis, unusually for a drummer, dominated the
group. Intense and hyperactive, both on and off stage, in the mid-
1960s he steered the Searchers towards melancholy folk-rock
material, the best known of which, Needles and Pins heralded a new
sound with jangly melodies and the 12-string guitar. But Curtis was
prone to temper tantrums and had regular clashes with the lead
vocalist and bass guitarist Tony Jackson (who died in August 2003).
Eventually their differences came to a head and Jackson left the
band, after which the Searchers had several further hits.

But by 1966, exhausted by endless touring, Curtis was beginning to
rely heavily on drugs. During the Australian leg of the tour ("I
hated Australia," he said later, "I thought it was a country full of
dreadful people") he fell off the stage. A row followed, after which
his fellow band members flushed his tranquillizers down the
lavatory. "On the way back home," he later recalled, "I wrote a
Searchers' song on a sick bag, but it wasn't used as I left the
group."

He was born Christopher Crummey on August 26 1941 in Oldham,
Lancashire, after which his parents moved to Liverpool. Christopher
attended St Mary's College in Crosby, and persuaded his father to
buy him a drum kit. He was soon jamming with his schoolfriend
Michael Prendergast (later Mike Pender, the lead guitarist of the
Searchers).

After leaving the Searchers, Curtis recorded a single entitled
Aggravation , but it failed to make a dent in the charts. His next
venture, a band called Roundabout, was with the guitarist Ritchie
Blackmore and the keyboard player Jon Lord, with whom Curtis was
staying in London. But Curtis's behaviour had become increasingly
erratic. "I came back from being up north for a few days," Lord
recalled, "and my entire flat was covered in silver paper. The
tables, chairs, the toilet, the toilet seat … Chris came out of the
loo and said, `Hey man, what do you think? New concept.' I knew he'd
lost it." Roundabout went on to become Deep Purple, one of the most
successful rock bands in the world.

Curtis joined the Inland Revenue. "It was difficult for me," he
later recalled, "but the people in the office were lovely. They went
out of their way to be nice to me." He remained with the civil
service for almost 20 years before ill-health forced him to retire.

He continued to dabble in music, and at one stage joined forces with
a guitar-playing accountant he had met at the Inland Revenue.
Recently he had taken to karaoke singing at his local pub where the
regulars were treated to rousing versions of Lean On Me. "Anything
good that the Searchers ever did," said John McNally (former rhythm
guitarist) in 2003, "is down to him."

An eccentric but likeable man, in his later years Curtis was less
irascible but suffered from depression and found it difficult to
concentrate. On one occasion he boarded an early morning bus and
handed out his record collection to the surprised
passengers. "People who don't know me well," he would explain, "may
think I'm off my cake."

Chris Curtis was found dead at his home in Liverpool on Monday.

Needles and Pins heralded a new sound with jangly melodies and the 12-string guitar.