October 13, 2002 saw approximately 250 Searchers' fans descend on Nuneaton, a small town in the Midlands area of England. The venue was Nuneaton Sports and Social Club, very similar to the British legion type clubs that are in Canada. This was the fifth such convention and the third to be held in Nuneaton, albeit a different venue.

At the first convention held in Nuneaton, the venue was a school hall, as was the second convention. The baby unit at the local Hospital was chosen as the charity to benefit and so it has remained that way ever since. The other two conventions were held at a Hotel in Birmingham.

As can be seen from the enclosed program of events, the days proceedings started at 2.00 pm. I had cajoled my wife and eighteen year old grandson (Am I really this old!!!!) into coming with me and we arrived at the venue at about 2.20 p.m. to find the place full, hardly a seat to be had. With the aid of someone I had met at previous conventions, we decided to take matters into our own hands and started to add extra tables and chairs at the back of the room.

The first of the support groups, "Generator", was already into their set. Two of the members of this group had played the previous convention as part of a group called "Nightshift." From my observations, they had recently formed as the lead singer was using lyric sheets. Mostly sixties and some seventies stuff was played on this day.

After their set, Tim Viney officially acknowledged that Tony Jackson, Black Jake, himself was present. It was pleasing that Tony received a great reception, as he had sat himself away in a corner and I'm not sure that a lot of "Avids" were actually aware at this stage of proceedings of his presence.

Tim went on to do a quiz that was based on snippets of numbers associated with The Searchers' recordings. Some of these selections were hits and others were not. There were 26 questions in all and, if I might say so, it was not easy. Tim's question of "Has anyone got 26?" seemed to be met with incredulity. It was eventually established that the winner had 22. A mere 85%, but who's keeping tabs. My Wife and Grandson claimed I was the only one taking it seriously, so I won't tell you who won.

After the Quiz, the second group "Krys" took to the stage. This was their third convention appearance, a band very much in the cabaret/social club scene and well presented in terms of attire. Their forte was mainly ballads and included memorable numbers such as "Only The Lonely", "In Dreams", "Halfway to Paradise" and "Take Good Care of My Baby." While I confess to being partial to this material, I consider that I am on safe grounds by letting you know that they did well.

Next up was the auction and Frank Allen was the Auctioneer. This is a role in which he continues to shine and, without wishing to appear obsequious, he was ably assisted by Tim Viney, Wendy Burton and Jan Goss.

I am constantly amazed at not only the items collected for the auction, much praise to Frank and Tim, but the prices that people are willing to pay. This was particularly rewarding given the children who would benefit from the proceeds.

A certain degree of envy creeps in here, as I would have liked to have obtained some of the items. Thankfully, for my wife and family, Frank stated in his preamble that participants should not "pay more for items than you can afford." Some would say, however, that I perhaps exhibit the tendency of a Yorkshire Man (ie. One who is careful with their money). In spite of this reputation, my bank balance explodes this myth. Lest mt comments seem to unduly churlish, I was also cognizant of the drive home and the strains of "You can afford to pay £X for that rubbish but when I want a new Hoover we can't afford it"!!!

The enclosed list shows some of the auction items, some more were present on the day, most notably a set of 5 paintings by Tony Jackson and a set of 5 B&W drawings by Tony, also a Vinyl copy of "Just Like Me" by Tony Jackson.

In the interest of brevity, I won't list what every item went for, but the following are just some examples to give one a feel of the day.

Millennium Show Programmes - Both went for £56 each
Frank Allen's Travelling Man Proof script - £20
Franks Shirt - £35
TJ's Paintings - £20
"Just Like Me" - £26
Iron Door Item - £21

The set sale price section had Frank and Tim basically giving a figure and anyone interested put their hand up to buy, although I recall there was some haggling.

Of all the generous donations given for the raffle, I will pick out two for mention. First, there was a set of Guitar Miniatures. Both were presented in a fancy case and they were from some renowned guitar shop in New York. Warren from New York had kindly donated these items, clearly a generous man.

The other item was a black Synth Guitar generously donated by Rob from the group "Generator." Not surprisingly, this was the subject of a separate raffle.

Back in 1994, a question and answer session took place with The Searchers who came on stage in a relaxed mode to answer questions from the audience. I was flattered to be asked to participate in that session with Wendy Burton who is now the Website Co-coordinator for The Searchers Official Site. I was equally surprised to be asked to repeat the question and answer portion of the event this time, again with Wendy.

Not all Questions can be asked due to time and fact that some were deemed to be too frivolous or of a personnel nature. Also it was felt that this time the Questions should be more geared to the band as they are now, in order to involve Spencer and Eddie more otherwise all answers come from John and Frank, or just John if we are going back to start of career or recording history. The 1994 session was probably remembered for John and Frank responding to a question relating to Mike Pender leaving and they understandably wanted to give their account of events from their perspective.

Clearly, I do not intend to list every question but there are some who may be interested in some of the questions and responses so I will list ten.

1. What number do you feel gets the best response on stage was one from Peter McCormack. - "When you walk in the Room" was the consensus of all.
2. You were supposedly offered "Things We Said Today" by Brian Epstein, did you consider it and any reason why you didn't do it - John stated that he recalled there was a stipulation that they would have to sign up with BE to do the song and they were under contract to Tito Burns so it was a non starter.
3. Who chose the songs you did in the Sire Period. - We were told that Pat Moran and luminaries at Sire basically suggested songs for them to do coupled with some they wanted to do or had wrote themselves.
4. If you had the chance to release a new single, have you a song you would like to do. - Some deliberation here but eventually "In This Life" was put forward and most of the audience seemed to agree.
5. Do you still see Chris Curtis, this question directed at John - Answer Yes, saw him recently in a local supermarket, but he is not involved with music anymore.
6. Did you feel PYE overexposed you in early Days - John stated that PYE felt the beat boom only had a short lifespan and wanted to get as much product out as they could to capitalise.
7. How long do you think you'll carry on - Difficult to say was the retort, as long as we have an audience to play to we'll carry on basically.
8. Spencer was asked if he planned to release anymore CD's - Yes was the answer hopefully soon and it will be on the lines of "Love Remains" again. It also emerged that The Searchers hope to release a CD containing some of the more new songs they have performed over the years in 2003.
9. Those who have the opportunity to read Tim Viney's magazine will know that there always seems to be reports on shows that Frank has attended, by his own admission Frank gets a lot of "freebies", so a question was asked have any of you paid money to see another artist recently. Frank stated had had been to see Lonnie Donnegan recently, John had to think but eventually recalled he had paid to see Scotty Moore. Spencer went to see Paul Carrrack and Eddie 10cc or what's left of them, he actually was quite funny Eddie, because he said 10cc and then changed to 1CC, only Graham Gouldman from original lineup.
10. Is there any specific sixties act you have never toured with that you would like to. - John stated The Hollies and if I recall correctly the others tended to agree.

The evening came to a conclusion with The Searchers performing and the report on the Official Site covers their set.

All in all an enjoyable day, good to see Tony Jackson there. I never did get round to seeing the band when Tony was lead singer and I do believe he played a major part in the initial success.

Also good to see a frequent visitor to The Rickenbacker Forum there, Erik from Norway.

Tim Viney deserves a lot of praise for putting these events together and I'm sure they are others who play a major part, that I am unaware of, so my thanks and apologies for the absence of name check. Will there be another? Who knows, back in the seventies I sometimes despaired of actually finding anybody else who shared my enthusiasm for the band, so five conventions later and magazines, numerous websites has turned that despair to joy.