THE Searchers will perform the penultimate gig on their final tour in Weymouth.

After 56 years they will see begin their farewell series of solo presentations around the UK culminating in a final show on March 31. The group's Weymouth show will be on March 30.

The Searchers have never fallen out of love with performing and never will but that fun element is only the tip of the iceberg.

Still fit and looking decades younger than their years they finally decided they want a rest from the constant driving, the clogged up motorways which for the most part these days resemble car parks, and the hours of hanging about waiting for their moment to shine.

Back in the mid sixties when the incredible beat boom created by the Beatles saw so many bands riding on the crest of a seemingly unstoppable wave of success eventually subsided many simply disbanded and got on with their lives as best they could. Not The Searchers.

They stayed firmly in place, a constant unit riding out the bad times putting the twilight years of the cabaret clubs, looked on as anathema by some, to good use as they diligently honed their stage craft and upgraded the quality of their shows to please the more mature audience who had replaced the screaming teenage girls who had mobbed them in those years of chart topping glory. Such dogged determination was to stand them in good stead for the momentous nostalgia revival which was to lift them once again to national and international prominence.

The Searchers seemed to be both unstoppable and indestructible. They were arguably the hardest working band in showbusiness and their amazing datesheet was legendary in the music industry. No other unit played more dates for such a continuous period without cessation.

Their impressive run of hits in those glory years from 1964 to 1966 was worldwide enabling them to travel the globe constantly.

Sweets For My Sweet, Sugar & Spice, Needles & Pins, Don`t Throw Your Love Away, Someday We`re Gonna Love Again, When You Walk On The Room, Love Potion Number Nine, Goodbye My Love, He`s Got No Love, Take Me For What I`m Worth, Take It Or Leave It, Bumble Bee, Sweets Nothings. Have You Ever Loved Somebody, When I Get Home, What Have They Done To The Rain.

They have performed for both The Queen and Princess Margaret, headlined over such Motown luminaries as Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Martha & The Vandellas and The Temptations, entertained British troops in The Falklands, Bosnia and Belfast, toured Australia and New Zealand with The Rolling Stones and strutted their stuff in front of 80,000 people at Wembley Stadium as special guests of Cliff Richard.

In 2008 they found themselves back in the charts when the compilation album The Very Best Of The Searchers climbed to number 11.

*The Searchers, Weymouth Pavilion, March 30, 2019. Call the box office for tickets and more information.