"Western Movies" - The Olympics, 1958

I didn't know until this morning that Chris Curtis, drummer of the Searchers, died a day or so ago. I also didn't know that the band was named after a John Ford Western. I had always wondered where the band's name came from. It had never occurred to me that the Searchers might have been named after an American movie.

Reading some of the obits about Chris -- whose real name was Christopher Crummey -- I noted that after leaving the music business, he had worked for about 20 years as a civil servant for the Inland Revenue Service. That's the UK's equivalent of the IRS. He was forced to retire due to ill health, and he was 63 when he died in Liverpool yesterday. It sounds like he had a rather troubled life.

He's not the only member of the original Searchers to die. Tony Jackson apparently died penniless in 2003. He was also 63 when he died.

I've found the Searchers Official Website, with information about the previous and current line-ups of the group. I'm surprised to see that a band called the Searchers is still actively performing...although it appears that the only original member of the group is John McNally. It looks like they have just completed an Australian tour.

This is really depressing. Little by little, the musicians who dominated the memories of my childhood and youth are disappearing...

Janet