The Searchers, 60s chart toppers, bow out at Glastonbury

The Searchers, the Liverpool band that topped the charts in the 1960s with Sweets for My Sweet, Needles and Pins and Don't Throw Your Love Away, played their final show at Glastonbury Festival after 66 years of touring.

Formed in 1959 by John McNally and Mike Pender, the group was part of the Merseybeat scene alongside Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Beatles that broke through in the early 1960s before finding success in the US.

Bass player and singer Frank Allen, who joined in 1964, said The Searchers had played "final" gigs before but decided to come back one last time after an invitation from the festival in southwestern England.

"We had said that was it, unless something comes up that we really couldn't turn down," Allen, 81, said. "If there was going to be a bigger one to end on, then that's the one."

Revellers attend the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, Britain

"It will be mostly the hits, a few little things, tributes maybe to some of the other people that we've toured with over the years."

The band has shared bills with the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Cliff Richard, as well as Motown artists in the US, he said.

After playing to screaming fans in the 1960s, tastes changed in the 1970s and the band moved to the club circuit.

"We survived and we came out the other side bigger and better," Allen said. "And as we hit the end of the 70s, everything took off again and there was a new respect for everything we'd done in the past."

Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty are among those who said they were influenced by the group's sound, he said.

Other performers at Worthy Farm this year include Neil Young, 79, and Rod Stewart, 80.

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