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 A lot of critics thought of your Sire days as your purple period really. Did you think of it in the same way?
Frank: Well yeah, we really did think it was all going to take off again then. I can still listen to 'Love's Melodies' and 'Play For Today' and really enjoy them, it was just right. We spent hours and hours on the guitar sounds alone. The producer, Pat Moran, and John McNally, who's still in the band now, spent a solid day at a time working in the studio. John's a real workaholic and a real studio person and Pat Moran was a very dedicated producer. So, after we'd finished all the rhythm tracks, John and Pat would be there right into the early hours of the morning doing all the dubbing and just making sure that everything was absolutely perfect. I think those albums will stand up forever.
Going right back to the beginning of your time with The Searchers, you were a bit of a late edition weren't you?
Frank: Well, not that late! Although I wasn't in the very first line-up, I had known them for a long time before and joined them in 1964, almost exactly a year after they'd had their first hit 'Sweets For My Sweet'. When I joined them it really was their pinnacle year; they were at their best as I came along. I had known them since 1962, as we used to hang out at The Star Club together. I was with Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers then and we'd released about seven singles at that time, none of them successful, but we were a serious recording band. The Searchers had only just stopped being a semi-pro band from Liverpool and hadn't made any recordings at all. In fact, none of them had really until The Beatles opened the way. I followed their career when they came to London; going to their shows and parties. When it came to Tony leaving to have a solo career, they knew me, so they came to me.
How did that make you feel?
Frank: It was really exhilarating, although I did turn it down at first. The Rebel Rousers were just being signed over to Brian Epstein and I was very conscience-striken about rocking the boat. I didn't know how I'd go about telling the others. When Chris Curtis first asked me, we were in a Spanish restaurant in London. I kinda 'umm' and 'err' about it, but finally said no. Then, about three or four weeks later. I was walking down a street with Moss Groves, one of our sax players, and I mentioned it to him. He couldn't believe I'd turned it down and told me to ring them back straight away to ask for the job and check whether they needed a sax player! Well they didn't want a sax player, but I'm so glad I took the job after all. It's been the best job in the world.
That must feel like your life defining moment now then?
Frank: It really was, even though we've been through bad periods. At the time, I really didn't think it was going to be a lifetime job. Like most people, you think you'll get a few years out of pop, but it's such a transient thing that your star will fade and eventually you'll have to get a proper job. We did go through a very bad period in 1969 to about 1971, when our chart hits had stopped and we'd started doing the cabaret clubs. We were working incredibly hard and getting a pittance for it. There were times when we were doing three clubs a night. A good learning experience, but no other rewards. That was the time though when I thought I'd give it up. When the cabaret clubs started to close down though, instead of all our work disappearing, all these one-nighters started coming out of the woodwork. Suddenly, for three nights work a week, we were getting paid more than we had been for seven nights before. Life became so much more bearable and our career took a bit of an upturn.
Despite the dips in popularity the group has still managed to maintain longevity. What do you put that down to?
Frank: I think it's down to a lot of hard work. We do try to look at ourselves very objectively, but I think the songs are very long-lasting too. They're good, simple, classic pop tunes with a beginning, middle and an end. If things are easy to remember, they get sung throughout the years. Also, we were part of a life-changing period, a new reference point for pop as The Beatles emerged. All modern pop refers back to that point or back further to rock and roll, so it was a pretty important time. We also learned, during our cabaret years, that we couldn't just do a routine of songs, but that we had to entertain an audience too. We had to learn how to engage with the audience, how to pace the show and how to bring the show down to a pinpoint and pull it up again. We can run the show like clockwork now, so that from two thirds in we build the atmosphere so much that we cannot fail to get a good response at the end of it.
Any hairy moments in terms of the audience response to you?
Frank: We've had some that haven't reacted at all, there aren't many of them though. Sometimes you just get booked for one of those functions you can't predict and we still get sweats over them. It tips you a bit, but you just have to learn from it.
You were very much a part of the core of bands that emerged on the wave of The Beatles. How did it feel a the time?
Frank: It was fabulous, I just wished I'd been mature enough to make more of it. I was a real shrinking violet in those days and just couldn't believe how lucky I was. Unlike most other people who look back and say they wouldn't change a thing, I would do everything different.
Did your paths ever cross with The Beatles?
Frank: Oh yeah, lots of times! I remember the first time I met them, I was in Hamburg with The Rebel Rousers and on December 31st in 1962, I went to The Star Club to see the end of their set. They were great! It was the same night that the Hamburg tapes were recorded in fact. They were really something special. I went into the dressing room after the show and introduced myself to Lennon and wished him luck with 'Love Me Do' that was just being released at the time. He said to me that he'd been speaking to people in the club that night about our performance there and he said, 'Oh yeah Frank, it seems next to Cliff, you're the most popular member of the band. But I can't think why, your harmonies are f***ing ridiculous!' I just stood there completely gobsmacked. I had never heard anyone talk that way before, I'd always been taught not to be controversial. I wished him well again and went on my way. We did meet them a few times after that, but I kinda kept my distance as I was always a bit scared of them. I still see Paul from time to time, and he has always been really polite.
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