John Blunt obit

Remembering past Searchers' drummer, John Blunt

 

He was not on the list.

I was saddened to learn today of the passing of John Blunt who joined The Searchers as replacement drummer after Chris Curtis left the band in February 1966.

Sending my sincere condolences to John's family.

John Blunt went on to be a member of a group called Orange Seaweed (or some such name). At one time he left the music business and was driving taxis in the Croydon area (South of London). Recently he has been playing pubs (as a singer/guitarist) in his local area advertising himself as 'Johnny B. Good - formerly of The Searchers'

Blunt was a pretty good drummer on the Searchers sides..."Have You Ever Loved Somebody" is built around his drum breaks. While he could never have replaced Chris Curtis as a frontman/spokesperson or a songwriter, he was probably a better drummer. I wonder if there are any live tapes of the Searchers floating around from the 1966-69 period.

Originally founded as a skiffle group in Liverpool in 1959 by John McNally and Mike Pender (Mike Prendergast), the band took their name from the classic 1956 John Wayne western The Searchers. Prendergast claims that the name was his idea, but McNally ascribes it to 'Big Ron' Woodbridge, their first lead singer. The issue remains unresolved.

The band grew out of an earlier skiffle group formed by McNally, with his friends Brian Dolan (guitar) and Tony West (bass). When the other two members lost interst McNally was joined by his guitarist neighbour Mike Prendergast. They soon recruited Tony Jackson with his home-made bass guitar and amplifier and styled themselves Tony and the Searchers with Joe Kelly on drums. Kelly soon left to be replaced by Norman McGarry and it is this line-up—McNally, Pender (as he soon became known), Jackson and McGarry—that is usually cited as the original foursome.

McGarry did not stay long, however, and in 1960 his place was taken by Chris Crummey (who later changed his name to Curtis). Later that year Big Ron had a successful audition with Mecca and became a ballroom singer. He was replaced by Billy Beck, who changed his name to Johnny Sandon. The band had regular bookings at Liverpool's Iron Door Club as Johnny Sandon and the Searchers.

Sandon left the band in late 1961 to join The Remo Four in February 1962. The group settled into a quartet sharing the vocal lead and billed simply as The Searchers. They continued to play at the Iron Door, The Cavern, and other Liverpool clubs. Like many similar acts they would do as many as three shows at different venues in one night. They negotiated a contract with the Star-Club in the St. Pauli district Hamburg for 128 days, with three one-hour performances a night, starting in July 1962.

The band returned to a residence, at the Iron Door Club and it was there that they tape recorded the sessions that led to a recording contract with Pye Records with Tony Hatch as producer.

Hatch played piano on some recordings and wrote "Sugar and Spice"—the band’s second number one record—under the pseudonym Fred Nightingale; a secret he kept from the band at the time.

After scoring their monumental hit "Needles and Pins", bassist Tony Jackson went solo and was replaced by Hamburg pal Frank Allen of Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers.

Chris Curtis left the band in 1966 and was replaced by the Needles and Pins-influenced John Blunt, who in turn was replaced by Billy Adamson in 1970.