Guest Book & Fans' comments

Listening to the words of 'When I Was A Boy' from the new ELO album, I could almost hear Mike singing it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfH8EJA-hg0

I read 'The Search For Myself' this week. It's a fascinating read and I was glued from cover-to-cover. I learned about the 1986 single 'It's Over', which due to low airplay has stayed under my radar for 29 years! I've found it on YouTube now and I love it should've been a hit for certain.

Please pass on my best wishes to Mike for his continued success with the book and the band.

'The Search For Myself'

This is a book I enjoyed enormously. It is compelling, interesting and informative, written with warmth, clarity and typical Liverpool humour and is lavishly illustrated.

It charts the meteoric rise of one of the sixties' finest groups and the disintegration of the complex personal relationships of the members.

It offers a perspective on the public and private life of Mike Pender, a fascinating and influential pop legend, with many reminiscences of the colourful characters he met along the way.

Mike Pender was the heartbeat of the Searchers and I recommend the book unreservedly - it is a must for 60s' music fans.

John Graham

Hi everyone
Do listen to Mike on BBC Radio Leeds - he was the guest for one hour yesterday on the Martin Kelner show. You will enjoy it and be very interested in Mike's choice of records too.

Dear Mike

I'm sure you must get loads of random emails from fans ,but here you go. You won't remember me, but I was at the music festival in Aldeburgh where your set (Mike Pender’s Searchers) was cut tragically short a month or so ago and you kindly signed a copy of your autobiography for me. I read the book with great interest but it also saddened me a great deal on a lot of levels. To achieve what you and your bandmates achieved in so short a space of time and for it all to end in acrimony is tragic, I think.

Like a lot of people of my age, the music of the Searchers has been a sort of soundtrack to my life really. One abiding memory is of sitting in my maternal grandfather's house in a small village in Co. Waterford in Ireland where he had an old 'Bush' radiogram where he would sit for hours listening to the racing results. I (aged about 12) bought the 'Bumble Bee' EP with my pocket money saved over many weeks and Grandad Bill would go 'here's dem ol’ bumble bees again' when I put it on.

I treasure the 2 vinyl albums you made with Sire in the late 70s and they are classic albums and it's a tragedy they went virtually unnoticed. Your story has a parallel on many levels with my other favourite band from the 60s and the only ones who could hold a candle to the Searchers for their gift for melody and vocal harmonies. Before they went global, the Bee Gees released some beautiful albums in the late 70s which also went unnoticed by the public. They were beautiful country rock and classic pop songs which no one was interested in except me! One was rejected by their record company.

That must have been hard and caused a lot of tension in their ranks. In spite of their great success, it must have been very difficult for Robin Gibb, the voice of the band as far as I'm concerned, to hear his vocal reduced to just one throwaway line on their 'Spirits Having Flown' album. Anyway, enough rambling from me. I just wanted to share with you that, at the tender age of 63, I'm getting married for the first time in Aldeburgh and the song we chosen for our first dance at the reception is 'Til I Met You' which was written, if memory serves me well, by your good self and another one of the Searchers. Cathy is 20 years my junior and of another generation but she loves the song too. Send us a card if you have the time or inclination. One thing that does shine out from your autobiography is what your family and children have meant to you over the years. God Bless you!

Eamonn

Dear Roger,

Now having read Mike's memoirs - a very good book - also very personal touch. So many nice memories coming back. Me and my wife visited Liverpool in June - now a really nice place.

But as in Gothenburg where we live it could be a 'rough' place in the 60s, not just for the weather and shipyards. Gothenburg also was the home of many later well established pop groups, not just The Spotnicks.

Please send Mike my regards, I really enjoyed the book.

Enjoy a nice summer!
Regards
Peter Samuelson

Mike, I saw you during the British Invasion tour in Annapolis, Md. You still sound fantastic, and your songs will live on forever. Hope that you come back soon.

I do really appreciate and enjoy all of your work specially your website...!

Hi Mike,

Once again many thanks for doing the show with us on Saturday. It was an absolute pleasure for us to have you and May there and I sincerely hope that you enjoyed it too.

Certainly the audience did, that is only the second time we have seen a standing ovation, and the feedback has been overwhelming

Kind Regards and Deep Respect
Roger

Mike, I saw your show with the British Invasion tour her a few months ago. What a great time. Just wanted you to know how much we love the music. Great memories. Keep doing what you are doing. We love you guys.

Lee and Mary Johnson