Tony Jackson

In the summer of 1964, Tony Jackson was considered one of the hottest talents in Liverpool. As bassist and lead singer of the Searchers up to but not including "Needles and Pins" (when John McNally and Mike Pender took over the singing), he was the most recognizable member of the one major Liverpool group not managed by Brian Epstein. He was a genuine star at the time, in a group that was about as hot as any band could be. That all changed when Jackson either left or was forced out of the group (accounts vary) that summer and formed his own band, the Vibrations -- from then on, he led a hard-luck life and career. He was born Anthony Paul Jackson in the Dingle, a densely populated and poor area of Liverpool (the same place whence Ringo Starr and Billy Fury came into the world) in the summer of 1940. He grew up surrounded by working-class aspirations and was planning on becoming an electrician when he was sidetracked, first by skiffle music and later by rock & roll. Skiffle king Lonnie Donegan was his first musical hero and in the mid-'50s Jackson formed his first band, the Martinis, as a skiffle group. By the time he shifted to rock & roll, he was singing lead. According to his successor in the Searchers, Frank Allen, Jackson had a great voice in those early days and commanded the stage in a manner that evoked images of Elvis Presley, and was also a highly proficient bassist. Soon after seeing him perform, John McNally and Mike Pender, who were already playing together as the Searchers, asked him to join. The group, which eventually solidified around the three of them and drummer Chris Curtis, spent a couple of years backing vocalist Johnny Sandon, who left their association to work with the Remo 4, and by 1962 the Searchers were on their own, with Jackson singing most...