The Searchers and how how did Kapp get all those stereo mixes?

Thank you for clarifying. When I said "third LP" I was refering to the third UK release, "It's The Searchers," not "This is Us," the second US album. Sorry if this was unclear. I was trying to edit this to contain a lot of information is the smallest possible space so it may have been a bit confusing. My bad. At any rate, my main point was that those Marble Arch releases are the source of some of those stereo mixes. ('Someday We're Gonna Love Again' and 'This Feeling Inside' are examples.) Thank you for helping set the record stright for those of us here who still care.

 

I seem to recall even this series didn't clear up the mess entirely, with a few songs missing in stereo for unknown reasons which makes no sense if Pye has all the mixes they made for Kapp and that Kapp themselves made. (I.E.: "Saturday Night Out" only appears in mono in that CD series despite it being mixed for Kapp in stereo in 1964.)

 

I saw The Searchers in 1982 on their '20th Anniversary' tour - the band had just done the second Sire album and the line up of Mike Pender, John McNally, Frank Allen and Billy Adamson were really on top form clearly enjoying being a recording band again at last

they alternated classic hits / sixties songs with new album tracks from both the recent Sire albums

they opened with 'Sweets For My Sweet' then 'Hearts in Her Eyes' then 'When You Walk in The Room' then 'Feelin Fine'...etc - it was a magnificent concert which the full house really loved !

 

There is certainly the material out there for a good Searchers odds-and-ends, stereo mixes, unreleased, demos and rarities out there. Whether there is the will or the market is another question.

Also, when I prepared that list, I think I was using the Audio Fidelity SACD as the 'default' discs. Most of the stereo tracks from there are also on the Golden Hour CD. That is probably your single best bet to get most of the stereo mixes at a reasonable price.

Well, there's "The Tracks Of Our Years" from 2012, which is yet another set of studio re-recordings of their best-known songs. That may or may not count, depending.

[Also perhaps worth mentioning: about eight different self-released Live CDs. I think they recycled tracks from one release to another and would involve a bit of time to sort out which was which.]

 

Cool, is it this one?

Searchers | CD | Golden hour of (#kghcd101) 5017285602015 | eBay

Are they all original versions in stereo mixes?

Cheers!
Javi

 

Taking another look, that does indeed look like an Oriole pressing, which would explain the older label being used.

 

That's the one!

I don't own it anymore but I remember it being all stereo, all original (and a couple of other posters in this thread have said the same.)

 

I will buy it then. Is the sound good?

 

Great information here guys, thanks.

So are the black and white label PYE reissues from 1980 in true stereo?

 

Greetings 'tages,' nice to have you among this little group! The label you show, for the 1980 full-price Pye reissue of "It's The Searchers," illustrates my point about the Marble Arch releases nicely. This particular UK release containes all 14 tracks from the original album in the original running order. As you play the vinyl, 10 of the LP's 14 tracks are in true stereo mixes (those which appeared on the Marble Arch reissue in 1968). The remaining four songs are in original mono, information is not printed on the cover or the label of this release.

 

Thanks for the reply Bill! So I’m assuming there is no way to obtain full stereo LPs of the first 4 (UK) albums?

I’ve got all of the original PYE mono LPs (including the two “Smash Hits” Marble Arch ones) and I’d love to own full stereo copies.

Thanks again for the info - thanks to you I learned that “Take Me For What I’m Worth” (UK) was issued in stereo! Got a copy on order now.

 

Yep! Those 1980 LP's are very sketchy, stereo wise. "Meet The Searchers" is entirely mono, and "Sugar and Spice" is similar to what you said (10 true stereo tracks, 2 mono). Only the "Take Me For What I'm Worth" LP is entirely stereo in that particular reissue series.

My mind may be playing tricks on me, but I could swear the U.K. version of the 1980 reissue of "It's The Searchers" LP was entirely (or predominantly) mono as well. Are you sure it has as many stereo mixes on it as you say?

 

Somebody attended and filmed a Searchers concert in 1982 and the full recording (though broken up into 11 pieces) is available on YouTube:



I have also done a lot of research on the Searchers as a touring group. You get the feeling from the concert, and looking at their available itineraries over the years that they were always busy on the road. Extremely well versed in live performance. They are on their farewell tour now. On a personal note, I only own a "Hits Collection" compilation CD on PRT. Have however heard a lot of their material and will probably soon get round to gather their studio albums, but am just as much interested in getting good sounding versions of Popcorn, Double Feature and other latter-day stuff that is just top notch... A very underrated group. Should have done just a little more original material, as what they produced themselves was very good.

They also did a one-off as Pasha entitled Somebody Shot the Lollipop Man which is good, dumb fun. Though they tried their hand doing a little bit of everything as the sixties came to a close, I could easily have imagined them making a proper covers album of the Laurel Canyon scene and maybe even dig a little deeper.

 

Thanks empirelvr. I checked my 1980 vinyl of "It's The Searchers" and the stereo tracks are the FIRST five songs on side one and the LAST five songs on side two, the same selections which had appeared on the Marble Arch reissue. Those 1980 reissue LPs are an interesting collection but a stereo / mono hodge-podge and make for some slightly uneven listening.

 

It makes me wonder how Pye filed those mixes they made for Kapp and how they were cross referenced in their database. A picture is starting to form in my head that they must be filed so that unless you knew they existed and were specifically looking for them, they otherwise wouldn't show up and you'd be told no stereo mixes existed for a given track.

 

Cherry Red / Grapefruit is putting out a complete Pye recordings set at a very reasonable price. Stereo/Mono versions not each disc. It'll be interesting to see which mixes they will use.

The Searchers Archives - Cherry Red Records

 

Wow, it looked impressive at first glance.
Then I've noticed that having the 5 mono/stereo Castles and The Pye Anthology you have it all as the singles are all in mono again.

 

Ugh... I'm not sure what to think. It looks like an opportunity to do something great that doesn't quite hit the mark.

If they wanted to just do the 'complete' Pye recordings, I think this 3CD set did it already. But if they wanted to go all the way with stereo/mono, why only mono for the non-LP tracks? (As noted above, there are still four songs that appeard in stereo on US LPs but have never appeared in stereo on CD.)

At least one of the originaly-unreleased tracks that appears on the 30th Anniversary 3CD set (the alternate Someday We're Gonna Love Again) seems to be missing from this collection (the others are accounted for).

They probably could have added an extra disc and made it an essential purchase.

Throw in some Chris Curtis/Tony Jackson solo singles if you've got the room. And this is just the cheap-to-licence Pye stuff....

 

The Definitive Pye Collection misses a fair bit of the original catalogue, despite the name.

Here's a funny one from 2012 (same year as the hearts in their eyes box):

The Searchers - Collected





An incomplete Dutch release that claims "STEREO" on the cover but contains a number of tracks that can't be stereo - a stereo mix of "Sweet Nothin's"?!

 

These look like the Sanctuary CD's of 2001 repackaged, right down to the same missing stereo tracks from the first album and all the bonus cuts. Nothing to see here, it seems.

 

I wonder if the mastering will just be a copy/paste job from those.

 

No, some of this comp used the later Stereo mixes done by Pye. Including the lame mix of "Needles & Pins".

 

Are the stereo mixes bad in Golden Hour?
But is it still all stereo?

 

Some of it is Stereo. Steve's Audio Fidelity disc, and the old Rhino CD are for me the best digital.