Tony Jackson (bass player)

Tony Jackson (16 July 1938 – 18 August 2003) was an English bass guitar player and singer who was a member of The Searchers.Anthony Paul Jackson was born on 16 July 1938 in The Dingle, Liverpool. inote|Daily Telegraph|TelegraphAfter leaving school he went to Walton Technical College to train as an electrician. inote|Daily Telegraph|TelegraphJackson was inspired by the skiffle sound of Lonnie Donegan, and then by Buddy Holly and other U.S. rock and roll. inote|AP|APHe founded the skiffle group the Martinis. inote|Eder|Eder

Nicknamed Black Jakeinote|Allen|Allen, he joined the guitar duo The Searchers, which had been formed by John McNally and Mike Pender in 1959.inote|Eder|Eder The band soon expanded further to a quartet with the addition of the drummer Chris Curtis. Jackson built and learned to play a customized bass guitar. Learning his new job on the four-stringed instrument proved too difficult to permit him to continue singing lead so he made way for a new singer, Johnny Sandon in 1960.inote|Eder|Eder They played in Liverpool's nightclubs and the beer bars of Hamburg, Germany. Brian Epstein considered signing them but he lost interest after seeing a drunken Jackson fall off the stage at the Cavern Club. Sandon moved on in February 1962 and the band were signed by Pye Records in mid-1963 inote|Eder|Ederwhen The Beatles' success created great demand for Liverpudlian acts. inote|AP|AP

Jackson was lead singer and played bass on the band's first two United Kingdom hits, "Sweets for My Sweet" and "Sugar and Spice", but was not the vocalist on the band's biggest hit "Needles and Pins." He was featured on both "Don't Throw Your Love Away" and "Love Potion #9". inote|AP|AP

In 1964 the band toured the United States, including an appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show". Jackson was unhappy with the bands' move away from rock and roll to a softer, more melodic soundinote|Beat Boom|BeatBoom and felt that he was not getting appropriate attention. inote|AP|APHe left the group in July 1964 in some acrimony inote|Allen|Allenand immediately moved to London and put together a new band, the Vibrations, which had an organ-based sound instead of the Searchers' twelve-string guitars.

After leaving the Searchers Jackson spent £200 on cosmetic surgery on his nose. He said at the time that he had had a lifelong complex about his nose to the extent that he could not mix socially. The surgery had followed psychiatric treatment. inote|Daily Telegraph|TelegraphThat same year he revealed that his 1960 marriage to Margaret Parry had been effectively over for two years. inote|Daily Telegraph|Telegraph

The Vibrations toured the UK with the Hollies, Marianne Faithfull and other acts. They released four singles on the Pye Records label but only the first had any success. In 1965 they changed their name to The Tony Jackson Group but the fourth single also failed and Pye dropped them. The band then signed to CBS without improvement and they found that there were few bookings in the UKinote|Beat Boom|BeatBoom so they toured southern Europe until even that withered. inote|Daily Telegraph|TelegraphDisillusioned and out of options, Jackson left the music business. inote|AP|AP

Jackson took a variety of jobs including Spanish night club manager, inote|Daily Telegraph|Telegraphentertainments representative, furniture salesman, disc jockey, and golf club manager. inote|Allen|AllenIn the 1980s he tried to establish a Searchers revival band, but was unable to compete effectively with the other two that already existed. inote|AP|AP

In 1991, Tony Jackson and the Vibrations reformed and an album of Jackson's material after the Searchers was released. The resuscitation of his career was shortlived, however, although he did appear four times with Mike Pender's Searchers between 1992 and 1995. inote|Daily Telegraph|Telegraph That ended in 1996 when he was convicted of threatening a woman with an air pistol after an argument over a phone booth, and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. inote|Daily Telegraph|Telegraph

The arthritis in his hands became so bad that he had to abandon even recreational guitar playing. inote|Daily Telegraph|TelegraphIn 2002 he said, "The spirit's willing, but the body's knackered." inote|Daily Telegraph|Telegraph

Towards the end of his life he suffered from diabetes, heart disease, and cirrhosis of the liver from a lifetime of heavy alcohol consumption. Jackson died on 18 August 2003 in a Nottingham hospital. inote|AP|AP

External links

* [http://www.rickresource.com/searchers/searchershistory.html The Searchers' History]
* [http://home.rz-online.de/~mdenger/ The Searchers' Records including TJ solo releases]

References

* [http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/08/21/searchers.death/index.html Associated Press, 'Tony Jackson, Bass Player of The Searchers'] , (August 22 2003) Retrieved May 22 2005
* [http://www.geocities.com/fabgear6366/jacksontony.htm 'Tony Jackson and the Vibrations', "The British Beat Boom 1963-66"] Retrieved May 22 2005
* [http://www.jacobsladder.org.uk/tony_jackson.htm Allen, Frank. 'Tony Jackson', "jacobsladder.org.uk" (August 2003)] Retrieved May 22 2005
* [http://www.emusic.com/artist/11566/11566620.html Eder, Bruce. "All Music Guide"]
* [http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/08/20/db2003.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2003/08/20/ixopright.html 'Obituary: Tony Jackson', "Daily Telegraph"] , (August 20 2003)