“An ambition that has eluded us – until now. What a way to round off a tour and a career”: The ‘longest running pop band’ will end their career at Glastonbury

The Searchers in 1964.

Merseybeat veterans The Searchers have announced that their upcoming show at Glastonbury will be their final gig, bringing down the curtain on 66 years as a working band.

Formed in Liverpool in 1959, the Searchers were contemporaries of the Beatles. Slightly more wholesome than the Fabs, they were a constant presence in the UK charts between 1963 and 1966, clocking up three UK Number Ones – Sweets For My Sweet, Needles and Pins and Don’t Throw Your Love Away.