Searchers star passes away

Former pop star Tony Jackson of The Searchers died yesterday aged 65.

The one-time vocalist and bass guitarist, who made a fortune with the group before suffering ill health, died shortly after midnight.

He had been taken to hospital near his home in Nottingham over the weekend with cirrhosis of the liver following years of hard drinking.

While The Searchers are one of the few groups to have survived the Sixties era and are still touring, Jackson - who quit the band in 1964 through illness - had fallen on hard times.

A series of health problems had left him unable to walk without the aid of a stick or even play his guitar and in 1996 he was jailed for 18 months after he threatened to kill a woman with an air pistol.

It emerged that Jackson telephoned the original members of the group last week to tell them that he was dying. Band leader John McNally, 62, said: 'Because The Searchers had a very cleancut image no one ever really knew that Tony was the wild man of the band in the Sixties.

' Growing up around The Beatles and with those times in Germany all of us liked a drink, but sadly Tony didn't know when to stop.

'He couldn't perform any longer because he was asthmatic but he was a good lad. He rang me last week to say he didn't have long left but he was still laughing and joking.'

The Searchers had 14 hits in the Sixties including three number ones - Sweets For My Sweet, Needles And Pins and Don't Throw Your Love Away.