When we trace the history of contemporary Australian music, we find it is four young people from Melbourne who started the ball rolling internationally for all the other big name Australian artists.
Folk and gospel group The Seekers – featuring the golden voice of Judith Durham, Athol Guy, Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley – set sail in 1964 for a working holiday, totally unaware of the global fame and fortune that lay ahead. They sang for their supper on a cruise liner, planning a 10-week turnaround based in the UK, and sent their album and photographs ahead. On arrival in London, agent Eddie Jarrett booked them on national TV shows, and in variety theatre and clubs all over the UK.
Jarrett teamed The Seekers with writer/producer Tom Springfield (ex-Springfields and brother of Dusty). Tom wrote ‘I’ll Never Find Another You’ for the group’s distinctive acoustic harmony blend with Judith's bell-like voice, recording them at the now famous EMI Abbey Road Studios in mono!!
By February ‘65 the single reached No.1 in Britain, Australia and throughout Europe and The Seekers created history as the first Australian group to crack the American charts (No.3). The UK ‘beat’ scene had been turned on its ear by these clean-cut Aussies, and The Seekers were named 'Best New Group' at the 'Top Of The Pops Awards'. They toured internationally, with more chart-topping hits: 'A World Of Our Own'; 'Someday One Day' written for them by Paul Simon; Malvina Reynolds' lullaby 'Morningtown Ride'; ‘Walk With Me’; 'When Will The Good Apples Fall?'; and 'The Carnival Is Over' which knocked The Rolling Stones' 'Get Off Of My Cloud' from No.1… selling 90,000 copies a day! [Note: In 2003 “The Carnival Is Over” was placed at No.30 in the UK Top 100 Best-Selling Singles of all time]
But The Seekers' greatest hit was 'Georgy Girl', making them the first Australian group to reach No.1 in the USA. Composed for The Seekers by Tom Springfield and actor Jim Dale for the black and white movie ‘Georgy Girl’ starring Lynn Redgrave, the song was nominated for an Oscar.
The Seekers starred in several Australian TV spectaculars: 'The Seekers At Home', 'The Seekers Down Under' (highest rating (67) music program in Australian TV history), and 'The World Of The Seekers' (for TV and cinema release) – all ratings triumphs. A concert in 1967 at Melbourne's music bowl drew a record-shattering crowd of 200,000+ – the largest concert audience ever in the southern hemisphere… representing ten per cent of the entire population of the city at the time!!
The Seekers starred in the New Musical Express 'All-Star Poll Winners Concert' at Wembley along with other Sixties legends like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds and The Who… and they outsold every other big name artist in the charts
in the first six months of ’66. They sang in the 'Royal Command Performance' at the 'London Palladium', represented their country at 'Expo '67' in Montreal in the first-ever satellite television broadcast to Australia, and were honoured jointly as 'Australian Of The Year 1967'.
But after much soul-searching, Judith Durham gave six months’ notice to the other three group members and their manager, and The Seekers final London shows in 1968 resulted in a first-ever live-in-concert chart-topping album and an emotional live farewell BBC TV spectacular ‘Farewell The Seekers’ watched by a tearful audience of more than 10 million people. The Seekers had gone, and the inevitable “best of" album charted for a staggering 125 weeks. Bill Wyman wrote that The Rolling Stones could not reach the No.1 spot with ‘Goat’s Head Soup’, for the first time ever, because of The Seekers!!
The nineties and beyond
For the next 25 years Judith, Athol, Keith and Bruce found fulfilment individually, while the “spirit of the group” grew more legendary. Fans of all ages begged The Seekers to perform “one more time”; for many had hoped all their lives they might see their idols live on stage. So in 1993, causing unprecedented excitement, Judith, Athol, Keith and Bruce announced they were reuniting for concerts to celebrate their ‘25 Year Reunion’. Under the guidance of manager John Kovac, the magic continued with CD and video releases (there were no videos in the Sixties), and the '25 Year Reunion Celebration – Live In Concert' CD went platinum and the quadruple-platinum video was the biggest-selling music video in Australia's history knocking Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' from No.1!!
Overwhelmingly emotional sell-out concerts followed in 1994 and 1995 at London’s 'Royal Albert Hall' and 'Wembley Arena', and in 1995 The Seekers were inducted by Peter Asher into the 'ARIA Hall Of Fame'…the group that first put Australia on the international music map.
The Seekers toured extensively again: in 1997 to promote their first studio album in 30 years, 'Future Road' (plus a ‘making of’ video); in 2000 with ‘The Carnival Of Hits’ world tour; and again in March 2003. Their audience still today includes fans as young as 3 years old, joining in the rhythms and singing all the words with gusto, along with those of 23, 53 and 93 – just like it always was in the Sixties.
Commemorating forty years as Australia’s icons The Seekers Special Event Souvenir Stamp Sheet was issued in 2002 (with vintage images by internationally exhibited Beatles photographer Robert Whitaker), along with further significant album releases: the first-ever Seekers’ Christmas album 'Morningtown Ride To Christmas' in 2001; the group’s first-ever double CD ‘Night Of Nights…Live’ in 2002; and 25 timeless and uplifting tracks were chosen by the group themselves in 2003 for ‘The Ultimate Collection’, including Bruce’s “I Am Australian” and the newly-recorded "Massachusetts".
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In the early 70s an astonished Judith was told by Maurice Gibb in London that "Massachusetts" was originally intended to fulfill The Bee Gees’ dream of becoming an early hit for The Seekers, but the attempts of Barry, Robin and Maurice to get their now time-honoured song to The Seekers had failed. So as a tribute to Maurice after his untimely death, The Seekers sang the song in concert, and by popular request finally recorded their own studio version.
DVD releases of Seekers’ videos include ‘25 Year Reunion Celebration – Live In Concert’ (with bonuses ‘Future Road’ and the rare film clip ‘Far Shore’), ‘The Seekers At Home And Down Under’ and ‘The World Of The Seekers’.
In July 2004 The Seekers once again bowed to public demand and undertook their Four Decades Of Gold’ Australia and New Zealand tour. In 2006 The Seekers were given the
“Key To The City” of Melbourne by then-Lord Mayor John So, and in 2008, The Seekers’ 1965 No.1 hit 'The Carnival Is Over' was named No.30 in the 'UK Official Top 100 Best-Selling Singles Of All Time'.
“The Carnival Is Over” was later ranked sixth in the official BBC Radio 2 chart of the “Biggest-Selling Chart Stars of the 1960s”, placing them above The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard. The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” was ranked No. 20!
In 2010, The Seekers were surprised and delighted to be invited by Andre Rieu to join his tour and, putting their individual projects on hold for the extravaganza, they reunited to tour Australia and New Zealand as special guests of Andre and his Johann Strauss Orchestra.
In 2012, The Seekers went back into the recording studio to record two new tracks – “Silver Threads And Golden Needles” and “In My Life” – to take pride of place on their newest compilation, ‘The Golden Jubilee Album – 50 Tracks For Fifty Years’’.
The carnival continued in 2013 when The Seekers kicked off their celebratory ‘Golden Jubilee Tour’ of Australia. The tour was abruptly halted in May 2013 when singer Judith Durham suffered a cerebral haemorrhage. Following six months of intense rehabilitation, doctors gave her the green light to resume the tour, and The Seekers completed a further 18 concerts around Australia.
In April 2014, The Seekers undertook their first tour of the UK in more than a decade. Over six weeks, ‘The Golden Jubilee Tour’ wounds its way through England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
THE SEEKERS FACT FILE
The Seekers staggering achievements are …
– Judith Durham, Athol Guy, Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley are joint ‘Australians Of The Year 1967’
– The Seekers celebrated their 50th birthday on 4 December, 2012 (1962-2012)
– The only surviving chart-topping band from the 60s, anywhere in the world, with all the original founding members …and still performing and recording after half a century!
– The first group ever to reach No. 1 on the UK charts with their first three singles…not even Michael Jackson or Madonna achieved that
– The first Australian group to reach No. 1 in USA (Georgy Girl)… not even Little River Band or AC/DC can claim that!
– The first Australian group to reach No. 1 in UK (I’ll Never Find Another You)… not even The Easybeats or INXS can claim that!
– The first Australian group ever to reach No. 1 in UK with a debut record (I’ll Never Find Another You)… not even The Rolling Stones or The Beatles achieved that!
“The Carnival Is Over” (No. 1 hit):
– outsold everyone including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones
– No. 7 in Top Ten UK Hits Of The 60s
– No. 30 in ‘UK Top 100 Best Selling Singles Of All Time’
– No. 34 in UK million selling singles of all time
“I’ll Never Find Another You” (No. 1 hit):
– currently 10 million+ hits on YouTube
“Georgy Girl” (No. 1 hit):
– nominated for an Academy Award ‘Best Original Song’
– Quadruple platinum for their ’25 Year Reunion Celebration’ live in concert video 1994… it knocked Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ 10th Anniversary video off the Number One spot
– The only concert artists to ever draw a crowd of more than 200,000 people to a concert in the southern hemisphere… it’s in the history books!
Record holders for Australian television ratings
… a 67 rating for their 1967 TV spectacular ‘The Seekers Down Under’
ARIA Hall Of Fame inductees 1995
‘Key To The City’ of Melbourne presented to The Seekers 2006
Awarded their own Australia Post ‘Legends Of Australian Music’ postage stamp, 2013
In the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours, the four members of The Seekers were each
awarded the Officer Of The Order Of Australia (AO) in the General Division.
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