A spiritual healing organization founded in London in 1926 by C. A. Simpson, formerly a New Zealand electrical engineer, who gave up his profession to establish this center under the direction of the spirit guide "Dr. Lascelles." The center was originally named The Guild of Spiritual Healing. Many cures were reported in cases generally classed as incurable. Associated Harmony Prayer Circles throughout Britain provided absent healing treatment. In 1933, the Seekers center moved to larger premises at West Malling, Kent, where over 5,000 members were linked in prayer circles. Last known address: Seekers' Trust, The Close, Addington Park, West Malling, Kent, England.
The Seekers
| Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia: The Seekers |
| Artist: The Seekers |
Group Members:
Similar Artists:
The Springfields,
Peter & Gordon,
Chad & Jeremy,
Rooftop Singers,
Peter, Paul and Mary,
The New Christy Minstrels,
Tony Hatch,
Stone Poneys
Influenced By:
Performed Songs By:
- Formed: 1963, Australia
- Disbanded: 1968
- Genres: Rock
- Representative Albums: "Ultimate Collection," "The Very Best of the Seekers," "The Seekers Complete"
- Representative Songs: "Georgy Girl," "I'll Never Find Another You," "The Carnival Is Over"
Biography
Although it's difficult for those who weren't there to believe, for a short time during late 1965 and early 1966, the popularity of this singing quartet from Australia was sufficient to rival the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The Seekers were at the head of the British Invasion's acoustic folk-rock division, right there with Peter & Gordon and Chad & Jeremy but without the personal Beatles connection of the former and more successful than either -- they scored a string of number one hits in England and Top Ten successes in America that lasted into 1967, two years later than most of the rest of the British exports to this country. They played acoustic instruments (even the upright bass), and they were closer in image and inspiration to the likes of the Rooftop Singers ("Walk Right In"), the New Christy Minstrels ("Green Green," etc.), or Peter, Paul & Mary, than to the Beatles or even the Searchers, yet they managed to hang onto young listeners, as well as older teenagers and their parents, with songs like "I'll Never Find Another You," "A World of Our Own," "Come the Day," or "Georgy Girl."The Seekers were formed in Australia in 1963 by Athol Guy (vocals, bass; b. Jan. 5, 1940, Victoria, Australia), Keith Potger (vocals, 12-string guitar; b. Mar. 2, 1941, Colombo, Sri Lanka), Bruce Woodley (vocals, guitar; b. July 25, 1942, Melbourne, Australia), who had all attended Melbourne Boys High School together. Potger had led a band in the late 1950s called the Trinamics, doing covers of Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran et al, while Guy had led a band called the Ramblers. The breakup of both groups got the two of them together with Woodley and a singer named Ken Ray, and they formed a doo wop outfit called the Escorts. By 1963, the folk boom that had started sweeping America and England in 1959 had made its way to Australia, and the Escorts evolved into the Seekers.
By late that year, they'd met Judith Durham (b. July 3, 1943, Melbourne), who worked at the same advertising agency where Athol Guy had his day job. She'd been born with perfect pitch and had intended to sing opera until she was bitten by the jazz bug in the mid-1950s. Durham already had records out, backed by Frank Traynor's Jazz Preachers on the W&G label, but was willing to try singing folk music on the nights she wasn't singing jazz. She was quickly worked into the group as a sort of "fifth Seeker." Ray was gone in fairly short order, as Durham took his place as lead singer, and her membership in the group got them a recording contract with W&G Records.
Fate played a hand in early 1964 when the Seekers were offered a chance to perform on board a ship for a year's worth of international cruises. This got them to London in May of 1964 for a ten-week stay -- they had already sent copies of their recordings ahead of them, and when they arrived, they discovered that one of the top talent agencies in London was not only prepared to represent them, but, on the strength of those recordings, had already booked them. A series of London gigs followed, along with a new recording deal with World Record Club, the mail-order division of EMI Records. The cruise performances were abandoned, and two albums in quick succession followed for World Record Club, along with a very choice gig performing on the televised Sunday Night at the London Palladium.
Their new agent, Eddie Jarratt, brought them to the attention of Tom Springfield, brother of Dusty and an ex-member of the folk-singing trio the Springfields. He saw in the Seekers a chance to extend the work he'd done with the Springfields, and, with Jarratt, formed a production company that signed the Seekers up. Springfield became their resident producer and songwriter.
The group was signed directly to EMI's prestigious Columbia Records imprint (no relation to the Columbia label in America), and their first single, "I'll Never Find Another You," written by Springfield, got to number one in England and number four in America. "A World of Our Own" got to number three in England and number 19 in America, and their third, "The Carnival Is Over," became their biggest-selling single in England, moving over 93,000 copies in a single day and reaching the top spot on the charts, although it never charted in America. During 1965, the group had made the acquaintance of a young American folksinger living in London named Paul Simon, who also collaborated with Bruce Woodley -- the one composer within the performing ranks of the Seekers -- on the writing of one song, "Red Rubber Ball." The Seekers' fourth single, a cover of Simon's "Someday One Day," only got to number 11 in early 1966, but it was Simon's first British success as a songwriter, and his first success as a composer separate from the work of Simon & Garfunkel.
The group's sound was based in folk music, but had the polish and some of the flash of folk-rock. They didn't even have an electric bass, but the soaring harmonies, coupled with Keith Potger's powerfully strummed acoustic 12-string and Woodley's emphatic 6-string playing, gave them a sound not too far removed from that of the Searchers, and not out of place in a musical era dominated by the sounds of the Beatles' acoustic period ("In My Life," "Michelle," etc.), the Byrds, the Beau Brummels, et al. Their albums, which included covers of contemporary folk compositions as well as new arrangements of traditional songs, were somewhat more uneven and didn't sell as well. But as singles artists, the Seekers' popularity was enormous, rivaling that of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
"Georgy Girl," written by Springfield and actor/composer Jim Dale (Barnum) for the film starring Lynn Redgrave, James Mason, and Alan Bates, was their biggest American success, released late in 1966 and reaching number two in early 1967. The group's British album Come the Day, released late in 1966, was slightly reconfigured with the addition of the hit and released in America as Georgy Girl, probably the best of all their LPs, containing a stunning array of originals by Springfield and Woodley, and superb covers of songs such as Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing On My Mind."
By this time, however, changing tastes in America were starting to catch up with the Seekers. They enjoyed hits of differing proportions on both sides of the Atlantic with "Morningtown Ride," and had two more chart singles in England, their days as a top-selling recording act in the United States were clearly numbered. It didn't have to be that way -- they'd had the chance to perform at the 1967 Academy Awards ceremonies that spring, which would have allowed them to be seen by tens millions of Americans, but they had concert obligations in England. By the time the first whiffs of the druggy Summer of Love wafted over the Monterey Pop Festival (where the Seekers didn't appear, but Simon & Garfunkel did), along with the echoes of psychedelic blues, the Seekers were on the wrong side of the musical divide -- Simon & Garfunkel bridged the gap between teenagers and their parents, seeming cool to the former and pleasant to the latter, but the Seekers were losing the kids in America. Their upbeat pop sound seemed increasingly out of touch with the darkening mood in the United States, especially among the kids.
In England, however, the group's commercial fortunes continued into 1968 and beyond. Their 1968 concert album, Live at Talk of the Town -- which showed them less a folk group than a pop outfit -- got to number two and became their best-selling British album to date. The company followed this with The Best of the Seekers, which reached number one in 1969. By that time, Judith Durham had decided to leave, and the group was officially disbanded in early 1969 following a farewell concert that was broadcast on British television.
As it turned out, the Seekers didn't quite vanish. Keith Potger organized and managed a group christened the New Seekers, with an entirely new membership, who cultivated the same audience that had brought his old outfit to the top of the charts at the end of the 1960s -- more reminiscent of groups such as the Serendipity Singers or the latter-day New Christy Minstrels, they were far more of a pop outfit than a folk group. They made an international hit out of the Coca-Cola jingle "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing," perhaps the first corporate anthem to top the charts.
The Seekers themselves had a partial reunion in Australia in 1975 with Louisa Wisseling substituting for Judith Durham, who had embarked on a fairly successful solo career, with one hit single, "Olive Tree," and a 1973 album entitled Here I Am to her credit. The re-formed group's new recording of "Sparrow Song" topped the Australian charts. The mid-'70s also saw the release of a pair of Seekers compilations in England and America, although the American Very Best of the Seekers was peculiar, since "Georgy Girl" wasn't on it. In 1988, another hits compilation came out in England, and in the early 1990s a British hits compilation finally appeared on compact disc. Then, in 1992, Capitol Records in America released a 24-song retrospective as part of its Capitol Collectors Series, which has since been deleted.
A 1990 car crash left Durham severely injured, but in 1994, the original members of the group, including Durham, re-formed and played more than 100 concerts, including a series of silver anniversary shows at the Royal Albert Hall. That same year, The Colours of My Life, a biography of Durham by Graham Simpson, was published. Finally, in 1997, a box set of the complete recorded work of the Seekers, filling five CDs, was released in Australia. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
| Discography: The Seekers |
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| Wikipedia: The Seekers |
This article is about the Australian music group. For other uses, see The Seekers (disambiguation).
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2009) |
| The Seekers | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Melbourne, Australia |
| Genres | Pop Folk |
| Years active | 1962–1968 1975–? 1992–2003 |
| Labels | Columbia (EMI) Capitol W&G Records |
| Associated acts | The New Seekers |
| Website | Judith Durham's Official website |
| Members | |
| Judith Durham Athol Guy Keith Potger Bruce Woodley |
|
| Former members | |
| Ken Ray Louisa Wisseling Julie Anthony Karen Knowles Buddy England |
|
The Seekers were a group of Australian folk-influenced popular musicians that was formed in Melbourne in 1962. They were the first Australian popular music group to achieve major chart and sales success in the United Kingdom and the United States and were one of the main bands of the 1960s at some points rivalling the popularity of The Beatles.
Their best-known configuration was:
- Judith Durham: lead vocals, piano, tambourine
- Athol Guy: double bass, vocals
- Keith Potger: twelve string guitar, banjo, vocals
- Bruce Woodley: guitar, mandolin, banjo, vocals
They had nine hits[citation needed] in Britain and Australia in the 1960s: "I'll Never Find Another You", "A World of Our Own", "The Carnival Is Over" (which The Seekers have sung at various closing ceremonies in Australia, including Expo '88 and the Paralympics and still stands as the 30th Best Selling Song in the United Kingdom), "Someday One Day", "Walk With Me", "Morningtown Ride", "Georgy Girl" (the title song of the film of the same name), "When Will the Good Apples Fall" and "Emerald City".
Bruce Woodley's and Dobe Newton's song "I Am Australian", which has been recorded by The Seekers, and by singer Judith Durham with Russell Hitchcock and Mandawuy Yunupingu, has become an unofficial Australian anthem. To date The Seekers have sold over 50 million records.[citation needed]
Contents |
An Australian band
The Seekers were formed by Athol Guy, double bass, and guitarists Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley, who all attended Melbourne High School. Their lead singer was Ken Ray, who later left the group to get married. His place was taken by Judith Durham, who was an established traditional jazz singer, having recorded an EP with the Melbourne group Frank Traynor's Jazz Preachers (she was replaced by Margret RoadKnight). The Seekers soon gathered a strong following in Melbourne, and Durham's connections with W&G Records led to the group's being offered a contract.
Discovery in the UK
After the release of their debut album in Australia, Introducing The Seekers, in 1963, The Seekers were offered the chance to travel to the UK on the Sitmar cruise liner Fairsky in 1964, in exchange for providing on-board entertainment. They had intended to return to Australia ten weeks later on the same ship, but on arrival in the UK they were offered work by the Grade Organization.
The group decided to remain in the UK and after filling on a bill headlined by Dusty Springfield, they met her brother, songwriter-producer Tom Springfield, who had experience with folk-pop material with his earlier group The Springfields. He penned a song for them called "I'll Never Find Another You", which they recorded in November 1964. It was released by EMI Records (on the Columbia label) in December 1964 and was championed by the pirate radio station Radio Caroline. Despite the fact that the group had not signed a contract with EMI, the single reached the UK Top 40 and began selling well. In February 1965, it reached #1 in the UK and Australia, and #4 in the U.S. where it was released on EMI's Capitol label.
The distinctive and soprano voice of lead singer Judith Durham, the group's harmonies, memorable songs, and non-threatening[vague] image encouraged the BBC[citation needed] to give them exposure, making them appealing to a broad cross-section of the pop audience.
String of hits
"I'll Never Find Another You" sold 1.76 million copies worldwide, and made The Seekers the first Australian pop group to have a Top 5 hit in all three countries (Australia, UK, and United States) simultaneously. They were also the first Australian recording artists to sell more than a million copies of a single. The Seekers followed "I'll Never Find Another You" with two more Tom Springfield compositions, "A World of Our Own" (which reached No.3 in May 1965 in the UK) and "The Carnival Is Over", which reached No.1 in November. At its peak, "The Carnival Is Over" was selling 90,000 copies a day in the UK alone.
In 1966, they recorded Paul Simon’s "Someday One Day", which reached No.4 in Australia and No.11 in the UK. During this time, Art Garfunkel had returned to school and Paul Simon was pursuing a solo career in the UK following the flop of the duo's first released LP, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.. The Seekers' version of "Someday One Day" was Simon's first UK success as a writer, and his first major hit as a composer outside of his work with Art Garfunkel. Bruce Woodley co-wrote several songs with Simon at this time, including "Red Rubber Ball" which became a US No.1 single (on the Cashbox chart) for The Cyrkle and was subsequently covered by The Seekers for their 1966 LP 'Come the Day' (released as 'Georgy Girl' in the US).
After returning to Australia in early 1966, The Seekers filmed their first television special, At Home With The Seekers. The band performed at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl before a crowd of 150,000. The Seekers were named Best New Artists at the 1966 New Musical Express Poll Winners Awards and they appeared at the celebratory Wembley Arena concert, on a bill that included The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield and The Animals.
The same year, the group appeared at a Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium, before Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.
Malvina Reynolds' "Morningtown Ride" was the Seekers' sixth major hit, reaching No.2 on the British Charts in December 1966. The single had been recorded earlier on the 1964 album Hide and Seekers and the 1965 American debut, The New Seekers but, for copyright reasons, the song was re-recorded for The Seekers' Christmas 1966 single.
Their biggest US hit[citation needed] is "Georgy Girl" (No.1 in Feb '67; No.3 in the UK), for which The Seekers were awarded a Gold Record for one million copies sold in the United States.[1] Jim Dale and Tom Springfield were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1967, but lost out to Leslie Bricusse's "Talk to the Animals". The recording sold 3.5 million copies.
Return to Australia
In March 1967, The Seekers returned to Australia for a homecoming tour, which included a record-breaking[citation needed] concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, attended by more than 200,000 people. The Seekers were accompanied by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hector Crawford. This concert was listed in the 1993 Guinness Book Of World Records[citation needed] as the largest concert crowd ever gathered in the southern hemisphere. Vision of the appearance was incorporated into their 1967 Australian television spectacular The Seekers at Home and Down Under, which was screened on the Seven Network and drew a record rating of 6,070,000[citation needed] and it still remains in the Top 10 Most Watched television specials in Australian history.[citation needed]
In January 1968, in recognition of their many achievements, the group was named Australians of the Year for 1967 and accepted their award during their Australian tour. During their 1968 visit, the group also filmed another television spectacular, The World of The Seekers, which was screened in cinemas, before being screened nationally on the Nine Network to high ratings[citation needed].
Later in 1968, Judith Durham made the announcement that she was leaving The Seekers to pursue a solo career, and the group disbanded. Their final performance in July 1968 was screened live by the BBC as a special called Farewell The Seekers, with an audience of more than 10 million viewers.[citation needed]
The special had been preceded by a week-long season at London's Talk Of The Town nightclub, and a live recording of one of their shows was released as the LP record, The Seekers Say Goodbye Live From The Talk Of The Town. It reached #2 on the UK charts. Also in July 1968, the compilation album The Seekers' Greatest Hits was released and spent 17 weeks at #1 in Australia. It was titled "The Best of the Seekers" in the UK and spent one week at #1 in February 1969, managing to knock The Beatles (White Album) off the top of the charts and preventing The Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet from reaching the top spot. The album spent 125 weeks in the charts in the UK.[citation needed]
Following the split, the solo careers of the artists struggled. Judith Durham released a Christmas album For Christmas With Love (recorded in Hollywood, California) and later signed with A&M Records, releasing two albums, A Gift of Song and Climb Ev'ry Mountain. Keith Potger formed the successful group The New Seekers in the UK. Bruce Woodley would release several solo albums and focus on songwriting, including in the unofficial national anthem "I Am Australian". Eventually Potger re-joined Woodley and Guy in reforming The Seekers in 1975 with Louisa Wisseling, then Julie Anthony in the 1980s, and then Karen Knowles, but the unique timbre of Durham's voice was missing from their sound. Durham later rejoined the group in 1992. Woodley himself left for a time in the 1970s and was replaced with Buddy England, before rejoining in the 1980s.
The Seekers in the 1990s and 2000s
The Seekers re-united late in 1992, with the classic lineup of Durham, Guy, Potger and Woodley. A 25 Year Silver Jubilee Reunion Celebration tour in 1993 was sufficiently successful that The Seekers remained together for a further 11 years. They staged several sell-out tours of Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, releasing a number albums, including new studio albums Future Road and Morningtown Ride to Christmas.
In 1995, they were inducted into the ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Hall Of Fame, and were the subjects of a special issue of Australian postage stamps. [1], [2]
After much speculation[citation needed] (including a parody of the coming event by ABC TV's Olympics satire The Games) The Seekers reunited again for the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games on 29 October 2000, with a performance of "The Carnival Is Over". Judith Durham had suffered a broken hip and performed at the Paralympics in a wheelchair.
On 1 September 2006, having ceased touring, The Seekers were presented with the Key to the City by Melbourne's Lord Mayor, John So.
Discography
Albums
- Introducing The Seekers (1963)
- The Seekers (also known as Roving With The Seekers) (1964)
- Hide & Seekers (1965)
- A World Of Our Own (1965)
- Come The Day (1966)
- Seekers Seen In Green (1967)
- The Seekers Live At The Talk Of The Town (1968)
- The Best of The Seekers (1968)
- The Seekers [with Louisa Wisseling] (1975)
- Giving and Taking [with Louisa Wisseling] (1976)
- Live On [with Julie Anthony] (1989)
- Future Road (1997)
- Morningtown Ride to Christmas (2001)
- Night of Nights... Live! (2002)
See also
Footnotes
- ^ The Seekers At Home and Down Under — VHS and DVD releases
References
- Information about the Seekers - Australian Heritage Database
- The Seekers stamps - How to fit four giants on to a postage stamp sheet? - Australia Post official website
- The Seekers stamps - at Australia Post official website
- The Seekers - Australian of the Year - 1967 Award - Australian of the Year official website
- Information about the Seekers - Lord Mayor's Charitable Fund
- 'The Judith Durham Story - Colours Of My Life' by Graham Simpson (Random House, 1994, 1998, 2000), (Virgin Books, 2004).
- "The Dictionary of Performing Arts in Australia — Opera . Music . Dance — Volume 2" — Ann Atkinson, Linsay Knight, Margaret McPhee — Allen & Unwin Pty. Ltd., 1996
External links
- The Seekers
- The Seekers at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation website
- The Seekers at the MILESAGO website
- The Seekers at the Trad Music website
- The Seekers - Howlspace: the living history of our music
- Still Seeking the Seekers after all these years - a fan's tribute to the group
- Adam's Seekers Website - a young fan's website
- The Seekers Discography with covers
- The Seekers Discography
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir Jack Brabham |
Australian of the Year Award 1967 |
Succeeded by Lionel Rose |
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