First formed in Melbourne in 1962, The Seekers are a national treasure.
The folk-pop sounds of the group connected with a global audience, which led the group to become the first Australian group to achieve charting and commercial success overseas, years before The Easybeats and the Bee Gees achieved international fame.
“People always relate to Friday on My Mind as being the first, and that is cool, but they weren’t the first,” The Seekers co-founding member and double bassist Athol Guy.
“We were there well and truly before them.
“We planted the Australian flag, and they, along with many others, followed, which was terrific.
“I think what we did was it gave a lot of Australian musicians and groups confidence.
“It was like, “If they can do it, why can’t we?”
Last year’s planned celebrations for the group’s 60th anniversary proved bittersweet with the passing of the group’s iconic lead voice, Judith Durham, in August.
In the wake of Durham’s death, the group pressed on with marking the diamond jubilee and honoured Durham’s legacy with the group.
“We had to find something to celebrate as we were going through a tough period last year due to losing our dear Judith,” Guy said.
“We found a lovely song that Bruce [Woodley] had tucked away years ago and which Judith had done a demo of called Carry Me.
“So, we used that as the spearhead for the 60th anniversary celebration three CD album set titled Carry Me (The Seekers 60th Anniversary), which features 60 songs, for 60 years.”
Guy believes The Seekers’ enduring legacy is due to the unique blending of the group’s natural voices to an acoustic folky accompaniment.
“We had a beautiful lead voice in Judith, and the boys who sang had very nice tight-sounding harmonics, and because of that, we sounded a little orchestral,” Guy said.
“We found a unique niche in the market with our middle-of-the-road, family-orientated music and terrific songs.
“We were lucky to have struck a balance with all those things which gave us a leg into a certain section of the industry.
“Also, at the time, rock and roll was changing face and moving into a different form of creativity, hence The Beatles at one end and The Stones at the other.
“And we sat in the middle of that market.
“And though we were very folk and blues orientated and influenced by the booming folk scene in America, we just managed to crack a different style.”
Further commemorating the 60th anniversary, a new book titled A Guy Called Athol, which details The Seekers story, has been published.
“It’s written by a friend of mine, Dr Brian Wimborne, with whom I went to school together with,” Guy said.
“He said to me, ‘I’m going to write you a book because you’ve got a terrific story to tell’.
“So, together with Graham Simpson, who is a Seekers historian, and Ray Kennedy, who was a mate of mine from my old journalism days, got together to put their bits together and then along with my story, we ended up with a book.
“It really is The Seekers’ story, and it’s just for the fans as I track the whole thing back from the first time I ever opened my mouth in the family dining room.”
A Guy Called Athol is now available and only from The Seekers website www.theseekers.com.au
Music news
The Rolling Stones will be touring again in 2024, with an American tour just announced this week. Will we see the Stones also in Australia too?
And Coldplay this week announced a return to Australia in October/November 2024 with shows in Melbourne and Sydney.
Comedian Bill Bailey has revealed in a new interview that he has enough material to possibly make a second heavy metal album, a follow-up to his first, 2011’s Bill Bailey In Metal.
Music charts
Taylor Swift dominates the album charts this week with her album 1989 (Talyor’s version), which is at No.1 on the Australian ARIA album chart, the UK album chart and the US Billboard album chart.
The view from here
This year, some of music’s greatest albums turned 50.
Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon, Goodbye Yellow Brick Rd by Elton John and Band on the Run by Paul McCartney and Wings, to name but a few.
Many of these albums and the hit songs that come from them remain as fresh as the day they were first released.
I was musing on this topic of late, imagining myself being back in 1973 and listening to music that came 50 years before that, in 1923, when jazz and blues were king.
Two of the biggest acts of that year were blues singer Bessie Smith and orchestral jazz band leader Paul Whiteman.
In Whiteman’s case, one of his hit records sold more than three million copies that year, which, for its time, was mind-boggling.
At that age we all were in 1973, we probably thought that the 1920s style of music was so foreign to us; we had no connection to it and that it was music that our grandparents listened to.
Yet here we are today, where both young and old are listening to these classic albums from 50 years ago and in no way does anybody view them as grandparents’ music.
They’ve become part of our culture, with many remaining hip with the younger generation.
This never happened in the 1970s with the music from the 1920s.
What’s interesting to note is that while those records and artists from the 1920s have gone on to become a footnote in the ever-evolving history of music, those records from the 1970s, though, continue to be as popular as ever, with many still casting their influential spell upon others, decades on.
How will the music from today be received in 50 years time?
Fun fact
Did you know that the inventor of the iconic Fender electric guitar, Leo Fender, didn’t know how to play guitar?
And though he did take some lessons on piano and saxophone, he gave up as his interest lay more in electronics than music.
• Joe Matera is a local singer/songwriter, recording artist, guitarist and music journalist providing readers with all the latest music news. Readers can send feedback, suggestions, music-related stories, music news items and more to MusicalMusings@mmg.com.au