The Seekers - Sunrise (November 2012)
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00One of Australia's most iconic groups is turning 50.
00:07The Seekers are music legends with a string of number one hits right around the world.
00:11Oh, who could ever forget them?
00:12Now Judith Durham and her bandmates are entering the history books on their golden jubilee.
00:18They're the plot phenomenon that put Australia on the international map.
00:28In the 60s, The Seekers became a global success story.
00:35They were the first Aussie group to reach number one in the UK and the US.
00:49Their hit, The Carnival is Over, outsold The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
01:06The Seekers have been named Australians of the Year and been inducted into the ARIA Hall
01:10of Fame.
01:17Now the group is 50 years old and with that milestone comes the golden jubilee album and
01:23a tour on the way in May.
01:37The original Seekers join us now in colour, Judith Durham, Athol Guy, Keith Podger and
01:42Bruce Woodley.
01:43Good morning to you all, so good to see you.
01:48Look, we see the pandemonium of Justin Bieber these days, but that was you guys in the 60s
01:55wasn't it?
01:56Judith, tell us about those days.
01:58Absolutely incredible, it was like a fairy tale from the moment we arrived in England.
02:03We didn't go there to become pop stars, but within six months we were top of the charts
02:07with I'll Never Find Another You of course.
02:10Wow, and Athol, tell us, your life completely changed when you met Judith, tell us about
02:14that initial meeting.
02:15Well it was fantastic, I mean one day Judith literally walked into my office where I was
02:19working in an advertising agency and said, G'day, I'm Judy Durham, you were supposed
02:24to come and hear me sing because we were looking for a girl singer for our trio, Keith, Bruce
02:28and myself as The Seekers, and I said, well come and sing with us tonight, which she did
02:33and really nothing's changed from that day musically.
02:36We had the most fantastic night together, and as they say, 50 years on we're still
02:42here doing exactly the same thing.
02:44And Judith was the secretary of an advertising agency at the time, with great respect to
02:49everybody else, Keith, you were the spunk of the group, do you find, and I love it.
02:58Thank you, thank you, thank you Cotchi for that character reference, that was really
03:05Do the ladies still fawn over you?
03:08I don't think fawn is the colour actually, it's more sort of purple I think these days.
03:14The ladies do all fawn for him actually Cotchi, yes, from 90 years old to 2 years old, they
03:20all fawn, but the boys all have their own share of fans, let me tell you.
03:25Well then Bruce, apart from the fans, you guys, how is touring different?
03:29You're touring in May, how is it different today than it was 50 years ago?
03:34Good question Mel.
03:35And you look mighty fine this morning, can I just add that?
03:39Thank you, thank you, thank you.
03:40It's great because the technology actually helps us in performance, the sound systems
03:47are vastly improved obviously, just to create a great experience for the audience, and it
03:55also gives us a good sense of what we're doing on the stage.
04:00And of course now we can have our memorabilia on the big screen, because this is our 50th
04:04anniversary tour, so we're going to have a lot of treats in store for the wonderful audience
04:08we know is going to come.
04:09Videos they haven't seen before too, which will be lovely, they're a great combo.
04:13And the new track that you're playing, we've just recorded Silver Threads and Golden Needles,
04:17and In My Life, because they're the two new tracks on the album, the Golden Jubilee album.
04:23Keith, I've always wanted to ask this question of you guys, did you ever trash a room on
04:28the tour?
04:29You were so squeaky clean, did you ever have threesomes or anything?
04:34Yes, I'll defer to my mate here on my right, Bruce Woodley, who will answer that question.
04:39I will answer that question, because our publicist in England years ago came up with a great
04:45headline that said, Seekers Clean Up Hotel Room.
04:53There was that one time he didn't pay a phone bill.
04:57So you weren't wild on the inside?
05:00You were always very sedate?
05:02We didn't have enough time to do anything like that.
05:05From the moment we hit the turf in England, we were on national television literally the
05:09second night, we were on the English soil, and we literally never stopped.
05:13I mean, for the first, well, right through the years, but the first six months, it was
05:18just like almost every day.
05:20It was wonderful.
05:21We went for a little bit of work, and it simply just went through the roof, never stopped.
05:25We launched our website yesterday, and we're very thrilled, theseekersfiftieth.com, and
05:30we've now got the Seekers official Facebook page, so about 7,000 likes came in.
05:38It's all new to us, you said you've never had this opportunity before.
05:41That's terrific, it's the old advertising background coming out, you've plugged everything
05:46during this interview, that's great.
05:48It's the longevity of the product.
05:50Mel and Joshy, have you noticed the endless barrage of tasteless ads from this end?
05:58Yeah, exactly right.
05:59Guys, congratulations, we can't wait for the turf.