The Seekers -Australia's first internationally successful musical group...

The Seekers are an Australian folk-influenced pop quartet, originally formed in Melbourne in 1962. They were the first Australian pop music group to achieve major chart and sales success in the United Kingdom and the United States.    The group featured lead singer, Judith Durham, and singers/instrumentalists  Athol Guy on double bass and impossibly cool thick black rimmed glasses, Keith Potger on twelve-string guitar and Bruce Woodley on guitar and occasional songwriting.   

Clockwise: Judith Durham, Keith Potger, and Bruce Woodley, and Athol Guy (in glasses).


Their sound was folk pop in the vein of the Weavers and Peter, Paul, Mary, though Durham had a one of kind voice, that didn't easily fit into one genre.  What made them stand out was the amazing blend of three guy voices with the one girl voice, providing a powerful vocal sound that could not achieved by the girl alone, or by the guys without Judith.

The Springfields with Dusty Springfield

The Seekers  came to Britain by boat in 1964, and they eventually met up with Tom Springfield (the brother of the legendary Dusty Springfield) who wrote their first hit, "I'll Never Find Another You" as well as most of the Seekers' other hits.  "I'll Never Find Another You" was a surprise hit in  all the English speaking record markets.  It went to number 1 in the United Kingdom in February 1965.

At the peak of the career they were highly successful on TV, where they provided a safe family friendly alternative to the rock acts of the time.    Here are they are doing a original Paul Simon song.  (Bruce Woodley wrote two songs with Paul Simon, "Cloudy" and "Red Rubber Ball" which was a hit by the Cyrkle).

In 1965-1967 the  group continued to be surprisingly successful. Most notably  on the British , and the Australian charts. The last of their big hits was the theme to the movie, "Georgy Girl", a song co-written by Tom Springfield and actor Jim Dale, later known for the musical, Barnum, and as a pop singer.

  Despite, this success lead singer, Judith Durham was not a happy in the group, and shocked the group with her decision to leave in 1968.  The group disbanded at this point, in a move that made little commercial sense.  Judith pursued a solo career, Athol Guy, a TV career, Bruce Woodley continued to work in music, and Keith Potger founded but was not a member of the highly successful British singing group, The New Seekers (who had no other connection with  original  Seekers.)  Their biggest hit was "I Like to Teach the World to Sing".

The almost totally unrelated New Seekers 

  Eventually in 1975, the three guys (Keith, Bruce, and Athol) reformed the original Seekers with new female singers, ultimately four women different women would fulfill this role, as well three other males members who came into to the groups as various members left, this incarnation  of the band worked on and off until  finally they managed to get Judith Durham to rejoin  in 1992, after 24 years in the wilderness.  Since  1992,  the group has reunited on occasion for concert tours, and recorded a few albums. Judith Durham died in August 22.

The Seekers in  later  years.

Although the group was a little too reliant on the quality of their material for their commercial success, they remain one of the most respected of the  commercial folk groups of the 1960's.