Judith Durham, who has died of bronchiectasis aged 79, was the vocalist of the Seekers, her soprano voice serving to to make the group one of the crucial in style of the Nineteen Sixties. The Seekers have been each the primary main Australian band to realize worldwide success and the primary to prime the UK and US charts.
Their TV specials The Seekers Down Beneath (1967), The World of the Seekers and Farewell the Seekers (each 1968) all scored large Australian and UK TV audiences. It's estimated that the group bought greater than 50m singles and LPs in the course of the peak of their recognition but, whereas London-based throughout their chart profession, they have been by no means thought-about a part of “swinging London”: the band’s three male members wearing matching fits whereas Durham, together with her classically skilled voice and desire for robes, ensured they appeared rooted in an earlier, light-entertainment period.
Right this moment the Seekers are not often referenced when 60s-era pop music is mentioned but their hits stay fantastically crafted songs that convey a timeless, wistful air.
It was whereas working as a secretary on the J Walter Thompson promoting company that Durham met Athol Man, an account government and musician who, studying she might sing, requested she sit in along with his trio, the Seekers, together with Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley, at a Melbourne espresso home that Monday night in 1963. The band have been performing folk-informed ballads and, initially, Durham shared vocals with the three male musicians.
The Melbourne label W&G Information heard a Seekers demo and signed them, insisting Durham characteristic prominently. The band’s debut LP, Introducing the Seekers, was launched in November 1963 alongside an interpretation of the Australian bush ballad Waltzing Matilda. Provided the place as on-board leisure on a Sitmar Line ship, the group accepted and, in March 1964, sang their passage to Britain.
Initially the Seekers deliberate to remain for 10 weeks, then make the return journey again to Melbourne. As a substitute, they discovered the Grade company (whom that they had despatched their album to) lining up bookings.
A UK single, Myra, was launched that yr to little response, the group concentrating on working the variability circuit. After one efficiency they have been approached by Tom Springfield, previously of the favored British pop-folk group the Springfields and Dusty’s brother, providing recommendation and songs. This proved a fortuitous assembly, with I’ll By no means Discover One other You – written and produced by Springfield with Durham’s bell-like voice manner out entrance – launched by EMI in December. By February 1965 it had reached No 1, replicating that place in Australia, and No 4 within the US. The Seekers have been on their manner and A World of Our Personal took them to No 3 within the UK that April.
The Carnival Is Over – tailored by Springfield from a Russian folks music – took them again to No 1 for 3 weeks in November and was, at one level, promoting 93,000 copies a day. A yr later Morningtown Trip took them to No 2, whereas Georgy Woman (1967), the theme music to a Lynn Redgrave movie, gave them a No 3 hit (and No 1 on the US Cashbox chart). The Better of the Seekers LP spent six weeks at No 1 within the UK charts in 1969, dislodging the Beatles’ White Album from prime place and spending 125 weeks within the charts.
Nonetheless, by this time Durham had break up from the band, having launched her debut solo album in time for Christmas 1968. Signing to A&M Information, Durham aimed Present of a Music (1970) firmly on the straightforward listening market however this, and her subsequent efforts, lacked the distinctive songs and sound that had characterised the Seekers’ hits and failed to seek out an viewers. The 1974 album Judith Durham and the Hottest Band in City noticed her return to the blues and jazz requirements of her youth.
Born in Essendon, a suburb of Melbourne, Judith was the daughter Hazel (nee Durham) and William Cock, a second world conflict aviator. In 1949 the household shifted to Hobart, Tasmania, the place Judith attended Fahan women’ college earlier than returning to Melbourne in 1956, the place she attended Ruyton women’ college.
She enrolled within the College of Melbourne Conservatorium to review classical piano alongside taking voice classes. Durham loved singing at social gatherings, and this led to the Melbourne College Jazz Band asking the 18-year outdated to affix. A pure performer, she joined Frank Traynor’s Jazz Preachers in early 1963. Any longer she would carry out utilizing her mom’s maiden title, releasing her debut EP, Judy Durham, that yr.
After leaving the Seekers, Durham started working with the British pianist Ron Edgeworth. They married in 1969 and launched into a touring and performing profession collectively, releasing the dwell album The Sizzling Jazz Duo in 1979. Durham additionally took on an performing position within the Australian TV present Money and Firm, and made TV specials.
In 1990, she fractured a leg and wrist in a automobile accident during which the motive force of one other automobile was killed. The help she obtained from Seekers’ followers led her to reconnect together with her former band members, and in 1993 she rejoined them for his or her silver anniversary; prolonged excursions of Australia and the UK adopted. On the closing of the Sydney Paralympic Video games in October 2000 Durham, struggling a damaged hip, sang The Carnival Is Over from her wheelchair.
In 2002 Australian postage stamps featured the band in time for his or her fortieth anniversary, however a Fiftieth-anniversary tour in 2013 needed to be postponed after Durham suffered a mind haemorrhage following a Melbourne live performance. After six months’ rehabilitation for Durham, the tour was efficiently rescheduled for 2014, ending with two concert events on the Royal Albert Corridor in London. In 2018 she launched So A lot Extra, an album of beforehand unreleased materials.
In Australia, Durham obtained many honours for her music and charitable endeavours. Edgeworth died of motor neurone illness in 1994 and Durham turned a outstanding campaigner for consciousness of the illness.
The next yr, Durham and her bandmates have been every awarded the medal of the Order of Australia. In 2014 they have been made members of the order.
She is survived by her sister, Beverley, and two nephews and a niece.
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