ABOUT - OTHERS
ABOUT THE SEEKERS
JUDITH DURHAM * ATHOL GUY * KEITH POTGER * BRUCE WOODLEY
Australians Of The Year 1967 and ARIA Hall Of Fame inductees, The Seekers first performed together in 1962. They became Australia’s first international supergroup, topping charts around the world with hits like “Georgy Girl” (Academy Award® nominated), “The Carnival Is Over” (No. 7 in the Top 10 UK Hits of the 60s) and “I’ll Never Find Another You” (to date more than 7 million hits on YouTube.com). Famous for putting Australia on the international pop music map with their unique pop sound, singing in four-part harmony playing 6 and 12-string acoustic guitars and double bass, The Seekers still hold the record for the biggest concert crowd in the southern hemisphere – 200,000 – in March 1967.
When we trace the history of contemporary Australian music, we find it is four young people from Melbourne who started the ball rolling internationally for all the other big name Australian artists.
Starting out as a folk and gospel group, The Seekers – featuring the golden voice of Judith Durham, Athol Guy, Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley – set sail in 1964 for a working holiday, totally unaware of the global fame and fortune that lay ahead. They sang for their supper on a cruise liner, planning a 10-week turnaround based in the UK, and sent their album and photographs ahead. On arrival in London, agent Eddie Jarrett booked them on national TV shows, and in variety theatre and clubs all over the UK.
Jarrett teamed The Seekers with songwriter/producer Tom Springfield (ex-Springfields and brother of Dusty). Tom wrote the melodious ‘I’ll Never Find Another You’ to suit the group’s distinctive harmony blend, highlighting Judith’s bell-like voice; recording in mono (stereo came later) at the famous Abbey Road Studios, enhancing the boys’ acoustic instrumentation with percussion.
By February ‘65 the single reached No.1 in Britain, Australia and throughout the world. The Seekers had created history as the first Australian group to crack the American charts and the UK ‘beat’ scene had been turned on its ear by these clean-cut Aussies. The Seekers were named ‘Best New Group’ at the ‘Top Of The Pops Awards’.
They toured internationally, with more chart-topping hits over the next three years: ‘A World Of Our Own’; ‘Someday, One Day’ written for them by Paul Simon; Malvina Reynolds’ lullaby ‘Morningtown Ride’; ‘Walk With Me’; ‘When Will The Good Apples Fall?’; and ‘The Carnival Is Over’ which knocked The Rolling Stones’ ‘Get Off Of My Cloud’ from No.1 by selling 90,000 copies a day!
The Seekers’ greatest hit, ‘Georgy Girl’, made them the first Australian group to reach No.1 in the USA. It was composed for The Seekers by Tom Springfield with lyrics by actor Jim Dale for the black and white movie ‘Georgy Girl’ starring Lynn Redgrave. The song was nominated for an Oscar.
The Seekers starred in several Australian TV spectaculars: ‘The Seekers At Home’, ‘The Seekers Down Under’ (highest rating (67) music program in Australian TV history), and ‘The World Of The Seekers’ (for TV and cinema release) – all ratings triumphs. A concert in 1967 at Melbourne’s Myer Music Bowl drew a record-shattering crowd of 200,000+ – the largest concert audience ever in the southern hemisphere… representing ten per cent of the entire population of the city at the time!!
The Seekers starred in the New Musical Express ‘All-Star Poll Winners Concert’ at Wembley Arena alongside many other iconic Sixties legends like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds and The Who… and they outsold them all in the first six months of ’66. Later that year, they sang in the ‘Royal Command Performance’ at the ‘London Palladium’, then represented their country at ‘Expo ’67’ in Montreal in the first-ever satellite television broadcast to Australia, and were honoured jointly as ‘Australians Of The Year 1967’.
But after much soul-searching, Judith Durham gave six months’ notice to the other three group members and their manager, and The Seekers’ final London shows in 1968 resulted in a live-in-concert emotional BBC TV spectacular ‘Farewell The Seekers’ watched by a tearful audience of more than 10 million people. The Seekers had gone, but the inevitable “Best Of” album charted for a staggering 125 weeks. Bill Wyman wrote, that for the first time ever, The Rolling Stones could not debut at No.1 with their new album, because The Seekers ‘Best Of’ was outselling ‘Goat’s Head Soup’!
THE NINETIES & BEYOND:
For the next 25 years Judith, Athol, Keith and Bruce found fulfilment individually, while the “spirit of the group” grew more and more legendary around the world; fans of all ages continually begged The Seekers to perform “one more time”. Many new young fans hoped all their lives they might see their idols one day in the flesh. So in 1993, causing unprecedented excitement, Judith, Athol, Keith and Bruce announced they were reuniting for ‘The Silver Jubilee Tour’ and under the guidance of manager John Kovac, the magic continued with CD and video releases (videos were an Eighties invention!); the ’25 Year Reunion Celebration – Live In Concert’CD went platinum; and the quadruple-platinum video was the biggest-selling music video in Australia’s history knocking the reissue of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ from No.1!!
In the UK, overwhelmingly emotional sell-out concerts followed in 1994 and 1995 at London’s ‘Royal Albert Hall’ and ‘Wembley Arena’, and in 1995 The Seekers were inducted by Peter Asher into Australia’s ‘ARIA Hall Of Fame’… the group that first put Australia on the international pop music map.
The Seekers toured extensively again: in 1997 to celebrate their first studio album in 30 years ‘Future Road’, including a ‘Making Of’ video; in 2000 ‘The Carnival Of Hits’world tour; and in 2003 the Never Say Never Again tour to round out the decade. Their audiences still included fans as young as 3 years old to 23, 53, and 93 years young, all joining in the rhythms and singing all the words with gusto – just like it always was in the Sixties.
In the new Milennium, further significant albums were released: in 2001, the first-ever Seekers’ Christmas album ‘Morningtown Ride To Christmas’; in 2002, the group’s first-ever double CD ‘Night Of Nights…Live’; and in 2003, 25 timeless and uplifting tracks were chosen by the group themselves for the Australian compilation‘The Ultimate Collection, executive produced by Graham Simpson. They included Bruce’s iconic composition “I Am Australian”, and the newly-recorded “Massachusetts” thereby fulfilling an early dream of The Bee Gees (in 1969, Maurice Gibb had told an astonished Judith that when The Bee Gees first arrived in London they tried in vain to get “Massachusetts” to The Seekers to record as a Seekers hit!)
Seekers videos were then released on DVD including ‘25 Year Reunion Celebration – Live In Concert’ with bonuses ‘Future Road : The Video’ and the rare film clip ‘Far Shore’, ‘The Seekers At Home And Down Under’ and ‘The World Of The Seekers’. But fans of all ages were not ready to say goodbye to the group yet, and in July 2004, The Seekers once again bowed to public demand and undertook their ‘Four Decades Of Gold’ Australia and New Zealand tour.
In 2006, The Seekers were given the “Key To The City” of Melbourne and in 2008, The Seekers’ 1965 No.1 hit ‘The Carnival Is Over’was named No.30 in the ‘UK Official Top 100 Best-Selling Singles Of All Time’.
The Seekers (with ‘The Carnival Is Over’) now rank No. 6 in the official BBC Radio 2 chart of the “Biggest-Selling Chart Stars of the 1960s”, placing them above The Rolling Stones (with “The Last Time” at No. 36), Elvis Presley (with “It’s Now Or Never” at No. 9), Tom Jones (with “Green, Green Grass Of Home” at No. 10) and Cliff Richard & The Shadows (with “The Young Ones” at No. 14) and even The Beatles’ (with “Hey Jude” at No. 20 – although admittedly The Beatles rank at No’s. 1, 2, 4 and 5 too!)
In 2010, The Seekers were surprised and delighted to be invited by Andre Rieu to join his tour and, putting their individual projects on hold for the extravaganza, they reunited to tour Australia and New Zealand as special guests of Andre and his Johann Strauss Orchestra.
In 2012, The Seekers went back into the recording studio to record two new tracks – “Silver Threads And Golden Needles” and “In My Life” – to take pride of place on their newest compilation, ‘The Golden Jubilee Album : 50 Tracks For Fifty Years”. They were honoured by Australia Post with a ‘Legends Of Australian Music’ postage stamp in January 2013, Helen Edwards’ portrait ‘The Seekers Reunite 50 Years On’ was displayed in the National Portrait Gallery in April, and now … the world can truly celebrate The Seekers’ milestone as December 3 2012 marked 50 years since the four original members – Judith Durham, Athol Guy, Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley – first met and performed together .
The group announced and then sold-out a ‘Golden Jubilee Tour’ of Australia, which was abruptly halted when Judith suffered a brain hemorrhage after the first of four sold-out nights in Melbourne. Six months of hospitalisation and rehabilitation followed – during which time Judith’s commemorative ‘Platinum Album’ was released to mark her 70th birthday – before she was given the green light for the Australian tour to resume.
Another sold-out tour of the United Kingdom followed, performing 18 sold-out shows culminating in two packed houses at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The Seekers concluded their Golden Jubilee Tour with sold out concerts in New Zealand.
Judith, Athol, Keith and Bruce were each honoured with the Officer Of The Order Of Australia (AO) in June 2014.
In 2016 The Seekers attended the opening nights of "Georgy Girl The Seekers Musical" in both Melbourne and Sydney
In May 2018, The Seekers celebrated having a #1 DVD in the ARIA Charts with "The Seekers The Legendary Television Specials" released by Ambition Entertainment and distributed through Sony.
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ABOUT RON EDGEWORTH
January 29th 1938 – December 10th 1994
Brilliant pianist Ron Edgeworth, Judith Durham’s dearly beloved late husband, had an impressive career covering performances in all aspects of the music business – from concert tours with such superstars as Cliff Richard, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, and The Seekers, to the world famous Newport Jazz Festival with Judith.
In his formative days in London, Ron started out playing boogie, blues and 20s jazz, but it was his versatility and imaginative playing in many spheres from pop to classics that were to make him in such demand in a wide variety of musical fields, as a soloist, with his duo and trio, in traditional and modern jazz, accompanying nightclub acts, in society bands, and as a Musical Director – playing, in fact, anywhere from pubs to palaces!
He worked in Europe and North Africa doubling on trombone in a military band, on the US bases in Germany on piano with a 40s style swing band, and in England with the famous broadcasting big bands of the day; Ronnie Aldrich, Cyril Stapleton, Johnny Howard and Bob Miller.
Ron’s introduction to the showbiz side of the music world came about when comedian Don Arrol (compere of UK TV’s top-rating show ‘Sunday Night At The London Palladium’) invited Ron to be his personal accompanist. Ron then worked on stage in Don’s act in theatres and nightclubs throughout the UK and on radio and TV.
Ron was a touring member of the John Barry Seven, the hit recording group. With other musicians from the Seven he formed a rock group “Shade Joey & The Night Owls" and had a single out in the UK, produced by Joe Meek of ‘Telstar’ fame.
Around this time he was asked to join the band of legendary blues guitarist Alexis Korner, who had been such a big influence in the early days on many up and coming blues bands and rock groups of the time – notably The Rolling Stones. There followed many memorable one-nighters all round the country with Alexis and his band of local musicians, along with American blues shouter Herbie Goins, culminating in the album for Transatlantic Records ‘Alexis Korner’s All Stars – Blues Incorporated’ featuring Ron on piano and Hammond organ.
He joined a vocal-instrumental stage and nightclub act called The Trebletones, working in Spain with Helen Shapiro and touring all over Poland, becoming one of the first ever pop groups from the West to play behind the ‘Iron Curtain’. In the UK The Trebletones were booked in Summer Seasons, nightclubs and pantomime, and went on to perform in every major theatrical venue on concert tours staged by The Grade Organisation and the Harold Davison Agency, in shows headlined by such major artists as Cliff Richard and The Shadows, Tom Jones, Englebert Humperdinck, The Bachelors, Frank Ifield, Dick Emery, Russ Conway, Val Doonican, and The Seekers – playing for Judith Durham for the first time in her solo spot in The Seekers’ shows.
Ron was also Musical Director and accompanist for other big-name artists such as Clyde McPhatter (US hit record act from the 50s), and singing star Vince Hill. He was Musical Director too for pop pianist Russ Conway’s Summer Variety Show and was also booked as solo opening act for the season.
When Judith Durham left The Seekers, she contacted Ron and asked him to become her Musical Director and Arranger for a tour that brought him for the first time to Australia and New Zealand – for concerts and television work, followed by a trip to the United States to record Judith’s first solo album (on this record date he played Hammond organ and piano with a Hollywood orchestra that included such legendary names as Herb Ellis, Pete Jolly and Louis Belson).
Ron continued working with Judith Durham for many years, touring the world’s major concert halls, theatres and nightclubs, and making numerous television appearances. In the 70s Ron picked up on his earliest trad jazz influences, starting with an extended booking in San Francisco at Turk Murphy’s famous nightclub “Earthquake McGoon’s?, working as a Duo with Judith and in his own spots as a solo pianist. It was at McGoon’s that Ron’s unmistakeable two-fisted piano style began to emerge, along with his feeling for the wonderful ballads and standards of the era. Later, together with Judith, he formed his own jazz band, The Hottest Band In Town, hand-picked from the cream of San Francisco’s great players, and produced and arranged the album ‘Judith Durham & The Hottest Band In Town Volume 1’.
Ron and Judith put together a second ‘Hottest Band In Town’ in the UK, producing the follow-up album ‘…Volume 2’. Ron also worked with Judith on television shows such as ‘Sunday Night At The London Palladium’ and ‘The Benny Hill Show’. Ron Edgeworth and Judith Durham with their band The Hottest Band In Town went on the road for concert tours throughout the UK and Australia, and Ron playing solo piano provided a show-stopping opening act.
By this time, back in Australia, Ron’s brother, screenwriter Patrick Edgeworth, had become a producer and writer of major television drama, and an episode of the Logie award-winning TV series ‘Cash & Company’ – set in the 1800s – was specially written for Judith and Ron. In the episode ‘Golden Girl’ Judith and Ron featured as goldfield singing star Sarah Simmons and her pianist Charlie Owens. While in Australia, Judith and Ron joined Turk Murphy’s San Francisco Jazz Band on tour.
Winning much critical praise and setting audiences everywhere alight, Judith and Ron went on to numerous performances throughout the world, including Europe and the United States.
Ron and Judith teamed up in a new musical partnership, The Hot Jazz Duo, featuring solo piano and voice. The highlight of this partnership came in the United States where they made a sensational appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival at the instigation of iconic jazz impresario Stanley King. They opened the show and to a growing crowd of 3000 stamping and cheering and received three standing ovations. Later, at Criteria Studios in Miami Florida, Judith and Ron co-produced ‘The Hot Jazz Duo’, a live album combining performances from The Newport Jazz Festival with some amazing performances from their concert in Hobart after the Australian Jazz Convention the previous year.
Apart from his performing credentials Ron Edgeworth was a talented composer, having written many original works covering all categories of music, some in collaboration with Judith Durham, which have been recorded and broadcast. His theme music, which he arranged and recorded for the soundtrack of the movie ‘Raw Deal’, was nominated for the 1978 Sammy Awards. He also worked as an extra in this movie – as a piano player!
Exceptional talent and experience aside, to hear Ron Edgeworth play was to be aware of an infectious excitement that was a true tonic, and was guaranteed – as Judith’s song says – to ‘Chase Those Blues Away’. But Ron’s music, which lives on today, is not just for listening to, so don’t be surprised if you’re listening to a track like “My Buddy? on ‘The Hot Jazz Duo’ album, and feel yourself unable to resist the urge to get up and dance!
Tragically, Ron Edgeworth died of Motor Neurone Disease in December 1994, with his beloved wife Judith at his side. He lives on in her and in the music they made together, as well as in his own brilliant solo playing.
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ABOUT BEVERLEY SHEEHAN
Words cannot adequately convey the magic of Beverley Sheehan’s voice, which internationally has been described as “enticing”, “glorious”, “exuberant”, “swinging”, “spellbinding”, “moving” and “heart-warming”; superlatives usually reserved for none but the greats in the entertainment world.
But it’s not really so surprising, because Beverley is the sister of one of Australia’s legends Judith Durham, whose own golden lead vocals took The Seekers to the world stage in the 1960s. Audiences often find that same magic in Beverley’s singing, but they also comment on Beverley’s uniquely magnetic charisma and glamorous appeal on stage, and popular choice of versatile material in her own world of traditional jazz.
Beverley’s interest in that infectious and sometimes bluesy repertoire began in her late teenage years when she started listening to the early jazz luminaries Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and others, but she always acknowledges that her main inspiration as a vocalist comes from Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme and Carmen McCrae.
There was much music in Beverley’s childhood home with classical piano lessons for six years, and she later sang in choir and madrigal groups at school. But her career as a singer did not really begin until she was 31 when she was given her start in the music business by Melbourne legend Smacka Fitzgibbon in 1970, and continuing at ‘Smacka’s Place’ for the following two years with the much revered trumpeter Frank Johnson & His Fabulous Dixielanders.
After a period overseas where she avidly soaked up any opportunities to see and hear international jazz at its best, Beverley returned to Australia in 1977 and her professional career took off in earnest as featured vocalist for 18 months with the band of well-known jazz trumpeter Roger Bell (brother of renowned Graeme Bell). She built her name further afield by guesting with many other big name bands like Steve Waddell’s Creole Bells and Allan Leake’s Storyville All*Stars with whom she recorded three albums (‘Wabash Blues’, ‘Everything Old Is New Again’ for the ABC, and ‘Easy Does It’).
In the mid 1980s Beverley took a starring role in the jazz-oriented floor show at Banjo’s Theatre Restaurant, and in the highly entertaining shows of the Melbourne Jazz Repertory Company – touring nationwide and often delighting capacity audiences in major venues like the Melbourne Concert Hall. In those shows, as well as captivating audiences as a solo concert artist, Beverley also enjoyed singing in harmony with vocal and instrumental trio Vocalion.
Further proving her enduring popularity, in the early 90s, Beverley led her own resident trio for four years at Hotel Le Meridien, one of Melbourne’s leading international hotels; and nationwide, Beverley has gained love and respect as special guest artist: at prominent Jazz Clubs in most capital cities, numerous Jazz Festivals (including Sydney’s Manly, Noosa, Wangaratta and Newcastle Festivals), and many times at the annual Australian Jazz Convention. In particular, every year since its 1988 inception, Beverley featured at the Monsalvat International Jazz Festival – one year coordinating the special segment “Australian Women In Jazz”.
Drawing on her versatile and entertaining repertoire Beverley has also sung at many corporate functions, weddings and private parties throughout Australia and internationally. In Thailand for four consecutive years she guested for the Amari Hotel Group with The Storyville Jazztet, and two years running the group performed for more than 1,000 people at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok during Australia Day celebrations.
During her career Beverley has also performed with many internationally recognised Australian jazz greats, such as pianist Graeme Bell and trumpeter Bob Barnard, and guesting with many bands in the recording studio through the years since the early 90s, Beverley has amassed a substantial repertoire; at the request of long time musical associate and mentor Allan Leake, Bev recorded with his band The Storyville Jazztet on three albums (‘The Storyville Jazztet With Very Special Guests’, ‘The Taste of Jazz’, and ‘Towards 2000’ recorded and broadcast by ABC Sydney). Meanwhile in 1991 she recorded alongside the great Tom Baker in Perth on the album “The Gum Nut Stompers With Special Company’, and in the same year recorded her own much-loved album “How Long Has This Been Going On” with her group Swing Shift which was first formed in 1982 with Allan Leake. In 1995 Beverley gained international recording credentials as special guest with Japanese jazz band Dixie Jive on their CD “Dixie Jive” with arrangements by Graeme Bell.
In 2003, a very popular compilation CD was released by Musicoast. “Beverley Sheehan & Friends: Spreadin’ Rhythm Around”features 21 standout tracks from Beverley’s impressive back catalogue.
As well as jazz club and concert performances, Bev has also made television appearances (notably Bert Newton’s ‘Good Morning Australia’), co-starred several times with Nina Ferro in Christmas Jazz concerts at Melbourne’s St Paul’s Cathedral (co-producing the show on one occasion with renowned pianist Helen Jowsey), and played the role of Vera Lynn in the musical ‘For The Boys Over There’, highlighting to great advantage the beautiful nostalgic vibrato in Beverley’s own voice.
Beverley also took part in ‘The Sweethearts of Rhythm’ (a show featuring the musical arrangements of the all-girl orchestra of the 1920s) at the Melbourne Concert Hall and Mietta’s Restaurant, and subsequently took part in a memorable tribute to the late Mietta O’Donnell.
Being born under the sign of Gemini, Beverley’s mercurial personality enables her to combine her work as a gifted numerologist and experienced astrologist along with her musical career. Now a seasoned performer in her own right, Beverley presented five two-hour one-woman productions (‘Tribute To The Female Blues Singers’, ‘Crème Des Femmes’, ‘It’s Alright, It’s OK, It’s Peggy Lee’, ‘Golden Girls Of The Silver Screen’, ‘Spreadin’ Rhythm Around’), and for several years, Beverley has been a special guest at the extremely popular annual Noosa International Jazz Festival singing with many different bands.
Beverley’s also triumphed performing before a crowd of 25,000 people with the Monash Concert Band at their ‘Carols By Candlelight’ presentation, to great acclaim.
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ABOUT GRAHAM SIMPSON
For more than 30 years, Graham Simpson has been one of Australia’s best-known music writers and historians.
His music journalism career began in earnest in 1977 when he was appointed Editor of Juke, then Australia’s only weekly rock magazine. In print, he went on to roles as Editor of The Video Age and On Video, and in the mid-90s he wrote a weekly column – Suitably Simpson – for Melbourne’s Herald-Sun.
He worked as Australian correspondent for the Hong Kong Standard and for London’s World Entertainment News Network. His articles on popular music have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines worldwide.
Graham spent several years as a radio commentator on top-rating Melbourne radio stations 3DB and 3XY, before joining the Austereo Network (later mcm entertainment) as a scriptwriter. He has written many of Australia’s most popular syndicated radio programs: the award-winning Take 40 Australia and My Generation; The Hot Hits and Planet Rock; Three of Graham’s specialist radio series were nominated for radio awards … Australian Rock ‘n Roll – The Early Years; American Rock ‘n Roll – The Early Years and British Rock ‘n Roll – The Early Years.
Among his achievements in television, Graham was co-writer of the Seven Network’s top-rating TV special Five Decades Of Laughs And Legends.
In 1994, Graham’s best-selling biography – The Judith Durham Story – Colours Of My Life –was published for the first time by Random House Australia. It was reprinted in paperback in 1998 and 2001. In 2003, the biography was published by Virgin Books in the UK, USA and Canada, in hardback and later in paperback.
Graham later edited From The Word Go – 40 Years Of Ten Melbourne, a book by legendary newsreader Mal Walden tracing the history of the television network.
Graham met Judith Durham for the first time in the early 1970s, having followed her career closely by then for several years. His professional association with Judith began when he worked on The Seekers’ reunion in 1993, creating and designing several tour programmes, including their 1998 30th Year Commemorative Yearbook and ‘The Golden Jubilee Tour’ souvenir programme in 2013, as well as the Souvenir Book for Judith’s ‘Colours Of My Life’ tour in 2012.
His lively interview with The Seekers was included in the group’s 1997 CD box set Treasure Chest, which was certified gold, and he has compiled and written liner notes for The Seekers Complete 5 CD box set, 2005’s The Ultimate Collection, as well as the video and DVD releases The Seekers At Home And Down Under, The World Of The Seekers and The 1968 BBC Farewell Spectacular. He wrote liner notes for the EMI UK 4 CD set All Bound For Morningtown, featuring all the 1960s Abbey Road recordings of The Seekers and Judith Durham solo, as well as ‘The Golden Jubilee Album’ for The Seekers’ 50th anniversary in 2012 and most recently the liner notes for the 2018 release of the #1 chart topping DVD "The Seekers: The Legendary Television Specials."
His liner notes have appeared in several Judith Durham albums, including Hold On To Your Dream, Epiphany, The Hottest Band In Town Collection, Colours Of My Life, Judith’s 70th Birthday compilation CD, released in 2013 and So Much More, a brand new album of previously unreleased tracks, brought out in 2018 in time to celebrate Judith's 75th birthday.
Additionally, Graham scripted Olivia Newton-John’s narrative for the TV cut-down of The Seekers 25 Year Reunion Celebration – Live In Concert, and was consultant on the episode of the Nine Network’s This Is Your Life honouring Judith Durham.
In 2007, after 30 years as a journalist, Graham made the decision to work with Judith on a fulltime basis, and in addition to his role as General Manager and now Director of Musicoast, he has unexpectedly discovered his own burgeoning songwriting skills in collaboration with Judith.
In 2016 Graham and Christopher Patrick released the world’s first ‘Enseeklopedia’ — "The 50 Year Recorded History of Australia's First Supergroup". A treasure trove of stories, music analysis and rare memorabilia. Moreover, it is a long overdue salute to Australia’s Fab Four and their enduring recording catalogue.
From the big hits like ‘Georgy Girl’, ‘The Carnival is Over’ and ‘Morningtown Ride’ through to the more obscure recordings by Australia’s first supergroup, here is a book that offers an extraordinary analysis of every song The Seekers have ever recorded.
Coupled with fascinating insights about those recordings, along with much rare, never-before-seen Seekers memorabilia from the four corners of the globe — and some priceless trivia. Order your copy here.
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ABOUT MUSICOAST
We live in an amazing world that gives us the capability of sharing with each other any music and lyrics that are meaningful in our own lives, and Musicoast was born for that very reason in 1990 – to share wholesome music and messages with the world – to create love and uplift emotions by showcasing for the international arena the creations of artists and composers of like minds today or in future tomorrows.
The team at Musicoast realizes it requires selfless commitment and dedication to swim against the stream and link with others who might also want to turn the tide of negativity and destruction, much of it engendered sadly by aspects of the music industry today – and instead, to fill and thrill hearts everywhere to help make a happier more loving environment for children and grandchildren of the future to thrive with a positive outlook.
Artists embraced by Musicoast have a uniqueness that will hopefully continue to rock the cradle of the world – such as golden singing voice of Judith Durham and her marvelous compositions so full of hope; timeless catchy melodies and simple rhythms of Australia’s first International pop icons The Seekers with the harmonies and acoustic instrumentation of Athol Guy, Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley combined with Judith’s lead voice; the treasured recordings featuring the much loved magical voice of Judith’s sister Beverley Sheehan; and the cherished body of work that gifted pianist Ron Edgeworth shared with his wife Judith.
Musicoast’s first foray into book publishing came in 1994 with the first edition of biographer Graham Simpson’s ‘The Judith Durham Story : Colours Of My Life’ – a foretaste of many other publishing projects to be brought to fruition, including sheet music in the near future.
Musicoast is, in a way, a global extension of Judith Durham’s childhood prediction that she would play sheet music on a piano in a shop window one day. Judith didn’t realize back then, that through her glimpse into the future, a seed was being sown for Musicoast’s “global shop window” with its aim to create and produce works to generate pleasure and joy, emotional release and enlightenment through empathy and support to others.
Instead of just a few people standing outside that shop window in Judith’s imagination, Musicoast can reach out today through undreamed of technology, and share with millions who may decide to drop by. The Musicoast team is dedicated to inspire hearts around the world in the spirit of service to all …
“ … MUSIC IN OUR HEART BRINGS LOVE TO THE WORLD AND
MUSIC IN THE WORLD BRINGS LOVE TO OUR HEART …”
– Judith Durham AO