Three of The Seekers television specials from the 60s have been compiled for ‘The Seekers – The Legendary Television Specials’ collectors edition DVD.
‘The Seekers – The Legendary Television Specials’ features ‘The Seekers At Home’ (1965), ‘The Seekers Down Under’ (1967) and ‘The World of The Seekers’ (1968). It is incredible that the footage still exists.
“It is not just a minor miracle, it is a major miracle,” Athol Guys tells Noise11.com. “We achieved rights to all of the films many, many years ago. In fact at one stage we even managed to latch onto the original 35mm film ‘The World of the Seekers’. I have it in large containers. Thank God we’ve got them all”.
The Seekers still hold the record for the biggest music audience ever in Australia, 200,000 fans came to see the band in Melbourne in 1967 at a time when Melbourne only had a population of 2 million. “What happened was they stopped counting heads at 11 in the morning because the joint was full,” Athol said. “The cars were banked back to St Kilda Junction. They stopped the traffic. In those days there was no bank across the ridge of the Music Bowl. It was a plain that went from the Music Bowl to the Gardens”.
In the 60s The Seekers were Australia’s first true international band achieving hit songs in the USA and UK ahead of The Bee Gees, Olivia Newton-John, Helen Reddy, AC/DC, INXS, Men At Work, Little River Band and Icehouse. “We have always said you can never manufacture anything that happened with this band. Right from day one when Judith poked her head around my office and introduced herself and came to sing with us that very night, December 1962, the series of events that happened after that, we keep saying to ourselves “how the hell did we do that”’.
Two of The Seekers television specials ranked in the Top 20 Most Watched TV Shows of the 20th Century. “It was a smaller field but we had a 75% share, 65 ratings, they were staggering. Village showed The World of The Seekers in theatres and the queues went for blocks. There was a lot of ground-breaking stuff”.
‘The Seekers – The Legendary Television Specials’ is a document of Australian music history, coming 50 years after the four members of the group were named Australian’s of the Year.
The Seekers will never perform together again. “We are all involved in other musical projects and get together now and then and pull out some of the old mixes when The Seekers were four boys. We have some old tracks we recorded when Keith was at the ABC. Ken is still around. He’d be welcome to come and hum and a few bars at some stage. Jude is settled into a new apartment, putting her feet up after that terrible haemorrhage. She gets a bit tired but she is in good shape. Her birthday is coming up in July so we’ll all get together for that. You couldn’t top what we did in out 50th. We had a fantastic time. When we came back home we all said ‘it doesn’t get any better than this’.
The Seekers At Home
1. A World Of Our Own
2. You Can Tell The World
3. Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen
4. Morningtown Ride
5. Sinner Man
6. Open Up Them Pearly Gates
7. Just A Closer Walk With Thee
8. We Shall Not Be Moved
9. I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago
10. Yesterday
11. Maple Leaf Rag
12. The Eriskay Love Lilt
13. Someday, One Day
14. I’ll Never Find Another You
15. A World Of Our Own
16. The Carnival Is Over
The Seekers Down Under
17. We Shall Not Be Moved
18. Isa Lei
19. Myra
20. The Olive Tree
21. With My Swag All On My Shoulder
22. A World Of Our Own
23. The Times They Are A Changin’
24. The Water Is Wide
25. Someday, One Day
26. Turn Turn Turn
27. Red Rubber Ball
28. Come The Day
29. Morningtown Ride
30. The Carnival Is Over
31. Georgy Girl
The World of The Seekers
32. This Train
33. Study War No More (Down By The Riverside)
34. Just A Closer Walk With Thee
35. Walk Don’t Run
36. When The Stars Begin To Fall
37. With My Swag All On My Shoulder
38. I’ll Never Find Another You
39. The Lord’s Prayer
40. Morningtown Ride
41. Music Of The World A’turnin’
42. Angeline Is Always Friday
43. Lemon Tree
44. A World Of Our Own
45. Colours Of My Life
46. When Will The Good Apples Fall
47. The Carnival Is Over
48. Georgy Girl
For news as it happens follow Noise11 on Facebook
Listen to the Noise11 Music News channel now at iHeartRadio
