The Seekers: Golden Jubilee

This evening, The Seekers will receive the coveted Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music at the APRA Music Awards. We spoke to guitarist Keith Potger about the group’s dazzling career. 

Let’s start with the obvious question: how is Judith progressing? 

We keep in touch regularly, last time I saw her was about a week ago, and she was being bright and chirpy and sitting up. She’s now in the rehab section of Wentworth Hospital, so she’s really getting great care, and coming along very well. It’s all progressing; she’ll be there for a while. It’s not an overnight treatment by any means, but she’s progressing very well.

Is there any news on when she’ll be well enough to be able to perform? 

No, nothing like that. Her recovery and recuperation needs to take place at a measured pace. It will be sometime down the road before we start making any decisions about any performances.

If it all ended tomorrow for the band, what one Seekers moment are you most proud of?

Speaking for myself, I would be proud of the fact that we were named Australians of the Year in 1967, and part of that, I think, was that we were able to go overseas and actually pioneer some awareness of Australian performers and music while we were over there, and it advantaged a lot of Australian acts making the same journey.

Well, you broke the UK and America in a way no Australian act had really done up to that point. Was there a feeling of trailblazing, or was it just something that happened and kept snowballing?

Yeah, it was more in retrospect that we realised we’d been in advance of other acts. But at the time, everything was just so exciting because we were in a music scene that was happening worldwide. To be part of that was just glorious. I don’t think we had any feelings that we were trailblazing at that stage, it was after we’d come back to Australia to live and seen the effect of other acts going out into the international marketplace, that we realised we actually were up front and pioneering in our own little way.

You were performing on cruise-liners shortly before this. 

Well this was all leading up to us going to England in 1964, we were doing these South Pacific cruises that would last about three or four weeks, and part of the contract we had with the shipping line [Fairsky] was to go on a ship to the UK, then stay in the UK for ten weeks while the ship came back to Australia, and we’d rejoin the cruise liner then go to Tokyo, for the 1964 [Olympic] Games then there was another commitment. So all in all it would have taken us eight months if we’d stayed with the original shipping contract. But then we got to the UK, in May 1964, we found that things were starting to happen for the group which meant we had to renegotiate the contact with the shipping company.

And how quickly were things moving for you at this time? Did it seem overwhelming at any point? 

I think we were fit enough, or had enough rest, or whatever the case may be, to cope with the pace. That was just quite fantastic, the way things were moving. We were very lucky that we had an organisation behind us who had a lot of punch and could call venues and television, and we also had a guy who was our agent, who eventually became our manager, Eddie Jarrett, who really took us in a very measured way through the whole process of introducing us to the British public, first of all, then negotiating a recording contract for us. That really was when things took off in a big way.

Do you remember the point when you thought, ‘This has gone beyond my expectations’? 

I think it was probably when we had our first number one, actually [I’ll Never Find Another You]. It was our first single, and our first number one, and our first million-seller, and it was really quite extraordinary that the whole thing just took off the way it did. But leading up to that was the better part of a year of really ramping up all the activities we could muster. And this is where Eddie Jarrett comes into it, because he was planting us on bills where we were second or third on the bill, then eventually moving up as people found out what the group was all about. We were lucky to have a whole TV series with a guy Ronnie Carroll who was very well known, and we were the regular guest group on the whole series, before we had a record contract, so people were able to understand what the group was all about over a long period of time. That was before we released the record, so it all worked hand in hand.

Then, by early ’67 you had a massive hit in America as well, withGeorgy Girl. That’s quite an interesting time in musical history, with conceptually-based albums suddenly being in vogue. How did you find that sudden shift in your work environment? Did this affect you? 

Well, yes, we were certainly aware of it, and I guess we were trying to be creative ourselves, and write songs and have more involvement in the production of records, so I guess we were moving along in that direction. As you said, the shift was to more conceptual albums, likeSgt. Peppers… and Pet Sounds, etc. We tried to move with that, but I think our main appeal by that time had become, almost… we were accepted to such a level that we were like part of the family, and our days of having hit singles was over, which was one of the reasons we thought, ‘Well, we may be outstaying our welcome.’ That’s one of the reasons we decided to disband in 1968.

So you were joint Australians Of The Year, you’d won numerous awards, were selling out big concerts, had overseas hits, then you decide to split up. Was it just a feeling of outstaying your welcome, or was Judith wanting to go solo part of it? 

We really thought we were outstaying our welcome and we were on a downhill run, so we thought, ’Well, it’s better for us to take our leave now, while we’ve got some status’. And of course, Judith wanted to go back to her solo career, she was a solo singer before she joined the group, and the timing seemed right at that stage. I don’t think any of us had any particular direction in mind when we broke up. I ended up staying in England because I had married an English lady at that stage; my son was born, my daughter was on the way, and it was natural for me to stay on anyway, as the others returned to Australia. And, as time has shown, we all developed in our own ways, and then when we got back together again in 1992, it was like reuniting. That was one of the lovely aspects, as well.

Throughout the ‘80s, you had a string of vocalists who would step into Judith’s role for sporadic Seekers shows.

That’s right. They were all wonderful singers, and we were treating the group activities as just getting together from time to time to do concert tours or small events like that. That led to the 1988 Brisbane [World] Expo when Julie Anthony sang with the group, and we went on to make an album with her, and quite a few tours and appearances. Karen Knowles joined us after that [in 1990], as Julie was having her first child, so Karen stepped in for a year or a bit, which took us seamlessly onto the time when Judith and the boys- we all joined.

And then in 1997 you recorded another record with Judith. What made the time right to record again with the original lineup? 

We found some good, original songs and Charles Fisher, who’d just come off the back of Savage Garden, he took on the challenge of producing an album with us, and it actually created quite a lot of interest. We got a Gold record out of that, and that was our first for about thirty years. That was an amazing experience.

How often do you actually listen to Seekers records? Do you ever sit and listen, or do you hear them so often throughout your life and work that you don’t need to. 

I revisit them from time to time, mainly for research purposes. For instance, when we were setting up the concert tour: going back over all the tapes to make sure we have the tempos right and to check on harmonies and all that. But as for listening to them recreationally, it more often happens when I’m visiting somebody’s house, and they have it playing in the background – then I get to hear some of those older tracks. I don’t generally choose to put them on as part of my listening day. I have some of them on my iPod, mind you, so if I was to swap iPod notes with people, you know, I could proudly hold up quite a few folders of Seekers material.

And how does it make you feel to listen to music you created over 40 years ago? 

I always go right back to the recording session for some reason, and I’ve discussed this with the others, and they have different ways of relating to the songs, but for whatever reason I always go back to the recording session when listening to the tracks. I can just picture it all: sitting around plunking away, vocalising, doing harmonies, and that’s my overriding image.

With all the 50th birthday celebrations, was there talking of recording another album? 

No, the most we ever thought of doing was a couple of new tracks, or to freshly record those old songs because we wanted to freshen it up. But really, we were just keen to get back on the road and perform for our audience. We didn’t want to lock ourselves away doing a new album. There’ll probably be something coming out, out of the recordings we’ve already made on the tour, that’ll be interesting for people who want that, and it will stand us in good stead for when we get back on the road.

There is still a lot of love and respect for The Seekers, which is amazing for a group after 50 years. When news spread of Judith there were outpourings of love from all corners of the industry.

I keep saying it could have been any one of us, it just happened to be Judith. We are very aware of our mortality, and the lovely thing is that, in those shows that we completed, there was a huge amount of energy there, and we were absolutely overjoyed with the fact that we got to do those concerts the way we did. Given the right time and recuperation, I don’t see any reason why we can’t be back on stage when the time is right.