The Seekers’ earliest known television appearance has been found, and it is now online for anyone to watch. The eight-minute video shows Judith Durham, Keith Potger, Bruce Woodley and Athol Guy lip-syncing two of their songs, “A Closer Walk with Thee” and “Myra,” on the Graham Kennedy-hosted live variety show In Melbourne Tonight. The performance aired March 23, 1964, on GTV, and it has not been broadcast for six decades, according to the National Film and Sound Archive, which holds Australia’s audiovisual history.
The archive describes the footage as “arguably the tape that kickstarted The Seekers’ international success.” Senior curator Simon Smith explained: “Forgotten for 60 years, it’s now digitized and available for the world to enjoy.”
Kennedy’s Comment
During the clip, Kennedy remarks on the band’s performance. “There’s no gimmicks there, and it’s a great, strong voice, isn’t it?”
The comment serves as praise for Durham’s singing, coming from someone who went on to become a significant presence in Australian television.
The Promotional Film
The Grade Organisation received a promotional reel from the band, consisting of black and white 16mm film. That delivery proved decisive for the group’s trajectory toward the British market, which would soon measure their success in chart positions.
Chart Success in the U.K.
Later that year, The Seekers topped the U.K. singles chart again with “The Carnival Is Over.”, after their 1965 song “I’ll Never Find Another You.” had become the first Australian act to reach No. 1 on the chart. Across just two years, they scored six U.K. top 10 hits, including their signature track “Georgy Girl,” which was nominated for an Academy Award for original song and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
A Record Crowd in 1967
In 1967, at the height of their powers, the four-piece performed to an audience of 200,000 — still considered the biggest concert crowd in the southern hemisphere. They were named Australians of the Year that same year.
The Solo Years and Beyond
The singer departed from the band in 1967 to launch her own solo work. She came back to join the group again on more than one occasion, most notably in 2013, for the Seekers’ 50th anniversary tour. Those return appearances were cut short when she fell ill with a cerebral hemorrhage, putting her plans on hold.
After recovering, Durham and her bandmates were each named Officers of the Order of Australia the next year. The Seekers entered the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1995, won the Ted Albert Award for outstanding contributions to Australian music at the APRA Awards in 2013, and had a stamp made in their honor. Durham passed away in 2022, aged 79, following problems with a chronic lung condition.
How the Footage Came Back
The NFSA acquired the footage to mark the 70th anniversary of the launch of television in Australia, a moment timed to coincide with the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. Keith Potger, curator of Judith Durham’s estate memorabilia, donated the rare film.
This short clip offers a peek at a career that would come to shape Australian pop music for many years.
“There’s no gimmicks there, and it’s a great, strong voice, isn’t it?”
This footage serves as a reminder of how much ground the band covered in a brief span of time. It captures a youthful group playing for a national audience, and the content is now freely accessible for viewers to watch.
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