The Seekers’ Earliest Known TV Appearance Has Been Unearthed

The earliest surviving television appearance of The Seekers has been rediscovered, digitized, and shared online.

The eight-minute video shows Judith Durham, Keith Potger, Bruce Woodley, and Athol Guy lip-syncing to “A Closer Walk with Thee” and “Myra” during an appearance on the live variety program In Melbourne Tonight, hosted by Graham Kennedy.

“There’s no gimmicks there, and it’s a great, strong voice, isn’t it?” Kennedy remarked in the clip.

The performance aired March 23, 1964 on GTV and had not been broadcast for six decades, according to the National Film and Sound Archive.

“This is arguably the tape that kickstarted The Seekers’ international success,” NFSA senior curator Simon Smith stated. “Forgotten for 60 years, it’s now digitized and available for the world to enjoy.”

The group sent the black and white 16mm film as a promotional reel to British talent agency The Grade Organisation.

With their 1965 single “I’ll Never Find Another You,” The Seekers became the first Australian act to reach No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart.

They topped the U.K. chart later that year with “The Carnival Is Over.” Within two years, they secured six U.K. top 10 hits, including “Georgy Girl,” which received an Academy Award nomination for original song and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1967, the quartet performed before an audience of 200,000, which remains the largest concert crowd in the southern hemisphere, and they were named Australians of the Year.

Durham launched a solo career in 1967 and later reunited with the band on several occasions, including a 2013 50th-anniversary tour that was interrupted when she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.

Durham recovered, and she and her bandmates were individually named Officers of the Order of Australia the following year. The Seekers entered the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1995, received the Ted Albert Award for outstanding services to Australian music at the 2013 APRA Awards, and appeared on a commemorative stamp. Durham died in 2022 at age 79 following complications from a long-standing lung condition.

Keith Potger, who curates Judith Durham’s estate memorabilia, donated the film to the NFSA to mark the 70th anniversary of television broadcasting in Australia, which launched alongside the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne.

Further details about the group’s early days and the footage are available here.