Judith Durham 1943-2022

Judith Durham, lead singer of the Australian folk music group the Seekers, has died of bronchiectasis in The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia at age 79.  She had suffered a stroke in 2013.

Judith Mavis Cock was born on July 3rd, 1943 in Essendon, Victoria, Australia to navigator and World War II pathfinder William Cock and the former Hazel Durham, whose maiden surname Judith would use during her musical career.  The family moved to Taroona, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, in 1950.  Judith moved to Melbourne, Victoria in 1956, where she would attend Ruyton Girls' School and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.  Trained as a classical pianist, she obtained an Associate in Music, Australia diploma from the University of Melbourne Conservatorium.  Also classically trained in voice, she sang with the jazz band Frank Traynor's Jazz Preachers before joining the Seekers in 1963.

The Seekers consisted of guitarist/singers Bruce Woodley and Keith Potger (who had been a radio producer), bassist/singer Athol Guy, and Durham on vocals, tambourine and piano.  The quartet sailed to the U.K. in 1964 aboard the S.S. Fairsky, having the job of providing musical entertainment.  Their plans to sail back to Australia ten weeks later were dropped after they received a large number of bookings and some recording opportunities.  They recorded their first hit I'll Never Find Another You, which hit #1 in both the U.K. and Australia.  Their subsequent hits included A World Of Our Own and Georgie Girl.

In 1968, Durham left the Seekers, returned to Australia, and started a solo career.  In 1968, she married her musical director, British pianist Ron Edgeworth.  In 1975, she starred in an episode of the TV series Cash and Co., set in the 1800s Australian goldfields.  In 1992, she reunited with Woodley, Potger and Guy, which brought back the classic lineup of the Seekers.  She stayed with the group until 2019.

Read more at Nine(dot)com(dot)au, 7News, ABC News (where "A" stands for "Australian"), The Sydney Morning Herald and Crikey.

Naturally, I must include a sampling of Judith Durham's music.  The Seekers had a big hit in 1967 with Georgie Girl.

I just love their version of fellow Australian Rick Springfield's Speak To The Sky, from their 1997 album Future Road.  That's most likely Judith herself on piano.  I think that the horns give the song a Dixieland jazz feel.

The video flashback seen just above during Judith's piano solo appears to come from this video for Whistling Rufus, on which she plays piano, Athol Guy plays his usual stand-up bass after introducing the song, Bruce Woodley plays banjo, and Keith Potger gets to toot a horn at the end.