The New Seekers

As the old adage goes ‘Life Begins at 40′!

Well in the case of The New Seekers it didn’t begin of course but it certainly continued fabulously, opening new doors and throwing exciting opportunities and ideas their way!

Established in 1969 by original Seeker Keith Potger when his group broke up at the end of the sixties, Keith decided to add an extra girl to the formula allowing even more scope and variety to this new group’s act and appeal. Very quickly finding success in America and Canada, their first hit ‘Look What They’ve Done to my Song Ma’ was the first of three songs to be written by singer song writer Melanie Safka, with the other two ‘Beautiful People’ and ‘Nickel Song’ also released as singles.

It wasn’t long before the line up of Eve Graham, Lyn Paul, Peter Doyle,  Paul Layton and Marty Kristian reached the top of the charts in the UK with ‘Never Ending Song of Love’ which also established them as favourites throughout Europe.

The same year, 1971 saw The New Seekers perform at The Royal Variety Performance, a few months after recording a series of radio jingles for Coca-Cola. One of these jingles was titled ‘I’d Like to buy the World a Coke, which was quickly renamed ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing’ and with some new words added, it was released as a single. The song was a world wide success selling 7 million copies and placing the group at number 1 in over 20 countries including of course, the UK. This was the first time ever that a song taken from a TV/radio commercial had become a hit record and today, years later, the advert continues to be named as the public’s favourite!

Being chosen by the head of the BBC, Billy Cotton, to represent the United Kingdom at the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest in Edinburgh was a huge honour for the group and it allowed them weekly exposure on the Cliff Richard TV show where the song ‘Beg, Steal or Borrow’ was selected. Finishing a commendable second the group immediately embarked on a UK sell out tour with demand from fans being so fanatic, the press labelled the tour as ‘Seeker Fever’!

Success continued around the world with songs such as ‘Circles’, ‘Pinball Wizard/See Me Feel Me’ and ‘Come Softly to Me’. Popularity in America determined that The New Seekers had to base themselves there for 6 months which allowed the group take part in their own TV series along with concert tours with Dionne Warwick and Liza Minnelli.

Returning home at the end of 1973 coincided with a return to the number one position in the pop charts with ‘You Won’t Find Another Fool Like Me’, followed by ‘I Get a Little Sentimental Over You’. The song hit the top five just as The New Seekers sadly decided to go their separate ways due to Eve Graham and Lyn Paul wishing to establish solo careers, forcing the group to ‘split’.

However, such was the demand from the group’s fan base that just two years later the group re formed with Danny Finn and Kathy Anne-Rae joining Eve, Marty and Paul. Success was re-established very quickly with new chart hits ‘It’s so Nice’, ‘I Wanna Go Back’ and ‘Anthem’ and concert tours to America, the Far East and of course at home where the groups fan base had welcomed The New Seekers return. 

This, though, was the end of the seventies and punk music was the sound of the day,

meaning that The New Seekers faced a battle in an attempt to  regain their crown as the biggest pop group worldwide, an accolade bestowed upon them throughout their hugely successful hit making years.

With some changes in personnel over the following years which saw Eve, Cathy and Danny leave to be replaced by Nicola Kerr, Catriona Walsh and Brian Engel, the group continued to perform live shows around the world and a new offer to take part in Eurovision came their way although sadly this wasn’t to be!

Inevitably with the ever changing moods of the music industry, demand for The New Seekers became less but with families to look after and new inspirations taking up their time the group happily assumed that maybe their touring and recording days were over! How wrong could they be! A change in management in 2005 saw The New Seekers re-launched and suddenly the group were news once again and welcomed back into theatres to perform their fabulous concert show.

This new era has allowed the current line up to ‘make it’s mark’ and find success once again. Francine Rees and Mark Hankins had now joined original group member Paul Layton, along with Donna Jones and Mick Flinn who by now had both been part of the line up for over 20 years.

These are the guys who are today firmly recognised as The New Seekers, displaying the essence and magic of the seventies and bringing fresh life to those ever green and much loved hits and favourite album tracks.

The last five years have seen the group appear on numerous TV and radio shows such as ITV’s This Morning and Aled Jones’s BBC radio show, tour the UK on four occasions, return to perform at The Royal Albert Hall along with a concert at The Tower of London in addition to the honour of being invited to attend two Royal garden parties at Buckingham Palace. This followed an exciting visit to St. James’s Palace to attend Christmas celebrations for HRH The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

 Having re-established a fan base through the live shows and their website, there came demand for a new recording from the group, and so an album of their live show was released. The 2009 40^th anniversary saw a second album released, this time by the world’s biggest record label, Universal Records. ‘It’s Been Too Long, The New Seekers Greatest Hits and More’ saw all of the group’s singles included along with 6 brand new recordings which were written mainly by Paul Layton and Mick Flinn. The album entered the pop charts at number 17, a fabulous and exciting achievement, giving the group a chart placing once again, after 35 years and a wonderful endorsement of 40 years success.

The New Seekers consider themselves fortunate to be asked by various charities to add their support but with all the will in the world, this is not possible.

The proposal from SignHealth, however, grabbed their interest and how could they say no to such a fabulous support system which enlightens and broadens the lives of so many people?

Paul Layton, founder member of the group adds ” having read the details originally sent to us and studied their website, it is apparent that SignHealth are clearly experts in their field and are able to assist and enlighten so many people to help make their lives as ‘normal’ as ours, and rightly so. It has been a while since The New Seekers made a studio recording of Teach the World but we were happy and excited to do so if it could assist the Sign2Sing campaign.

We were delighted to be asked and excited to be part of the project and hope that the world record attempt is a success!

Nic Culverwell, Manager of The New Seekers

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