There will never be another Judith Durham.

There will never be another Judith Durham.

 

Judith Durham is a singer-songwriter and musician who gained notoriety as the lead singer of The Seekers, the first Australian group to chart significantly in the US and the UK in the 1960s. Over 50 million albums were sold by them globally.

Judith Mavis Cock gave birth to Durham in Essendon, Victoria, on July 3, 1943. She studied at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and earned an Associate in Music, Australia” (AMusA). She was a classically trained pianist and vocalist.

When she was eighteen, she began performing at the Memphis Jazz Club in Malvern, Victoria, and adopted her mother’s maiden name, Durham. Frank Traynor, a musician, was impressed by her well-executed performances of gospel, jazz, and blues songs and invited her to join his band, the Jazz Preachers. They proceeded to record multiple singles for W&G Records as well as an EP titled Judy Durham.

Durham played tambourine, piano, and vocals for the folk-inspired pop group The Seekers beginning in 1963. Bruce Woodley (guitar, mandolin, banjo, and vocals), Keith Potger (12-string guitar, banjo, and vocals), and Athol Guy (double bass, vocals) were the other members of the band at the time.

While Durham was working a day job at an advertising agency with Guy at the time, Potger, an ABC radio producer, used his connections to help the budding group construct a demo tape, which Durham then handed onto W&G Records.