Junk Box Jury

Taken from the LP ‘Come The Day’ | (Columbia SX 6093) November 1966

“At last we have produced an album of songs written in our time. Come the day, perhaps, when this selection will remind you, and us, in our lives.”

IT’S quite commonplace nowadays for Australian groups and solo artistes to come over here explaining that they’d reached the peak in their own country and felt the urge to break new ground, but I never thought I’d hear one of them admit they’d done it all here.

I got a surprise when I spoke to Bruce Woodley this week. He told me:

“We’ve done just about everything we can do in this country. Except our own panto, which we’re doing at Bristol this Christmas.”

So what happens next? Well, there’s a tour of Australia in March then it’s off to Montreal for the World’s Fair where they’ll be representing Australia in company with Rolf Harris, Normie Rowe and the Australian Ballet Company.

Then there’s talk of a Scandinavian tour.

“We haven’t explored the European market yet,” Bruce commented.—’Georgy Girl’ got good reviews there and ‘Carnival’ was a hit in Sweden. We’d probably do quite well if we went out there. As it stands, we’re booked up until next June.”

All this after an appearance on the Royal Variety Performance. How did Bruce feel about doing the show? Were there any butterflies?

The Seekers | “I Wish You Could Be Here” | Columbia

“I was quite surprised,” he replied. “When we got out there it just seemed like the big night and it was okay — until we met the Queen Mother afterwards. Then it was really like a Royal occasion.”

The Seekers’ new single, “Morning Town Ride”, is bound to be a hit, so I asked Bruce where they had found the extremely attractive song.

“We got the song about two years ago off a Limeliters early album,” he pointed out. “Basically, it’s a children’s song.

“In fact, the whole album is based on that theme. But the melody was cute and it was quite a good song so we used to do it from time to time in the act. It sounds Christmassy so we thought it would be as good a time as any to bring it out. Personally, it doesn’t knock me out. We had a lot of letters and inquiries from dealers asking when we were going to release it.”

The Seekers | “I Wish You Could Be Here” | Columbia

Coupled with the single is the new LP “Come The Day“, which is already in the LP chart. Bruce talked a bit about it.

“It took the best part of three months to make, I suppose,” he began. “The songs were supposed to be songs which had been recently written, so we picked songs like that.

There’s two or three of mine on it, a couple of Tom’s. I’m quite pleased with it, I think it’s a good album, certainly the best we’ve done. It’s selling tremendously well. People have been waiting for a new one for months.”

The Seekers’ LPs have a habit of staying in the charts for months and months. After the group have forgotten about them, even. I put the point to Bruce and asked him how he felt about it, also asking him if he thought the Seekers worried less nowadays about catering for a purely teenage market and had moved into the ‘family entertainers’ category.

“Yes, our LPs and EPs get into the charts and stay there for ages,” he agreed. “There must be a steady market for our stuff. Being in the ‘family entertainers’ category, it’s the best market to be in, it means you have a certain amount of staying power.” (RM, 26/11/66)

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cost of record: £2
from: charity shop