The Seekers (not to be confused with the very 70s New Seekers, though they are related) popped up on the ipod this morning. Their blend of folk and pop, with those sashaying Sixties tambourines in attendance in every song never fails to lift my spirits. I'll Never Find Another You, a number one from 1965 is especially good for that, followed by Georgy Girl, Morningtown Ride - a song that is so tender and gentle you could fall asleep in its arms - and A World of Our Own.
Slowing things down a bit The Carnival Is Over, a song I love to sing along to at the top of my voice. Their Seekers Seen In Green is a faux-psychedelic masterpiece.
I've been to see them twice. The first time in 1993 at a packed out Royal Albert Hall. Mrs F-C was dragged along and despite herself liked the hits. There's always a lot of chat with the Seekers, Judith Durham and the band trading stories about making in Australia, coming to England, etc, unfortunately none of them that interesting.
The second time we saw them was at Wembley Arena a few years back. I'd bought tickets so early Mrs F-C and I found ourseleves smack in the middle of the Seekers barmy army in row three, and there was a rather sinister Christian edge to them, which made us both feel like we'd crashed somone else party, only this party didn't involve alcohol and smoking was strictly done outside but did involve games in which you get to know yourself - and therefore Jesus - much better.
So it kind of ruined it for us really. They did the hits but the echoing aircraft hanger that is the Arena was not a good conduit, and it lacked the intimacy - if that's possible - of the Albert Hall. It was the farewell tour too, so there were lots of tears in eyes, except ours.
On the way back to the tube Mrs F-C, storming ahead, said she never wanted to see them again. I think she missed the point of a farewell tour.
So I went off them for a while, but today, I see the merit in their oeuvre, I'm just banishing concert memories from my mind.
7 comments:
"On the way back to the tube Mrs F-C, storming ahead, said she never wanted to see them again. I think she missed the point of a farewell tour."
That's just made me laugh out loud. Brilliant!
Get him to tell you the one about when they went to see the Average White Band...
That was me, rather than Mrs F-C, who was red wine sick out of a taxi window all the way past Euston station. It was revolting.
Didn't you have a row, and she nearly dropped her handbag down a manhole?
It's all coming back to me now. Are you confusing it with the friend who dropped her baby down a manhole?
Or when I nearly fell down a pub cellar because someone pointed out Clair Rayner sitting outside Pret in St Martin's Lane?
As I remember you telling me, you had a row on the way there, Mrs F-C nearly lost her handbag, the gig was rubbish, and you were red wine sick in the cab on the way home. As you so eloquently put it, 'Let's NOT Go Round Again'.
I think you're just a general falling-down-holes kind of family.
Sadly I think you're right. I'd forgotten about the row, but I do recall NEVER going round again, however there was a lot of picking up the pieces - of sick.
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