202 Hello New Seekers - What Have They Done To My Song Ma

Chart  entered : 17  October 1970

Chart  peak : 44

Number  of  hits : 14

After  waving  goodbye  to  Judith  Durham  and  the  boys  a  couple  of  years  earlier  we  now had to  confront  their   bastard  offspring. The  New  Seekers'  hit  run  started  and  ended  within  the  seventies  and  they  are  possibly  the  biggest  victim's  of  Lena's  Fog  with  none  of  their  hits getting  radio  play  any  more.

The  New  Seekers  were  the  brainchild  of  "old"  Seeker   Keith  Potger  who  put  together  a  line  up,  in  collaboration  with  his  friend  David  Joseph, of  new  faces  to  carry  on   the  harmony  pop  tradition  of  the  original  band. The   first  recruit  was  young  actor   and  guitarist  Laurie  Heath  who  answered  an  advert  placed  in  The  Stage. He  suggested  his  friend  Chris  Barrington  for  the  bass. Marty  Kristian  kept  an  Australian  flavour  ( though  German-born ) as  the  third  man; Joseph  knew  him  from  Australian  TV.  The  two  girls  were  Eve  Graham , a  Scottish  singer   and  Sally  Graham  ( no  relation )  from  the  Young  Generation  Dancers.

Marty  was  a  reasonably  successful  solo  star  in  Australia  in  the  late  sixties  with  three  moderate  hits  showcasing  a  light  but  adaptable  voice  on  folk  rock  ( Bobby  Darin's  "We  Didn't  Ask  To  Be  Brought  Here" )  and  beat  pop  ( Crispian  St  Peters's  "I'll  Give  You  Love" ). When  his  own  song  the  flamenco-flavoured "The  Innkeeper's  Daughter"  failed  to  chart  he  packed  up  for  England  and  was  about  to  go  into  Hair  when  he  got  the call  from  Joseph.

Eve  Graham  was  the  oldest  member. in  fact  a  few  months   older  than  Judith  Durham,  and   the  most  musically  experienced. She  had  been  singing  for  most  of  the  sixties, first  up  in Scotland  then  down  in  London  with  the  Cyril  Stapleton  Band. In  1966  she  joined  a  band called  The  Track   who  released  a  version  of  "Why  Do  Fools  Fall  In  Love". They  mutated into  The  Nocturnes. At  that  point  one  of  their  singers  Sandra  Stevens ( later  to  turn  up  in Brotherhood  of  Man )  left  and  was  replaced  by  18-year old  Mancunian  Lyn  Paul.  The Nocturnes   were  a  popular  live  act  who  flitted  between  soul  and  pop. I've  only  heard  three  of their  five  singles  , a  slow  Mavis  Staple  cover  "Why ( Am  I  Treated  So  Bad ) " really  badly produced, a  Jimmy  Webb  cover , "Carpet  Man"  and  their  ambitious  final  single  "Montage"   from  November  1968  where  Lyn   seems  to  be  aiming  for  a  new  canine  audience  in  the chorus.

Just  before  joining  the  New  Seekers  Eve  recorded  an  overblown  duet  with  singer  Roger  Cooke  , "Smiling  Through  My  Tears "  released  in  June  1969. It's  a  great  vocal  performance  but  just  too  bombastic  to  be  a  comfortable  listen.

Unfortunately  I  haven't  heard  their  first  single  "Meet  My  Lord" ( released  in  October  1969 )  nor  anything  from  their  eponymous  first  album  ( released  in  January  1970 ). Potger  produced  them  and  appeared  on  stage  with  them  but  didn't  want  to  be  on  the  recordings.  Neither  were  hits   and  after  an  Australian  tour in  the  spring  of  1970  Potger  proposed  to change  the  band's  approach   and  join  it  himself. This  wasn't  to  the  liking  of  Laurie, Chris  and  Sally  who  quit  to  form  their  own  band  Milkwood  on  the  eve  of  a  summer  tour. Replacements  had  to  be  found  quickly  so  Eve  suggested  Lyn  would  be  an  ideal  replacement  for  Sally. The  guys  were  replaced  by  Peter Doyle  who had  been  a  star  in  Australia  since  the  age  of  9  latterly  in  a  Walker  Brothers - style  trio  the  Virgil  Brothers  and  Paul  Layton  an  Englishman  who  was    primarily  an  actor  but  had  recently  released  a  single  "Mister Mister"  the  producer  of  which  alerted  him  to  the  New  Seekers  gig. He  became the  bassist  which  led  to  him  often  looking  a  goon  on  TV  when  the  other  guys  had  acoustic  guitars  and  he  had  to pose  with  an  unplugged  electric  bass.

The  band  were  caught  in  a  somewhat  awkward  situation  with  this, their  second  single  which  had  been recorded  by  the  original  line up  and  they  had  to  do  promotional  work  for  a  track  on  which  most  of  them  didn't  feature. "What  Have  They  Done  To  My  Song  Ma"  was written  by  rising  star  Melanie  Safka  as  a  hippie  whinge  about artistic  interference.  The  New   Seekers  shorten  it, beef  up  the  vaudeville  elements  in  the  original  and  Eve  provides  a  smoother  vocal  cutting  out  the  close-to-irritating  vibrato  and  building  up  to  a  mighty  shout  in  the  final  chorus. The  Americans  liked  it  more  than  us  placing  it  at  number  14.