A classically trained singer and pianist, Judith Durham had always been more interested in jazz than folk music. But at 19, while working as a secretary at an advertising firm in Melbourne, and trying to launch a recording career on the side, she was invited by a colleague to sing with his folk-pop trio, The Seekers. She soon found herself on stage at the Treble Clef bar and cafe, harmonising with the band on folk songs like “Down by the Riverside” and “Banks of the Ohio”.
As Durham told it, she was never officially invited to join the group. But in 1964, a little more than a year after she started sitting in with the musicians, they asked if she “wanted to go overseas”. The group had been hired to sing on an ocean liner bound for England. It seemed like a nice adventure, she thought, so she put her jazz ambitions on hold and tagged along with her three singing friends.
