26 August 1971
Imagine the online fan feuding there would have been on ’70s social media between old Seeker-heads and the New Seeker army, with maybe even Judith Durham mic-dropping a Mariah-esque “I don’t know them”. That’s how I lifted my spirits while in the depths of listening to this.
Quick re-up: the OG Seekers were a wholesome Australian folk foursome who topped the Irish charts in 1965 with ‘The Carnival Is Over’ and had other huge worldwide hits like ‘Georgy Girl’ and ‘I’ll Never Find Another You’. Those three songs were written by Dusty Springfield’s brother Tom, giving us a link to the Irish diaspora and especially Tralee, Co. Kerry, home town of their mother and of me. This ’70s Seekers reboot feature a non-Durham one of the original group with a plethora of jobbing singers and sessioners, now hawking ’70s pop. They have no connection to my home town that I’m prepared to admit or investigate further.
‘Never Ending Song Of Love’, a cover of an American folk-rock yoke, repeats the chorus ad nauseum in slightly different styles so that we get a garish sampler of the worst of ’70s bubblegum pop, from campfire singalong to McCartney-worshipping ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’-style brass-band whimsy to gassy schlager to showy multitracked vocal harmonies to rhinestone country twang. Tying the whole thing together is the sort of plodding, farting two-step bassline an Irish showband would feel brave enough to muster. And we’ll get two more helpings of this shower at number one in Ireland, thrill-seekers!
