00:00Judith Durham, good morning, congratulations.
00:02Thank you very much.
00:03How do you feel?
00:04Thank you, Michael.
00:05Oh, I feel very, very thrilled and excited and overwhelmed, to be honest.
00:10The messages of congratulations have been incredible, but also, you know, other people
00:15being honoured in the list, Deborah Cheetham in particular.
00:18It's so fantastic when music gets any sort of an honour, and I'm just so grateful.
00:22Was it a complete shock?
00:25It's an overwhelming, yes, experience for all of us.
00:28Obviously, I wish that Athol, Keith and Bruce could have been here with me today to share
00:32this incredible accolade, but yeah, it's just such another dimension for us, you know.
00:38It's fascinating watching the footage that you were just showing.
00:42That's almost 50 years ago.
00:43We've now celebrated our golden jubilee, and to see me singing back then and to think life
00:48was ahead of us at that point, another 50 years we never dreamt all four of us would
00:53still survive, and to be able to share what excitement has been recently, because we've
00:57just finished the Albert Hall concert, only just literally we've come back from the plane.
01:02That's right.
01:03So it is just so amazing to be here to talk to you about this wonderful honour, and very,
01:08very grateful.
01:09Let's go back to those early days, because when you burst on the scene, and folk music
01:14was something that was really loved and recognised back then, and there were some great groups
01:19around.
01:20I know that you took some inspiration from America in particular.
01:25How did the four of you see your career?
01:28What were you hoping might be the best thing you could achieve at that time?
01:32Well, we literally, we sang our way to England, just like so many Aussies did.
01:38We wanted to get back to England as cheaply as possible, and we only were going to come
01:44for 10 weeks, so we had our trip booked to go back home as well.
01:49So it took us completely by surprise that suddenly we were becoming pop stars within
01:53six months.
01:55We were number one around the world, so it completely took us by surprise.
01:58I never dreamt I was going to be a pop star, and I certainly didn't think I had anything
02:02that it took to be a pop star.
02:05So it's the biggest surprise for me to realise I'm supposedly, and still am, a pop star.
02:10Yeah, so look, the whole thing, everything, and to have this honour today, it's all a
02:17surprise and all of us value it enormously, and now to be told that we have made a contribution
02:23that's so valued, and to think that for even older Australians, it's really important that
02:29older Australians can have some sort of, something to aspire to, to keep you going, because you
02:34know, you don't, you feel like life must surely be coming to an end, and particularly with
02:38me having the brain hemorrhage only a year ago, I never dreamt that I'd still be able
02:43to do it, and so, you know, you've got to start somewhere, you've got to take a chance,
02:49and you don't know how you'll be, but you can't assume, oh, it's not going to be very
02:52good, because I would have been one of those people, I would have said, well, I probably
02:56won't be any good, and I'd better not try, you know, so for me now, at this age, to think,
03:01well, I'll just take one step, and who knows what may happen, so you have to just try something,
03:07and see what happens, and that's what's happened, you know.
03:09You mentioned the brain hemorrhage about a year ago, a remarkable comeback due to it,
03:14because it was quite dicey there for a period, wasn't it for you?
03:16I had no idea what the future held, I just wanted to be open, I didn't have, I tried
03:21to not have any expectation, I just thought, I mean, obviously, I needed to learn to write
03:25again, and various things needed to be overcome, so I had a lot of therapy in that way, I'm
03:29very, very grateful to the doctors and therapists, and many people aren't as fortunate as me,
03:36but I was, I could see that I could at least sing again, and that was worth, okay, well,
03:41I've got a voice, so that's all I needed, I didn't know what else I'd need, so, you
03:45know, you just, but you must, it seems like you just must take a step in a direction where
03:50you leave it a possibility, just think, well, it's possible I could sing again, or it's
03:54possible I could do this or that, so I want to encourage other people, especially at our
03:58age, to do that.
03:59That's a nice attitude, and it also takes the pressure off yourself as well, which is
04:03like, I have to, I have to get back to full capacity, when, you know, we never know what
04:08twists and turns are going to be around the corner for us.
04:10That's right, and with our Golden Jubilee tour, I had to try, there was no way that
04:15I was going to find out whether I could, unless I actually stepped on the stage, so until
04:20that moment of stepping on the stage where you know everybody's going to be watching
04:23you, listening for you, but you have to be there, then you can't think, oh, it probably
04:28won't be any good, so that's the important thing, is to just be open and allow other
04:33people to find out with you whether or not you can do it.
04:37Well, you're the singer, you're the artist here, and you've been taking care of this
04:41voice and, you know, been living with it for so long.
04:44When you step on stage and you performed those London performances, how would you describe
04:48your voice these days, as opposed to how it's been over the years?
04:52Well, I know a bit more about how to care for my health.
04:56Health issues are huge.
04:58That's my priority now, to eat in a certain, because I have a serious lung condition, so
05:02I have to eat a certain way, follow certain guidelines.
05:06It's a fairly disciplined way of life, especially when I'm just about to walk on stage.
05:10That's my first step.
05:11It helps me with my breathing, etc.
05:13So I need to do that, and then once I've taken those steps, and that's not drinking, not
05:18smoking, all the things people want to do, but you've got to do those, put those guidelines
05:23in place.
05:24If I've done that, then I find, in fact, that my voice has improved.
05:28It's hard to comprehend, but it has actually, with this recent tour, it has improved.
05:33Oh, there's me.
05:35And that's the same voice, and as you say, possibly even with some deeper inflections
05:41to it.
05:42It's surprising.
05:43I didn't dream that would happen.
05:44I was expecting it to be a lot more croaky, but it certainly hasn't been.
05:48So far, so good.
05:49Did you ever imagine, Judith, let's go back to 1964, you'd still be playing with the Seekers
05:5350 years later?
05:55I didn't imagine anything.
05:57The four of us didn't expect to be together after we broke up in 1968.
06:01That's right, and there are always creative tensions in a group like that.
06:05How do you manage to keep it all together personality-wise, when you're very different
06:09people?
06:10We know we're very different people, we all do very different star signs and everything,
06:15but we have a lot of respect for each other.
06:19Obviously the boys have been fantastic, their whole attitude has been astonishing right
06:23from the word go.
06:24They are brilliant people, wonderful musicians of course, totally unique, very, very industrious
06:31people, very creative people.
06:33So I'm very, very blessed, and of course we have a similar educational background.
06:38We don't discredit our own parents for what they did.
06:41My sister of course has been brilliant, Beverly Sheehan, absolutely brilliant in our family
06:46structures and our whole background, our way of life.
06:49Very responsible citizens, as we've always been, and I think our schooling and everything
06:53has a lot to help us there with.
06:56Judith, it's a real pleasure to meet you this morning and to celebrate this award with you.
06:59Congratulations again, and go well, stay in good health.
07:03Thank you so very much, and thank you to Australia for this wonderful, wonderful opportunity.
