Judith Durham in The View from the Terrace

This morning I heard on the radio that Judith Durham had died. Judith was the lead singer with The Seekers. They were my favourite band throughout the 60s. My mother and I used to watch them on TV. The band broke up in the 70s and Judith went solo. I got into other music. When I heard they had reunited I wanted to go to see them but I had 3 young children and I couldn’t manage it. Then they came over for another tour in 2000 and we saw them at Cardiff. I saw Judith again when she did a solo 60th birthday tour, one of the most poignant parts of the show was when she performed a song to a recording of her late husband’s accompaniment. I met her after that show, she was lovely. I told her how I used to watch The Seekers with my mum in the 60s and thanked her for her beautiful music. We had tickets for their farewell tour in 2013 but then she suffered a stroke. Amazingly she recovered well enough to do the tour the following year.

I have learned a lot of her songs and often sing them at folk clubs. My favourite is The Shores of Avalon. I have left instructions for that to be played at my funeral.

R I P Judith.