Legendary Australian band The Seekers were set to embark on their Golden Jubilee Australian Tour tonight, kickstarting their national tour at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall last night in support of their 50th Anniversary, but tragic news has seen the tour being postponed.
The Seekers singer Judith Durham has fallen ill and was admitted to hospital overnight and has been diagnosed with a small cerebral haemorrhage and is currently undergoing tests.
Graham Simpson, a representative of the band, says all future dates of the Golden Jubilee tour have been postponed while the 69-year-old singer is treated, as The Australian reports. Durham had left the show after playing Hamer Hall last night when she complained she “felt something was wrong,” and Durham “told her assistant she just didn’t feel right.”
“We did a meet and greet at the show and signings at the stage door,” Mr Simpson said. “We got back to the hotel and at midnight she called me from her room. When I got there I realised something was terribly wrong. We took her straight to an emergency department.” The singer was then rushed to a Melbourne hospital at 1am… doctors diagnosed her as having a “small cerebral haemorrhage.”
The singer was then rushed to a Melbourne hospital at 1am where she was seen by a neurologist and underwent tests; doctors diagnosed her as having a “small cerebral haemorrhage.” More tests will conducted in the coming days, but Mr Simpsons says “she’s comfortable” and is said to be in “odd spirits’ following her treatment overnight, while promoters will delay the rescheduling of the Seekers tour until the frontwoman is given the all-clear from her doctors.
Ms Durham was ‘‘upset’’ at the postponement of tonight’s scheduled performance at Hamer Hall, as she did not want to disappoint her fans. “When she realised she would have to remain in hospital and that the tour would have to be postponed she was very upset that she would be disappointing people,” Mr Simpson said.
Fellow bandmate Athol Guy was devastated at the news as there was no ill signs during the band’s Tuesday night concert, with a review in The Age noting that Durham’s “cut-crystal voice was in ageless form.”
The folk-pop quartet, featuring Durham, Guy, along with Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley, first came to international fame in the 1960s, scoring several Top 10 hits, including “I’ll Never Find Another You”, “A World of Our Own”, “Georgy Girl” (the title song of the film of the same name), and their rendition of a Russian folk song, “The Carnival Is Over”.
The original lineup had reunited for the Golden Jubilee tour to celebrate their 50th anniversary, announced last year to mark 50 years since they first sang together in a little coffee shop in Melbourne in 1962.
Given the tour is planned to be rescheduled, all tickets remain valid for the to-be-announced dates. The affected Golden Jubilee tour dates are as follows:
The Seekers 2013 Australian Tour Dates
MELBOURNE – 15 MAY –HAMERHALL
WOLLONGONG– 18 MAY –WIN ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE
SYDNEY – 20 MAY – STATE THEATRE
MELBOURNE – 22 MAY –HAMERHALL
MELBOURNE – 23 MAY –HAMERHALL
ADELAIDE – 25 MAY – AEC THEATRE
ADELAIDE – 26 MAY – AEC THEATRE
PERTH– 30 MAY – RIVERSIDE THEATRE
PERTH– 31 MAY – RIVERSIDE THEATRE
BRISBANE – 7 JUNE – CONVENTION CENTRE
